Our All Season Sunrooms are designed to extend your enjoyment of the outdoors without the annoyances of wind, rain, insects, and harmful UV rays. These enclosures can also be installed directly onto an existing patio or deck.
Building an all season sunroom takes you to a new level in comfort by offering 3" extruded insulated aluminum pillars and posts coupled with double glazed clear or tinted windows that come standard with LOE and Argon gas. Available with many options to choose from like glass kneewalls, glass trapezoids, and skylights a thermal sunroom allows you to extend your outdoor enjoyment into all seasons.
Our All Season Sunrooms have the design flexibility that few systems can offer. All of our sunrooms are custom designed and engineered to fit the exact specifications of your homes architecture and local building codes. They are available in a variety of colors to allow you to design a sunroom that best suits your needs. Convert an empty yard, deck or porch into a new room for the family, a children's play room, an exercise room, a spa room, an eating area, or just a quiet place to relax in.
High density 3" foam panels keep this room warm and comfortable and utilize heavy gauge 3" aluminum extrusions. All extrusions have commercial grade thermal breaks reducing condensation and heat loss.
All windows are high efficiency glass adding one more level of protection from the elements. Available in either white or driftwood.


Perfect start up. Don't let this opportunity pass you by! This is a 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms homes with 1076 square feet of living space, this is a nice and clean home, the living room is good size and is open to the kitchen, the home sits on almost 8000 square feet level lot with tons of possibilities. This house is in a cul-de sac and has a lot of potential, come see this lovely home today, property is within short driving distance to schools. Neighboring establishments include the Adelanto Fire Station Headquarters, Heritage Field and short distance to SCLA - Southern California Logistics Airport, a master planned 8,500 acre multimodal transportation hub with world-class aviation and air-cargo facilities occupied by FedEx, Rubbermaid, Dr. Pepper/ Snapple, Plastipak and M&M Mars. Easy access to the south to San Bernardino, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana and all the cities down below.About 40 min to Ontario International Airport.


Dr. Sjarif's special interests are reconstructive and cosmetic breast surgery, body contouring procedures after massive weight loss and facial aesthetic surgery with a particular interest in rhinoplasty.
Dr Adrian Sjarif is a fully qualified Plastic, Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgeon. Dr Sjarif graduated from the University of NSW with a Bachelor's degree in Science (1999) then went on to obtain an honours degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Sydney (2003). He completed several years of general surgical training before obtaining a Master's degree in Surgery from the University of Sydney (2007). Following four years of specialist plastic surgical training, he received his Fellowship in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (2013). Following completion of his training in Australia, Dr Sjarif undertook a further 12 months of specialty training at the prestigious Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, rated the number one hospital for cancer care in the United States in 2013.
During this Fellowship he performed a large volume of reconstructive and aesthetic breast procedures using microsurgical and implant-based techniques. In addition, he advanced his skills in reconstruction of defects resulting from cancers of the head and neck and other parts of the body. Dr Sjarif subsequently furthered his knowledge and experience in facial aesthetic surgery working with world renowned rhinoplasty and facial plastic surgeon, Professor Gubisch at the Marienhospital in Germany.
Dr Sjarif returned to Australia in 2014 to commence in private practice in the Sydney and Illawarra regions. His special interests are reconstructive and cosmetic breast surgery, body contouring procedures and rhinoplasty.
Dr. Sjarif is a VMO Consultant at St. George Private Hospital, St. George Public Hospital, Aesthetic Day Surgery, Kareena Private Hospital, Wollongong Public Hospital, Wollongong Private Hospital and Wollongong Day Surgery.


A range of overseas and foreign language newspapers and magazines are available at Macka's Griffith Newsagency. We can also arrange for regular orders for a much wider range of publications.
To order a particular title just ask our friendly staff in store or click here to contact us.


text:
U.S. Schools under Attack as Secretary of Education's Brain Hacked
By Robert Weissberg
Years ago when I began researching American education I suspected that at least some of our woes were the machinations of foreign enemies. My reasoning resembles what some Muslims said after 9-11: the Mossad must have organized the attack since Arabs lacked the competence to pull off such a spectacular success. In other words, the ongoing destruction of America's educational system is too well conceived, too devious to be the work of our own barely competent education "experts." There must be some higher intelligence guiding this subversion.
This paranoia was confirmed by a recent Washington Post story about how the Department of Education uncovered racial disparities in school discipline, particularly police arrests and out-of-school suspensions. According to one recounted study of 50,000 students, blacks comprised 24% of enrollments but were 35% of arrests (disparities were smaller for Hispanics). This pattern is of course ancient news and closely mirrors adult crime data. The only "news" here was the prodigious amount of data collected to demonstrate a rather un-newsworthy point.
What fueled my paranoia, however, was how these data were interpreted and it is here that I smelled a vast cyber-attack conceivably originating in Shanghai or Moscow. The first tip-off was a "shocked" reaction off Education Secretary Arne Duncan who then called for educators and community leaders to join forces to eliminate this gap. I can only imagine the newly enlightened Mr. Duncan who, despite eight years heading up the violence-plagued, largely minority Chicago public schools, saying to his advisors, "Why didn't you tell me this before!"
More important, however, is that Duncan's newly embraced crusade will further undermine an educational system struggling just to stay even. Has the Secretary ever encountered the term "opportunity cost" -- spending time on one task precludes giving attention elsewhere? So, assembling all the task forces, concocting mission statements, commissioning research, defining bureaucratic responsibilities, negotiating agendas among political rivals, turning grandiose plans into specifics, hiring and training the necessary implementation staff and then getting it all funded will now join the nation's educational "to do" list, and will necessarily compete with traditional responsibilities of imparting literacy and numeracy.
Picture this "make-the-discipline-numbers" missive coming down to some inner-city school already struggling to stay afloat all the while facing mass firings for not boosting reading and math scores. The most rational reaction, at least in my estimation, would be for the already harried principal to throw Duncan's missive in the trash or to give to an assistant who then "misplaces" it.
But, what if pressured principal takes the poisoned bait? To skip the details, the only way to make these "fairness" numbers is to mete out discipline by quotas. Anything else would require thousands of hours of investigation and record keeping which means countless new employees, and since Arne forgot to enclose a check, so much for that. So, if African Americans comprise 30% of the students, they will receive proportionate punishment, regardless of actual behavior. And, if errant behavior continues to be unequally distributed, many blacks will, most likely, be given "get out of jail free" cards and rest assured, many white, Asian and black parents will soon find a safer school. Thousands of otherwise functioning schools will become violent educational wastelands. Struggling schools will become totally unmanageable and, in a sad twist of fate, poor blacks will be hurt the most since they often lack private school options.
It gets worse. As in some cheap science fiction movie, our enemies have now hacked into bureaucratic brains. In fact, the Secretary may be the first victim when he explains that punishment inequality may not be a result of overt discrimination but still the same, we should still try to eliminate it. Think about it: the head of a huge powerful federal bureaucracy is saying that there may not be a problem, all may be fine but we should try to cure the appearance of a possible problem, even if this consumes colossal resources better allocated elsewhere. Another education expert (Professor Russell Skiba of Indiana University) concurs "Where there are clear discrepancies, that should be of concern for us a nation." Our Chinese competitors must be jumping with joy-America will be wasting millions to eliminate differences in disciplinary outcomes simply because, well, they are discrepancies. What's next-a Manhattan Project-like effort to make every student above average by legally mandating a "B" the lowest permissible grade?
Proof that the brains of today's education experts have been seized by some off-shore enemy is also evident by how the offenses that brought expulsion or suspension are now characterized. Fighting, insubordination and class disruption are now "adolescent misjudgments" not reprehensible or criminal behavior. Beating somebody up is now morally equivalent to choosing the wrong elective course. So, replace school security with lessons to improve decision-making.
This softening of language to obscure despicable behavior is hardly new. I recall college athletes who, according to news reports, had "personal problems" that included convictions for felonious assault and robbery. When was the last time you heard the phrase "juvenile delinquent" let alone "thug"? The only linguistic survivor of an earlier moralistic plain-spoken era seems to be "bully" and I suspect that term survives because the objects of bullying are often officially protected gay students.
In effect, in our rush to help youngsters we dilute the moral opprobrium surrounding anti-social behavior while eliminating the last vestiges of personal responsibility. Yesterday's juvenile delinquent is today's "student at risk" since he is "at risk" from being pushed into law-breaking by his bad environment (his likely targets are not, of course "at risk"). At least for some do-gooders, calling a young criminal a "young criminal" needlessly stigmatizes him and thereby only exacerbates criminality; perhaps better to see him as a "high need" student or "under-privileged" youngster who is "reaching out for help"
Further keep in mind that race-related discrepancies are ubiquitous; unequal punishment is just the beginning. According to one recent study, differences also exist for promotion to the next grade and one might guess a similar pattern for the experiences of one's teacher, available social services, access to technology and tutoring, college counseling and just about every other feature of education. In principle, every nickel of today's education budged could be allocated to eliminating these budget "discrepancies."
If the brains of leading educators had not been hacked, this venture into school discipline would proceed quite differently. The aim now would not be to eliminate "discrepancies" but to ensure that American schools performed well and a key step in this direction would be ridding schools of those students who disrupt learning. Unequal punishment is only a "civil rights" issue for those who mindlessly conflate perfect equality with educational progress. More plausible is that an inability of black and Hispanic students to receive a decent education due to rampant school violence is the real "civil rights" issue.
Yes, a single suspended or incarcerated student will not benefit from school, but his or her removal may help the education of dozens of students previously deprived of teacher attention or those just too terrified to even show up. Safe learning environments should be a more pressing "civil right" than "discrepancies that may or may not be a result of discrimination."
"Improving" American education by dispensing punishment by racial quota is a scheme so nefarious though simultaneously so alluring (at least to some) that it is beyond the reach of our "challenged" home-grown experts. I can only imagine the technical ingenuity necessary to penetrate and capture Arne Duncan's brain. Arne, for the sake of America's future, change your password!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Garland, TX - March 6, 2018 – Over the past few years the flood potential in Garland, TX has risen drastically. The most notable rain fall in recent memory took place in 2015, when areas of Garland, TX received 7 inches of rainfall within 24-hours. These 7 inches of rain displaced many residents from their home, incited several emergency evacuations and the left Garland Fire Department with the impression that they need to expand their water rescue equipment.
Garland Fire Department teaches Swift Water Rescue Tech 1 and 2 to cities throughout the state of Texas, yet they do not have the equipment capabilities to effectively execute rescue efforts in numerous scenarios, just as they saw in 2015.
The Guns & Hoses Foundation of North Texas was made aware of the growing necessity for the Garland Fire Department to be equipped with the proper equipment and decided to donate a military grade inflatable boat powered by a 40hp prop engine.
The addition of a powered inflatable boat will greatly increase effectiveness with swift water rescue in Garland and surrounding communities. We are excited to continue the support of our first responders, without all of you this would not be possible, and for that, we are grateful.


CD45 is expressed on all nucleated haematopoietic cells and was originally identified as the first and prototypic transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase). CD45 has been extensively studied for over two decades as a PTPase that functions in antigen receptor signaling by dephosphorylation of Srckinases. CD45 can operate as a positive as well negative regulator of Src-family kinases. In CD45 mutant cell lines, CD45-deficient mice, and CD45-deficient human SCID patients, CD45 is required for signal transduction through antigen receptors. Our group has recently shown that CD45 can also function as a Janus kinase (JAK) tyrosine phosphatase that negatively regulates cytokine receptor signaling involved in the differentiation, proliferation, and antiviral immunity of haematopoietic cells. Moreover, a point mutation in CD45, implicated in affecting CD45 dimerization, and a genetic polymorphism that affects alternative CD45 splicing have been implicated in autoimmunity in mice and humans. CD45 is expressed in multiple isoforms and modulation of specific CD45 splice variants with antibodies can prevent transplant rejections. Moreover, loss of CD45 can affect microglia activation in a mouse model for Alzheimers disease. Modulation of CD45 splice variants and CD45 activity might provide a unique opportunity to design drugs that turn off or turn-on antigen and cytokine receptor signaling in cancer, allergy, transplantation, or autoimmunity.


Excellent. Thanks for getting this out so quickly. Very helpful.
My website has a lot of unique content I've either created myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my permission. Do you know any methods to help reduce content from being stolen? I'd genuinely appreciate it.


As the time slowly ticked down to the start of the first full Sunday of the 2015 NFL Season, so did the wait time to have your entries confirmed by DraftKings. Connectivity issues started at 12:15p, and continued intermittently up until kickoff. Users reported trouble with page loading, but perhaps most importantly, trouble when confirming lineups.
Although things were going sideways, users were still able to enter lineups while the website was experiencing connectivity issues. The DraftKings App proved itself very useful, as many entered lineups and executed transactions on it while the website was not operational.
Beginning at 1:40p EST, the site crashed completely, remaining down for approximately 10 minutes. It appears that DraftKings was not prepared for the large influx of customers their summer long advertising blitz would bring about. In the coming weeks, until you can be sure that DraftKings has solved the issues arising from a large amount of people entering late lineups, we advise getting yours in as early as possible. Not only can you guarantee your spot, but in doing so the load will be reduced on the servers.
We will be monitoring the situation at DraftKings and update you if they experience any more problems.


Carpet Cleaners That Double Since An Upholstery Cleaner. Not simply should you keep your carpets clean, but the same is true to your upholstery items like your sofas, chairs and other furniture pieces constructed from fabrics. A dirty couch and carpet will make your area look sloppy and untidy, so make sure you look for a rug cleaner that doubles as an upholstery cleaner, too! In this way you can kill two fowls with one stone and clean both your carpets and upholstered items at the same time. The space will look cleaner than in the past with a spotless couch and carpet! What To Look For In Carpet Cleaning Products. Not all carpet cleaning products are created equal, which is why you need to be careful when searching for the right one. A non-toxic carpet cleaner is best to ensure that it's safe for your family and pets. Also, look for one that is fast acting and can be used for a multitude of surfaces, which includes couches, carpets, fabrics, furniture and even car seats, so that you drive more for your money. More importantly, you want to have a carpet cleaner that is easy to use, in order that you're not on your hands and knees scrubbing for minutes at a time. But make sure that the carpet cleaner also works on different stains, like food and wine, pet stains, grass and dirt stains and also other common stains you might find in your carpets and upholstered things.
Cfcpoland - Recessed paneled wainscoting i elite trimworks. Elite recessed wall paneled wainscoting classic good looks, great price, discounted shipping, easy t could be better? the genius of our unique recessed wall paneled wainscot system is the way it delivers so much value for so little money. Molding ideas 9 ways to add wall trim bob vila. Walls & ceilings; 9 ways to dress up a room with molding just as the right tie can really make a suit, or a well chosen accessory can add some pop to an outfit, molding can turn a plain square. Wall panel moulding at. Shop wall panel moulding in the wall panels & planks section of find quality wall panel moulding online or in store. How to make a recessed wainscoting wall from scratch. Recessed wainscoting wall how to make this easy and inexpensive recessed wainscoting wall our total price was $83 plus paint beautiful in white diy recessed wainscoting wall housekaboodle read it how to make a recessed wainscoting wall from scratch how to make a recessed wainscoting wall from scratch. How to make a recessed wainscoting wall from scratch. Recessed wainscoting wall i'm excited to say we've finished the recessed wainscoting wall the last part of this project i shared was the diy transom window entryway before and after w e started this last project for the wall in much the same way as when we built the entryway there are certainly many ways to make a wainscoting wall. Recessed panel wainscoting with tile accent part 1. Recessed panel wainscoting with tile accent part 1 the 1 x 2 was a little taller than the panel moulding, so i ran it through my table saw to remove about 1 8 inch and make the 1 x 2 and the panel moulding the same height on second thought, why not paint the wall behind the recessed shelves the same celery green as the other walls. Wall panels at lowe's home improvement. Shop wall panels in the wall panels & planks section of find quality wall panels online or in store moulding & millwork wall panels & planks wall panels; wall panels related categories fasteners; walldesign 48 in x 2 66 ft recessed white birch hdf wainscoting wall panel ca residents: prop 65 warning s enter your. Installing panel moulding recessed wainscoting offset. Installing panel moulding recessed wainscoting offset finish carpentry tv recessed panel wainscoting how to install crown molding on a vaulted cathedral ceiling without transition. Wainscoting america custom panels: raised, recessed. Beautiful custom wainscoting america panels 5 styles at 1 low price design & order in minutes with easy design tool ships in 5 days we can help 888 563 0002 shop now for custom wainscoting raised panel, recessed panel & shaker panels. 3 steps to add trim and borders to diy shower wall panels. High gloss acrylic wall panels; solid surface shower pans & walls; solid surface bath vanity countertops, accessories and shower doors like border and accents or even wood crown molding and wainscoting can now be added in durable and easy to install shower and tub wall panels laminated bathroom wall panels with a black accent trim.


Trying to capture all the emotion and excitement and anxiety of the TransRockies is, given my limited vocabulary and time, not possible. But, I can at least put up some pictures. The event/race took place from August 23-28, 2009 and I ran the whole thing – all 113+ miles – basically side-by-side with Andres Capra. We suffered and laughed and had good days and bad days. Ultimately, we finished 41st out of 133 starting teams of 2. Pretty good for two guys who were, by any standard, some of the least experienced and least accomplished in the entire field.


text:
Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary/The Opportunity
< Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary
The Opportunity[1]
Wikipedia was founded in 2001 as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet."[2] Less than a decade later, Wikipedia has become the fifth most-visited site in the world, used by more than 400 million people every month.[3] In most of the world, between 20 and 50 percent of Internet users regularly visit Wikipedia.[4]
Monthly unique visitors to all Wikimedia sites, as measured by comScore.
Wikipedia is available in more than 270 languages. Each is a uniquely crafted cultural product; they are not translations or copied versions of each other. There are over 17 million Wikipedia articles across all language versions, and 8.5 million media files in the Wikimedia Commons database. All are available under a free license.
Over time, skepticism about the Wikimedia model of collaborative content creation has evolved into appreciation of Wikipedia as a dependable starting point for research about almost any topic. Expert assessments have continued to find Wikipedia's error rate to be comparable to that of traditional information sources, while its overall breadth, depth, and topicality far exceeds that of any general reference work.[5]
But there is much more we can do.
The future of the Wikimedia movement
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, it is an ideal moment to reflect on our accomplishments and commit to a path forward. Wikimedia is and will remain a decentralized movement comprised of readers, editors, the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters, advisers and like-minded organizations – each playing different formal and informal leadership and support roles. This plan captures our common aspirations and priorities. It articulates the work we will undertake to achieve our shared goals over the next five years, and reflects our collective vision for the future of Wikimedia.
The collaborative strategic planning process has culminated in five key priorities for the Wikimedia movement over the next five years, and five critical targets to measure our progress.
Our strategic priorities over the next five years:
Stabilize infrastructure
Improve quality
Increase reach
We will know we are succeeding when we reach these critical targets:
Increase the total number of people served to 1 billion
Increase the number of Wikipedia articles we offer to 50 million
Increase the percentage of material assessed as 'high' or 'very high' quality by 25 percent
Increase the number of active editors to 200,000
Double the percentage of female editors to 25 percent and increase the percentage of Global South editors to 37 percent
" Where else could I collaboratively write an article with people currently sitting in New York, Islamabad, London, Tokyo, Mogadishu, and Brisbane? I'm not sure how to translate this extremely exciting aspect of the Wikipedia community into actual policies for motivating new users, except to suggest that Wikipedians actively work on improving the diversity of the Wikipedia community. —User:CordeliaNaismith "
Note: This is a version of the final, Board-approved summary that should not be edited - if you have any comments, please share them here.
↑ For detailed background and context on the strategic plan, see "Background and context," http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Background_and_Context
↑ From the original vision statement by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wales, Jimmy. (2005, March 8) Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Message posted to Wikipedia-l, archived at: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-March/020469.html
↑ According to online audience measurement service comScore, in October 2010 the Wikimedia Foundation sites were the fifth most-visited in the world, with 408 million unique visitors (or UVs). comScore (October 2010) Media Metrix global unique visitor data.
↑ comScore (December 2008) Media Metrix global unique visitor data. International Telecommunications Union. (2008) Estimated Internet users, fixed Internet subscriptions, fixed broadband subscriptions. Retrieved from ITU ICT EYE: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Indicators/Indicators.aspx# In countries throughout North America, Europe and parts of Asia, between 30 percent and 50 percent of all Internet users use Wikimedia projects. Usage rates of more than 20 percent are not unusual in many other regions. Findings were developed with data from comScore and the International Telecommunications Union.
↑ For a broad review of studies and analysis regarding the reliability of Wikipedia, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia Widely referenced studies include: Giles, J. (December 2005) Internet encyclopedias go head to head. Nature 438 (7070): 900–901 doi:10.1038/438900a. Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html Clauson, KA, Polen, HH, Kamel Boulos, MN, Dzenowagis JH (2008) Scope, completeness, and accuracy of drug information in Wikipedia. Annals of Pharmacotherapy 42 (12): 1814. doi:10.1345/aph.1L474 PMID 19017825. Retrieved from: http://www.theannals.com/cgi/reprint/aph.1L474v1.pdf
Retrieved from "https://strategy.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summary/The_Opportunity&oldid=76572"
Pages using PMID magic links


text:
How to Watch Broadway Shows on Tape for Free in New York
By: Phaea Crede Updated September 15, 2017
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com
How to Get Half-Price Broadway Show Tickets
If you are a fan of Broadway but are low on the funds required to pay the ticket price, New York City has an amazing and free alternative in its public library system. The NYPL of the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center offers a complete collection of Broadway shows from the past on film and tape. They are free to view for anyone who takes the few steps to get there.
Call the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Library of the Performing Arts at (212) 870-1642. Tell them your name, the time you would like to come view a theater piece and the name of the show you want to see. The collection is so large that it is very likely that whatever show you want to see from the past 60-plus years will be available. The Theatre Collection hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Visit the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, tucked in the back of the Lincoln Center Plaza. To get there, take the 1 train to 66th Street and walk one block west. You can also take the D, B or A, C trains to Columbus Circle and transfer to the 1 train uptown for one stop to 66th Street and walk one block west.
Enter the Lincoln Center Plaza, which is west of Broadway between West 62nd Street and West 65th Street. Just walk in the direction of the fountain.
Continue straight ahead toward the Metropolitan Opera House and take a right.
See the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts set back about 50 feet between the Met Opera House and the Vivian Beaumont Theater. You can walk right in the front doors without needing a library card. Be prepared for your bag to be checked by security.
Walk or take the elevator up to the third floor of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts to the Billy Rose Theater Collection, one of the world's most comprehensive collections of theater from the recordable past.
Walk to the the Lucille Lortel Room, adjacent and to the left of the main reading room. The Lucille Lortel Room will be obvious to you because it contains dozens of personal viewing screens and booths.
Notice at the front of the the Lucille Lortel Room an attendant at a desk. Introduce yourself, and tell her that you called to make an appointment. She will hand you a sheet to fill out with the information about the Broadway show you want you view. Under the section that asks you for the reason why you are viewing this show, simply write "Research."
Enter your assigned booth while the attendant programs the correct tape or film to be played.
Put on the headphones provided, and sit back and watch the show.
Phaea Crede is a NYC based comedian and writer. You can see her perform monthly with her sketch troupe "mixtape '98" at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, also monthly as the host of the comedy show "Delusions of Spandex" at the Parkside Lounge, and at random times with her improv team "Hot for Gym Teacher".


text:
Nova Fátima kan syfta på följande platser:

Brasilien

 Nova Fátima (kommun i Brasilien, Bahia),
 Nova Fátima (kommun i Brasilien, Paraná),

Robotskapade Brasilienförgreningar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Old Souls: The Internet display a level of maturity and artistic vision beyond their years.
Odd Future offshoot The Internet sprang onto the scene in 2011, around the same time that another OFWGKTA associate, Frank Ocean, and a Drake-approved mystery-man (known back then only by his moniker, The Weeknd) began releasing throbbing, druggy, downtempo jams for free online. The music blogosphere quickly pounced. Music writers observed that The Internet—who will headline the Jazz Beyond Stage this Friday, during the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest—along with their peers, were making music that sounded familiar, yet somehow alien.
All of these artists were making R&B music—on that score, the critics all agreed. But there was something different about this R&B. Beyond their predilection for syrup-slow beats and reverberant, warped samples, all of these performers seemed completely comfortable with expressing their discomfort. Unlike their "pop" peers—Usher, R. Kelly, Chris Brown and Ty Dolla Sign, all of whom project confidence and hyper-masculinity—this new collection of crooners was doing just the opposite.
Instead of declaring dominance, they were broadcasting a distress call. Despite generating significant critical acclaim by early 2011, The Weeknd frontman, Abel Tesfaye, dodged the spotlight, refusing to grant interviews until mid-2013. Frank Ocean sampled Radiohead, sang about falling for a girl at Coachella and came out as bisexual in advance of his major label debut. And Miguel was heralded as an egalitarian lover in a sea of misogynists—interested not just in satisfying his own carnal desires but in fulfilling those of his partner.
Music writers scrambled to classify these neo-soul navel-gazers, and before long, a number of tags emerged: alt-R&B, R-Neg-B and PBR&B—a reference to the prefered beer of hipsters everywhere.
Predictably, many artists grouped under the alt-R&B umbrella don't like the moniker. Syd the Kyd and Matt Martians—the production duo at the helm of The Internet—certainly aren't feeling it.
Then again, Martin and Bennett aren't arguing that they are out to invert the tropes of braggadocio and materialism that have wormed their way into the R&B genre. After all, the title of their latest album, released June 29, is Ego Death.
Ego Death is certainly an honest, and earnest, record. Listening to the album's 12 tracks, it's clear that Bennett—The Internet's lead vocalist and lyricist—is struggling to tell the truth with every song.
In her quest for veracity, she deploys an unreliable narrator on "Under Control," a song about struggling to keep things together. "I woke up impatient and anxious," Bennett sings on Ego Death's third track. The words tumble out of her mouth before the song's one-bar intro even finishes, and the listener must question whether she really is in command of her emotions.
The Internet play San Jose Jazz Summer Fest's Jazz Beyond Stage on Aug. 7 at 9pm. More info on SJ Jazz Summer Fest.


Tyler starts is off with this photo of the pool deck on Freedom of the Seas.
Caroline sent in this photo of Navigator of the Seas docked in Oslo, Norway.
I love a good sunset photo, and Michelle P. caught a beautiful one over Bar Harbor, Maine while on Anthem of the Seas.
Anne W. took this photo of Majesty of the Seas docked in Key West while on her way to a trolley tour.
Here is a photo of Mariner of the Seas departing Singapore, as seen by Ho Hsin Chun.
Here is a great view of the Ultimate Abyss. Photo by Ursula Good.
We have another beautiful photo to share, this one of Radiance of the Seas in Seward, Alaska. Photo by Kath Pfister.
Every Friday, we show off the Royal Caribbean photos that our readers have sent us in a special blog post. Each week, we invite our readers to send us their favorite Royal Caribbean photos and we post them right here.
Without further adieu, let's jump right into this week's batch of photos!
We start with this photo by Roger Salzmann of Rhapsody of the Seas in Santorini.
Check out this beautiful photo of sunrise on Harmony of the Seas, taken by Mike Sperduto.
Next is a photo of Anthem of the Seas in Labadee. Photo by Michael Kho.
Allyson Yoshida took this photo from on top of Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska while sailing on Radiance of the Seas.
Here is a photo of sister ships docked next to each other by Henry Greenfield.
Rob Young took this photo of Freedom of the Seas docked in St. Thomas.
David Morris took this photo of night view of Central Park while on Symphony of the Seas.
Would you like to submit your Royal Caribbean photos for a future Friday Photos post? Use this form to send them to us and we will feature them very soon!
Every Friday we share Royal Caribbean cruise photos that our readers sent in, as a means of showcasing great photography and giving all of us a "virtual break" to enjoy the view of being on a cruise. If you want to send in your photo, use this form and we could feature it in an upcoming post.
We begin with this photo of Explorer of the Seas near Dawes Glacier in Alaska, taken by Kathy Pfister.
Next up is a photo of Freedom of the Seas, as seen from the helipad. Photo by Rob Young.
Krisztina Benko took this photo of the pool deck on Majesty of the Seas, while docked in Havana, Cuba.
A peek through the sliding doors on Grandeur of the Seas by Gwendolyn Salzman.
Joe Moran shared this photo of Freedom of the Seas, right after a rain shower passed by the ship.
Check out this shot by David Ep of Grandeur of the Seas and Allure of the Seas in Antigua.
Our last photo for this week is by Michael Bonham, and it is of Explorer of the Seas in Sydney Harbor, as seen from Bridgeclimb.
Thank you to everyone that shared their photos with us this week! If you want to share with us your photos, use this form to send them in!
Welcome to this week's edition of Friday Photos, where we showcase our readers favorite Royal Caribbean photos. If we all cannot be on a Royal Caribbean cruise at the moment, then the next best thing is to look at photos of a cruise longingly as a means of getting a "cruise fix."
If you want to submit your photos for a future Friday Photos post, be sure to send them to us via this form.
Our first photo this week is by Melissa Turner, and it is a panorama photo from the Olive or Twist bar on Freedom of the Seas.
Shawn Ng took this photo of Ovation of the Seas docked in Marina Bay Cruise Centre, Singapore.
Next up is a photo of Grandeur of the Seas in Bar Harbor, Maine. Photo by Wayne D Stephens.
Justin Amrhein took this photo of Enchantment of the Seas sailing out of PortMiami.
Here is a shot of Rhapsody of the Seas in Cozumel, taken by Ken.
Stephanie Morgan and her daughter, Alyssa, took this photo from the Captain's chair on Independence of the Seas.
We wrap things up with this shot of Freedom of the Seas and Brilliance of the Seas docked in Cozumel. Photo by Jeff LeBriton.
That wraps up this week's edition of Friday Photos. If you want your Royal Caribbean photo featured here, use this form to send them in!
We begin with this pholto of Harmony of the Seas docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico, taken by Maarten Goldstein.
Jill Arslanian shared this photo of a lovely evening on Oasis of the Seas.
Check out this photo of Harmony of the Seas in Labadee, taken by Rebecca Thibert.
David J. sent in this photo of his Grand Suite from aboard Grandeur of the Seas.
Here we have Explorer of the Seas "peeking" through the palm trees while moored at Mystery Island, Vanuatu. Photo by Lovina McKenzie.
Jason took this photo of Symphony of the Seas all lit up at night.
Our last photo this week is by Brian Robinson of the sunrise, as seen from on Oasis of the Seas.
We begin with this photo by Lindsay Janek of a 747 landing near Maho Beach in St. Maarten.
Soeren Ellehauge captured this photo of the sunrise in Barcelona while on Symphony of the Seas.
Next is a photo of Explorer of the Seas in Seattle, Washington, which was taken by Kimberly as she boarded.
Travis N. took this photo of Independence of the Seas anchored off the coast of Grand Cayman.
Take a look at this shot of the Boardwalk on Oasis of the Seas, taken by Wayne D Stephens.
David Ep sent in this photo of Allure and Grandeur of the Seas in St. Thomas.
Our final photo this week is by Donna Clark, and it is of St. Kitts as Freedom of the Seas approached the island.
The weekend is here and every Friday, we share our readers' favorite Royal Caribbean photos so that we can all enjoy a quick "virtual trip" back on a cruise. If you want to share your Royal Caribbean photos, use this form to send them in!
Cathy Drew sent in this photo from her balcony as her ship entered Marlborough Sound, Picton New Zealand.
Henry Greenfield sent in this photo of sunset over Miami.
Wayne D. Stephens shared this photo of the theater on Vision of the Seas.
Vania Guillot took this photo of sunset from her baclony on Anthem of the Seas.
Jeanne Fulton took this photo of Mendenhall Glacier while on Explorer of the Seas.
Cruisin' Susan had to share this photo of hier "big winnings" in the casino on Harmony of the Seas.
Our final photo this week is from Vivian, and it is of Explorer of the Seas just off the island of Lifou in the South Pacific.
Thank you to everyone that sent in their Royal Caribbean photos and if you want your photos featured here, be sure to send us your favorite photos with this form!


Rmapi.dll file is part of Radio Manager API product developed by Microsoft® Windows® Operating System. It is responsible for Microsoft Corporation functionality. This part is required for Radio Manager API to function. If you are planning on replacing rmapi.dll with a new version make sure that you backup your old file. Replacing rmapi.dll file with a diffent version can cause Radio Manager API to malfunction.


text:
valeriedavies
how to buy Valerie's books and ebooks
Tag Archives: Albert Schweitzer
Over forty years ago I found myself visiting a man imprisoned in a psychiatric ward.He had no family, no other visitors, and the story of his life was a search for the only person who had ever loved him. His mother.
He was thirteen when he had his first brush with the law, and was placed in a juvenile delinquent institution after he attacked his mother's lover with a baseball bat when his mother was the victim of domestic violence. Back then domestic violence was not taken as seriously as it is now.
He ran away to get back to his mother and from then on was placed in stricter and harsher environments. Having no trade, skills or any means of support he ended up robbing a bank. This is a gross simplification of his tragic descent into despair and the appalling experience of solitary confinement in the prison hospital.
His cell was bare, no books or television, yet with all the deprivation of twenty years in and out of prisons, he was an articulate and sensitive man. In retrospect his whole life had been a search for love, and yet he'd had no opportunity to find or develop relationships, or to find a person to love.
He sat on one side of a table placed across a bleak corridor in the hospital, we sat the other side. With warders standing nearby, he told us that his one amusement was watching the birds from behind the bars of his tiny cell window. He saved crumbs from his meals and fed them to one particular sparrow who came to the window sill. It was obvious as he spoke that he loved that little sparrow, and that the sparrow was giving his life some meaning.
He didn't need to know whether the sparrow loved him. The sparrow filled his need to love. I still remember when my first great love sent me a Dear John letter. (Dear John oh how I hate to write, dear John I must let you know tonight that my love for you has died )
I was twenty- one. When I read it, my head spun and the world seemed to go black amid the giddyness. As time went on, I realised that one of the worst things about it was feeling was that I could no longer love him. At which I also realised that there was no need to stop loving him… loving was what made me feel less bereft, and loving him filled the gap in my heart until I was able to move on.
A teacher on one of our personal growth courses once observed that when a person lives alone, they often make a loving connection with a creature, if they have no-one to love – pets, birds, wild creatures become their beloved companions. Even snails can become the beloved – Elisabeth Tova Bailey wrote one of the most exquisite books about love, when she became aware that a snail lived in the wild cyclamen a friend had dug up and brought to her sick room.
Her loving descriptions of the tiny creature and its habits, and the knowledge she acquired about one of our humblest companions living alongside us on this planet teeming with life, gave me a deeper understanding of the value of all life. Loving this tiny snail gave the sick woman joy and meaning to her life.
Being loved somehow doesn't seem as sustaining as loving. 'Lord grant that I may not so much seek to be loved, as to love,' was the prayer of St Francis, who loved 'all creatures great and small', in the words of the hymn. Krishna Murti described another aspect of love in his journal.
'He had picked it up, he said, on a beach; it was a piece of sea-washed wood in the shape of a human head. It was made of hard wood, shaped by the waters of the sea, cleansed by many seasons. He had brought it home and put it on the mantelpiece; he looked at it from time to time and admired what he had done.
One day, he put some flowers round it, and then it happened every day; he felt uncomfortable if there were not fresh flowers every day and gradually that piece of shaped wood became very important in his life. He would allow no-one to touch it except himself; they might desecrate it; he washed his hands before he touched it.
It had become holy, sacred, and he alone was the high priest of it; he represented it; it told him of things he could never know by himself. His life was filled with it and he was, he said unspeakably happy…'
This beautiful story electrified me. It showed me that by loving, whatever the object may be, loving gives life and meaning to whatever it touches. My friend Oi, who I've written about in another blog once told me about a very rich friend, whose house was filled with opulent treasures, which Oi found overpowering. But, she told me, as the years passed, and she visited her friend, though all the treasures were still there, gleaming and cherished, she felt differently about them. She said they had been so lovingly cared for and cherished by their owner, that they no longer had the patina of wealth, but exuded their intrinsic beauty.
So it's the loving that matters, that transforms and gives meaning. Which is why the experiment I once read in which people in prison were given an abandoned dog to rehabilitate, were rehabilitated themselves. Love heals.
Here in our forest, where we are not allowed dogs or cats who might kill the threatened species of flightless birds who shelter beneath the thick undergrowth, we have become devoted to the wild quails who make their way into our garden. We began feeding them, discovering that the food they love best is budgie seed.
Every year they return with their tiny fluffy babies, who scamper after their parents like little windup toys; and we now have dozens of beautiful little creatures who push through the undergowth out of the forest and march determinedly down the drive to feast. When they hear our voices, they break into a run. We spend far too much on birdseed, and in lockdown, it is the one thing we make sure we always have plenty of. They start arriving early in the morning and when we hear their sharp call, one or other of us leaps out of bed, still half asleep, to scatter seed
Loving them makes us 'unspeakably happy'. There must be many other people in these strange days who find that having the time, no longer trying to stuff too many duties and activities into their day, they can now discover the world of small things around them, and find it utterly loveable. Birds singing, leaves unfolding, spiders spinning their miraculous webs – all these things can be food for the soul and can remind us of the goodness of life even in 'these interesting times', in the words of the Chinese proverb.
Food for Housebound Gourmets
The cupboard is bare – not of food, but of inspiration, Having put my back out and drugged up with painkillers, unable to stir from bed without yelps of pain, I've been calling instructions to Himself in the kitchen, on how to boil an egg, or where to find the butter…
By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive. Albert Schweitzer
Filed under consciousness, cookery/recipes, happiness, love, spiritual, The Sound of Water, Thoughts on writing and life, Uncategorized
Tagged as Albert Schweitzer, Krsishna Murti, life, lockdown, love, Sr Francis, wild life
T Our home in the forest
This is the last instalment of my autobiography before I resume my normal blogs
I asked the Salvation Army's Missing Person's Bureau to find my mother when I was nearly fifty. It took them three years, and when they did, I immediately flew to London to see her.
We met on neutral ground at the Tate Gallery, and sat on a leather bench in front of a masterpiece. I have no idea what the picture was, but the pattern of the red brocade wall- covering surrounding it is stamped on my memory forever. We stayed there for hours until the gallery attendant gently told us they were closing, and then we paced the Embankment trying to catch up on a lifetime.
In the end we never did bridge the gap of that lost time as she only seemed to remember the good times we had had, while I remembered the bad times, but what I learned about her broke my heart over and over again. Her father had left before she was born, and two stepfathers died of cancer.
When she was eight months pregnant with my younger sister she lived through the angst of waiting for her husband to return at Dunkirk. He didn't. He escaped two weeks later. Two years after this, when he returned to do his officer training she became pregnant again, and gave birth to that child on her own as well.
And now, she met a farmer from the Channel Islands, who was working on Pluto – Pipe- Line Under the Ocean, a top -secret invention to supply fuel to the armies at D-Day. They planned to marry when the war was over and take us children to live on his family farm. There was an accident and he was killed. My mother was pregnant, and in despair she fled.
She couldn't afford to keep the baby, adopted her, emigrated to Australia to start a new life, and eventually re-married a man she'd met on the voyage out. Back in London she had a daughter with her new husband, and when that baby was a few months old, this man went into a sanatorium with TB and when he recovered, never returned to her and their child.
She brought up that child alone, and became an efficient civil servant. On her retirement she sold her house in order to move and buy a house near her sister. Shopping for a new sofa, she learned from the hushed gossip in the local shop that her solicitor had hanged himself after embezzling all his clients' money including hers.
She had a few thousand pounds left, which she blued on a trip to China, to fulfil at least one life's dream. She had whiled away the long lonely years by learning Chinese, attending cookery classes, playing chess and listening to opera. And when I met her, she was living in a council retirement flat. She was a gentle, refined woman, and never at any time when I met her at intervals before her death, made any complaint about her life; and though she was sad, she was never bitter.
After a forty-year silence, I met my stepmother again too. And the weeks I now spent in her company were amongst the happiest in my life. All the dislike, hostility and coldness she had shown me had dropped away. And all the hurt and pain and anger I had felt at being rejected also dissolved. The love between us was so complete and miraculous, it felt as though we had transitioned to the next plane of being, when we see each other clearly, and recognise the love and beauty of each other's soul.
My father died fifty years ago. He shaped the person I am today. Back from the war when I was aged ten, he used to stop at a second- hand book stall set up by his bus stop on Friday nights. There he chose his old favourites for me, like Lord Lytton's 'The Last Days of Pompeii,' and 'Harold', Kingsley's Westward Ho and my very favourite – read and re-read – Hypatia, the Greek woman philosopher and mathematician who came to a sticky end, thanks to men! Then there was David Copperfield and so many others.
When we moved to Catterick, he shared the books he was reading then, which included Sir Nigel and the White Company, Conan Doyle's historical romances set in France in 1366, C.S. Forester's Hornblower Books, and Napier's History of the Peninsula Wars. And every night, when I'd finished my homework, he read aloud to my eleven- year- old self from H.M. Trevelyan's 'English Social History,' setting up my fascination with history.
Still eleven, he taught me the value of money and compassion. Sitting at the dining table I had suggested my stepmother buy some sheepskin boots because her feet were cold, "they only cost five pounds," I blithely chirruped.
"Look out of the window," my father ordered. A worn working man with a deeply-lined face and shabby clothes covered in grime from a building site, was dragging tiredly past. "That man earns five pounds a week to feed his family", my father grimly pointed out, and lectured me on extravagance in words that would have profited Marie Antoinette.
Later in Malaya, when I was sixteen, and we entertained the Indian quarter -master to tea with his wife in her colourful saris, and I had to give them my books on the Royal family who they loved, he demonstrated tolerance and the opposite of racism.
Back in England in the mid- fifties, he taught me to accept homo-sexuality at a time when it was scarcely mentioned. I commented on a strange man on the bus who wore a brown striped suit with flared trousers, a wide brimmed brown felt hat and thick makeup. He laughed, told me he was a wonderful old 'queen' and was such a punishing boxer that no-one dared jeer at him.
He demanded respect for all his soldiers, telling me they'd fought through the war, were bringing up families on a pittance, and were fine decent people. Like Abou Ben Adhem, he 'loved his fellow men.'
Later when I was twenty-one, he suggested that my outlook was a bit narrow, and that I should read The Manchester Guardian. Back then it had a reputation for fine writing, tolerant humane values, and wide culture. I became a sensible feminist, reading Mary Stott on the women's pages, learned about good food, enjoyed witty TV criticism, discovered avenues of musical appreciation, and acquired a burning social conscience, which cut me off from all my family and many of my friends!
When he retired from the army at forty-five he commuted/cashed up his army pension to pay for his youngest son's expensive schools, and so condemned himself to working to support his family for the rest of his life. But he died in 1968 at fifty-four.
I wonder if anyone will remember me, fifty years after I am dead? At the moment, I am far from dead, and know that he would have loved to know what risks I have taken to live my life as fully as I can and to be able to love as deeply as I do now.
When I began blogging, I inadvertently stumbled on an unusual blog when I was looking for some poetry I'd enjoyed. When I left a comment on this rather beautiful blog, which was not poetry, the writer replied with such courtesy that I was enchanted. In the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's words – I 'grocked' him. Which meant I felt I knew him, and recognised him, and understood him at a very deep level.
We began 'following' each other, and our comments reflected a mutual admiration. My new follower wrote exquisite remarks on my blogs, but when a rather malicious stalker I'd attracted from the day I first began writing, began sneering at my "followers massaging my ego," I feared that he might recognise the underlying message of love in the sensitive, perceptive words my new friend wrote on my blog. I feared that my stalker's spite could spoil this friendship.
So I wrote to my friend, suggesting that we write privately instead, to avoid any unpleasantness. Two years and two thousand letters later, my friend – now my love- left his country, his home of forty- five years, the job he loved at a world-famous observatory, his family, and his friends and came to begin a life with me.
I read recently:"I don't think genuinely falling in love is negotiable. The heart goes where the heart goes. Age has nothing to do with it." This is true – he's much younger than me, cherishes me the way I've never been cared for before, we share the same spiritual values, and revel in a life of love and freedom.
Like me, he had left behind not just his home, but most of his assets too, so we looked for a place where we could afford to live, that would give us the environment we both wanted. It was waiting for us. Just as out of over eighty million bloggers we had found each other, so we discovered the perfect place that we could not only afford, but which turned out to be a haven of beauty, peace, and community.
We bought a tiny one room log cabin set on forty acres of covenanted podocarp forest, where we look across a valley like an amphitheatre and gaze up to our own mountain. We listen to our streams tumbling over rocks below, and hear birds singing from the dawn chorus in the morning to the moreporks/owls through the night. Our property is home to various almost extinct species of frog, lizards, geckoes, to more than three hundred species of butterfly and moths – or lepidoptera as I've learned to call them – and to rare plants and trees. People come from the universities and world-wide societies to study these precious vanishing species in this time of the sixth great extinction.
Our neighbours, hidden in the forest, have a shared environmental commitment to keeping the sprawling hills and ranges free of pests and to nurturing the creatures who've made their homes here for milleniums. These neighbours come from all walks of life – an architect, a musician, zoologist and landscape professors, a geologist and several engineers, a restauranteur, a painter, a therapist and others. They are all nationalities, Swiss, English, Australian, Belgian, Dutch, Maori, Russian, Mongolian, American.
Behind our high wrought iron gates, we share a civilised social life, and work together to preserve the forest. On our property, we've extended our original tiny dwelling, planted fragrant flowers, created architectural flights of steps, made melodious bells from diver's tanks, re-cycled doors and windows and other found objects, and live a blissful life of creativity and harmony.
I wake in the morning and look out of the window to where the dawn shines gold on the peak of the mountain. I turn to my love and whisper, "the sun is on the mountain." And another day begins of a quiet mystical life of love and beauty.
Food for Threadbare Gourmets
I love Indonesian food, and a friend gave me a little booklet of recipes years ago. One page in particular is stained and dog-eared… with the recipe for sambel goreng telor on it – this means eggs in coconut milk.
For two people hard boil four eggs, cut them in two and put in a deep dish. Fry a chopped onion, and when soft add tomato, clove of garlic, half a red pepper, a table spoon of brown sugar and salt to taste. When they're soft, add half a cup of coconut milk, heat and pour over the eggs. Delicious with plain boiled rice.
Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially for animals who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death.
We entreat for them all thy mercy and pity and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion, gentle hands and kindly words.
Make us ourselves to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful.
Albert Schweitzer, doctor, humanitarian, writer, musician, organist and organ restorer
Filed under animals/pets, army, bloggers, british soldiers, cookery/recipes, environment, happiness, life and death, spiritual, sustainability, The Sound of Water, Thoughts on writing and life, uncategorised, Uncategorized
Tagged as Albert Schweitzer, animals, blogging, conservation, D-Day Pluto, food, Indonesian food, lepidoptera, Malaya
There are more things in heaven and earth…
We had moved to a little house up a valley, where we overlooked the glittering Firth up which Captain James Cook had sailed as he explored the new land he'd discovered, and where we also looked back and up into the misty mountains where clouds formed and dissolved in hot sunshine. A tumbling stream hurtled through the valley below the house, and the sound of the rushing water mingled with the sweet song of tuis and bellbirds, and later, a thrush warbling to the clear blue evening.
The house had a rambling garden, with beehives in one corner, and lemon, orange and grapefruit trees in the other; and everywhere flowers and shrubs… camellias and azaleas, and one glorious purple wisteria which had spread into the trees around the garden and which engulfed us in fragrant scent and a purple curtain in spring.
My husband worked in the city and came home at weekends, which I loved as it gave me time to write as much as I wanted, eat when I remembered, and dream and wander the valley with the little dogs. Then I became conscious that we had a ghost in the house.
In fact, I heard it every night, but just pushed the knowledge into the back of my mind. After several weeks, I suddenly realised that I'd been hearing these sounds every night after I'd gone to bed, and it was always the same – someone walking across the sitting room which was the original part of the house.
We knew the house had been built for an old lady called Amy, who lived alone in this valley then, though Ben and Flo, the Maori couple living at the gate to the private road up the valley remembered her. She had planted the camellias and apple trees and wisteria which made the garden so appealing, but finally, her health and her mind gave out. Her son took her away, and she died some time later in a mental home.
I knew the ghost would have to be Amy, who hadn't wanted to leave, and still didn't. I waited till the next night, and then as soon as I heard the footsteps, I sat up in bed, and called through to Amy. " Amy, you're alright now, you know. You feel better now, but there are all the people you love waiting for you. They're all waiting for you in your new home.
"You could stay here, but they'd miss you, and you'd miss them. They're waiting for you in your wonderful new home. So go to the light now, Amy, go towards the light, and you'll find your loved ones and your new home. May you be happy in your new home Amy, may you be happy with all your loved ones. Turn to the light, and walk to the light and the love." And then I settled down for the night and went to sleep. As I suspected, we never heard another sound.
Some people see ghosts, some people sense them, in this case I heard the unmistakable sounds of a person/ghost. But I don't have that sixth sense that some do.
A few years later, having moved back to the city to be near our new grandchildren, I popped into my daughter's house, to slip a tiny chocolate bar on each child's pillow for them to find when they went to bed. (bad for their teeth I know, but good for their souls). The youngest was still at home at two and a half, with his nanny. She was quite upset when I walked in.
The playroom was upstairs at the other end of the big house and my little grandson loved playing up there. His nanny told me he'd just been down and told her he'd been playing with the black man again, and she'd rushed upstairs thinking she'd left the front door open, and an intruder had slipped in. My grandson followed her. There was no-one in the room, and she heaved a sigh of relief. And then was transfixed.
My grandson, pointed to a corner, and said, "there he is". He picked up a book and walked over to the corner, and held the book open, showing the invisible figure the pages, and talking to him.
"What's he like?" gasped his nanny. My grandson described a tall dark- skinned man, with patterns (tattoos) on his face, and said he was wearing a grass skirt. Persuading the little boy to come downstairs and have a snack, they left the room, and this was when I arrived. We agreed we had always felt some sort of presence up there.
I told her it was okay, and went upstairs. I walked up to the corner, and spoke to the invisible energy as I had talked to Amy, tailoring my words to a Maori warrior. When I felt complete, I went back downstairs, and the nanny and I agreed we wouldn't discuss it with anyone else, and unsettle them. And that was the end of the story. Occasionally I've felt the presence of dead Maori warriors – several around our house by the sea, which was a perfect look-out point for warring tribes. I always say the same thing, and I always have a sense of peace when I've finished… imagination? Who knows.
What matters to me is that if there are puzzled, anxious trapped energies, they should be released. There are so many instances of haunted battle fields all over the world, that we can't all be deluded. My father used to worry about soldiers killed with no time to prepare, fearing they would be stuck in the moment of death, unable to move on.
When I lived in Malaya, there was a notorious field in Ipoh, where apparently British soldiers had been chained and starved and tortured by the Japanese. Malayans who lived nearby, claimed they could hear voices praying in a foreign language, reciting poetry, singing … later the sounds were identified as being the Lord's Prayer, Shakespeare, and hymns. Hauntings were quite a common phenomenon when I lived in Malaya… unquiet spirits, stuck in time it so often seemed.
It always bothers me every time I hear the report of teenage Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, who was suspected of having affairs, and inevitably would be sentenced by her psychopathic husband to be beheaded, running along a corridor at Hampton Court shrieking in terror when she was arrested. She wrongly thought the King was in the Chapel, and wanted to beg for mercy. Her ghost is said to still be seen or heard in this corridor, shrieking in terror. Why don't those who do rescue work, or Deliverance as I'm told the phrase is, go and rescue her, I wonder?
Shakespeare was right when he wrote in Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". I haven't used the word para-normal talking of these things, because who knows what is normal in our mysterious world? When we are open to possibilities, different layers of time, shadowy levels of existence, and other planes of being, we can admit that there really are more things in heaven and earth than most of us can even dream of.
Short cuts. As a lazy cook I've evolved a number of ways of producing food with as little effort as possible. Some people might find these short cuts useful.
I love hot scones with strawberry jam, apple and other fruit crumbles, mince tarts, made from my own pastry. But what always puts me off, is the labour of crumbling the butter, and making breadcrumbs of the flour and butter, and getting the stuff under my nails. Hey presto – bring the butter out of the fridge – and grate it on a grater. It then mixes perfectly well with the flour and other ingredients without having to do any more…
Chopping parsley with it jumping away from the knife bores me. I used to use Mrs Beeton's tip – plunging the stalks into boiling water for a minute, and then chopping them. This turns the parsley a brilliant emerald green and looks spectacular. Nowadays I go for an easier way, I simply put a bunch of parsley in the deep freeze, and bring out whatever I need, still frozen. I crumble it with my fingers, as it breaks easily, and then end up chopping it finely – quick and easy.
Now that I've mastered – or am mastering – using a micro-wave, I'm evolving short cuts here. Instead of frying onions for ages until soft, I simply put them in the micro-wave dotted with butter and covered, for four or five minutes… easy… and instead of laboriously re-heating minced beef in the oven for shepherd's pie – in the micro-wave it goes, and then I spread the hot mashed potato on the hot minced beef, and brown it under the grill for a few mins.
Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. Albert Schweitzer.
He also said :
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
Filed under consciousness, cookery/recipes, history, life and death, philosophy, Thoughts on writing and life, uncategorised, Uncategorized
Tagged as Albert Schweitzer, cats, cooking short cuts, ghosts, history, Ipoh, light, Malaya, Maori
Observing light and love
It must be over forty years since I rummaged in that wastepaper basket in the office. I salvaged a photo I'd seen the photographer toss into it disgustedly – saying it was double exposed, and there was no way his camera should have produced such a useless image.
It's guaranteed not to, he had exclaimed. So I looked at it, and recognised what I was seeing. The little old woman sitting in the chair with piercing brown eyes and a deeply wrinkled face was Mother Teresa, who had visited this country back in the early seventies.
I was working on a woman's magazine. I had given up any belief in God, or the Supernatural a few years before, when my life seemed so awful that I blamed the Deity, and decided to get on without It. And I didn't like Mother Teresa.
But the picture I was looking at was one of authentic holiness. The light around this woman ringed her body, and was not obliterated by the arms of the chair, but carried on around her form. I still have this photo, feeling that it is an historic one.
In the early pictures of saints, in western Renaissance pictures, Byzantine ikons, middle Eastern paintings, to Indian Jain and Hindu representations of holiness, artists have usually painted a halo around the head of a person. But this was a light which completely ringed Mother Teresa. Maybe it was her aura – which was filled with light.
I've never been very impressed by the efforts of the Catholic church to establish sainthood based on the person having performed at least two miracles of healing. Healing is not that rare, even among healers the Catholic church would not recognise as saints.
Healers to me are of rather a different order, and maybe some can see the light in their souls that is not obvious to us lesser mortals. Nelson Mandela, a great man, whose great work of healing is now being undone in South Africa, would be one of those healers… maybe Princess Diana, who brought comfort and hope and re-introduced the word 'love' into the vocabularies of some who never used it, was a healer. Albert Schweitzer, the great musician and theologian, turned doctor, who brought healing to the sick or dying Africans who came to him at Lambarene in Africa, was a great healer and a great man, but has never been called a saint.
The face of Major Keeble, who fought in the Falklands War is marked with that same spirituality which makes a difference in our world. He was second in command of his regiment, when Col H. Jones, a VC hero, was killed during the Battle of Goose Green. A devout Catholic, Keeble took command at a stage when one in six of his men were killed or wounded, they were largely out of ammunition, had been without sleep for 40 hours, surrounded by burning gorse bushes, and were vulnerable to a counter-attack. A hopeless situation in fact.
After kneeling alone in prayer amongst the burning gorse, he returned to his men, ordered them to ceasefire, and released several Argentine prisoners of war with a message to their commander to surrender or risk more casualties. The offer was accepted, no more killing and a peaceful surrender of the opposing Argentine forces was the result of his action/Guidance. Now retired and still making a difference, Keeble has established a consultancy and lectures on the: "ethic of business transformation with the ethic of peoples' flourishing".
I have seen two halos. One was during a personal growth course when the forty-five of us there were being really challenged, and floundering. Then someone spoke up, joyful words of inspiration, courage and wisdom. I looked across at him with amazement, and saw a ring of light around his head, just as depicted in those ancient paintings.
The man with a halo was a gay who worked with Aids sufferers. He came to this course because two friends had persuaded him. His two friends were as 'holy' as he was – whole in the real sense of the word. I loved them both for their goodness and simplicity. Both were selfless teachers who loved their boys in the purest sense of the word. The last time I saw one of them, he was sitting on the pavement, his feet in the gutter in the pouring rain, with his arm around the shoulders of a desperate drunk.
The other time I saw a halo was when I looked across at a ten- year- old child, lost in playing an old church organ. Another photographer from the same magazine couldn't resist taking a photo of her, and when it was developed, there was that ring of light emanating from the crown of her head. I can't explain it. Neither could the photographer with his state of the art camera.
Years later, I was talking to a grandchild, the same age as the girl. He was surprised to discover from me, that not everyone saw the light that he saw, shining from people's hands and sometimes all around them. Later that night, as I tucked him into bed, he sat up and said to me earnestly, "Grannie, everything that God creates comes from the light".
Malcolm Muggeridge, the initially sceptical English journalist who went to India to see what Mother Teresa was up to, went to the tatty, ill-equipped hospital where the dying, lying destitute on the streets, were brought to her and her gentle loving nuns. He wrote that the hospital was filled with a light, which also felt like joy.
I can't explain any of this. I'm just recording and revelling in the little that I have observed about light and love.
PS Since leaving my other internet provider at the beginning of the year, I have struggled with my new one, discovering after some months, a second e-mail account where all the blogs I follow have been accumulating for months. So I have hundreds of e-mails to sort through, as well as thousands of others that this new email provider dug up from somewhere in the past, and generously deposited in my files. So I'm taking a break from writing my blog for a few weeks while I wade through this mystifying and mountainous back-log… be bak sun, as they say!!!
Deciding to sip our spicy pumpkin soup from cups made me re-think croutons, which I love. So instead of frying cubes of sour dough bread in olive oil, I fried squares and fingers of the bread instead, put them on a plate, and let people help themselves. They were so delicious and so successful that I will probably never bother with fiddly croutons ever again. Guests waxed nostalgic about fried bread from their childhood… don't we do fried bread anymore?.
This made me laugh, another version of a famous prayer, but still – to some extent – true!
Lord, give me coffee to find the courage to do the things that I can change, and give me whisky to help me accept the things I cannot change…
Filed under army, consciousness, cookery/recipes, happiness, human potential, life and death, life/style, love, spiritual, uncategorised, Uncategorized
Tagged as Albert Schweitzer, food, light, love, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, truth
animals/pets army birds bloggers books british soldiers colonial life consciousness cookery/recipes culture environment family food great days happiness history humour life/style life and death literature love philosophy spiritual sustainability The Sound of Water Thoughts on writing and life uncategorised Uncategorized village life world war two
A life-changing accident
Truth does matter
Small Happinesses
Not angels or saints – Women
valeriedavies · Author of The Sound of Water and other books


Waiter Waitress Assist in eating place carrier by using busing and resetting tables in a fast and prepared manner.
Portray a expert image of the motel with visitors.
Take meals & beverage orders and provide hints to visitors on favored menu objects.
Follow all protection policies to ensure a safe paintings location.
Honor all affordable paintings-associated requests made through a manager or manager, which can be outdoor of everyday job activities, to gain complete guest delight and service for the duration of the Hotel.
Actively promote accident prevention via keeping all regions swept and clean at all times.
Clean and reset the desk in accordance to conventional methods.
At Novotel, we develop quicker Feel fully responsible, be independent, adaptable, professional, have a love of adventure and a desire to stretch your limits: that's the Novotel spirit.
An worldwide emblem with a community of four hundred resorts in 60 nations, Novotel's achievement is because of the professionalism and enthusiasm of its 30 000 personnel who have been embodying the brand's ideals for over forty years.


Penrite graphite grease is suitable for general lubrication work, being highly water resistant. NLGI 3 Calcium grease containing graphite particularly recommended for leaf springs, chassis lubrication, handbrake cables, flexible drives and exposed chains. Benefits: resists water washout, protects agains rust and corrosion. Graphite provides a solid film for extra lubrication.


Is an iPhone 1st Gen Logic Boad compatible with the iPad?
My iPad's logic board broke and I want to know if I can use the working logic board from an old iPhone I have with a broken screen. Thanks!
Seeing as how the iPad seems to be nothing more than an iPod touch that you can't put in your pocket, you should be able to use an iPod touch board....but the iPhone has too much functionality to be compatible.
Oh well, thanks for the quick reply!
Hilarious! I'm watching Steve's announcement now, and I'm happy to realize I've already got a futuristic super-compact iPad in my pocket!
What a disappointment! :-( Will someone please tell Steve that landscape mode and basic iLife functionality are not new features?
Oh flash. You are annoying because you are closed source and have very poor performance on mac products, but man, I need you to fill my Hulu addiction.
If you're talking to me rab777, nope, no sarcasm. I truly am grateful for no Flash. I hates it beyond all web things- yes, even more than <marquee> and <blink>.
Where the !^&$ did you get an ipad from?


While Puerto Rico was the most famous victim of Hurricane Maria's terrible devastation in September 2017, St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, also suffered tremendous damage. Maria flattened thousands of Crucian homes, tore huge trees from their roots, and knocked out power for weeks.
For elderly and disabled residents, the situation was particularly grave. Many were living in shelters because their homes weren't habitable.
Since cleanup crews were working on emergency rescues, George was surprised when five young men, who introduced themselves as Neighbor to Neighbor, volunteered to clear her yard at no charge.
"I appreciate Neighbor to Neighbor so much," said George. "They cut the branches, they cut the trees up." The crew made four trips to the dump site to get rid of debris from her property. "They helped me tremendously," she said.
Launched with a $20,000 grant from the Unitarian Universalist Association's newly created Disaster Relief Fund, Neighbor to Neighbor, or N2N, is the brainchild of the Rev. Qiyamah A. Rahman, who was the minister of the UU Fellowship of St. Croix for six years before retiring this past summer. Rahman wanted to focus her efforts on helping those who were most vulnerable but whom no other agency was targeting: the island's elderly and disabled. Looking for financial assistance, Rahman contacted the UUA and learned of the new fund, applied online for a $20,000 grant, and within days, had the money in hand to begin helping her St. Croix neighbors.
"Word got out about what we were doing because no one else was targeting the elderly and disabled," said Rahman. When other organizations heard about N2N's work, and that the UUA had provided it seed money, Rahman got more donations, a total of nearly $100,000, including a $25,000 grant from AARP. N2N's relief work "put our UU values into practice," she said.
The Hurricane Harvey Recovery Fund was created in August 2017 as a joint fund with the UU Service Committee to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. To date, the Harvey fund has raised over $500,000 from more than 2,000 individual donors and more than seventy-five UU congregations. Half of those funds have gone to UU congregations and members affected by Harvey, and half to at-risk populations served by UUSC partners.
To date, grants have been given out to UU congregations and organizations from New Hampshire to California suffering from a variety of disasters, including hurricanes, flooding, and fires, said the Rev. Dawn Cooley of the UUA's Southern Region, who helped create both the Harvey fund and the Disaster Relief Fund, which she now administers.
Donations to the fund come from donors, mostly online. So far, the fund has received donations from 4,000 individuals and over 450 UU congregations. Donations cannot be earmarked for specific disasters or congregations. Cooley said this "allows us to send funds where they are needed, which aren't always the attention-getting disasters." In addition, the UU College of Social Justice works with the Disaster Relief Fund to decide where to send UU volunteers, she said.
In December 2017, Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) applied for two grants totaling $7,500 to help black people and other people of color who were victims of Hurricane Harvey and other ecological disasters. The process was "straightforward" and BLUU received the money "very quickly," said BLUU Executive Director Lena K. Gardner. "It all happened in a matter of days." BLUU gave out fifteen direct aid grants to help people repair their homes and buy clothes, but with requests for help from another seventy-nine people, BLUU applied for and received a second grant of $79,000 to provide direct grants of $1,000 each to people in need. BLUU then successfully applied for another $15,000 to help hurricane victims in New Bern, North Carolina, where BLUU is working through local partner Colorfest, Inc.
After Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September 2017, the Rev. Margaret Beard, a community minister affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, applied to the UUA Disaster Relief Fund for $4,845: $1,845 to remove debris from the church property and repair buildings and signs, and the rest to disburse as grants to UUs in need, including a family with a young child whose home was significantly damaged and no longer had air conditioning. The congregation received the money in days, Beard said. "This is an opportunity to let other UUs help you, hold you," she said.
In St. Croix, Rahman submitted a proposal online and within days had the $20,000 she requested. Since the homes of the congregation's twenty-five members were mostly intact, UUFSC's board agreed to use the UUA funds for the community. "When I talked to the congregation I talked about putting our values into practice. It means a recognition that we are all one family, and when disaster strikes we are compelled by our values to be involved and to give on various levels," she said.
N2N was soon on the referral list for fema and the Red Cross, since no other group was focusing on the elderly and disabled. "N2N has created a visible presence in the community and promoted good will for Unitarian Universalism that is disproportionate to our size. We are at the table with all the other faith traditions" involved in disaster relief, Rahman wrote in her report to the UUA. The program also created partnerships with other community groups to raise awareness about ongoing concerns of elderly residents on the island.
"This has been one of the highlights of my ministry, to do that work," Rahman said.
N2N cleared more than seventy yards and cleaned four houses at no charge to those they helped. Besides serving a vulnerable population, N2N has provided employment to a marginalized population of young men, Rahman added, including one, a father of five, whose unit in a public housing project was destroyed and who was struggling to provide for his family. When Rahman retired last summer, the St. Croix Foundation took over N2N from her.


K-12 Food rescue Design For Change "Design Sprint"
K-12 Food Rescue leaders were recently featured on a Design for Change "Design Sprint". It's a "must listen" to see how K-12 Food Rescue is empowering students. Click on the log below to hear their voices and their inspiring stories!


Janet Murphy - I design stuff. Freelance web designer and developer.
In this day and age of online marketing, you need a competitive edge, a good name, a great reputation, and a professional website.
Having a great website is one of the most important tools for today's businesses. I design and develop websites that are clean & user-friendly while conveying that professional image you need.
Janet took my marketing plan and made it better! She revamped my website with a new look and developed coordinating newsletters and emails.
With her ability to code and pay attention to the small visual details, Janet's designs represent my business at the highest level. She takes care of automating my processes behind the scenes, allowing me to concentrate on the new work it is generating. I couldn't have gotten this far without the trust I put in her to get it done.
Janet's ability to portray thoughts in a visual manner is impressive. She intertwines her many talents with the ability to reach specific audiences.
Her technical skills are meticulous and detailed. Not only does she deliver what you need, but will assist you in the decision making and guide you through technical options producing results you will be proud to share.
President - CP Business Solutions Inc.
Friendly, bright and energetic, Janet has been working with us building creative websites for our clients.
It is hard to find someone that can code cleanly with a professional design background. Janet has both and that makes her a rare find in the industry. Our clients love the look of their websites as well as the functionality that make them a breeze to use. We highly recommend her!
I worked with Janet since 2008. She designed my previous store logo and website and also performed background technical updates to the website when I needed them. During this time, she always offered a great eye for details and excellent design suggestions. I would not hesitate in recommending Janet to anyone, she's bright, creative, dedicated, and a hard worker who will deliver well above expectations.


Every month we share indigenous news, stories and media from around the world in our round-up. With a focus on arts, culture & promoting the strength of indigenous knowledge.
Netherlands Association for North American Indians (NANAI), working with indigenous people from North America and presenting accurate information to Dutch media since 1973.
Cultural Survival, advocating for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supporting Indigenous communities' self-determination, cultures and political resilience since 1972.


text:
Jarrett said he knew all to well what he had, based on his symptoms and what he had seen his brother, Tom, go through. Tom eventually died.
The disease, once called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is more than the stereotype of always being tired. According to the Journal of Internal Medicine, ME is a "complex disease involving the central nervous system and immune system," which disrupts cells when it comes to energy and causes cardiovascular, physical and cognitive abnormalities.
The disease is hereditary.
Jarrett said he wasn't born with the disease, but his family has a specific gene type that triggers the disease.
"It is hereditary in that you have a propensity to have it, but not hereditary that you will necessarily have it," Jarrett said. "So, it can be triggered."
Jon said his brother, Tom, had his disease triggered from prolonged exposure to black mold.
"It completely messed up his respiratory system and he had the genetic disposition for this, so it triggered it, so after eight years of having this he progressively declined and he ended up passing away at 38 from this," Jarrett said. "The last two years of his life he was bedridden and couldn't even stand up."
What's wrong with me?
Jarrett said the onset of his disease started seven years ago when he had shingles. He said the first symptom he noticed was his inability to exercise.
"That is the number one side effect with ME that is different than any other illness," he said. "I started peeling back on how much I worked out and I managed it well without even knowing it for several years."
He said when he works out and his heart rate gets too high, in his case above 100 beats a minute, his body doesn't allow enough oxygen to get to his brain and muscles.
"If my heart rate gets above 100 it has a negative effect on me and typically puts me in a crash," he said.
Jarrett said for him a crash usually means he is unable to get out of bed the next day. As the years passed, ME symptoms have popped up at different times. Jarrett said each time his body went down a path he didn't want to go.
Three years ago, he got strep throat which triggered another level of ME causing him to start not sleeping.
"I would see every hour of the clock every night for four months," he said. "I was constantly tired and knew I couldn't work out. In the back of my head, I knew it was ME, but I didn't want to face that because of my brother."
Jarrett said he went to doctors who told him he was fine. He tried holistic doctors for 18 months. Nothing worked.
He said doctors prescribed sleeping medicine but that allowed him to sleep only four or five hours a night, and he still didn't have energy.
"It has been three years since I have had a day since I feel like I have energy," he said. "I haven't had a day where I feel normal. There is no normal for me anymore."
Still he continued to coach Nation Ford boys' soccer team.
He tried to rest up before practices, but even the stress of coaching started taking its toll.
"My body doesn't process stress well," he said. "It is horrible for my body."
Stepping down
As games got stressful, Jarrett noticed his heart rate getting above 100 more regularly on the sidelines.
He said he tried sitting down, but the stress of the game still was too much. And that would push him to later have a crash.
"The hardest part for me was that night trying to get my mind to shut off," he said. "I would replay it in my head and watch the film that night. That is part of the illness, in that your mind can't shutoff and when you have all that stimulus to your mind, even if it is exciting, the mind goes even faster and harder."
Jarrett realized he would have to give up coaching.
When he was hired to be the Falcons head coach, he said beside the joy he gets from his family, "it was one of the happiest moments of my life."
"After last soccer season, it was really setting in," he said. "I was super tired and would have to lay down before practice and the bus trips were really rough. My mind couldn't shut off. It couldn't stop. I couldn't stand through the games to coach anymore. The heat and humidity really bothered me."
Jarrett had at that point been head boys' soccer coach for four years.
He asked Nation Ford principal Jason Johns if he could take a year's sabbatical, handing the team over to assistant coach Kenny Halas.
"Jason is a great guy," Jarrett said. "I have loved coaching for Nation Ford. It has been a dream of mine for years. I know Kenny is a great coach and the plan is to come back after a year if I can still get healthy. The team is in great hands. I have full confidence in Coach Halas and the coaching staff and Kenny is a great friend of mine."
Jarrett's wife, Sharon, said she sees how not being involved with the team has impacted her husband.
"He was so into the kids and everything that goes into coaching teenagers," she said. "If they would get in trouble at school or something, they would go to him."
Johns said Jarrett has been more than a soccer coach.
"Coach Jarrett is an absolutely model of integrity," Johns said. "He believes in the long game, in that it is more important to him that his players become young men of character, work ethic, and compassion than just win soccer matches. Jon has an infectious positive attitude that will only be a strength as he battles his recent illness. God had used Coach Jarrett to impact the lives of countless young people. His example of faithfulness as he undergoes this recent health challenge will be a further example of the inner strength and peace his faith provides him."
Jarrett was officially diagnosed with ME last year after hearing about the Hunter Hopkins Center in Charlotte, one of the countries leading centers for those with chronic fatigue illnesses.
"There was a lot of tears but there was a lot of relief too," he said. "Because I have been piecing together what it is and what I had. I went several years spending money not knowing what I had. And doctors would say you are fine. But I am not fine. I don't ever feel good. I am not one to sit there and do nothing. This for me was like a whole new game, since I know what I have."
There is no known cure for ME. Jarrett said he takes about 10 supplements a day to boost his immune system, to help fight off symptoms and help him try to live as comfortably as possible.
The door is open for Jarrett to return to coaching Nation Ford next year.
"I will never be the same as I was before unless they find a cure," he said. "Twenty-five percent of people with ME are completely bedridden, like my brother. It is hell on earth. The next level is 50 percent in the middle which has symptoms, but still being able to do some function of life and then the upper 25 percent that can still work and have a normal life if you will, but the symptoms are always lurking."
Jarrett worries about two things.
The first is obvious. Will he will end up like his brother?
Jarrett said he didn't understand what his brother was going through. He said he regrets how he judged things regarding his brother's struggles.
"It was absolute torture watching my brother who was an absolute healthy 30-year-old go to a completely bedridden 38-year-old...," he said. "My doctor said it doesn't have to happen because my brother had an extreme case..., but just watching him and knowing I have the same illness, it is an eyeopener."
Jarrett's other fear is just as intense to him.
"It is a huge fear of mine that I will not ever be able to coach again," he said. "I am trying to find out my purpose in life. If I can't coach then I am trying to figure out what to do. I have six kids so I still have to be the best father and husband I can, but as far as a contribution to society, coaching is what I always wanted to do. Will I be able to coach again? That is my prayer. The bottom line is I got to get to a point of repair and healing.... I am not mad at God, but my question for God, is I thought the number one thing you blessed me with here on earth was my impact on youth and teenagers, and if I can't do that in this way that I have done for 27 years, than what is next for me? ... I want more than anything to get back into coaching and be at Nation Ford."
Highlights from the Clover-Nation Ford boys' soccer 5A Upper State championship game May 8, 2018 in Fort Mill. The winner advanced to face Wando in the Saturday, May 12, 2018 South Carolina 5A state title game.
Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM
Trojans' Mitch Walters came back to coach for one more year. It'll be a testing one.
HS roundup: your vote could help former Rock Hill Bearcat dunk in Final Four contest
HS roundup: Fort Mill baseball remains unbeaten, Nation Ford football hires new OC
New Fort Mill high school, opening in 2019-20, announces coaching staff additions
Mack in a Minute
Panthers' pre-training camp mailbag: Curtis Samuel's role? Brian Burns' contract?
By Brendan Marks
The Carolina Panthers open training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg on July 25. Up in the air is Brian Burns' contract situation, Curtis Samuel's role, and Matt Paradis and Cam Newton's injury rehabs.
Why would the Carolina Panthers put themselves through the 'All or Nothing' wringer?
Pair of Gamecocks make preseason All-SEC football team
Clemson makes move with top running back out of North Carolina
A closer look at Jamel Cook, confident freshmen and USC's answers for thin secondary
MLS stadium lawsuit headed back to trial court