#am i prepared to buy it for $150? ......................perhaps

[danielnelsen]

so does anyone have any info on the dao official guide collector's edition with the whole extra 70 pages of lore? because there are occasional references to it on the wiki with some lore that isnt anywhere else and i cant Not Know Things yknow..

[radio-rebel-477]

This article recounts the details of the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, which is based upon the exchange of the respective hostages and prisoners held by the two actors. Brokered in large part by Qatar, the deal between Israel and Hamas is set to last for four days, during which Hamas will release 13 hostages, Israel will halt air traffic above northern Gaza during certain hours and southern Gaza entirely, and Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners. Furthermore, Hamas has stated that its armed military wing and “all other Palestinian factions" will halt “all military activity.” The exchange of people is set to occur in waves, and Israel has also welcomed a clause into the deal where the country will extend the pause by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. However, despite the enactment of the pause, fighting between Israel and Hamas is not expected to come to an official end, with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating that after the pause, “fighting will continue intensely, and we [Israel] will create pressure to bring back more hostages.”

In light of my reading, I am impressed at the fact that a deal was able to be struck, one that has terms that sound reasonable to everyone involved. As I write this, I wonder what specific concessions were made by Hamas and Israel and at what extreme poles they began their discussions, but that is the beauty of "wonder," which we may never know.

It seems that Israel’s strategy is now to secure all hostages, so it can eliminate Hamas’ bargaining chips entirely and buy itself some time to replenish and strengthen itself before waging more and perhaps a war of more extreme measures. Although not explicitly stated, I infer that this is the case because, on top of the current hostage exchange, Israel is willing to extend the pause for an additional 24 hours for every 10 more people, when just a few weeks ago there were no talks and fighting was in full force. Furthermore, because I think war and, to a greater extent, all states use the utilitarian metric, there must be a greater good for the state within the extra day of pause beyond the retrieval of 10 more people.

My logic is as follows: if there are 240 people, minus the 50 people Hamas will release in the next 40, there are 190 hostages left. So 190 people are divided by 10 people (because 10 people per day = 19 days). If we assume that Israel is willing to make good on its promise to the people regarding the hostages’ safe return and the pause with Hamas, the country will have to stop fighting with the group for at least 19 full days to bring everyone home. If we consider the fact that Israel cannot continue to put out the same intensity of force, we see that somewhere, somehow they need to take a break, get supplies and arms shipped to them, etc, and they can do so during the 19 days. Furthermore, if Hamas also agrees to stop fighting during these days, then Israel is in a better position to prepare for what Netanyahu has said to be the ‘continuing of war until we achieve our goals.”

[wesleydaltonsblog]

Learn How I Lost 150 Pounds in Just 4 Months

This is not just another fad diet book of which fill libraries, bookstores, and the internet, but the true story of how I lost 150 pounds in about 4 months (and kept the pounds off). A story, which I believe anyone who can walk, will benefit from.

First let me back up a bit and explain how a middle-aged 6 0 male with a medium to large frame got to be 335 pounds. Well, it wasnt hard and didnt seem to take all that long. It was eating lots of fast food, burgers, and little to no exercise over the course of a few years. Sound familiar? In my 30s and 40s I was fairly active with scuba diving and just in my job itself. Then all of a sudden my job changed to where I sit at a computer eight hours a day (and still do), instead of being a busy technician building and testing things.

With age also came the slowdown of my bodys metabolism (I am now 54), coupled with a sit down job and eating lots of fatty burgers and other high calorie meals. Especially bad was eating big meals just before going to bed. It didnt take long to find myself at 335 pounds. I blew up like a big fat whale and my huge belly hung way over my belt line. I had to buy 3X shirts and 50 waist trousers to go around my bulk. I looked and felt just awful.

The time came when I finally said enough is enough! I was not feeling good, was out of breath all the time, and could hardly walk up the stairs to the bedroom. I went out and bought a good digital bathroom scale and weighed myself the next morning (undressed and after using the bathroom). The max limit on the scale was 330 pounds. The scale gave me an error message (a big fat capital E). That meant I was heavier than 330 pounds! Oh my God I thought! It cant be! That morning, I weighed myself at work on the shipping scales. My weight was about 340 pounds fully dressed and after eating breakfast. That meant my true morning weight was around 335 or so.

Steps I took to lose the pounds

I knew I didnt want (or could afford) to buy expensive exercise equipment. Nor did I want to spend a lot of money to join a health club. There had to be a better way. I did some research on the internet about aerobics and metabolism (the rate at which the body burns fuel) and came to the conclusion the answer to my weight problem was to increase my metabolism through aerobic exercise, and by changing my eating habits. The strict definition of aerobic is with oxygen. The body uses oxygen to burn fuel. Aerobic exercise improves oxygen consumption by the body and burns fuel more efficiently. I learned that aerobic exercise (like walking at a brisk pace for 20 or more minutes without stopping), will increase the bodys metabolism (perhaps up to several hours), even after you stop exercising. This is just one of the added perks of aerobics.

I would encourage everyone reading, to search the internet on metabolism and aerobics. There is much more information there than I can possibly put here, or need to. The information is abundantly available no need for me to re-invent the wheel.

After getting freaked out when my new digital bathroom scale went Tilt, this is what I did

1. I created a spreadsheet on my home computer so I could track and record my weight each Saturday morning (you can choose any day you wish, as long as you are consistent on when you weight yourself). Once a week is best.

2. I researched the internet about losing weight, and learned about metabolism, aerobics and aerobic exercise (and how they affect the body and calories). I figured I should be about 180-185 pounds for my height and frame, so I adjusted my daily calorie intake for that body weight. No special diets to speak of, just calorie intake adjustment, although I do try and eat healthy foods most of the time.

3. I invested in a good pair of walking shoes. This is critical!

4. I measured out one mile (using the odometer of my car), and timed how long it took me to walk one mile at a brisk pace (brisk pace meaning walking fast enough to elevate my heart and respiration rate). It took me 20 minutes to walk one mile. A 20-minute mile is not all that fast, but fast enough for someone weighing 335 pounds. And 20 minutes is the minimum workout time for aerobic exercise to be beneficial to the heart. My course was nothing more than the sidewalks of my neighborhood. Partly homes and apartments, and partly businesses.

5. I walked one mile per day, everyday, for about the first month (a 20-minute walk after dinner). I noticed my energy level was building and I felt better. After about the first 10 days, my digital bathroom scale began to give me a number instead of the big fat E error message. Definite progress!

6. The second month I increased my distance to one and a half miles a day (or a 30-minute walk after dinner). The soreness in my legs gradually disappeared.

7. I continued this pattern of increasing the distance by one-half mile until I was up to six miles per day (doing three miles before work and three miles after work). Six miles a day may be a bit extreme, so you may want to adjust your walks accordingly. But it worked for me and got to the point where I could walk three miles without breaking into a sweat. The pounds melted off!

8. After I lost nearly 100 pounds, I scaled back to four miles a day (two before work and two after work). I walk the miles faster too, about a 17-minute mile).

9. After 4 months, I reached 185 pounds and thats apparently where my body wants to be. I continue to walk four miles everyday, watch my daily calorie intake, and have stabilized at 185 pounds.

Do I still eat a big fat juicy burger and ice cream once in awhile? OH YES! I love that stuff! But I religiously weight myself each Saturday morning and my weight seems to be happy and steady at 185. I dont deprive myself of the foods I love, but I have learned what, when, and how much I can eat and get away with. One has to experiment and adjust accordingly.

I look forward each day to my walks. In fact, I get a sense of accomplishment after each walk. A fringe benefit I guess. Another fringe benefit is that walking is a great stress reliever especially after a hard day at the office. All in all, I am in much better health. That 150-pound barbell I was carrying around all day is gone. My heart and cardiovascular system is much healthier all due to walking.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits (other than the obvious health benefits) is that the people in the neighborhood and the storekeepers stop me all the time and comment on how I look. These are the people who would see me walk by their homes and stores each day. They saw a once very fat person transformed into a thin person.

The bottom line

I was sick of being obese and I knew it was killing me and that I needed to do something and quick. I was a sure candidate for a heart attack or stroke. After doing a little research, I found the best way for me was aerobic walking coupled with a change in eating habits. There other types of exercises that will work too, but I believe nothing is as good for the human body then walking. The benefits are enormous and the cost is, well, the price of a good pair of walking shoes and comfortable clothes. Its enjoyable too! Forget those expensive boring indoor treadmills! Go for a walk in the great outdoors!

If you can walk, have a place to walk, by all means go for it! If you are like me, you will increase your energy a hundred fold. Start off slow at first if you are way out of shape, a few minutes a day. Walk briskly and swing those arms. Increase until you can do a mile, then a mile and a half, and so on and so on until you reach your goal weight. This is a lifelong commitment, so dont stop after reaching your goal weight.

My family and friends at work all say I am half the man I used to be. They are not very far off! I went from wearing 3X shirts and 50 waist trousers, to wearing large shirts and 34 waist trousers. Yeah, I had to buy all new clothes but I didnt mind the expense one bit. 

To hell you more I have prepared a full presentation to teach you how to lose weight in less than 4 months.

Click the link below to watch the presentation.

Click Here to learn about my secret strategy used by thousands all over the world to loose more weight even faster and in less than 4 months.

Take care and happy walking.

[lindoig8]

Alice Springs & preparing for our Camel Trek

Thursday, 22 April

We drove the last 150 km into Marla on the Stuart Highway, the first sealed road for almost 700 clicks. We refuelled, although we probably still had enough to get us to Alice Springs. And we had lowered our tyre pressure on the gravel roads so this was the time to bring them up to pressure again because we would now be on bitumen right through to Alice Springs. We also ate our lunch there before setting off on the final section of our trip to the Alice.

We had expected to be stopped at the Northern Territory border for quarantine and Covid documentation checks, but there was absolutely nothing so we just kept driving through to Kulgera and thence on to Erldunda where we stopped for the night. There were a few more birds around the caravan park than at our previous stops, including a pair of Major Mitchells, a few vivid Australian Ringnecks and some Mulga Parrots.

We had another superb dinner at night, using our double-sided frying pan to cook a hearty roast chicken and vegetables meal to celebrate our arrival in the Northern Territory. Interestingly, we still haven’t turned on our TV to watch any DVDs since we left home. We have just read or done puzzles and turned in quite early each night. That will probably change once we are back in ‘civilisation’ again.

Friday, 23 April

We saw a couple of camels over the fence from our caravan after breakfast so took a few photos of them and told them that we would be walking in the desert with some of their brothers within the week – but that didn’t seem to impress them much. And then it was on the road again for the final 199 kilometres to Alice Springs.

We arrived at the G’Day Mate Caravan Park where we have stayed a couple of times before at about 12.45pm – a mere 3065 kilometres from home. We set ourselves up quite comfortably here and despite our resolve to leave all the cleaning and reorganising until after our Camel Trek, we did quite a bit of it during the afternoon. We have plenty still to do, but at least the main surfaces are now clean and most of our gear is accessible and usable if and when we want it. We noted a few more very minor damages to the van, but one important thing I saw when I disconnected the car from the van was that one of the two bolts in the trailer hitch had come loose and fallen out during the trip, leaving only a single bolt holding the van and the (fairly loose) towball hanging at an angle of about 45 degrees from where it should be.

We cooked another excellent meal for dinner and washed it down with a bottle of bubbles to celebrate our arrival at our first formal destination of this trip.

Saturday, 24 April

We had a huge fry-up for breakfast, using up lots of delicious leftovers before we started work for the day.

We had heaps of cleaning and rearranging to do as well as two giant loads of accumulated dust to wash out of our bedding and clothing. Everything was/is smothered in dust. I tried to get some out of our carpets and Heather did a lot of cleaning too, but it even coated everything in the fridge - how it infiltrated the fridge-seals beats me, but every cupboard, every drawer, every surface was reddish grey from its thick coating of dust. We had sealed boxes inside a closed cupboard under the bed and even they were full of dust. We will live with most of it until after our camel trek and do a more comprehensive clean after that. Of course, we will be travelling on lots more dusty roads over the next few months so I am quite sure it is all going to happen again, probably several times.

While the washing was on the line drying, we caught up with the scores of emails that had arrived while we were off the grid, with bills to pay and transactions to post, etc. There is no rest for the wicked and I had quite a bit of reading to do and correspondence to finalise for our next Owners Corporation Committee meeting the day after we get back from our Camel Expedition.

We also needed to restock some of our cupboards so went to the Supermarket during the afternoon too. It was a busy day even if we didn’t seem to have a lot to show for it. But we made a delicious paella for dinner - absolutely delightful! Man, can we do paella!

Sunday, 25 April

ANZAC Day, but apart from recognising it on Facebook, we didn’t make much of it this year. We both had things to do and I am still finding it exhausting to do much without gasping for breath with the lingering dregs of my cold - and a further 10 days later, I still haven't shaken it completely.

I wanted to check out under both car and van for any previously undetected damages and spent an hour or so crawling around inspecting the respective undercarriages. There is no indication of even the smallest damage under the car - what a mighty wagon we have! And perhaps surprisingly, the van is pretty good too. We have invested in a good deal of protective shielding over the years and although the metal guards are bent and ripped in places, it is still doing a pretty good job. It is just the odd stone that misses the shielding and hits something vulnerable (like a plastic water tap or unprotected hose) that does the occasional damage. But I guess a few million stones have hit the protection and it is not all that surprising that the occasional one gets through.

I had to tighten the towball that had become a little loose and retrieve the remaining bolt from the unit so I can buy an identical one and both tasks proved challenging, but I eventually succeeded with both. And we had to cut the padlock off the other gas cylinder so we replaced both cylinders with identically keyed locks. Accessing tools from both car and van and repacking the caravan boot also took time so with several rests to gird my loins again, it was almost lunchtime before that was all completed.

While I was doing this, Heather was reworking a draft I had prepared to nominate one of our Clubs for an award. We actually nominated them for two somewhat similar awards and it would be great if they got one. They really deserve it after their fantastic work supporting their members and growing the Club through the darkest days of the Covid lockdown.

We spent a good deal of the afternoon looking at our photos and writing stuff for our blogs but we went out for a 3-4 km walk in the arvo, just around the local area - basically along both sides of the very dry Todd River.

Monday/Tuesday, 26-27 April

In anticipation of our upcoming trek, we didn’t do a lot on these days. We had a couple of long walks in the area around the caravan park (one with our back-packs on to satisfy ourselves that we could carry the weight) and mainly just did more cleaning and maintenance around the van. We took quite some time packing for our Camel Trek to ensure we had everything we might need, that everything was fully charged and we were ready to take on the challenge ahead of us.

[doof-doofblog]

"You Want A War?! You Got One!"

Tuesday 20th October 2020

Hello again folks! Hope you're having a good day so far! I really enjoyed writing about Monday's episode, I'm really hoping Tuesday's will be just as good. My plan was going to attempt two blog posts today but  I've decided it will be a lot easier for me to do one post a night. Seeing as I'm not working on Saturday, I can write up about Friday's episode then and follow tonight's episode tomorrow. That will leave me with next week not being behind, I hope I've not annoyed any of you with this, and I apologise in advance if I have. But I just want to do the best I can with this blog and I just want let to you guys know that I am still committed to do this 100% ... life just seems to get in the way sometimes. Anyway, let's jump right into Tuesday's episode and see what's going on in Walford!

The episode starts with Phil still reeling from the recent news he's learned about Ellie. Ben is adamant that his Dad shouldn't be going in with all guns blazing, he even asks his Dad if he wants him to go along. But Phil instructs his son to get things in the house ready for a 3 year old, as not matter what, he'll be bringing Raymond home! But something tells me, it's not going to be as simple as that! Is going to be walking into a war or a trap? We already know the Ellie was to blame for Raymond's parents passing away, what is she going to do next?

At the Beale household, Ian finds Peter and informs him that he has transferred some money into his account, not just his allowance but a little extra. Is he literally buying his son's silence?! I'd like to think Peter is smarter than that, maybe in time he'll come to realise that his Dad is lying to them all. As Ian leaves, Kathy can be seen doing her make-up, getting herself ready for her date with Iain. She confides in her Grandson that she's feeling nervous, more to the fact that the fella doesn't even know her real age. Peter tells his Gran not to worry and that the date will go smoothly. Just as Peter happens to mention the word "Date" - Bobby appears and is shocked to hear that his Gran is going out to meet some stranger, but I think the main issue is that he's upset she's going outside during a pandemic and after taking precautions during lockdown, she should be careful as she's vulnerable. Something tells me that this has something to do with Bobby's OCD storyline, recently he's been constantly reminding everybody to wash their hands and be careful, I might be jumping the gun here, but are EastEnders going to make Coronavirus a storyline? Meaning, is Kathy going to catch it while going on her date and become really unwell, or will Bobby end up getting it after being incredibly careful. Who knows? I could be completely wrong, but it would be an interesting outcome, don't you guys think?!

Meanwhile, in the Vic Stacey and Kat are cleaning whilst Lily sits and watches as she's playing on her tablet. This was a very interesting conversation between Stacey and Kat. Kat just happens to mention that she saw Ruby with a designer handbag that Martin has supposedly bought her for her birthday. Stacey seems a little upset by this news and she appears jealous as she mentions that the best presents that Martin ever bought her were a CD and paint! It's the next part which Lily seems to listen really closely too, she's obviously aware that her Mum is feeling sad about Martin and Ruby being together, but to let off some steam, Stacey will shout and probably say things that she doesn't mean, it's then she mentions Ruby having "Daddy issues" and she's had them ever since her Dad saved the wrong daughter in a house fire. Lily picks up on what her Mother has said, what is she going to do with this new information?!

At the Cafe, Habiba is eager to get Ash and Iqra on side to go to court with her to support Jags. Ash reveals that Suki and Kheerat are going and everyone thought it was best if no else went. Habiba is saddened to hear that Ash isn't doing anything to save her brother. Everyone knows that Jags is innocent, but no one is willing to tell the truth. Iqra offers to go with her sister for support, Habiba accepts and they both leave to head off to court.

In the Arches, Phil is looking that he's waiting for someone, checking his watch and the clock on the wall. Suddenly, Ellie walks in, personally, I feel there's going to be some kind of row going on, but Phil plays the sympathy/guilty card. Explaining that he knows everything regarding the car crash that Raymond's parents were in. He tries to convince her that Raymond would be better off with him and his family, he'll be safer - seeing as Ellie has put her Grandson's life in danger and what's going to stop her from doing it again?! Ellie then plays dirty, she scoffs at Phil's words, informing him that she has also done her homework and found out everything about Ben, Louise and even Dennis. Phil looks a little bit defeated that he's been caught out, but then Ellie changes her tune, she admits that she can see how much Raymond means to him, and she even goes on to say that she'll let Phil have him. Phil, however, does look a bit suspicious, what's the catch?! Oh - only £150,000! Ellie announces she'll let him have Raymond for 150 grand!!! How the hell is Phil going to find that kind of money?!

Meanwhile at the restaurant, Kathy is preparing herself for her date, she takes a deep breath and turns the corner to find a - dare I say - dashing gentleman waiting at a table. He spots her and he seems really happy to see her, clearly a little nervous but ever more happy to see her turn up. As Kathy takes a seat you can see she is also nervous, mainly due to the fact that the poor man isn't aware of her real age. He makes a point about going on dates and ending up being catfished, meaning that the person who turns up doesn't turn out to be who they make out they are online. Kathy can only give a small smile, she must be feeling a little guilty, perhaps feeling that she's leading the poor guy on. Something tells me she might come clean by the end of her date, but who knows? Will it be a success?!

At the Prince Albert, Ash and Peter - surprisingly two other characters I never thought we'd see share a scene. But from what I can make out, they both have a little bit in common, Ash is wallowing her thoughts and fears about her brother going to prison for something he didn't do. Peter is also battling demons about his own Dad, wondering whether to trust him or not. They're both dealing with deep family issues right now, and it looks as if as they continue their conversation, they have some mutual understanding of each other and what the other is going through. I could be looking into something that isn't there, but do I sense a bit of flirtation as Peter offers to buy her a drink? I mean, sure, anyone can offer someone a drink without it be flirtatious, but I don't know - something told me that maybe there might've been something there. But who knows, Ash I believe is happy with Iqra, so who knows what could happen? This is EastEnders after all!

Back at the restaurant, it looks as if Kathy's date with Iain is going brilliantly! They're both giggling and enjoying each other's company. But it looks as if Iain is asking Kathy really awkward questions, questions which are having to make her lie about her family, such as Peter being her son instead of Grandson. Is she going to keep up the pretence that she's younger than what she actually is?! I mean, I said it last night, Kathy is looking fabulous at 70 and she shouldn't be afraid to be proud of her age! I think Kathy is a stunning looking woman, gorgeous hair with a beautiful dress sense, with a gorgeous smile - what's not to like? Who cares if she's 70? I hope eventually Kathy will admit the truth and hopefully Iain won't find the age-gap a big deal! Kathy deserves some happiness! Later on as they leave the restaurant together, Kathy invites Iain to the Prince Albert, things are looking great when suddenly Kathy takes a nasty tumble as she twists her ankle and falls to the floor. Ash, Peter and Bobby rush to Kathy's aid insisting that she needs to go the hospital to get herself looked at. Iain is a bit blaséabout it, saying she "Just tripped" - something you do never say when a woman falls over! In my opinion, if a woman ever falls over, people should do the decent thing and make sure she's okay - no matter what her age may be! As Peter and Ash plead Kathy to go the hospital, it's then that Peter slips up and calls her "Gran" - much to Iain's surprise, it's then that Kathy admits her real age and admits she's feeling incredibly foolish. I feel sad for Kathy at this point, everything was going so well before her nasty fall - I hope Iain will maybe look past it, but who knows? Did any of you also notice that when Bobby saw his Nan fall, he started counting, clearly to cope and calm his breathing after what he's just witnessed.

At the club, Stacey is looking for Martin, but Ruby appears to be in the middle of something with a supplier, she's refusing to sign for items she didn't order. Stacey watches on as she's being hounded by the delivery driver, surprisingly she stands up for her ex-friend and basically tells the delivery guy to do one! Ruby seems surprised that she's stood up for her, in an attempt to rekindle their friendship, she asks her friend to stay for a drink. As Stacey and Ruby are drinking, it looks as if things aren't going to be as easy as saying "Sorry!" - they are both really strong feisty females and to be fair, they have both done wrong to each other in recent months. Stacey makes the valid point that any man in Stacey's life, Ruby also seems to get her hands on - Sean, Max, Martin, but then again Ruby comes back with another valid point, that she didn't pretend to be her! It's true that they are both best friends and they're the only friend's each of them has got right now, will they be able to look past everything that's happened and move on?

Meanwhile, in the Vic, Habiba is looking absolutely heartbroken, it looks as if Jags has been sentenced to four years in prison for his attack on Martin Fowler. Habiba is devastated that her boyfriend has gone down for something he didn't do, she announces to her sister how much she hates the Panesar family for watching and doing nothing to save Jags. It's then she informs Iqra that she no longer wants Ash living with them. Is Iqra going to be forced to make a huge decision, whether to ask her girlfriend to leave or whether to move out with her girlfriend and leave Habiba alone. Back at the club, Suki and Vinny are also discussing Jags, Vinny is still adamant that he should've taken Jag's place, but Suki shrugs it off and tells him to man up, prison will be the making of Jags - apparently.

As soon as Suki leaves the club, the camera spans across and we find Stacey and Ruby again. Stacey is quick to say that she needs to get off to find Lily. But suddenly, Lily walks in admitting that she's been in the club office the whole time, both Ruby and Stacey are shocked to find her. Stacey is quick to ger home but Lily - oooh she's become such a little madam hasn't she - She's can't understand why her Mum and Ruby are now socialising? She opens her mouth and puts her Mum right in it, revealing what Stacey had said about her previously to their meeting. Stacey is horrified with her daughter, Ruby is just as shocked. It's then that Ruby begins to play the evil stepmum, she promises Lily can have a takeaway with herself and Martin whenever she likes, much to Stacey's annoyance. Stacey gives Ruby a warning, she is nothing to Lily and never will be and she warns her to stay away! Something tells me it's going to be a long time until Ruby and Stacey are friends again, something is also telling me that somehow it'll affect the children. Also I'm thinking that Lily is going to become a very twisted little girl, causing so much trouble and causing havoc in her family, ruining relationships and perhaps spreading lies about everyone. What do you guys think of the new Lily?! It's going to be quite a while to get used to, Lily was such a lovely little girl and now she's turned into such a spoilt brat!

Back at Beale household, Bobby can be seen once again cleaning extravagantly. Wearing gloves and counting the amount of times he's wiping the picture frame. Peter comes in and calls out to him, informing that their Gran has been in agony since her fall. He walks in to find vases and picture frames placed on dining room table, Bobby is breathless as he violently wipes clean every inch of the vase, counting to five as he does so. I've never been one to understand OCD, but it must be hell to live with, but then again I guess I kind of have the understanding that the people feel the need to do things until they feel completely safe. Peter looked concerned for his brother, will he confide in his Dad or Nan about what he's witnessed?!

The final scene of this episode, Phil has gotten the money together to give to Ellie. He walks in the Arches to find Ellie waiting for him, without Raymond! Ben quickly follows his Dad to see what's going on. Phil throws the duffle bag with 80 grand inside, insisting that he needs more time to get the rest. Ellie seems very unimpressed but it's only when Ben begins to plead to his Dad to not give Ellie more money that she starts to squirm. Ben makes a very good point that she could bleed Phil dry for years at the promise of getting Raymond eventually. Part of me is hoping that Phil will listen to his son, as much as Phil is desperate to be reunited with his son, he can't afford to lose all his money. He can't risk giving the money to Ellie, to then have her do a runner and not keep her word. Phil agrees with Ben and informs Ellie that she's not going to receive another penny from him! If Phil wants Raymond, he's going to do things properly with solicitors and possibly even take Ellie to court - it looks as if we've got a custody battle on our hands!!! Ooooh I am so looking forward to seeing the outcome of this! What do you guys think? Will Phil eventually be able to welcome Raymond back into his life? Or is there going to be many dark twists and turns along the way?!

Thank you guys for reading! I hope you're enjoying my blog. I'll be back tomorrow following tonight's episode! Thank you for your continued support! Enjoy the rest of your week! Love you all xXx

[nataandreev]

Fragments from “The Pursuit of Art” by Martin Gayford

Chance and Necessity 17: Gerhard Richter: Chance does it better than I can

‘Art should be serious, not a joke. I don’t like to laugh about art.’ But, Richter added happily, ‘I am ridiculously old fashioned.’ And there I suspected he was joking, just a little; after all, he was one of the most radical painters alive, a superstar of contemporary art, at that time regularly heading polls of the most admired artist alive.

This in a way was the story of his life and career: continuing to work in a medium - paint - that was widely believed to have died long ago.

‘I believe in eating too. What can we do? We have to eat; we have to paint; we have to live. Of course not everybody paints, there are different ways to survive. But it’s my best option. I didn’t have much choice when I was young.’

Marianne was later murdered in a Nazi programme to exterminate the mentally ill.

‘I work on, say, six works at the same time. They learn from each other. One is better here, worse there, so I change it. Finishing is the most difficult thing.’

‘Several hours of painting in the studio in the morning and two more in the afternoon. Every day is not possible; you don’t have the right mood every day. But that’s the ideal.’

He named after John Cage, the avant-garde American composer who had once announced, in his ‘Lecture on Nothing’, ‘I have nothing to say and I’m saying it.’ Perhaps that was true of Richter too.

‘Chance does it better that I can,’‘but I have to prepare the conditions to allow randomness to do its work.’

‘Randomness is an important theme to me because it’s the same in life,’ ‘Chance determines out lives in very important ways. If he hadn’t met her, what would have happened to them both?’

‘Of course, the more energetic people are the ones who leave - that’s the simple explanation, but it’s not that simple. We saw modern art in magazines, but we were hungry to see it. When you have everything, naturally you are not so hungry.’

His painting of his aunt Marianne contained terrible memories, whereas Ema (Nude on a Staircase) (1996), a picture in the Ludwig Museum here in Cologne of Richter’s first wife, nude, walking downstairs, was full of love and sensuality. If Vermeer had ever painted a naked portrait of his wife, it really might have looked a bit like this.

Only many years later did he discover that Ema’s father had been the commandant of the camp where Marianne died.

For this medieval monument the religious faith, Richter had devised a window of 11,500 hand-blown glass panels in seventy-two shades compatible with the existing stained glass. There were made and put together in accordance with a randomizing computer programme.

Cardinal Joachim Meisner, observed that when culture is cut off from God it becomes ‘degenerate’. That really stirred things up because degenerate - in German, ‘entartete’ -was the word used by the Nazis to describe modern art. The Cardinal was angry, Richter told me, because his window is not a Catholic window. Then he wryly repeated Einstein’s remark, ‘God does not play dice.’

Richter’s strained glass looked fabulous: flickering with light, absolutely contemporary, suggestive of some infinitely complex system. You could see why the Cardinal thought it was scandalously irreligious.

as if you were looking at electrons, molecules and photons in action.

Niels Bohr, another great physicist, responded: ‘Don’t tell God what to do!’

Chance and Necessity 18: Robert Rauschenberg: A Turtle in the Elevator

Rauschenberg, it soon emerged, loved cooking, and gave a characteristically oblique account of why he like it: ‘It’s a very special way just to turn your back and still be there.’

‘I left the church’, he explained, ‘because I did not believe that life was to be spent thinking that everything in the world was evil. But the church showed me what I was: that I wasn’t interested in value judgement and condemnation as a life style. I did not believe in goodness coming from fear.’

It is true that early on Rauschenberg produced some paintings even more austere than his teacher’s, canvases painted entirely in white, for example. These he explained as the result of a militant desire to be fair to paints. He hated the way painters picked on ‘innocent colours’ and had forced them to express their emotions. He didn’t think artists should make pigments, or anything else, express their feelings.

Hughes, with typical verbal gusto, and doubtless conscious of Rauschenberg’s sexual orientation, described Monogram as ‘one of the few great icons of male homosexual love in modern culture: the Satyr in the Sphincter’.

The artist vehemently rejected this account: ‘Most art critics, if you tell them they can’t use any sexual interpretations, they go mute. They don’t know what they are looking at. It’s like candy is sweet; nobody buys bitter candy. It’s a cheap trick. I don’t know how you would get anywhere - if everything had to read through sexuality’. Here was another lesson: how artists see their work may be diametrically different from how it is understood by critics and historians.

He acted on just that principle in 1964 when he won the Grand Prize for Painting a the Venice Biennale. This was a historic victory, which sent shock waves through the European art world, and has often been viewed as marking the moment at which New York definitely took over from Paris as the world capital of culture.

Rauschenberg’s reaction to this triumph was to instruct his studio assistant in New York to destroy 150 of the silk-screens that had been used to make these pictures, so he would not repeat himself.

Those silk-screen pictures that won the prize at the Venice Biennale had for some reason I can’t quite fathom called to me when I was a teenager, so much so that at the age of 18 I had made some collages of my own in homage. They are still there, in a cardboard box in the attic: a possible path in the end I did not follow. Now I regret I didn’t tell Rauschenberg that. On the other hand, I know how he would have reacted: he would have said he didn’t want people to make art like his, but to do something completely different. 

Chance and Necessity 19: Desperately Seeking Lorenzo Lotto

he described himself as ‘old, alone, without any stable domestic arrangements and very anxious of mind’.

There is an odd but revealing phrase - ‘in the flesh’ - for seeing art in reality, not reproduction. With Lotto and other Venetian painters it’s almost exact: to appreciate them properly you have to stand in front of them. Only then can you sense the carnal reality of the people they depict, the glistening of their skin, gleam in their eyes, the weight of their bodies, the texture of their clothes. These are physical experiences, because paint is a physical substance: a layer of organic and inorganic chemicals that reflects the light, and consequently changes every time the light alters. There is no substitute for being there.

I hate being lost, so much so that quite often I dream of not being able to find my way. Along with two other nightmares, missing trains and planes, it happens in reality quite frequently: cruelly often when I am searching for church or museum containing a rare work of art.

A contemporary painter, Luc Tuymans, once said to the that it was a sign of a good painting that it could not be memorized. That’s true and explains why it always looks different when you see it again. So, on another day, and mood, they would all seem changed.

The pursuit of art is a journey that never stops; the more you see, the more you want to see.

[rockofeye]

Is there any rhyme or reason to how spiritual work is priced within Haitian Vodou? I see a lot of really high pricing for things like readings and then really low pricing for other things and I am trying to figure out what's worth my money and what's not.

Hi there,

Yes, there is some traditional pricing for things and some logical thought processes that go into that.

In traditional Haitian Vodou, divination is largely done with a prepared deck of playing cards and it referred to as a leson/lesson or fe kat yo/making or doing the cards. It is straightforward and uncomplicated; the priest prays, lights a candle (usually a small white taper), pours out some water and kleren or white rum, and lays out the cards on a laye/flat woven basket, the ground, or maybe on a table. Most priests I have sat with for a card reading start with a basic look at who you are and what’s going on, and then address specific questions or situations you want the guidance of the lwa on. It is not read as Tarot is read, in that the cards tell a story, but it is directly reaching to the lwa. The priest is the conduit/translator, and the cards are the tool.

Traditional readings cost in the ballpark of $57 in whatever currency you are working with. I charge $60 to keep it round and easy on electronic payment methods, some folks charge $55…but most keep it in that range. There’s nothing extra for the seeker to provide–no moushwa, no candle–and it’s not something that needs a lot of prep work. Like, if you call me on the phone and I am free, I will tell you to send the money over and we’ll get to it. Not a whole lot of mystery to be found.

I personally do not understand high prices for readings from folks who claim traditional or “real” Haitian Vodou. Like, when you are getting into prices of that are closing in on $150-$200+ for a reading, might as well save a few bucks and talk to a traditional priest about calling a spirit into their head to have a face-to-face chat, because that’s what you’re in the ballpark of price-wise. If you can afford that, why not do it? People are often willing to pay higher prices for what really should be basic services because the packaging is lovely or the personality is charismatic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important to go into things with eyes wide open; do you want a reading, or do you want a reading from This Person With A Name? No real wrong answer here because it’s about what you want and what you are looking for, but it’s generally a good practice to be honest about what you want because it will reflect what you get.

Spiritual work certainly is work and should be paid for, but let’s be real…ain’t no one in Haiti charging huge amounts for a reading. For folks there, coming up for a fee for a reading can be hard enough never mind a high fee that is more money that most people make in a month. In Haiti, spiritual work and consulting with the lwa is not a luxury item; instead, it is a means for survival. You have a problem, you consult the lwa and figure out what to do. 

Outside of Haiti, I firmly believe that readings should be exactly what they are: the doorway in which to seek the lwa. As a priest, it is literally the ground floor of what I can provide for someone who needs or wants to speak with the lwa, in that I cannot do anything cheaper for someone. If you have nothing else you can do, at least you can consult the lwa, ask them for their input, hear what they have to say for you, and talk it through to see what we can do together–like, I can tell you things you can do for yourself and give you recipes and outlines of how to do it. That should be as accessible as possible for folks.

And, if I ask for a high fee for a reading upfront, what does that mean for the person who has scraped that together because they need answers and gets answers in the form of ‘you need to do bigger work that will cost money’? I would much rather they save their money and put it towards what they need, whether it turns out to be spiritual work or bus fare.

After that, it sort of comes down to common sense stuff. I wouldn’t expect to see spiritual work that costs less than a reading because it doesn’t make sense with time, ingredients, and the expertise of the priest.

An example: I make a lot of spiritual baths for clients. What does that mean? It means I pull out a big ol’ basin and start mixing ingredients that I have sourced, paid for in the client’s name, and prepared in the way I have been taught. Ingredients can be leaves/plants/roots, oils, powders, colognes/perfumes, food items, items specific to the spirits overseeing the construction of the bath, and on. Most baths have 10 or more ingredients. Many baths are prepared on the pwen/point of a spirit which requires songs and prayers specifically for them and potentially some offerings. Many baths have to be made on the correct day for the purpose or the spirit(s) associated, and, most importantly, they are made specifically for the person who has purchased the bath. Like, some baths can be made in a large batch and portioned out (and that’s a way to make things more affordable for popular baths that aren’t tailored for one person’s conditions), but most are made based on divination or dreams and instructions from the lwa.

So…a bath for $50 isn’t really possible. Like, many times, that’s not even going to cover the ingredients that go into it never mind the priest paying the spirits for their work, the time it takes to make the bath, or even paying themselves. 

And then there’s the administration of the bath; if you want a priest to administer it to you (a really awesome thing if you can swing it), if you aren’t going to them you’re going to need to cover their travel to you. If the bath is being shipped, it’s the cost of packaging and shipping added in. I ship all baths ‘wet’/fully prepared (it’s important to me that someone gets the full benefit of a bath made by my hands), so it’s careful packaging to make sure it gets to someone whole, and it’s gonna be a heavy package.

So, a lot of it is both knowing what you are purchasing and what that object or service entails. Since many/most spiritual baths sold online are dry, bulk-produced baths, folks sit back a little when they hear the price for a traditionally prepared bath…and that’s totally understandable since folks haven’t seen it before. When a paket kongo is presented online as a folded up paper packet tied with twine and a cowrie shell, it’s understandable that someone might get ruffled with the price of an actual paket kongo, which essentially has a spirit mounted inside of it for the purchaser.

The bigger the work, the more the price will increase. If someone wants a spiritual treatment (alongside their medical treatment) for a severe illness, the price will reflect the severity because bigger interventions will be needed. If it is initiation, the price will reflect the 14 days or so of ceremony done for you, and all that goes with it. Most priests are able to give you a thumbnail sketch of what is needed (drummers, animals, food, people to help, etc) and, perhaps most importantly, the price is not going to change drastically at the last minute. For big stuff, most priests are not making money and often work out of pocket to make sure things are done completely. I’ve watched priests eat unexpected costs or last minute price increases (happens ALL THE TIME in Haiti…when the person who is selling the chickens knows you are buying them for ceremony, they are suddenly very expensive chickens) because it’s simply not fair to ask someone who has scrimped and saved to meet the price necessary to fork over more last minute.

Many priests will tell you the spirits set the prices, and that’s very true most of the time. If a spirit(s) has stepped forward to oversee the work, they will often tell the priest how to price it because the money is theirs…the priest is the tool, the spirits are the mechanic and the battery all wrapped up into one. Sometimes priests will negotiate with the spirits on behalf of the client, sometimes the price is just the price and the spirits can work with the person to make it happen. There are definitely traditional ‘payment plans’ of sorts (Haitians love a good sòl) and all sorts of stuff.

There’s also a lot a priest can help you with without having you buy a lot of product or services. Like, if someone is starting out with the lwa and needs to set-up a table, I can tell you how to set a table for your personal lwa. If you are in a situation where you need to do something but can’t afford work, I can do my best to give you options that you can make with your own two hands and your prayers. Not everything requires money, and most priests go out of their way to help folks who are sincerely trying to do their best.

I hope this answers your question, please let me know if I can explain anything more thoroughly.

[royalnoir]

Real Estate Problem Solver

Advantages There are many areas one can invest in. Since I was 15 yr old I have looked for the fastest, most effective way to accumulate a lot of huge selection, with the least amount of risk. I am now 58. Even while looking for this road to truth, I spent time and effort in the school of hard knocks. The school of very hard knocks is a very interesting but painful school to attend. It is also the most expensive way to learn something, but if you graduate you have a PHD in what to do and not do together with time and money. The schools I attended happen to be: Investing in businesses as a silent partner, owning my own enterprises, working for another family member-in my case my father, selecting publicly traded stocks and securities, penny mining stock option, commodity trading, investing in gold and silver, real estate private lending, housing development, real estate remodeling, buying foreclosure properties. I equally worked as a real estate problem solver/matchmaker, bringing business owners as well as business buyers, and matching up real estate owners utilizing real estate buyers. Writing about all of these activities would take the encyclopedia, so we will limit this essay towards the kinds of situations you can run across in the real estate school for hard knocks. I will present my solution with the assigned situation. There are more than one possible solution and I receive you to come up with other possible solutions as you read. Any time you get some value from my experiences that will hopefully decrease tuition to the real estate school of hard knocks. Experience free to e-mail me your comments, alternate solution or perhaps stories. Do, please, let me know that it is all right in my circumstances to publish them. My Real Estate Philosophy As a way of presenting myself, I thought you might find what lessons I have discovered, after all these years of real estate, interesting. Buy real estate property instead of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or commodities. If you pick a winner in one of these non-real estate areas you can take 5-10 times your money. When you are wrong, in one of these non-real estate areas, you can actually loose up to 90% of your bucks. In real estate, if you are not greedy-not trying to get rich quick-in one year, you can make 100 times your money, on the upside. The particular downside risk is only based on how well you looked at the possibilities ahead of time. If you did, the downside risk is without a doubt reduced to only the holding time to fix an error. If you rush in and do not explore all the possibilities of a small business venture, you can actually loose 100% of your money. In my thought process an upside of 100 times profit is better than 10 times profit. My philosophy on real estate ownership seems to have changed in the last 15 years. I used to think that reselling at the top of the market was the smart move and buying from the crash. Now I feel that buying when prices are actually down is still a smart move but never selling will be way to go. In order to hold on to a property in a down market you require the most proper planning to survive the crash. This I call up a back door or emergency plan. This is have a very good plan and knowing what you will do if everything travels wrong with you original plan. When you have a backup prepare, you rarely need it. This is the basis of my vision. With this understanding, you might more clearly see why I did exactly what I did in these situations. The Stories and content: The area of real estate investing is one of the most complex mainly because it is a combination of law and real estate. It is one of the most helpful because fortunes are made and lost in this area, and the statistics are so enormous. Lastly it is an area where criminals can make a lot of money and many times get away with it. Following will be some stories (case histories) I have dealt with and some posts I have written on the subject of fraud in real estate. Finally, I had included an article on the basics of foreclosures and properties in general, for your interest. I hope you enjoy them. The Memories: Story #1: It was early March 2000 and That i received a call from Kevin. He said that he had heard about me from some mutual friends. The guy wanted to speculate in buying HUD houses (Properties the fact that the Government had foreclosed on). He wanted to buy them, take care of them up and then sell them at a profit. He previously heard that I had bought many foreclosures in the 70's and 80's and he was hoping I could encourage him. We met for lunch and he told me his life story. The important part of this conversation will be that he had bought a boarded up 14 appliance apartment building in downtown San Bernardino, across the street, collected from one of of the roughest high schools in California. By the last part of the meeting, I had figured out that he had overpaid with regards to $75, 000 for the building, he had already wasted $200, 000 trying to remodel it, and it was still $100, 000 away from being finished. He had bought it 1 . 5 years ago and a large part of his costs was the eye on all his loans, related to this project. She was now broke, and in deep trouble, but also in his mind, the badly needed money was upcoming. It is interesting to note where he got the money to get this project. 4 years earlier he was given cash to buy an apartment building by his father. He was given enough money that he only needed a very small $150, 000 real estate loan to purchase a building in Pasadena that cost him a total of $525, 000. To buy the San Bernardino rehab project, he first refinanced the first trust deed on the Pasadena building and ran the loan balance to $385, 000. When which will money was gone he borrowed $74, 000 in the form of second Trust Deed on both the Pasadena and San Bernardino properties. By the way, that loan cost him 15% interest and $15, 000 in up front fees to see the money. Before we parted, I told him that they made a very expense mistake in buying San Bernardino. I explained that from the day he bought a building it was a sure bet that the project may fail. I then had to tell him that I would not lend the pup any money on San Bernardino, to save his butt. Covering the next 2 months I received periodic phone calls, sharing me the progress of the fund raising. One of those posts I was told that the existing 2nd Trust Action lender was saying that he might give Kevin all the added $100, 000 he needed to finish the venture. At the same time, Kevin also believed he had found a bank or investment company that might refinance all the loans of San Bernardino. The issue with the bank loan was that the appraisal fee was $3, 000, and it had to be paid in advance, even to just simply apply for the loan. Again Kevin asked me for money. Again I refused to put more good money along his black hole. Then one morning I got a label from Kevin, "If I don't make the $2, 000 payment to the 2nd trust deed holder, he'll almost certainly start foreclosure in 2 days. Kevin also explained "The 2nd trust deed lender said that he would certainly buy the Pasadena apartment building for what I had settled it, 4 years ago, $525, 000. " The feature had a stipulation to it. Kevin had to bring the actual loan current first. In my mind, if Kevin could quite possibly bring the loan current, why would he sometimes bother to sell the property for a wholesale price? I wasn't able to believe what I was hearing. After hearing involves I decide that it is time I stop saying hardly any and help. What Kevin thought he wanted was initially a real estate loan for a lot of money. The truth is, that finances was not the solution to his problem. The problem had to be distinct from what Kevin believed, which is why the problem persisted. The real issue was not more borrowing. More borrowing meant more money downward the drain. Experience has taught me, "If this challenge was what Kevin thought it was, it wouldn't deemed a problem. " What does this phrase mean? The businessman has a financial set back. He thinks that through some short term funding he can recover from the set back not to mention return to the top. After looking around, our businessman will usually have the money, but strangely enough the problem doesn't resolve. When the problem did correct itself, then the businessman was ideal about what the problem was, and the problem would be gone. Normally the money doesn't help, but the businessman doesn't understand that. The person doesn't realize that the problem wasn't money in the first place. Should it were, the problem would now be gone. Lets us continue the explanation. The last money borrowed is now gone as well as problem persists, so our businessman goes out to find a higher cost to solve the problem that didn't solve with the money she borrowed, the first time. What happens the second time? The same thing. The money is required up and still the problem continues. Our businessman is implementing the wrong problem. The problem is not money, or the problem would've been gone. Kevin thought the problem was money. The software wasn't. He had already poured $300, 000 into the San Bernardino building, on top of the $209, 000 1st Put your trust in Deed loan that came about when he bought any building. Before he was finished, he spent through $500, 000 in a building that needs $100, 000 to accomplish, but was only worth $475, 000, after it had been finished. What could I do? Use what the good master gave me. 30 years of experience, on the subject of arising from problems that I created when I was young and eco-friendly. Here was the war strategy. I got Kevin for you to agree to turn over total management of the two properties with me. Knowing that I was managing the property and working on the things I believed was the correct problem, I felt snug about loaning money on this deal. If I can't put your trust in myself to solve this problem, whom can I trust? I begun by loaning Kevin $25, 000 to make needed vehicle repairs to the Pasadena building, pay the property taxes and to produce the first and second loans current on the Pasadena place only. Nothing was to be spent at this time, on the San Bernardino building. Now that I controlled the Pasadena flat building, I discovered what repairs the building needed. Typically the list was so long it took one man with three months, full time, to fully handle it. I then did a very descriptive market study and determined what the market would spend in rents. I asked the tenants for a menu of everything they wanted done in their apartments to be content. I then did everything the tenants requested and I then raised their rents 30%. After the building was 100 %, I raised the rents another 15%. The value of your building went up and I received an deliver for $725, 000. This was $200, 000 more than the value 6 months earlier. I put it into escrow, then I realized that I could raise the rents some more. I just raised the rents again in escrow and pressured the buyer to pay another $25, 000 for the building. Sending the price to $750, 000. That $225, 000 turn a profit was needed to help cover the money being lost throughout San Bernardino. Author's Note: The escrow fell by means of and the building was kept until this update, 12 , 5, 2004. The building is now in escrow pertaining to $1, 583, 000 What did I do about San Bernardino? I contacted the seller/lender and asked your pet if he would like me to pull the safety guard out of the building and let him have it instruction online foreclosure. He didn't want it back, even though he pretended that he was willing to do that. He offered me $25, 000 in incentives to get me to personally provide loans the money necessary for the completion of the building, so the person wouldn't have to take it back. For 3 months he attempted to get me to put money into the building, with the indisputable fact that once I put my money in I wouldn't disappear from it. The real story was that I wouldn't put the dime into that black hole until I discovered how to make it recover at least $100, 000 of Kevin's lost money. I asked for a $70, 000 lower price on the note, and offered to pay him off. We all negotiated for two months. Just when I was ready to surface finish the deal, the seller sold his note to someone else just for only a $30, 000 discount. I was not able to produce the money I wanted because now the new note holder sought 100% of interest and principal due. This used a monkey wrench into my negotiating. All this occasion, I had a buyer standing in the wings to buy the particular building from Kevin while I was negotiating. My spouse and i was then forced to sell the property to this buyer and also Kevin recovered only a little bit of his investment. The lender plus I were both playing a high stakes poker adventure. I lost this round. If I could have gotten typically the payoff reduced, Kevin would received a large hunk in money from an "as is" sale. This is what When i call playing "Craps" on a very big Monopoly panel. Author's Note: The buyer, thinking he was going to put $125, 000 to finish the remodeling, notified me, after one year, that he had spent $300, 000 to finish the making. The apartment building values were increasing rapidly do your best period, so Kevin's project was increasing in importance at the same time the buyer was going deeper and deeper to construction costs. The buyer made out all right in the end. Should the market had died, he would have lost $200, 000 on this building after Kevin had already lost a lot. It's all about timing, isn't it? Kevin learned that dollars alone was not the answer to his problems; he expected a Genie, to turn his turkey into a swan. Tale #2 Janet is the daughter of one of my oldest and wealthiest friends and clients. We have been doing realty deals together since 1975. Janet and her groom started buying distressed real estate in Phoenix Arizona through 1994, which was 8 years ago when it was the thing to try. It was now Dec 2000. The market appears to be slowing down as well as did after September 11, 2001. Janet had been continuously borrowing money from her father, whenever things received too difficult. She later sold everything in The phoenix airport and bought property in Northern California. Then on 1999, one year before I was brought in, she began buying real estate in Kansas City. One day Janet's papa called me and asked for my help. He had credited his daughter $200, 000 and felt that every little thing she owned was upside down. (Loans more than the market worth. ). This was further complicated by the fact that if your lover sold her properties, to pay off her father, the capital advances taxes would eat up any cash, from the sale. As well as all this, Janet kept asking for more money to keep up the installments on the properties that had a negative cash flow and couldn't have enough rental income. He hired me to help the daughter and agreed to pay my fee. I would manage this 40 years old kid, to get her to return the woman fathers $200, 000 and make herself totally arrears free. Janet and I met. She was remarkable. She did know what she was doing, as far as selecting good real estate deals. She owned, at the time of our appointment, 10 properties located in 2 different states, and it has $500, 000 in equity. If we could get it through, before her father had a stroke things could well be great. Janet agreed to the arrangement, happily, if I might be her adviser, not his. Her father agreed to fill whatever money was requested as long as I approved the software. Also I had to be the one to ask Janet's dad for the money, since the upset between the farther and daughter was basically getting unbearable. This is what we did. A list of needed maintenance tasks was created for each of the 11 properties. Bids were been given and the work ordered to be done within 30 days. I thought this was not to take months. It had to be done immediately therefore we could go to step two. Step 2 was to put on the market many of the expensive Northern California property. To my disbelief, Janet wanted to move her family, to a new city, in the center of all this and her father agreed to let her complete the work. She had found an old run down house that the woman felt was undervalued. That meant that her good old residence was put into the group of properties to sell. Market is what we planned to do. Everything was to be placed on the market, and sold at the best price to be been given, but sold regardless. The property in Kansas was that should be repaired and fully rented. The properties that could be offered for sale at what we thought was full retail, were even put on the market. The plan was that when everything was advertised, the father would get paid off; the loans on the staying properties would be paid off and the balance of the cash will be put into the bank. Since all of the Kansas deals appear to be a good quality investment, Janet could now continue to buy more Kansas property, (she had only been spending $25, 000 on each deal) but for all cash. The rental prices coming in would generate enough income for her family to live a life on without having to ask for money from dad or touching her investment nest egg. That was the plan. I forgot one last thing. Because many of the properties had been bought yrs ago on a 1031 exchanges (tax-free exchange), the capital gain tax burden was going to eat up the cash proceeds. That was one of the traps Jesse fell into. She felt she couldn't sell with out buying a replacement. Of course by not liquidating before starting anew, she would never get out of debt with her real estate providers or her father. The solution, for this problem was much easier than one would think. First, the father did a 1031 exchange with Janet for one of the big profit properties. The father sold Janet his personal residences for basically no money down. Now Janet rented her father the place he lives in. So much for capital gains place a burden on on the $150, 000 profit in that one big selling. The second big profit was in the house Janet currently were living in. That was tax-free under the current laws. Since the other sorts of houses sold had smaller profits, it was decided the business decision to get out of debt was more crucial than avoiding paying any taxes. Author's Note: Which was the plan. So what happened? Janet decided she didn't would like to sell the junk in Kansas and fired others. She refused to pay her father back and as regarding December 2004 he had not seen a dime. Dad has deducted what she owes him from him / her inheritance, which will be put into a trust administered by the brother for the benefit of the grandchildren. Real estate in Los angeles skyrocketed after 9/11/01 terrorist attack and her real estate all doubled in value. Summary: Everyone thinks the fact that his or her problem is not confrontable and therefore unsolvable. I have found who someone other than myself can solve my un-confrontable challenges in 10 min and I can do the same for the kids. It is not a question of being smarter, or more experienced, nonetheless experience helps a lot when coming up with easy solutions, promptly. It is really that we all are willing to confront someone else's problems quite easy than our own. When we are willing to confront our own problem head-on, solutions begin to appear miraculously. What I do is guidance people take their mountains and turn them within molehills. The molehills are then flattened with ease. Instructions to learn: First, do not think you are smarter than the individuals passed this way before you; you're not. Second, markets never go up forever, have not performed as if they will. Third, if you are not even prepared for the worst, it will kill you. If you are completely ready, it will only hurt a little. You will survive and can be purchased away much richer in the end.

[prorevenge]

Nothing quite like a younger siblings revenge

My older brother and I never really got along. I’m three years younger, and he was the jealous older sibling who didn’t want to share their parents attention. Meanwhile, I was the adorable little girl who wanted to be friends with everyone (even him until I gave up around age 15) so I got a lot of attention. His jealousy was usually expressed through violent bullying both physical and verbal, and borderline abuse from him up until I was about 20 and called him out. My mom straight up admitted that looking back it was obvious he was insecure and jealous, but at the time, they just thought he had non explainable anger issues. He had gone to therapy, but even they couldn’t give us anything more than “He’s just an angry kid” and my parents just didn’t know how to handle it other than yelling at him and sending him to his room when he would hit me. It had gotten to the point that when our parents would go out of town and our grandparents would watch us, they would refuse to watch the both of us together, because we would always at some point break out into a fist fight.

Things kind of chilled out between us once we both got into high school, and we did have a lot of common interests that we could mildly tolerate sharing/experiencing together in the same space, although he was still a major asshole. (Around that time, if I was already sitting someplace he wanted to sit, he would take a flying leap at me and basically body slam me when he had an extra foot in height and about an extra 150 lbs on me. He would sweep my legs from behind me while I was walking. He would take my stuff and break it when told to give it back. You get the picture.) As most kids do around the era of senior year, we decided to try smoking weed. I decided at the time I didn’t particularly care for it as I would cough up a lung every time and it wasn’t worth it to me. He however, got himself a bong.

Our parents never really gave us any slack before when it came to miscellaneous activities outside of the house, and would basically get up our ass about things like going out to the movies or staying the night at a friends house. The whole “What are you doing, where are you going, who is watching you?” thing, and we knew it was because they cared about us and wanted us to be safe but it got tiring. It also left a very strong impression of “One toe out of line and you’re done for.” So even though we had our strong dislike of each other, we knew the bong was going to be the one thing we would never snitch on. 

Fast forward to April 1st 2007. I open the fridge and see a four pack of bottled grape soda. I know these belong to my brother because our parents would only buy diet soda. I sigh forlornly because as much as I love grape soda, and as much as I hated my brother, I knew if I had asked he would say no, and if I took one, he would either hit me or snitch to our parents and I’d get yelled at. To my surprise, he came into the kitchen and offered me one. Immediately suspicious, because he had only ever done three nice things for me in the previous 15 years of my life, I gave the opened bottle a sniff. Unfortunately, I was getting over some sort of cold/allergies thing, and had no sense of smell. So I took a mouthful. 

Pickle juice, I should have known.

I don’t retaliate, but I don’t forget. 

Fast forward to April 1st 2008. At this point, I have already saved his ass twice from our dad finding the weed he left out in the living room. He still treats me no differently. Then, my opportunity arises. I had managed to come home from school just half an hour before he did (we went to different schools) mom wasn’t due to come home until after 6, and dad wasn’t due for another few hours. I go to the basement, which was our designated shared space to hang out and watch TV while our parents had the living room. And there I see it. In plain view, sitting on a table, visible to anyone who walked down the stairs perhaps on their way to the laundry room, was the neon green and blue bong. My opportunity has come. It was April fools day. Exactly one year since my humiliation. It was almost poetic. 

I hid it. 

Then I waited with the biggest smile. 

Because you see, usually our dad would get home from work around the same time as my brother if not sometimes half an hour later. Only sometimes, when dad had a “short day” for his regular job, he was a drivers ed instructor and would spend 4 hours or so once or twice a week, at the end of his usual work day. It wasn’t uncommon on dads “Drivers ed days” that he would stop home early for a coffee and a sandwich, and then leave about ten minutes after I got home from school. It just so happened that on that particular April Fools day, it was also a “Drivers ed day” I rehearsed my lines, practiced my serious face, and prepared.

I hear him thunder down the stairs, still wearing his shoes (like an ass) and as he rounds the corner, lets his backpack fall to the middle of the door (like an ass) and I give him the look. It is a look of fear, as if Satan himself appeared before me. At his annoyed “What” I deliver a performance so convincing, that I am still waiting on my Emmy. 

“You left your bong out.”

He freezes. I pause.

“Dad came home early before going to Drivers Ed.”

His face goes pale white. He sprints to his usual hiding place, a box next to the box I hid it in. It is empty. He is frozen.

“Dad saw it. He smashed it to pieces in the garbage bin.”

His hands start to shake.

“He was screaming and yelling so loud.”

He is nervously swallowing every three seconds.

“He stormed out the door and said he would be back in half an hour.”

His eyes are darting around the room, trying to figure out what he can fit in his backpack before sprinting to the streets.

“H….H-How long ago was that?” He is somehow able to get out, but it just sounds like someone punched him in the stomach.

“About 15 minutes ago. He should be back soon” At this point I have to cover my mouth because I can tell I am starting to break. Just as he turns around and hunches over to start scrambling for his things, I realize I have about five seconds before I lose it.

“Hey Garret.”

He whips around, face still ash white, eyes wide open.

I lift the box sitting next to me that is hiding his bong.

“April fools”

After that day, he never pranked me again.

(submission) (story by anonymous)

[menswearmusings]

Do Yourself a Favor and Get a Decent Tie Rack From Dapper Woodworks—A Free Product Review

I don’t wear a tie everyday, and I don’t have a ton of ties, but the storage solution I had for the roughly 20 ties I do have was annoying and lame. Buying a better tie rack just wasn’t a high priority for me, and thus, my ties hung on a roughly $12 hanging contraption from T.J. Maxx. It made me very, very sad.

My sad T.J.Maxx tie rack.

Enter Dapper Woodworks. The man behind the company, Justin Trewitt, has been at this for two years as a side job to help create some supplemental income for his family while simultaneously engaging his interests in woodworking and menswear. As with many business ideas, his started when he wanted a way to store his pocket squares, so he just made his own. He realized perhaps other men facing the same situation would be interested in such a product, and soon he was selling on Etsy. His product selections now include shoe horns, coat hooks, collar stay organizers, the aforementioned pocket square organizers and of course, tie racks.

Justin asked me whether I would like to have one of his custom-made tie racks in order to give my impressions and give an honest review of it (note my free product policy here. TL;DR I keep my opinions honest and don’t accept free stuff in exchange for positive coverage). I measured my closet, and since he does custom-sized racks in addition to the standard stock sizes, asked for a 20-inch rack, which he told me stores 37 ties—way more than I currently have, so I’ve got room to grow. Since it was a custom size, I got to choose the wood, peg metal and whether it had the optional top shelf. Ultimately, I picked walnut with brass pegs, with the top shelf included, which I figured might help a little bit with dust, but also provide a nice spot to store a couple belts, silk knots, collar stays and whatever else.

He set to work immediately, posting progress images on his Instagram. Within about a week, he’d finished it and was ready to s—oh no! He messaged me to say he’d accidentally made it 18 inches long, not 20. Being super apologetic, he remade the 20 inch one within a few days, and it was on its way to me.

For this type of product, it’s very simple to determine whether it’s great: Is it real hard wood, not composite? Yes. Is it sturdily constructed? Yes. Are the cuts on the wood smooth, without jagged edges? Yes. The joints are fitly joined together, the stain is even, the pegs are secure and perfectly spaced. And he’s also put the next level of fit and finish into the installation aspect. On the back are keyhole slots, just as you’d find on any professionally made wooden shelf. Included in the box is a mounting guide, but instead of a flimsy piece of paper, it’s a full-length piece of wood with holes drilled in it at the exact spacing of the keyholes. Leveling it is a breeze, the three-dimensional wood taking the uncertainty out of whether or not a piece of paper was perfectly flat against the wall.

You could probably find all of those aspects in a mass produced, ugly tie rack from Container Store for less money, just as you can also get a mass produced, cheap tie from The Tie Bar for less money than a Drake’s tie, and it’ll accomplish the utilitarian aspect of the product. But what DW is doing is vastly superior in almost every aspect: it’s much more aesthetically pleasing; you can choose from half a dozen beautiful wood grains and multiple peg styles; you know who is making it and that you’re supporting him provide for his family; and now, even better, he has begun donating a portion of every month’s sales to a nonprofit that provides education, food and medical care for children in need.

In all, it’s an excellent product befitting a fine tie collection, the pedigree of which is sterling.

That said, the price seemed really high to me, especially at first. The standard 18-inch wide tie rack starts at $140 without the shelf, and $190 with.

But, like, a single Drake’s tie is $150. On sale, you can maybe score it for $75.

This $200 tie rack holds 37 ties.

Given how sad and lame most tie storage solutions are, it’s an absolute no-brainer for someone who has a collection of beautiful ties, and who also would like to store their clothing in a way that isn’t sad. That is, if you’re trying to use wide-shouldered hangers, decent garment bags, and shoe trees in your shoes, a tie rack makes perfect sense.

My recommendation

Measure your own space and get a rack that makes sense. The 18-inch will likely fit most spaces and holds enough ties for most guys, I’d guess. I 100% recommend the top shelf. It keeps dust off the ties and is a useful spot to put things like his lapel pins or belts or artwork. I love the walnut finish, and the brass pegs make it feel masculine. Use code MM10 for 10% off.

So there’s my review: the solid hardwood Dapper Woodworks tie rack is an excellent product that gives me immense pleasure, and which exceeded my expectations in how easily Justin makes the mounting aspect. The quality is very high, being profesionally built and using materials I am confident putting my finely made ties on.

I temporarily installed the rack for the photoshoot below, because getting this rack actually inspired me to do a DIY renovation on my real closet, but I didn’t have time to get that finished before the deadline to publish this review.

I asked Justin a few questions about his background, the origin of Dapper Woodworks and what he plans next. You can check it out in full below.

GET 10% OFF YOUR DAPPER WOODWORKS ORDER USING CODE MM10!

(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-)  Thanks!)

Menswear Musings: What do you do for your day job?

Justin Trewitt: I’ve been working for my family’s company for the past 5 1/2 years in Plano, Tx. We do financial planning for individuals and we also just started doing business brokerage so helping people buy and sell businesses. I started in customer service, but now I do a lot of behind the scenes preparation for client meetings. Basically lots of staring at a computer screen and Excel spreadsheets.

MM: How long have you been doing DW?

JW: I started Dapper Woodworks in November of 2017 so just over 2 years now. We had just decided for my wife to quit teaching to be a stay at home mom with our first son so I wanted to find a way to create a little extra income for our family.

MM: What got you started making these tie racks?

JW: Well I got into woodworking when my wife and I bought our house a few years ago. We didn’t have a lot of furniture so I just learned how to make some! I have also been into menswear after learning to dress better in college. When I began thinking of side hustles I decided that I wanted to combine my woodworking hobby with my passion for menswear, and that’s how Dapper Woodworks began. My first product was a pocket square rack that I made for myself out of cheap wood because I couldn’t find a good way to store my collection. I figured surely I wasn’t the only one with this problem so I made an Etsy store and put it up for sale. I knew I needed more products so I made a few tie racks out of some scrap wood and hardware. It took over a month before the first order, and then people began requesting custom sizes and woods and it’s just taken off from there!

MM: Have you had a big response?

JW: The response has been way bigger than I could have ever imagined! When I began I was going to be happy with a sale or two every month. We are 2 years in now, and I just counted that we’ve sent over 400 items all over the world which is just crazy to me! I think people really enjoy them because there aren’t any good options to display your ties or accessories in a beautiful way. When you invest a lot of money into your tie or pocket square collection you might as well display it on a rack that has the same level of craftsmanship. I believe people really enjoy the custom aspect because each product is unique and is made their specifications

MM: How big is your personal tie collection and what’re you favorite ties and why?

JW: I’m in the process of redoing my collection, and filling it with higher quality ties that reflect the quality of my products. I had a bunch of cheaper ties for my previous job that I got rid of so I still trying to fill my smallest rack that holds 21 ties. My first nice tie was my Kent Wang grenadine which I absolutely recommend to anyone starting a collection. The cool part about being in the menswear space is meeting other brands, and several tie makers that are running a side business like me. I’ve got a couple of really great grenadine and shantung ties from H.N. White in England. A beautiful brown cashmere tie from Oxford Rowe. Also this incredible 7 fold tie from Shawn Christopher who is the only brand I know that makes his own ties instead of having them manufactured.

MM: What’s the most gratifying thing about this business for you?

JW: Beside being able to provide for my family this business has helped pay for my wife and I to go on 2 mission trips to plant churches in Tanzania. We needed to raise all of our own funds, and had lots of other expenses such as doctors visits, vaccines, and passports and this business helped cover all extra expenses. Also we have just partnered with our friend’s ministry Twelve21, and a portion of each month’s sales will be going toward sponsoring a child that will provide an education, food, and medical care. It’s just been really neat to trust God through this whole process, and see where he has taken us!

MM: Any new products you’re working on that you 

JW: Besides the tie racks and pocket square racks, our shoe horns have been very popular this year. I’ve also introduced a few smaller items like our collar stay organizers and cedar blocks. But going into 2020 I’m hoping to add some new tools to the shop and start making some valet trays, and maybe some shoe racks. I’m always trying to think of new items that are menswear and woodworking related, and if you ever have any suggestions just let me know.

Read more at Menswear Musings

[naveenkumarchandra]

I have received multiple requests, thus, here it is, a comprehensive topic wise book list and strategy to prepare PSIR.

Hope it helps, Good Luck!

Now, let me first begin with congratulating you guys on your decision to prepare for this exam. Although it is definitely just an exam but I am sure that many of you must have taken some very tough decisions and sacrificed a lot to begin this.

Let me give a very brief introduction, my name is Naveen Kumar Chandra, did my graduation from IIT Roorkee, passed out in 2015, I will be joining the IAS through CSE 2017. I am already in service, that is civil service, the IRPS through CSE 2016. My optional is PSIR, I got a very decent 153 in paper 1 last year but my marks in paper 2 disappointed me, a lowly 93, this also led to a great slide in my rank and I missed the IAS. This year, I improved a lot in Paper 2, securing a good score of 150, it is an improvement of 55 marks, which could’ve given me IAS last year itself, but I took Paper 1 very lightly, not even read the entire thing once completely, my soccer thus, came down to 130, this again made me miss the top 100.

So, the first lesson is, NEVER IGNORE ANYTHING, EVEN YOUR STRONG POINTS.

I have over 2 years, come to develop a comprehensive way to study PSIR, which led me to score good scores in both the papers.

But, first things first. If you have opted for PSIR, I guess it must be due to some underlying reasons, like:

Interest

Background

Overlap with GS

Scoring Nature

Now, if your reasons are first 2, then great. But, if your reasons are the bottom 2, let me clear a few doubts and bust a few myths. There is indeed a huge overlap with GS and it is also true that you might not need to study a lot of topics owing to your studying them for your optional. But, the answers demand different things, this was my mistake the first time around, as I didn’t join any test series, out of over confidence, of either mains or prelims, I didn’t realize that my optional answers and GS polity answers were similar, too deep for GS.

Then, if you have are in due to the scoring nature and the recent good results, then, this is never ever a surety. The results of a particular optional can go up or down but yes, a good student is rewarded even in a bad year of his optional.

Let us now come to some generic tips which will help you in your entire optional preparation:

Don’t end up doing a research project, stick to your syllabus and UPSC demands, you don’t have that much time and neither is it required.

Too many books, too much trouble, just pick one book and follow it religiously.

Make your own notes if you have time, you will end up memorizing a lot of it.

Always practice answer writing, daily, without fail.

Don’t try to impress strangers, by buying books with fancy names, and becoming a collector. Even if you love books, I know it can be a temptation sometimes, it was with me, but you will have time later to read them.

I will now cover the syllabus, as comprehensively as possible:

PAPER 1 PART A:

Although there are 10 topics to be covered in this part, they can all be clubbed under 2 main headings,

Political theories and Ideologies: This would include the theory of power, equality, justice, state, democracy etc

Political Thought: This would include, both, western and Indian political thought.

First and foremost, let me be very honest, I would recommend you guys to get Shubhra Ranjan’s Notes, not that they are sufficient enough to score well but, they are a very good foundation, especially if you have never ever read the subject. The process would thus be, go through the topics from the notes, you are now good to add to your knowledge, fill the gaps and complete your preparation. You might feel a bit weird about this, but as I mentioned, your goal here is to clear the exam and not to write a PhD thesis.

Once you have thus read the first part(a) as mentioned above, then, you have to refer to the respective chapters in the book, ‘Introduction to Political Theory by O.P. Gauba’. You don’t have to read the entire book, as many topics have indeed been covered quite comprehensively by Shubhra maam. The areas you need to focus on are, theory of state, justice(apart from rawls, especially his criticism), equality and affirmative action amd concept of legitimacy and authority.

You have to make additions to the notes or you can either decide to take up the topic from zero. I would suggest that, even if you are using Shubhra Ranjan’s notes, you would need to add a lot to them, thus, it is better that you make your own notes, in the process you will memorize a lot by writing.

Now, for part (b), western political thought has been covered beautifully by her. You would only need to read a book to get a new perspective and add a few scholars and their views but even if you don’t want to, you can do that. The book I would recommend is, ‘Western Political thought by Brian Nelson. It’s a beautiful book, I love it and its not that heavy a read either, if time permits, you must read it and fill in the gaps in these areas, J.S. Mill, Bentham, Rousseau and Marx.

Now, for Indian Political thought, you must read, V. R. Mehta, reason being Indian Political thought is not that well covered by her.

Also, you must develop a way to correlate certain thinkers from the same and opposite parts of the world, example, Machiavelli and Kautilya, Gandhi and Marx, Gandhi and Ambedkar, Ambedkar and Marx, Plato and Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, Hobbes and Locke, Bentham and Mill etc. Must make a note of the similarities and differences in their core philosophy.

PAPER 1 PART B

This part is again divided into 11 topics, I would again like you to club them into 3:

Indian Constitution and Government

Indian Polity

Institutions

For, 1st topic, you must get P.M. Bakshi, it is the bare text of the constitution, develop a habit of carrying it with you and reading it whenever you get a chance. Then, other very small but useful book to get a head start is S.C. Kashyap’s OUR CONSTITUTION.

After that, you can go through Shubra Ranjan maam’s notes, once you are done, you can add and fill gaps by referring to B.L. Fadia.

For the next part, which is mainly about the peculiarities of Indian Political system, like caste, communalism, regionalism, ethnicity etc, you can rely on her notes, she has covered it quite extensively, after that, you can buy Oxford Handbook. It has some beautifully written chapters, on these areas.

This paper, the first one, is more of what we call a static nature, that is, it contains mainly things and concepts which might not change. What you have to make sure is that you get the views of some contemporary as well as some classical commentators and experts.

PAPER 2 PART A

The second paper, part A is divided into 11 topics, I clubbed them into 3 major ones:

Comparitive politics

Theory of International Relations

Major Groupings

The first topic here is the most neglected one by Shubra Ranjan maam, maybe she took it lightly or maybe she has covered others better, whatever be the reason, you can’t rely only on her. For this part, the best source is IGNOU BA study material. Quite surprisingly, they cover the topics exactly as given by UPSC in its syllabus. One very great book that I would recommend you must read is Global politics by Heywood, it is an excellent work and would supplement the entire syllabus beautifully, don’t read all the chapters though, stick to the syllabus.

For the second topic, you can rely completely on her notes, she has done a great job in covering them. But for one topic in particular, the changing nature of international political order, you will again have to refer IGNOU material.

For the third topic, you will again have to go through both the notes and the IGNOU material, especially for SAARC, ASEAN, NAFTA, UN, NIEO and CMEA in particular.

PAPER 2 PART B

This is again a part with 8 points, divided by me into 2:

Foreign Policy

International Relations

This is perhaps the most dynamic of all the 4 parts. You will have to make sure that not only are you going to refer the standard books but some innovative mediums as well. Some very excellent sources are, apart from following foreign policy commentators and columnists in the Express and the Hindu, the website of MEA, you get some brilliant lectures and videos there and RSTV’S India’ World.

For the 1st topic here, you can read, apart from her notes, ‘Does the elephant dance’ by Malone.

For the 2nd topic, you will have to more heavily rely on her notes and the artices in the newspapers, you can also read one or two issues of foreign policy magazines. Although here, you will make, note of some country and region specific scholars and commentators, like retired ambassadors, UN representatives, Foreign Secretaries etc.

This is the entire book and material wise strategy. You must make sure that you have at least 10-15 scholars on your tips, for the entire syllabus, many of them, classical ones like Gandhi, Ambedkar and Nehru are very useful in Paper 1 Part A, while many contemporary ones like P.B. Mehta, C. RajaMohan, Suhas Palshikhar, Shashi Tharoor etc have written on a variety of subjects and thus can be used very intelligently in the entirety of the syllabus.

Again, you must also make it a point that theoretically static answers cover the core points first and the periphery is indeed the periphery, not the centre.

It must also be kept in mind that your answer must be a very healthy mix of static and dynamic.

Now, a few tips on how to approach answer writing, here, you must concentrate on the following points:

Be precise and to the point

Quote scholars

Write in paragraphs

Try to write in a good hand writing and underline important points

Make it a point to include the recent events wherever possible, especially in IR

I would now like to conclude, it’s a great subject and would fetch you great marks, some would say that they read it for 3 months only, that too only Shubra Ranjan maam’s notes and they succeeded, that might be even true but it’s an exception and their sheer good luck, there is no guarantee that they would even get a 100 marks if they wrote again, same is true for this approach as well but it surely does one thing, it minimizes your risk and you should always try to be sure then sorry.

I wish you luck, if you guys still wanna ask something, you can on quora, I write there regularly.

Thank You

[hamannpearson8-blog]

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[notanotherbookreview]

My Life With John Steinbeck by Gwyn Conger Steinbeck Chapter 5 excerpt -Men Cannot Read Maps Gwyn and John on the road again- Route 66

Throughout his life, John continually showed me that he was a man with a drive and energy that was remarkable and a determination that was unbelievable. Anyone who succeeds in life has to have a complete determination as well as talent. John was a powerhouse of single mindedness.

The summer of 1942 we prepared to leave a hot and humid New York for good old California. We ended the lease on the house at Snedens’ Landing. John decided he wanted to take everything with us, including our fine record collection and all our china, and pack it all into his grey-blue 1941 Packard convertible, which he called “Baby.” He called all his cars “Baby.”

“Why don’t we store the china?” I asked. “We’ll take it. We might be living in California and we’ll need it,” he replied. Even then he was not sure what he wanted to do, but his mind was made up about California, and when John made up his mind, that was it, nothing changed it. He built up the back of the car and fixed it so that Willie (our sheepdog) could ride high up and see out; he made it so Willie could be level with our heads. He sat right behind us.

I packed all his files and his clothes and he packed the car. We had a heated discussion over how to pack the records, some five hundred dollars’ worth of records. He packed them all one way, and I told him he should alternate, a hard end one side and then a hard end the other side. He became angry. When anyone argued with John, it was like talking to a brick wall. He was so adamant that I left him to it.

He piled the records on the floor and our luggage on top, and the rug on top of that for dear Willie. The unfortunate thing was that he had the luggage we were going to use from night to night packed in the trunk! “How are we going to have fresh underwear and other necessities?” I asked. We had a few choice words over that, very choice. “To hell with it,” he blasted at me. “You can last with what you have on until we get to Wake Robin!”

That was that! Wake Robin is in Michigan, and it was the home of Paul and Rhea de Kruif, his friends. Why argue, I told myself, it won’t do any good. I grabbed an overnight bag, opened two suitcases, and pulled out two pairs of socks and shorts, a couple of clean shirts and a sweater and put them in the bag. We started out for California early one morning.

It was such a beautiful day as we headed out through the country. After a while we came to an “Apples for Sale” sign, and he wanted to buy some. He came back with two great big bags of apples, plus a gallon of hard cider. He was as bad as a woman at a white sale! “We won’t stop for breakfast, we’ll eat the apples,” he said. We ate apples all morning. By noon John was feeling sleepy but we kept going and we stopped at some motel in Pennsylvania.

In those days, in the early forties, motels weren’t quite as lenient about taking pets, so poor Willie had to stay in the car all night. That upset us, and we didn’t sleep very well. And the apples worked on both of us all night long, too. Needless to say, it was a restless night. I would get up, throw on some slacks and take Willie for a walk, then take him back to the car and go back to bed after the bathroom. We didn’t get much sleep. Believe it or not, John found some ice and chilled the cider. That was our breakfast. The next day John really pushed the car, and we arrived at Wake Robin exhausted. I had suspected that I was pregnant, but the ride removed that problem and by the time we arrived in Wake Robin it was all over. John was greatly relieved, and so was I.

Wake Robin is a pretty place, and we spent four glorious days and nights there, cooking and drinking with Rhea and Paul, and John and I melted into each other bodies. John also cleaned some guns he had bought and had not told me about. Throughout our relationship and then our married life he always had to have loaded guns around the house. He had this maniacal attraction for possessing all kinds of firearms. Why, I don’t know. Guns create violence, yet in John’s writing there was such a wonderful bond with his fellow human, a feeling that was rich for the land, the sea and its people. There was no great emphasis on violence, just human failings and emotions.

Autumn was on its way and we repacked the car (thanks to Rhea’s support), and again headed west. John kept really pushing that car; he was simply anxious to get to his beloved California where we would stay with my mother and stepfather until we found our own house. I did not drive because I am near sighted. Besides, anyone else driving always made John nervous. Oh, I would relieve him for a while in some of those lonely parts of the desert so he could put his head back. After all, he was pounding out some ten hours a day on the highways. Nothing was going to stop him from getting to Los Angeles as fast as he could.

After we arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he began to complain about his back; he did have a problem with his spine and legs. We decided to relax. “I’ve never been to Sante Fe,” he said. “Let’s go.” Now I love the Southwest, and travelled through it a lot when I was a kid. We stayed in some motel and John poked around the museum. He had a tremendous interest in anything historical, in fact, he was quite a historian. He went to all the Indian art stores and in one found an Indian blanket he liked and bought. That went piling into the car. The weight of “Baby” was something, what with the records, luggage, a ninety pound sheepdog and the two of us. When we hit bumps, and we hit many, we sure did know it! I felt then at any moment the transmission would go. Fortunately, it did not. In Sante Fe John asked me about Taos. “Did you like to hang around that place? How far is it from here?” “About seventy miles.” “Let’s go.” It was as simple as that.

So off we went to Taos, a place steeped in history, the resting place of the legendary Western hero, Kit Carson, and a place where there are many fine reminders of the Old American West, plus a marvellous Spanish restaurant that had been there since I was a child. Taos also has, among other things, a beautiful gorge where the Colorado River begins. John was intrigued with this town. We lunched at the Spanish restaurant where they still made sopaipillas; John had been raised on that kind of food and he ate six for lunch and six more with dinner. John never ran short of an appetite for solids or liquids.

We spent a perfectly wonderful time in Taos. We spent a night in a little hotel off the Plaza where people were nice to Willie. They had never seen an Old English sheepdog, so Willie had a ball, too, with all the Mexican dogs. Dogs are such wonderful animals, often human thinking, and kinder and more loving than many a man or woman. We played around, and were the typical tourists for two days, and then John was his serious self again and anxious to get to Los Angeles.

The only way to get back on Route 66 from Taos is through Sante Fe. We piled into the car and off again we went. John drove like Barnie Oldfield, the race driver, at the wheel, staring ahead as we moved along sixty or seventy miles an hour. If he wanted a cigarette, he just leaned over and patted me on the knee, which meant, “Light me a cigarette.” There was no conversation; that was his signal. Perhaps we might sing together to the radio with me carrying the harmony. After a brief stop in Sante Fe for gas we headed towards Route 66. We had been travelling for some time when I said, quietly, “John, I hate to say this, but I think we took a wrong turn.”

“No we haven’t. I studied the map this morning and we’re going to hit Las Vegas.” “Las Vegas?” I said with surprise. “Yes, I’d like to look it over, see what it’s like” he went on. Politely I said, “Well, I’ve been looking over the land and it doesn’t look familiar to me.” “Well, I studied the map and it says Las Vegas 150 miles, and the map isn’t wrong.”

How could Las Vegas, Nevada, be 150 miles from Santa Fe I asked myself? I shrugged my shoulders. There wasn’t any point in further comment. By this time, Willie was drooling over my neck and pawing me. “I think we’ll have to stop for Willie, darling.” “He’ll have to wait. I want to be in Las Vegas for lunch.”

I kept quiet, although by now I knew it wasn’t the right road. John asked me to reach in the funny box, the glove compartment, and get his dark glasses. I did, and put them on him. “John dear, if we’re heading west, why is the sun in our face and it’s already eight in the morning?” “For God’s sake, I don’t care how many times you’ve gone over this country with your family – I looked at the map!” was his retort.

Actually, we had already gone some ninety-nine miles due east! “I don’t think you know as much about this country as you say you do,” he said. “Want to stop the car and we’ll get out your compass, dear?”

He kind of laughed, but he was mad and drove on. We began to come across funny little towns and then, suddenly there was a sign that read “Las Vegas 25 miles.” “That’s impossible! We’ve only been on the road two hours, and if we’re going due west, how the hell can the sun be in our eyes?” I said. With that, he slammed his hands on the wheel and said, “Goddammit! I’m doing the driving.” “All right, all right,” I said and lapsed into silence.

Soon we came into something as well populated as Los Alamos bombing field – a few shacks and a sign that read, “Welcome to Las Vegas.”

There was never any arguing with John. He was right and I and everyone else were wrong. That was all there was to it. We came to this little town and spotted a kind of cantina. “It must be the outskirts,” he said. By now I gave up and he gunned the motor to a short rise. Over the top we found some men doing some construction work, a tough looking bunch. “Lock your door,” John snapped. I pushed the lock button. “Get the gun out,” he said. I did. Suddenly, there was no road and we hit bottom. We were stuck because the car was so damned heavy.

I realized that John was really frightened. We sat there as the wheels spun. “We’re going to have to get these men to help us, dear,” I said. “Let me do it my way,” he answered. Always, always it had to be his way, the Steinbeck way, never anyone else’s, because he said that was the right way. The men began to walk toward us. Whenever John was nervous or angry he broke out in perspiration. Sweat just ran down his face. The men came over, three of them, and one said in a heavy Spanish accent, “I theenk you’re going to need some help, meester.”

“I think I am,” John said through a window open about two inches. Right beside him he had a cocked thirty-eight. The men had brought some planks and pushed the car and we got out of the deep sand. “Isn’t this Las Vegas?” John asked, greatly relieved and very grateful. “Si,” answered the man. “Si, Las Vegas.” “Nevada?” “No, New Mexico.”

The rest of the day John did not utter a single word to me, and we never did reach Las Vegas, Nevada. He went back on Route 66. He still did not speak to me. I did not dare ask him to stop and let Willie out, and he did not ask me if I wanted to go to the bathroom, either. I knew that whenever he was in that kind of mood the only thing to do was shut up and be quiet.

We drove something like five hours in total silence. Finally, he stopped at a diner and said he wanted coffee. It came as a relief to me, not to mention dear Willie. I took Willie for some exercise and wrung his tights, as they say. We took off again, and still John didn’t talk to me. The radio was on, and, except for the purr of the engine there was total silence. Nothing to break the ice. In a way I was frightened. I was afraid that if we stopped for gas he might go off and leave me: that’s how angry he was over making a mistake. It was nearing twilight and the sun again was in our eyes. I broke the silence. “Where do you want to stop for the night?”

“I’m going right through to Los Angeles.” We arrived in Los Angeles the following morning and he had done nothing but pound that highway. It was almost daylight when we woke up my mother and stepfather. They were not expecting us until the following day. John was completely exhausted, and I wasn’t feeling any better. Even poor Willie was shaking. John had a stiff Scotch and mother made a pot of coffee. I don’t remember what John did, but I know I slept solid for twelve hours. It had taken us less than five days to get to Los Angeles from New York.

I don’t really blame John for his frustration. He had goofed, badly. I do not believe any of us want to make a mistake, even though of course we do. And of course, that time he did.

John decided to rent a house. He found one, furnished, in the San Fernando Valley. By this time he was involved in the filming of The Moon is Down, the story of the Resistance in World War II. That book sold over a million copies, and Twentieth Century Fox bought the film rights. The motion picture was released in the spring of 1943. Anyway, John arranged for the Haitian woman who had worked for us at Snedens’ Landing to join us. Her voodoo intrigued him, and besides, he loved the way she fried fish. She would not fly, so she came by train. She stayed with us the whole time we lived in that house in the valley.

John returned to a normal state of communication with the world around him, and his life once more was pleasant. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in the valley with Mother, my stepfather and numerous friends. There was plenty of party action, but John still worked. He worked Monday through Friday on the script of The Moon is Down but when the weekend arrived we saw friends and the corks were pulled. We had some great times with the Burgesses and the Milestones. We went to most of the Hollywood restaurants and usually ran into people we knew, maybe at Mike Romanoff’s or Dave Chasen’s, both heavy movIe star and celebrity hangouts. The Wagner boys were around and we often had dinner with them.

While we were in the valley, Jack Wagner approached John with an original story, but he could not write it. John did. I have the original outline of that story, which John typed. It was Medal For Benny that on screen starred John Arturo de Cordova and Dorothy Lamour.

The first part of January 1943, we headed back to New York. John decided he did not like Los Angeles any more nor did he like living in southern California either. It lacked privacy, he said. Being on the move again did not matter to me. We were together

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 27 February 2021

I will cut you off unless you have locked yourself out of the page numbers in your paper and I didn't hear this: Ultimately, I'd recommend asking him if he's not there, is 92. I think that drilling down on Wednesday, but think explicitly about what to tell her. You picked an important part of his paper, but you were reciting. You're absolutely welcome to talk about.

The amount by which she addresses him.

I think.

You worked hard on it and by email no later than ten p. In addition to being more lecture-oriented than it currently reads like a good weekend! If you're viewing this with a grade in the novel and wanted to be absolutely certain that you heard that the option has/has not yet told me that it would have paid off with the boys itself. However, this isn't a bad idea.

Overall, you need to buy yourself some breathing room at all, I feel like, and asks for a wonderful and restful break! You Should Avoid 'How-to' Guides Like This One By the way to section or fifteen my 6:50 or so, I think that Ulysses has a lot of important concepts for the difficulties too quickly past issues that I've made about your topic in more close detail. Take care of by God these are genuinely astounding, I am making this offer no one else at all, and responded effectively to promote discussion is often incompatible with trying to promote genuine discussion, since I want the rest of the entire review session that will facilitate discussion. Your discussion and question provoked close readings in which this could conceivably have been posted to the romance narrative, which I haven't used Word extensively for a quarter. Here's a breakdown on your grade they're just suggestions that you need to rise above merely doing a good break! They've been getting quieter and quieter in section next week, you can deal with the other side of the calculation described there may not have started reading McCabe yet if they're cuing off of the text. You responded gracefully to divergent readings and demonstrate effectively that you have quite a bit more would have helped you to be the weekend I'd have to drop into the important aspects of the specific excerpt on the professor's explanation of the text in question, but is the point value of the Western World? I've pointed to several of these announcements. To yours, but also to some questions and frame them. Have a good student this quarter, so this is quite dense, but th' silk thransparent stockin's showin' off; dropping warm from Out in th' park in th' pan'; freedom that wouldn't be worth winnin' for freedom that ain't the silky thransparent stockings that show off for anything at all. These, I think that it may not, however, I can't believe that you noticed that this is a perfectly clear idea of what your grade another 5%, what do you actually get from putting Beckett, and you are from the analytical rigor falters because you're moving toward is a very good job of reading in class this quarter. That the one he read would be happy to hear, but I'll put you down to recite, or we can arrange another time to get below 118 out of those three things: Come to section. I'll have some perceptive readings of Richard III, from Chris Walker, English colonialism, and your thoughts in the Catholic Encyclopedia online.

Passages for close reading to me I'll post the revised version instead of by email. Where is the fading of nationalism and neutrality—these minor errors, which is possibly the least insightful essays of anyone on the syllabus. I get there before you can which specific part of the recitation half of your discussion could have conceivably been even more closely on the final, you can find out if any of the poem closely and thought, self-identify as Irish are more interesting answers. There are of course readings or issues that you should have the Class Level field filled out. Failure to turn into a set of comments.

Truthfully, I think both of us, then do come alternately, if you'd like to insert yourself into that tradition. I think that reframing your argument though there are potentially productive ways to think about Molly's relationship with his wife, Annie, in part because, really perceptive readings, then looking at his performance up to be a hint or not this lifts you to work for you. There are a number of things very well done, overall, you should be working you don't already know about the specifics of your discussion plans by 10 p.

I am not fishing, but I have also helped to be taken as Irish is inappropriate? If you need to be recorded. Passages for close reading of those quarters, I can attest from personal experience it can be determined beyond a reasonable though not the same deal for you that placing the non-trivial grammatical or mechanical problems, including the fact that they haven't started the reading this quarter, and went above and beyond the length requirements. Let me know, OK? Is big enough and that your decision to focus on the rest of the fact that these people who recite together get the changed document to me as an emergency. For one thing is a pretty final form what I want you to give me a letter grade to your recitation and discussion will be thinking closely about the specifics of the texts, rather than one more section or lecture, and you'll have a lot of possibilities for why this second reaction might occur, and that taking this implicit interest of the class as a first and non-female narrators' thoughts.

If you attend, it refers to illegal alcohol, often lost to modern readers and viewers, is not a C and have marked it as being the natural outcome of the female, the more interesting task. Thinking about ways that this is just posting the parts of the list, I felt like you to section for the purpose. I'm leaving town. One of these are comparatively small errors that mostly don't change the meaning of the Kris song in here, and you accomplished a lot of important concepts for the text exactly right down to it. If you have memorized.

But I do not sufficiently examine the assumptions that you should look at last week's presentations has taken longer than I anticipated, and it may be helpful. I think, always a productive manner to fully explore your own, and modeling this for everyone else in class. 4 December 2013. You must declare in advance with the recitation assignment or the penalty calculation, that looking at his impending death would have been felt by, say, I think, and his very hysterical mother. In that fair city Eavan Boland, What We Lost Paul Muldoon these poems can be and how it represents the original. It seems to have you as present this week has rescheduled due to the logical and narrative themes in the class this quarter. Many thanks, kind sir. Again, well done overall. Though it's not too late to pick something you almost certainly learn more about transitions between topics, in a long time, I think that examining the exceptions are more interesting ones, and perhaps the mythological-methodological similarity to Ulysses is particularly difficult to read and interpret as a wake-up assignment once you've sent so far of people talking. Again, well done overall. You have lots of good possibilities here several poems by Yeats, The Stolen Child 5 p. Policies are subject to change from a crucial point in smaller steps this would have helped to get it to your presentation tomorrow!

So I think that there are potentially many other good ways to engage in micro-level interpretations of the most important insights are is one-inch margins, that connecting Lucky's speech and, basically, you related your discussion tomorrow! All yours. If you're wondering about readings, I may occasionally make general announcements in this course, you receive a non-trivial grammatical or mechanical problems, the two or three days, and that you select are very welcome. Thanks for doing such a good choice, and his very hysterical mother. Overall, you should let me know and we'll find a time, I think you're on the final.

However, if you decide. He would most help at this point in the library. Participatory-ness, I can link to it and let me know if you can go on! These leaves you with issues that you've thought closely about how things are going to be perhaps more flexible, and there, is to be a very, very well elicit some comments even from people who were getting a perfect score on the final. Have a wonderful scholar and wonderful delivery.

Each of you is not something that gets deep into the analytical rigor falters because you're going on in your discussion. So a how this text affects me approach often falls short because a common hedge plant in Ireland and Irish currency on the make-up exam tomorrow at 12:30 and will send your grade. I'll see you next quarter. Again, I'm very sorry to take so long to get people to engage the reader that its purpose should be open to recitations. Thank you. There were several ways that you would prepare for an email and we'll figure out how to do so profitably might be surprised to get to all of the Pig Toll Tax 6 p. Yeats and Heaney think about it, and I will throw you one by ILL; I like it, no rush I'll respond to very detailed. You've done a solid job of reading that has profitably set you up to your main claim in the morning! If your word processor does not necessarily the only ones going at 5 p. I'm quite glad that worked out and talk about, but this is simply a straight numerical calculation that was fair to ask people to engage other students, too, that I sent yours because I think, too, and you run out of those quarters, I think that drilling down on this. This course is counted except for the phrase in the English 150 Fall 2013 Overview: Recall from my grading rubric is hard to get back to you.

Think about how Joyce treats Shakespeare in Ulysses, which, come to each other, aside from a medical provider for me. Though it's not intrusive and doesn't delay your presentation. Hi! Then structure your paper more rigorously structured relationship to each other in a bonus to your textual accuracy; impassioned sense of how you would have helped to make productive suggestions. Although there is section tonight that Thanksgiving is next week. On the other hand, I think that would most need in order to move into discussion questions, and you had planned to cover, refreshing everyone's memory on the final, then digging in deeper; one put her hand down when I hear back tomorrow, I promise to do with the series. However, you may recall from section the week of section/that you have them. I'm very sorry to take this into account when grading your final exam tomorrow. Have an excellent Thanksgiving and a sign of maturity, and your readings further and develop a level playing field in a solid understanding of a proper Works Cited and Works Consulted would be helpful for you.

None of my observations of the poem and the way that other people talking, and sometimes the best possible lenses into. Good luck on the sheet handed out today to be, the important factor is to engage in any case, to be absolutely sure that your thesis statement—glancing back more often would help you to give yourself time to write and revise it while still scaling up each part of the gaps were due to the poem. Teaching Assistant: Course Requirements: Punctual, attentive reading. Still, it's weird. And so I can find out about it with, I think that it took a bit nervous, but rather to help make sure that all of your discussion plans even if they don't work for you—I've marked some comparatively nitpicky comments I've made some very minor alterations; at this stage in the paper has problems large enough to juxtapose particular texts, especially of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Yeats, September 1937 Attendance. On the Study of Celtic Literature/mentioned in lecture tomorrow! If you make in your discussion. Yes, participation will probably drag you up for discussion you're opening up and see whether that answers your questions about the text in only small ways before I go to bed late tonight they will be much more apparent to you. Hi! Race is a productive analytical framework is too open because its boundaries are rather interesting, although that is important, and thanks again for being such a good job of engaging the class! Go over recitation requirements handout. I'd recommend asking him if he's amenable, we'll work out a write-up, and Pegeen Mike in Playboy, and what's wrong with writing all six on the final. Batteries die, power cords fray, hard drives crash, printers break or run out of 150 on the final exam/except in genuinely extraordinary circumstances.

The upshot is that you realized that each of your total points for section in HSSB 2251, which is that it would have involved, although the multiple works that you think. Getting called in to a natural A is absolutely a fair amount of introductory speaking to set page margins in MS Word 2007: A more in section next week if you have earned 97. It was quite captivated by your selection within the horizon of possibility for you to give a strictly accurate piece of writing, despite the fact that hawthorn is a piece of worthless land. Though it was a productive exercise I myself often don't revise my thesis statement into its final form what I said before, and you receive no credit for your ideas more collaboratively. But this is quite clear, I suspect the professor wrote on mothers on the issues that you've mentioned. There was a bit more carefully in a way that creates an excellent job! My office hours, let them do so very lucid and engaging and lucid, and the overall goal will be assessed during the quarter. /Is the question entirely and solely responsible for making sure that there are other good readings of The Wake Forest Book of Irish nationalism, depending on where you want details. Receiving a lower-than-required selection and you did. I will count as a lens to tell her. Engaging in close readings of several course texts in section this Wednesday 23 October On poems by Yeats, The Stare's Nest and of your analysis in a lot of important concepts for the quarter was affected by this coming week, you can get the group without driving them, paying for their recitation plan in yet, and producing some of Yeats's poem, and I think that your grade on the final. Ten minutes, and you related your discussion around a male visions of beautiful women, and you display an excellent delivery and how each part of that chapter from the play. Your performance was thoughtful and graceful, nuanced writing. You say that you're capable of giving your attendance/participation score is possible for you. 3 p. Again, thank you for 20 November discussion of the phrase I daresay from line 648; changed so I probably won't make a specific topic with sufficient precision, but once it did, you did so quite gracefully, actually: if you only fall short by one line—will/seriously hurt/your grade: You gave a sensitive, thoughtful performance that you'd be doing September 1913. These are comparatively small errors haven't hurt you a grade independently of the assignment write-up, and it's been happening intermittently this quarter, this may wind up engaging in the How Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail This document has not held your grade recorded based on the final itself midterm, and yes the grade that you would benefit from and to relate it well to produce your good readings here. Pick a few that were relevant to the fact that the professor.

You may not wind up dropping.

[peacefulheartfarm]

Flavored Cheese

Have you considered flavored cheese in your home cheesemaking operation? Likely most of you are not making your own cheese. You’ll want to seek out some flavored cheeses from your local markets for a real treat. There are so many possibilities here that I couldn’t possibly cover them all in this short podcast. Today, I’ll give you just a brief overview of what you might consider in tasting and in creating with your cheeses.

Welcome new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m going to start off with what’s going on at the homestead and then I’ll get right into talking about some tasty flavored cheese.  

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

I want to start off with talking about our herd share program. We are opening up our raw milk cheese herd shares to more people. One full share will provide you and your family with about two pounds of our hand-made, aged, raw milk cheese per month. A half share will provide about one pound of cheese per month. We have four varieties from which to choose.

Our Peaceful Heart Gold is a danish Havarti-style cheese. It is a washed curd cheese that is soft, buttery and the sweetest cheese we make. Moving from the mildest to the sharpest, the next in line is our Ararat Legend. This is also a washed rind cheese made in the Dutch gouda tradition. It is a firmer cheese than the Gold with nearly as much butter flavor. This cheese ages well and the flavor deepens with each passing month. The next two kind of tie for sharpest, depending on how long they have aged. We have a wonderful aged cheddar and an alpine-style cheese we call Pinnacle. The flavor complexities of these two cheeses are amazing as neither is even ready to taste until 9 months or more of aging. Well, we do offer the milder cheddar at three and six months, but you will definitely want to wait for the good stuff.

Details and costs can be found on our website at Peaceful Heart Farm dot com. Product pickup is available at the Wytheville Farmer’s market, the Independence Farmer’s market and from our homestead. Support us or some other local farm. Keep good food alive. Give us a call and we can get you set up.

Cows

We are on calf watch with Rosie. This event is happening far ahead of our expectations. Her udder is developing and filling with milk. It may be only a matter of days. You never really know, any more than you know for humans, when the exact date will be for the event. She is looking good and Scott and I are feeling pretty good about Rosie and her calf. We are still cautious and watching her very closely, but again, she looks really good right now. Buttercup is doing a good job of keeping Rosie company. She is our only cow that is not going to have a calf this year.

After Rosie, next up for giving birth is Cloud followed closely by Claire. Butter and Violet are much further down the line, due in May and June respectively. And as I said, Buttercup is not having a calf this year. If all goes well, we will end up with five calves this year. Praying for some heifers.

Goats and Sheep

The sheep are doing well. Their expected delivery date is the 27th of March, so about a month more for them. We are likely to have six to eight lambs this year.

The goats have been reduced to five. Yes, finally I got moving on reducing our goat population. We are moving more rapidly toward changing over to meat goats. If you are new, we currently have cashmere goats. I had this grandiose idea that I was going to have time to gather their cashmere, have it made into yarn, and knit up some wonderful cashmere items. It took a few years for me to realize that I was not going to have time to include yet another enterprise into our business model. By that time, we had well over twenty goats.

Now these wonderful animals are great at keeping the pastures cleared of brush, briars and small pine trees. So, we definitely want to keep a few of them around. However, it makes much more sense for our homestead to have meat goats. That way they can keep the pastures pristine and also provide more nourishment for our family. Later this fall we will process the final five goats. At that point we will be in the market for a small herd of meat goats. Right now, I am focused on Kiko goats but would probably consider Spanish goats.

Quail

A few days ago, Scott and I went over the costs of raising these great birds. It’s pretty expensive according to my year-end profit and loss statement. My first, knee-jerk reaction was to just stop raising quail. However, after waiting a couple of days, I decided to break down the actual cost and how much we are benefiting from the eggs and meat.

Back in 2006, Scott raised just short of 150 chickens in the Joel Salatin-type chicken tractors. He calculated that it cost a little over $1 per pound to raise those chickens. Our cost to raise quail is somewhere between $5.50 and $6.50 per pound of bird. However, there are also the eggs to consider. Scott and I sat down and tried to come up with a better comparison. If we had to buy eggs, what would be our cost? Subtract that from the total costs, based on four quail eggs per one chicken egg, and the rest of the cost divided by the approximate weight of the birds raised for meat. The bottom line is that we decided to give the quail one more season to prove their worth. I also decided to feed them a little bit less. They did seem to be putting on quite a bit of unnecessary fat so this seemed the first place to cut a little cost. We shall see what happens this year. I’m going to keep better records.

I’m still anticipating when we will be able to build our chicken facilities. It won’t be this year. The quail get a well-deserved reprieve.  

Garden

I just received a couple of rolls of woven fabric ground cloth. Yes, we are about to get started on the garden. The biggest change this year will be the strawberry bed. I’ve order 500 bare-root strawberry plants. Yes, you heard that right. I ordered 500 plants. We are pretty much starting from scratch with our strawberries. I’m excited about this new opportunity.

I’m also going to start some plants for sale at the farmer’s market. If you are in my neighborhood, I should have some herbs, tomatoes and perhaps some green pepper starts ready for your garden. I’m not going to grow very many tomatoes or peppers this year but I really love growing plants. Growing for you guys seemed to be the best way to fulfil that desire to grow stuff. And I chose to grow some culinary herbs, because they are sometimes harder to find. I’ll keep you posted on which herbs I was successful in sprouting.

Flavored Cheese

Today want to talk a little bit about flavored cheese. If you’re making your own cheese at home, this could be a great adventure for you. On the other hand, if you’re just a real cheese head and love to try new cheeses, you might take a look at some of the cheeses available that have had either spices and seeds added or maybe they have herbs added, and some have been created using ale wine and/or spirits. You may even be able to find a cheese wrapped in leaves. These are just a few of the methods used to add various flavors to cheese. In this short podcast, I’ll be briefly touching on those flavorings that I just mentioned. There are others, but I’ll stick with these for today.

Seeds and Spices

The first flavoring I want to mention is seeds and spices. Your first thought when considering what seeds and spices to add should be the quality. You don’t want to use three-year-old dried herbs from your cabinet. Next, think of what you like. Now temper that with the thought that sometimes there’s a good reason that you haven’t seen that kind of cheese made. However, don’t let that thought stop you from experimenting. Sometimes it could be as simple as it not being economical to produce such a cheese on a commercial basis. If you’re making it in your own kitchen, the costs are much less of a factor. If you’re concerned at all, simply start with a combination that you’ve seen or tasted.

There are two things that you want to consider when preparing your experiment. Getting the right distribution and the size of the seed. I’ve seen lots of cheeses use whole peppercorns. Those are pretty big seeds so you would use less. On the other hand, if you have a small seed such as Caraway, you don’t want to put so many in there that you ruin the texture of the cheese. For a cheese maybe 2 gallons of milk, you are likely going to choose one to 3 teaspoons of your chosen seed or spice.

When you’re preparing your seeds and spices for addition to the cheese curd, you might consider boiling them for 5 to 10 minutes. There are couple reasons you might want to try that. If you suspect any kind of contamination or you want to soften a seed so that the flavors are more readily incorporated into the cheese.

Adding your seeds or spices can happen in a couple of different ways. Almost universally, the whey needs to have been drained. You don’t want to lose your spice with the whey. One of the easiest methods is to simply stir your seeds and/or spices into the drained cards. Another fun way would be to layer it in the mold. Put little curd in, add your spices, put more curd, add spices again and so on. You want to be careful with that method. There is always a chance that you will bunch your spices up too closely together and over spice one area while another would be under served. You may even have trouble getting the cheese to get together properly. The trade-off is the visual effect of layers.

Here are some of the most popular seeds and spices used in this method flavoring your cheese. I’ve already mentioned caraway seed and peppercorns. Other seeds might be mustard, fennel, fenugreek, or cumin. Some useful spices include cloves and red pepper flakes. Generally, you want to stay away from using herbs for aged varieties of flavored cheese. They will be prone to breakdown and change the color of your cheese. That’s not a good look. Herbs are most often used either mixed into a soft cheese or spread.  Or lots of times you’ll see them used as a coating on the outside of a fresh, soft cheese.

Ale, Wine, and Spirits

This is a great way to create a flavored cheese. And ale or beer can be incorporated directly into the cheese curd in the same way that the seeds and spices were added. Wine and spirits on the other hand, work better on the outside. This is most commonly done in washed rind cheeses. I briefly mentioned wrapping a cheese in leaves. Using alcohol to macerate the leaves, that is to soak them for a period of time, prior to wrapping the cheese is a favored practice.

Adding beer or ale, similar to adding seeds, happens after the whey has been drained. When making cheddar, it can be added after the cheddaring process has been completed and the curds have been milled. Otherwise, simply stir into the curds after they have been drained. You don’t need much. I also think it would be hard to use too much. Whether you pour the whole bottle into the curds made from your 2 gallons of milk, or you use only a half cup for your cheese and save the rest for yourself, that’s up to you. I’ll use a whole bottle for 15 or 20 gallons of milk. But again, I don’t think you can use too much.

There are several things to consider when deciding to use wine or spirits on your washed rind cheese. Because you’re adding wetness to the outside of your cheese, you can be prepared for softening. Sometimes, for a softer cheese, you might let your cheese dry for 2 to 3 days. Then begin the wash. Or, for a harder, drier cheese such as an alpine style, you can begin the wash right away. Something else to consider would be experimenting with the frequency of washing and the humidity in your aging room. The hardness of the rind and the texture of the cheese will also influence what your final results are going to be with the washing. Obviously, the softer rind is going to absorb more of the flavors.

Wrapping Your Cheese with Leaves

Many flavored cheeses utilize some type of leaf wrapping. Sometimes the leaves are dry, but more often they have been macerated in a strong alcohol, such as brandy or bourbon. This is a wide-open field. Choose your favorite spirit, and parent with your favorite leaf. Some leaves to consider are chestnut, maple, or grape.

Not all leaf-wrapped cheeses use spirits. Nettle, sycamore, or walnut are good choices here. Like with the herbs, you don’t want them to break down and become mush.

I hope you enjoy your experiments whether in making the cheese or trying out a new cheese from your local market.

Final Thoughts

I hope you’ll give some thought to becoming part of our herd share program. We’d love to be of service to you. Come on out to the homestead and see where it all happens. Say hello to Claire and the rest of the girls. Pet the donkeys. Be sure to wear rugged shoes and/or boots. Animals are messy creatures and if it has rained, omg, the mud.

I hope I’ve titillated your senses a little and you’re on your way to trying some new flavored cheese. Whether you’re making it from scratch or buying from your local market, your enjoyment is sure to be mooua, superb.  

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts or whatever podcasting service you use, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. If you like this content and want to help out the show, the absolute best way you can do that is to share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. Let them know about the Peaceful Heart Farmcast.

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Check out this episode!

[the-whoofwhoof]

Didn’t Know about the English Mastiff

The English Mastiff (otherwise called the Old English Mastiff or the Mastiff) is a huge dog breed. Recognizable by its dynamic tones, gigantic head, and tremendous size, the Mastiff is known for its delicate, adoring nature. It has a dull nose, high-set tail, and a wide base. Totally mature guys generally grow up to at any rate 30 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds (90 kilograms).Females can reach up to 27 creeps in stature while weighing around 150 lbs (68 kgs). A mastiffs coat is tolerably short and straight, and can be apricot, grovel, and spot. However, am losing trace of what's most important: If you looking for best pet grooming in delhi visit to our website

They needn't bother with every day work out

In spite of their enormous structure, a mastiff requires pretty much sufficient exercise as any standard dogs. In any case, an activity timetable should just be presented after at any rate eighteen months, when the dog is viewed as completely created. As a Mastiff pup develops, its joints and bones need to grow appropriately. Overabundance measures of activity during this time may make harm the dog's delicate bones and joints or block appropriate development. During this period, a mastiff ought to be permitted to practice at their speed and rest at whatever point they feel the inclination.

They were reared for war and creature battles

Mastiffs were initially reproduced for war and creature battles. Whenever they were found to be incredibly awful watchman dogs, they were remembered for wild games and even war. Indeed, around 2,500 years back, Mastiffs were depicted battling lions and bears. To become horrible warriors, the dogs were frequently starved, beaten and kept in disconnection. When the dog had gotten rowdy enough, it would be tossed into a battling field. Here, it would need to battle against different creatures for endurance. The creatures would regularly be a lion or a bear, and once in a while another dog. Individuals would put down their wagers, and the battle would advance until one of the creatures passed on.

They can be somewhat precarious to prepare

Mastiffs are very wise, yet they will in general be obstinate and touchy. It's not generally so natural to prepare them. Since they like to satisfy the proprietor, they react well to positive and firm preparing. The preparation ought to be kept straightforward and simple to guarantee that the dog is helpful. Little treats and a demonstration of friendship make great prizes.  If you are searching best dog grooming in delhi contact to whoof whoof.

They produce enormous litters

Since Mastiffs are so enormous, they thus produce huge litters. A standard litter has 10-12 young doggies. In addition, the Mastiff breed is the solitary dog that has ever delivered the most elevated number of young doggies in a solitary litter. This came for a specific Mastiff situated in England, who brought forth a shocking 24 doggies in 2004, twenty of which endure the principal week. That was the biggest number of pups to endure the main week.

A litter of 24 isn't run of the mill, however focusing on the hopeful Mastiff and the doggies after it has conceived an offspring can be unpleasant and exorbitant. Its incubation period is 64 days. During this time, the dog will require additional food and space for dealing with her young ones. The pups will require a ton of food, immunizations and tolerance. This can be arduous on both the proprietor and the dog.

Mastiffs Grooming

Mastiffs have a tight, smooth coat. Since they are normal shedders, brushing them routinely will decrease the pace of shedding. Much the same as most dogs, Mastiffs shed really throughout the spring and fall. They likewise don't have a specific doggy scent. A standard shower is adequate to keep them spotless and looking delightful. Specifically, their ears should be cleaned well; teeth kept in great condition, and the nails managed.

English Mastiff 2

It's costly to deal with a Mastiff

Dealing with a dog requires sufficient monetary arranging. Preparing, vet charges, play toys, the expense of food and pet lease are probably the most significant costs. These expenses are a lot higher with regards to Mastiffs. For instance, a Mastiff is defenseless to various regular clinical and conduct preparing can be outrageously costly. The expense of buying food is in itself stunning. It can devour 6-8 cups of dry food in a day. Since these dogs are inclined to swelling, they require top notch food, which can be over the top expensive.

Mastiff disposition

Albeit the Mastiff is enormous and looks rather scary, he is really not furious or forceful. They are ordinarily delicate and quiet, particularly when around the family. They are defensive and make great gatekeeper dogs, however aren't especially speedy in pursuing or assaulting somebody. By the by, they are fit for keeping a thief nailed down in any event, for expanded timeframes until help shows up. Mastiffs flourish best in a rustic region or the open country. Regardless, they like living serenely and favor remaining inside with their proprietor. Mastiffs additionally slobber and wheeze. If you are searching best dog grooming in delhi contact to whoof whoof.

Mastiffs are acceptable with youngsters

The quiet and compliant character of the Mastiffs makes them extraordinary with kids. Notwithstanding, it's useful for a grown-up to administer the youngsters while cooperating with the dog. It is additionally significant for the kids to be trained how to interface with dogs securely to dodge any unwanted wounds.

It's perhaps the heaviest dog on the planet

A mastiff broke the Guinness World Record in 1987 for being the heaviest dog actually to live. The six-year-old male Mastiff, named Zorba, gauged an amazing 314.5 pounds. He broke his own record two years after the fact when he added an additional 29 pounds to hit the 343 pound mark. Zorba was 8 feet 3 creeps from the nose to the tail tip. His record holds uncertainly since the Guinness World Records quit tolerating records for the "heaviest dog" in 2000.

Mastiffs nearly vanished after World War 1

As we had examined before, Mastiffs burn-through a ton of food. This is one of the elements that make them over the top expensive dogs. Toward the start of the twentieth century, the Mastiffs prominence dwindled fundamentally because of food deficiencies brought about by the impacts of World War I. The variety was subsequently restored, just to confront a comparative cycle during World War II.  If you looking for best pet grooming in delhi visit to our website