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Casio's latest addition to the Exilim lineup boasts 12.1 megapixels and an ultra-wide angle 24mm, 10X optical zoom lens. They also claim it's the thinnest and lightest camera in its class.
Other features include: a battery life of 1000 shots, a 3-inch LCD, CCD-shift image stabilization, max ISO 3200 sensitivity, dynamic photo function that coverts JPEGs into a motion movie file and 720p video recording capability at 30 fps. All in a package that measures under an inch thick. The Exilim EX-H10 will hit stores in July for $300.
World's Thinnest and Lightest*1 Camera in its Class Features Battery Life of 1,000 Shots,*2 and an Advanced Dynamic Photo Function
DOVER, NJ, June 11, 2009 – Casio America, Inc. and its parent company, Casio Computer Co., Ltd., today announced the release of another groundbreaking digital camera, the EXILIM
Hi-Zoom EX-H10. With a thin, compact body and an ultra-wide angle 24mm, 10x optical zoom lens, this new model can take up to 1,000 shots*1 on a single battery charge - making it the perfect travel companion.
At the heart of the new EX-H10 is the EXILIM Engine 4.0, which delivers higher image quality and lower power consumption in an even more compact package. The new Engine's Multi-CPU*3 is specifically designed for high-speed image processing. Reflecting Casio's quest for perfection, the new camera provides the best in basic photography functions - beautiful imaging with reduced noise and long battery life for many hours of use. A high-performance 12.1-megapixel model, it also boasts a lens with outstanding optical capabilities - from wide angle to telephoto - and it features a number of Casio's totally original photographic functions.
Ultra-wide angle 24 mm, 10X optical zoom lens
Only Casio could find a way to pack a 10X optical zoom lens, large 3.0-inch monitor and a CCD-shift image stabilization mechanism into such a slim, compact camera body, just .95" thin, convenient for travel. With ultra-wide angle starting at 24 mm (35 mm film camera equivalent) all the way up to 10x telephoto zoom, the photographer is ready for any scene - from huge buildings and other wonders at tourist destinations to distant figures in a landscape.
*1. As of June 11, 2009, based on a Casio survey of digital cameras with a 10X or greater optical zoom lenses.
*2. When photos taken in accordance with Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) standards.
*3. A package comprising a high-speed dedicated image processing CPU in addition to the usual high performance CPU.
"The development of the ultra-wide angle 24mm continues Casio's dedication to creating digital cameras that are packed with innovative features and new technology," said Toshiyuki Iguchi, Senior General Manager of Casio's Digital Imaging Division at Casio America, Inc. "This new feature gives our camera enthusiasts the opportunity to capture their extraordinary moments in a variety of shooting environments."
Advanced Dynamic Photo function
Casio's original Dynamic Photo function, which creates composite moving images using the camera's own high-speed image processing technology, now does even more. When a moving subject is cut out of a number of images and combined with a different still shot that forms the background, the size of the subject can be changed to suit the background image. Next, the Dynamic Photo video can easily be converted in-camera into a Motion JPEG movie file. Moreover, moving graphics such as hearts and bouquets of flowers are included so that users can have fun decorating their still images using the Dynamic Photo function. Casio not only allows users to have fun taking and viewing photos, but also provides innovative new ways for them to create original images, right on the camera.
1,000-shot long battery life
Casio has reduced energy consumption by improving the circuitry and operational controls and designing a higher capacity battery, enabling the user to take 1,000 shots on a single full charge. The EX-H10 provides a convenient solution for people on the go. It's possible to take 100 pictures every day of a 10 day vacation, without ever needing to recharge, eliminating the need to pack a charger. The long-life battery gives users approximately 11 consecutive hours of viewing on a single charge.
New Landscape Mode
The EX-H10 also features a new Landscape Mode for capturing beautiful scenic photography. Unlike earlier landscape photography modes, which enhance the saturation of an entire hue, users can now select between the Vivid Landscape option that uses image analysis to determine and vividly enhance only the most important colors in the landscape or the Mist Removal option that makes weather-affected misty scenes look clear and bright.
The new camera will begin shipping to retail in mid July. The EX-H10 will have an MSRP of $299.99 and will be available in black.


text: Iryna Ivanova sex tape masturbate in gym bathroom leaked online. She from Digital Curves USA. Iryna Ivanova is an Ukrainian model and Playboy Playmate. Age: 30. It was her first shoot for Playboy that really made the brunette beauty a star. Born in Russia but brought up in Ukraine, Iryna said the experience pulled her out of poverty and changed her life forever.

subset: commoncrawl


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Buildings You Need a Boat to Explore
No matter how much forethought you put into the construction of a building, there's no way to accurately predict everything that could happen to it. The building may be leveled by an earthquake, be hollowed out in a fire—or end up at the bottom of a lake.
Sometimes lakes appear after massive floods, and sometimes they are manmade by the construction of dams, creating underwater ghost towns. There isn't much that can be done with buildings left in the middle of the lake, unless you're a SCUBA diver or a boater. Then, abandoned buildings in the middle of a lake become things to explore.
The World Geography has a great piece featuring the stories of eight drowned buildings and gorgeous photos of each. Would you explore these buildings if you had the chance? I know I would.


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Reporter's Note: I write to President Obama every day. Even on terribly sad days like this one.
Dear Mr. President,
As you may well imagine, like millions of other Americans I am spending a good portion of this weekend contemplating the horrors that were visited upon that school in Connecticut. Through more than 30 years of news reporting, I have always been amazed that one person can so quickly bring such suffering and sorrow to so many families. I suppose amazed is not the right word. Appalled is better.
Yesterday, when all of our coverage quieted down for the evening, I went onto Sandy Hook Elementary's website and looked at what that school was like just a few days ago. There were pictures of kids and teachers in bright classrooms, some sort of celebration in the hallway, a concert with the gym packed full of children, and smiling participants in what looked like a science project. There were notices about special activities and holidays; inspirational notes about building character.
Simply put, it looked like the kind of place any parents would we happy for their children to attend. And now, of course, it is something quite different.
Having lived within a few miles of Columbine when those horrible shootings occurred, I know firsthand that an event like this can ripple for years. Some of the children in that school will move past these events as well as one could ever hope, but others will suffer lifetimes of fear and bad memories. Some families will rally to help each other struggle through the pain, but others may be wracked by depression, anger, and inexplicable disagreements that may drive them to split up. Some good teachers may want to be back on the job at the soonest possible date, while others may never step into a classroom again. And even some people who simply live near the event…who were not directly affected at all…may wrestle for a very long time with anxiety and grief.
There is so much sadness in an event like this; the terror and loss on the day itself, the crushing heartbreak of the immediate days that follow, and then the awful reverberations that may be with some people for the rest of their lives.
All we can do as a nation, I suppose, is offer our support, prayers, and hopes for better times. But I wish what we could do is turn back the clock just a few of days, and somehow avert this calamity that will affect so many for so very long.
Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman
The principal and psychologist were among those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Anderson Cooper pays tribute to their work.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting
Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how the kids who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting could experience PTSD.
Post by: Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Filed under: Connecticut School Shooting
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti increased the challenge of supporting people with disabilities. Not only were there more people with disabilities, many local disabled peoples organizations were severely impacted. However, the earthquake also brought increased international awareness to the many barriers to inclusion that existed prior to the earthquake.
Immediately following the earthquake, USAID funded a spinal cord injury center. Recognizing the earthquake as an opportunity to make long-term change for people with disabilities during the reconstruction process, we recently made four new awards to address four different aspects of inclusion and provision of better and more accessible care.


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Dear Homeschooling Parents and Students,
Mount Royal Academy is proud of its homeschooling origins. Our school was started by several homeschooling families who wanted to combine resources and gifts in order to provide their children with a type of education that not only informs, but forms their character, virtue, and faith. Although our mission has now been extended to include families that may not necessarily be tied directly to homeschooling, our core objective remains the same: to support parents in their role as primary educators.
We are also extremely thankful that homeschooling parents continue to transition their children into our school. Our doors are always wide open to homeschooling families, as evidenced by our conscious effort to include them in our athletics, ski programs, and school events. We also offer special attention to homeschooling students as they adjust to the academic and social changes that uniquely influence their entrance into our community, as well as their overall character formation.
We understand that a parent's choice to homeschool is driven largely by the intent to educate the whole child: mind, body, and soul. We strive to help God shape Saints, and we therefore focus all our efforts on guiding children towards the Kingdom of God.
Several staff members and current families have real experience with the practice of homeschooling. Any prospective homeschooling family should be assured of the support of our entire community. Parents, teachers, and administrators all share a real understanding of the distinctive background that homeschooling students and families bring to our school, and we willingly embrace all that they have to offer our community.
Our admissions team is acutely aware of the different experiences, methods, and forms of instruction that are unique to homeschooling. When we review a homeschooled applicant, we certainly recall the natural form of instruction and formation that takes place in all homes, where children are praised for who they are, their level of virtue, and the dignity that they share because they were created in the image and likeness of God. We will always accept a homeschooling child, no matter what material they have or have not covered, so long as we can serve the needs and cultivate the gifts of the child.
Finally, we reiterate our firm acceptance of the truth that parents are primary educators in the lives of their children. We welcome the input of all parents as we aim to develop a plan that places each student on the path towards moral, intellectual, and spiritual growth. Parents should never hesitate to make recommendations regarding their child's performance, capabilities, and goals.
Most Sincerely In Christ,
Derek Tremblay
Headmaster, Mount Royal Academy


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Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster, a 2x entrepreneur who has gone to the Dark Side of VC. He started his first company in 1999 and was headquartered in London, leaving in 2005 and selling to a publicly traded French services company. He founded his second company in Palo Alto in 2005 and sold this company to Salesforce.com, becoming VP of Product Management. He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner focusing on early-stage technology companies. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable and on Twitter at @msuster.
One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, "Do you miss being an entrepreneur? Aren't you ever tempted to go back and do it again?"
The obvious answer is yes. When it's in your blood, it's in your blood. I guess it's kind of like crack (not that I know from experience). It's addicting. I know this sounds superficial. If you've taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I'm talking about.
But I'm very happy now. I'm enjoying being a VC. I thought I'd talk a bit about the differences I've experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from "both sides of the table."
On Being an Entrepreneur
I was asked by somebody recently in a private message on Quora about whether the individual should leave his comfortable job to become an entrepreneur. You would think the obvious thing I would tell somebody is, "yes, of course it's a great idea." You'd be surprised. I often advise against it. I really have to know somebody's personal story and circumstances to know whether it is suitable for that person.
In this particular case I wasn't convinced it was a good idea from the limited information I had. The following is a short excerpt of what I said,
"… being an entrepreneur is very unsexy. Long hours. Time away from family. Low salary. High risk. High stress. It only looks sexy when you read TechCrunch. There is no shame in being an exec at a company or whatever."
And I mean this. I'm sure everybody has their own definition of the attributes of an entrepreneur. Some of the ones I would identify are:
- Not very status-oriented
- Doesn't follow rules very well and questions authority
- Can handle high degrees of ambiguity or uncertainty
- Can handle rejection, being told "no" often and yet still have the confidence in your idea
- Very decisive. A bias toward making decisions – even when only right 70% of the time – moving forward & correcting what doesn't work
- A high level of confidence in your own ideas and ability to execute
- Not highly susceptible to stress
- Have a high risk tolerance
- Not scared or ashamed of failure
- Can handle long hours, travel, lack of sleep and the trade-offs of having less time for hobbies & other stuff
The truth is that in my experience very, very few people really enjoy the "pure" startup environment: months with no salary, months with no live product and lots of trial, error & rejection. Even many successful entrepreneurs tell me that they'd prefer to do a buy-out the next time rather than go back to square one in a startup. NOT easy.
There are a larger number of people who enjoy coming on when an idea has become validated and thus "de-risked" but I still think this is a small number of people. And also there are a large number of people who would like to do startups in theory, but have high cost bases (family, real estate, school loans, whatever) that makes it very difficult to take the kinds of risks required.
And what gets lost in reading about the glamor of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Groupon and the like is that most startups fail. And for ones that do get sold often most of the employees don't really make huge upside gains. You don't read about these garden variety outcomes online – only the high profile exits or busts. Mostly you read about fundings, product releases, big valuations, and M&A. So readers of tech journals gain a bias of the chances of success.
I'm not trying to be negative. But I start most conversations with "wantrepreneurs" by saying,
"make sure it's in your personality type, make sure you have the risk appetite, make sure you can afford to take the risks given your life situations and make sure you know that there is a high possibility your startup won't be hugely financially rewarding. If you still want to go for it knowing all this and all that you'll endure – awesome! It's the best experience I've had in life. But not for the faint-hearted."
You're in for the Ride
There's nothing quite like shipping V1.0 of your product. You've come full cycle from vision, to hiring some people, raising some cash, arguing about direction, setting a release date, missing a release date, feeling like you've effed everything up, regrouping, rethinking, getting back on track and then setting your baby loose into the wild. And then. Whew. Sit back and watch usage. Get your press coverage. Either you arc up emotionally or you arc down. There's not a lot of flat line.
Snap. Great story on TechCrunch! Inbound calls from partners, people who want to join, "atta boys" from friends. You knew it all along. Your vision was right. VCs are calling wanting meetings. La vita e bella. Uh, oh. Fawk. Facebook DID NOT just announce that! Scoble is saying your best days are behind you? No, I think we can still be huge. We're just going to have to change our focus a bit. Weekends. Evenings. Regroup. Team losing a bit of confidence in you. VCs pushing out your meetings a few weeks. WTF? Just a month ago they were all emailing you!
Well, you still have 6 months runway. What if we pivot slightly? Not a total change – just a different way of making money. What if we dropped the code that would compete with Facebook and instead go after this other area? Relaunch. Oh, man. Our user numbers are up. Awesome! Loving this new direction. It's all good.
But … only 2 month's cash left. Let's just not pay ourselves for a couple of months. The junior devs need it. They're month-to-month. I think we can be like the Maccabes and stretch this cash. Do we tell our team? Can they handle knowing we only have 3, maybe 4 months cash? Or if we say that will they all be putting out the word to their friends to look for their next gig?
Great new product release. Another good article. VC meetings going well. Holy sh*t!!! We just landed the biz dev partner we've been working on for 9 months. They love us! Awesome! $2 million in VC. Life couldn't be better. All your buddies want to join. No. Google DID NOT just acquire our main biz dev partner. What? Google doesn't know if they're going to honor our contract? We now have to re-convince everybody? But we had a term sheet !!!
You can't believe it. Eight beers that night. Maybe even tequila. And the next morning – water off a duck's back. We'll find a way. Startups weren't mean to be easy. Back to work.
Anyone who has worked in a startup will know that this narrative is not exaggerated. If anything it's the tame version. Every one of these events (with names changed) has happened to companies I've worked at or closely with. Most of them in the past 12 months. I've personally experienced much worse. Imagine how Flurry felt when Steve Jobs called them out by name. They seems to have bounced back nicely.
I remember being a few months before my wedding wondering whether I would walk down the aisle unemployed. It was 2002 – the "dog days" of the Internet and we were running out of cash. I remember an employee asking me whether I'd fill out their paperwork to get a home loan when we only had 3 months of cash in the bank. What do you tell somebody in that situation? I remember having a merger called off at the last minute and having a planning meeting at a pub to figure out how to run a bankruptcy process (luckily, we never had to do it).
And I had all the VCs play head games with me. One investor played chicken with me by threatening not to approve my next-round financing unless I gave him more equity. He wasn't willing to put in more money but he had "blocking rights." I had 10 days of cash. He was going on vacation for 2 weeks and told me, "Too bad, I'll deal with this when I get back." I literally told him to fawk off and sue me. That is a true story for which I have witnesses. I hung up. He called back and said, "OK, do the deal."
Really? I had to go there? I learned this lesson long ago – many investors wait until you're staring at a cliff before committing whether to re-invest in you. It is risk minimization + maximum leverage. I swore never to do that as a VC. Many VCs don't realize just how destructive this is to team spirit and confidence. Penny wise, pound foolish.
But there is nothing that would ever replace the rush of being on the top of the startup emotional curve. Winning my first million-dollar contract. Getting on the front cover of the most prominent VC magazine in Europe (was called Tornado Insider). Acquiring a competitor with complimentary assets whom we long wanted to beat. Walking into an office at the London Underground and seeing every workstation open and using our product.
I was watching "Meet the Press" this morning and they put a big screen behind the guests with TweetDeck open and showing the constant stream of information about Egypt. That must have been a proud moment in the Betaworks offices.
And on the bottom of the emotional startup curve there is nothing crappier than having to lay off 60 employees in one day. Been there. It tests your soul to have to ask close friends to leave the business. Losing a deal that you had worked on for months after being told you won, having it snatched away from you, will ruin some nights of sleep. There are moments like being on stage when your demo crashes, reading about your competitors raising a ton of cash or having one of your top team members resign that test your will.
My SVP of Sales & Marketing quit 30 minutes before an important board meeting. Dick.
And that's what it's like – all superlatives. Your highs are super high. Crack. Your lows are unexplainably low and lonely. It's the startup roller coaster world. And I miss it.
What do VC's Experience?
There's still a cynical entrepreneur in me regarding VC. In my experience many in the industry still think about "my CEOs" or "my companies" as though they are pawns on a chessboard. I've heard many a VC comment, "Yeah, I told the company to do A,B,C and they didn't listen. The management team wasn't strong enough. That's why we didn't succeed." That's the rationalization for the failure.
And all too often I hear upon success, "Yeah, I was actively involved on that one. Our advice is what helped them target the right market, hire the right team, build the right products." And there are some delusional people who really believe it. I remember this attitude really well from working in consulting where people took too much credit for "creating new strategies" and deny any responsibilities for failed initiatives.
The reality is that the majority of successes & failures are created by and experienced by the entrepreneurs. The VC sense of accomplishment or failure is blunted by being slightly removed and by the portfolio effect. I think it looks something like the graph below.
But there are many great VCs also who see the entrepreneur as their customer as they should do and are realistic about how much of an impact we advisors and financiers really have.
We enjoy our jobs. We love working with entrepreneurs. We'd have to be big babies to complain about what we do. We're paid well to spend time with smart people who want to change the world. We control our hours, our travel and our investment areas. We get to ride your ride, too. But as above, the highs just aren't quite as high and we don't have to sweat the lows as much.
Why Many VCs Secretly Envy Entrepreneurs
When I first considered leaving Salesforce.com to become a VC I obviously called all of my VC friends and asked their opinions. It's a very tough decision to walk away from a senior role at what I consider one of the most successful tech companies of Internet era. Almost universally they said, "Are you crazy? If you're going to leave, go do another startup? Don't go into VC."
Huh? Here they were in what I thought was one of the most sought after jobs and they almost all told me not to do it. I was baffled. It was 2007. It was well past the Internet boom, well into Web 2.0, before the really profitable years of social networking and when many in the industry were despondent. Really.
What I garnered was that many VCs secretly wanted to be entrepreneurs. They were envious. Let me explain. Let's say you became a partner in a VC fund in 1995 and started investing heavily in 1997-99. You felt invincible. As John Doerr, the revered partner at Kleiner Perkins said it was, "The largest legal creation of wealth in history."
You were minted. Golden. Making bank. King makers. Internet pioneers. I remember The New York Times wrote an interesting article about it. They talked about how the dream job for Harvard MBAs used to be investment banking where you wore your Rolex watch, drank $200 bottles of wine at fancy New York restaurants and vacationed in the Hamptons.
Suddenly the VCs and Internet pioneers were buying Patek Phillipe watches, ordering $1,000 bottles of wine, getting all of the best restaurant reservations and flying private jets. At the time all investment bankers secretly wanted to be VCs and many did just that.
But the "gilded age" ended quickly. The days of quick flips, quick IPOs and astronomic returns had come to a close. If you became a principal or a new partner in 2000/01 you had a good salary but as it turns out you were very unlikely to see a large upside "carry" return for quite some time. Nobody really talks about this.
So here's the deal. There are many VCs who have been made partner since 2000 and haven't previously had an exit of their own. They've probably watched smart teams, younger than them, walk in with a paper napkin, get funding, build a modest company and sell it for $20-30 million in 3-4 years pocketing $8 million for each founder. It looks so easy. It looks so alluring. That's where the envy comes from.
But they don't have a great idea. And they have the status of being a VC. And a comfortable salary. And the chance at diversified returns. So it's hard to put your neck on the line and try. But those returns won't come for 7-10 years for many of them. Some, not ever.
That's why when I met Mark Peter Davis and heard he was giving up his VC career to run a startup I was seriously impressed. It takes cojones – hats off to him.
So while you're struggling to get access to VCs and those that meet you seem unwilling to commit – at least take comfort in knowing that many of them secretly long to sit in your chair, as much as you might find that hard to believe. I promise you. They envy your courage, freedom and upside possibilities. Not all VCs want to be entrepreneurs, of course. But I've heard it from many, many a VC that they feel the calling to try. Most won't.
Me? I'm committed to where I am. I have 3 partners with whom I work really well and whom I respect. We have a broader team that have become our close colleagues & friends. I'm enjoying the diversity of working with 6-7 portfolio teams on a regular basis on strategic issues. I'm enjoying watching them grow from nothing to meaningful businesses. Would I take another hit off the startup pipe? No time soon. But I'd never say "never." It's such a rush.
Just please make sure to enjoy the ride (up and down) while you're there. When you finally get off it's a long line and you have to be really committed to want to get back on.
Roller Coaster image via Rich Evenhouse on Flickr


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"In an exotic land where it is rumoured that men still rule, a tall, dark and handsome sheikh meets a white woman who teaches him how to be ruled by love." That's the basic formula of the "sheikh romance."
In the article "And You Can Be My Sheikh: Gender, Race, and Orientalism in Contemporary Romance Novels," Jessica Taylor discusses the genre. Sheikh romances are generally set in fictional countries in the Middle East, with a male character described as a "sheikh," "sultan," or something along the lines of "king of the desert." He is, of course, invariably rich and powerful. The female protagonist, on the other hand, is a White woman, usually from the U.S.
The topic is popular enough that Harlequin has a whole series, Desert Brides:
Another popular option is the Sons of the Desert series:
Taylor argues that these novels present a masculinized, exotic, and ultimately pre-modern Oriental Other that is contrasted with the modernized West.
Some examples:
The blurb, from Amazon (elipses in original):
When Sheikh Khalid Fehr rescues innocent Olivia Morse from the hands of his country's enemies, he guarantees her freedom by announcing she is his betrothed….Khalid has vouched for Liv with his honor… and this desert king is determined that his new wife will fulfill her marital duties, by his side as his regal queen…and as his captive virgin bride!
Abbie Cavanaugh's brother is in jail. Abbie can obtain his freedom — but only if she marries the Sheikh of Barakhara. The explosive passion between Prince Malik and Abbie could turn a marriage of convenience into one of Eastern promise. But neither Abbie nor Malik knows the other's real identity. Can their marriage survive once the truth is revealed?
After a whirlwind courtship, Sheikh Hakim bin Omar al Kadar proposes marriage. Shy, innocent Catherine Benning has already fallen head-over-heels in love and she accepts….
After their wedding day — and night — when the sheikh claims his virgin wife, Catherine and Hakim travel to his desert kingdom. There Catherine discovers that this is no love match for Hakim — he's bought her!
For more examples, go to Amazon and search "sheikh romance." Seriously, there are tons of them — Traded to the Sheikh, Stolen by the Sheikh, The Desert Prince's Mistress, The Sheikh's Virgin, Love-Slave to the Sheikh, The Sheikh's Ransomed Bride (notice the recurring economic transaction theme?), and my new personal favorite book title ever, Hired: The Sheikh's Secretary Mistress, described thusly:
Sheikh Amir bin Faruq al Zorha lives in New York, but the desert is where his heart lies. Now it's time for him to marry….Grace Brown, Amir's plain but indispensable assistant, isn't exactly queen material. No matter how tempted Amir is to take her innocence, she's off-limits. Until he returns to his homeland, where the barbarian prince replaces the businessman — and resolves that Grace will be his!
Taylor argues that the themes of these books reflect concerns about gender relations while also setting up an East/West dichotomy in which Western (usually specifically U.S.) women tame the "barbarian" desires of non-Western men. The male love interests are too masculine for current U.S. cultural norms; they attempt to control women in an obvious manner, to force them into marriage, and/or to acquire them by purchase or trade.
But they are ultimately redeemable "barbarian princes." On the cover, they're darker than the (generally blond) woman, but only slightly so. They are usually described as having lived in the U.S. or Europe, often during college. They seek to "modernize" their countries, often signaled by their disinterest in or opposition to the harems still maintained by other men in their countries. Referring to harems clearly links this fictionalized Middle East to the past, while the individual hero instead chooses monogamy with one White woman, signaling his modernization.
A woman, and love, tame the dangerous but desirable hero. Interestingly, femininity here is presented as preferable not just for women, but for the male character as well, as a necessary element to balance his hypermasculinity:
…the man is brought to acknowledge the pre-eminence of love and the attractions of domesticity…the theme of category romance is female power…By getting the hero to give in and fall in love with her, and admit it, she brings him into the "feminine" world view…the heroine "civilizes" the Arab hero into a domestic love and he thus becomes an acceptable husband for a white girl. (p. 1046-47).
Ultimately, then, the sheikh romance presents a backward East, a state signaled largely by gender relations. There are two types of Middle Eastern men: those who are redeemable, who can be modernized, and those who can't. And adoption of a certain ideal of monogamous romantic love, which renders the hero's hypermasculinity exotic but no longer scary, provides the key to modernizing otherwise barbaric cultures.
The article is in Journal of Popular Culture v. 40, no. 6 (2007), p. 1032-1051.
This post originally appeared on Sociological Images. Republished with permission.
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Each year when we begin our preparation for Christmas with the season of Advent, we listen to an instruction by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem:
"We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.
In general, whatever relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.
At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels. We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
– Office of Readings, 1st Sunday of Advent
These words mark the anticipation of the Christian life. We sit between two comings of Christ, and, St Cyril reminds us, when the Lord comes again, it will not be clothed in silence in a manger. At the second coming, there will be no mistake that the Lord is here. But in our waiting for that day that only the Father knows, what is our attitude of waiting?
Jesus tells us what our attitude should be like. When the disciples questioned him about the signs that the end was near, Jesus responded, "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come…whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'" (Mark 13:32-33, 35-37)
The first disciples of Jesus thought that the Lord would return in their lifetime. They committed all their resources to getting the word out, proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. As one Disciple after another began to die, it made them wonder, where is the Messiah? Isn't He coming back soon? Urgency turned to hesitancy. Many possibly returned to their previous lives. Their vigilance turned its energies to ordinary tasks.
To think, we've been waiting for the Messiah's return for not quite two thousand years. And, a general pattern follows that after a period of complacency, believers find themselves persecuted and must choose whether what they believe is worth dying for. We see many signs that any hope for the return of Christ is fading from our cultural memory. The memory is clouded with a sense of urgency for what is not eternal. Eternal seems so far a way, like an old fairy tale. But it is not a fairy tale and the words of Jesus are words for our generation:
"Be watchful! Be alert!…Watch!"
To have such a capacity comes from a life formed by prayer and worship. For these require discipline which also prepares the heart for hardship and difficult choices. Do we have such an attitude that will sustain our waiting? Are we willing to wait in patience and vigilance, without letting hope of His coming die in our hearts?
Come Lord Jesus! Come soon!


text: Kids are a benefit from Lord along with their arriving fills up up their parents' hearts and minds and mind with bundles of satisfaction. The reason why being moms and dads need to get approaches they may be competent to accommodate their minimal points of views at no far more expenses. This is the accountability… Continue reading Childrens Store


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I listed the Barbie Photo Fashion Doll ($39.99) as one of my top 10 Holiday Toy Picks for Girls this holiday season and I stand by it – this is a fun product!
Using the embedded digital camera (on Barbie!) you can take pictures and then turn them into the picture on Barbie's shirt. Seriously, technology is amazing, right? What will they think of next!
You can use the included USB cable to upload the pictures to your computer too.
You can get the Barbie Photo Fashion Doll at Target for $39.99. I also have one to giveaway to one lucky Mommies with Style reader!
Enter to win: You can enter up to 4 times (the only required entry is the first one to leave a comment! All the others are additional entries):
1) Leave a comment on this post.
2) Tweet or share this giveaway on Twitter & follow me on Twitter @WhitneyMWS
(Go to the site and share the page (top right corner) on your Facebook or Twitter or share this post!)
3) Like Mommies with Style on Facebook (if you already do, promote this contest on your page)
4) Subscribe to my feed or email newsletter and stay on top of all of my daily posts! If you already subscribe, please leave a separate comment letting me know that you are currently a subscriber (thank you!).


text: This course provides learners with a solid foundation in international supply, logistics, and foreign currency exchange. Foreign exchange is included in this course since it plays such an important role in planning and executing international operations. The first half of the course reviews critical roles that supply chain management, sourcing, logistics, and transportation play in contemporary global business. In the second half, the focus shifts to foreign currency exchange risks and methods for mitigating those risks, both financial and non-financial.


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I have new images for you as well as some updates about my personal life! Since most of my personal life ends up coloring my images in some way or another, I suppose that makes everything relevant, right? 🙂
I recently had a shoot with a model who was new to me, the lovely Teri Wyble! Sadly for me, she does not live in Los Angeles, but she does travel here now and then and we've already made plans to do more shooting next time she's in town. She was such a joy to work with; she's not in modeling just to look pretty or puff up her ego, she's interested in telling compelling stories. She has a natural grace and beauty which lend themselves perfectly to my kind of photography. On top of that, Teri is also just a really wonderful soul, full of love and kindness, and we share many of the same interests. It was a perfect collaboration!
I'm also going to be sharing a bit of my spiritual journey with you guys here. For anyone who's curious, I am a lightworker, but I don't define my spirituality much beyond that. Organized religion does not work for me, but I know many people who love their branch of it. If it's a good fit for you, stick with it! If not, you're still ok and you can still be a spiritual person.
I believe in an unconditionally-loving higher power, which I like to refer to as Source. "God" brings to mind all sorts of connotations which I personally find hindering. I believe that everyone and everything is made up of energy, as physics teaches us, and since energy cannot be destroyed, it's most logical to me that life continues beyond death. I have no doubts about this. I have spoken to and had contact with those who have passed over… which would have been enough on its own to convince me of our eternal life, but I do feel science supports this idea as well.
Toward the beginning of the year, I experienced an EXTREMELY powerful guided meditation with a lovely woman named Mojo. If you're interested in her services, you can find her page on Fiverr here! She currently doesn't advertise her guided meditations, which she does live over the phone with you, but if you contact her, she can arrange it for you.
During this guided meditation, I actually got to meet and speak with my two main guardian angels. Prior to this, I had believed in angels in a vague sort of way, but despite how much I would have liked it, I never felt that I could successfully connect with any of them. I have also done other guided meditations which are supposed to introduce you to your angel without much success other than feeling more centered afterward, like with any meditation. My point is, the meditation with Mojo was very different. I could actually feel and sense my angels; I could hear and even see them in my mind. I know now that they have always been with me every second of my life, and they will for the rest of my time on earth. I am never alone and they are a great comfort to me.
This new connection with my angels led me to buy a handful of books about angels; I wanted to learn EVERYTHING that I POSSIBLY could about them! As I'm sure you all know, my passions are all-consuming. When a new one ignites, my life becomes focused on that and only that until I feel I have a grasp on it. For anyone else interested in learning more about angels, I recommend Angels In My Hair by Lorna Byrne, and The Angel Therapy Handbook by Doreen Viture. Both are fascinating, well-written and impart excellent knowledge. Angels In My Hair is more of a memoir while the Angel Therapy Handbook is more of a textbook. I feel they compliment each other well.
I mentioned being a lightworker a little bit ago. What I mean by that is that I am certified at level 2 in Reiki. I do energy work, sending positive energy to people, animals, places, situations, objects, whatever you want. It's healing and can never be used to harm. I also began meditating much more regularly this year. In the past, when I'd try meditating, I would always enjoy the effects of it, but I had a lot of trouble making myself do it with any consistency. I'm not sure what changed, but for some reason, this year I was able to push past that. Once I got over that initial block, I discovered that I LOVE meditating! It's incredibly healing and healthy for your body, mind and soul. I found it was a bit like starting to work out. At first, you don't really want to do it, but after a little while of making yourself stick with it, you like it and actually begin craving it. I now have meditation (guided and not) as a regular part of my life and I'd highly recommend it to absolutely everyone! One thing I discovered are the millions of meditation tracks on YouTube; literally something for absolutely everyone and every interest. There are also long tracks of nature sounds and/or music, some with binaural beats in them, some lasting up to eight hours, so you could listen to them all night while you sleep. I've been learning a great deal about crystals as well from my dear friend Jessi who owns the shop Mineralism Crystals. I HIGHLY recommend her if you're in the market for anything! Even if you don't see something in her online shop, chances are, she has it. I've placed numerous orders with her and they always exceed my expectations! Also, she is a fellow spoonie, so your money goes to help support her as she's unable to work a "regular" job; win-win!
As all these new revelations were opening up to me, meditation, angels, being able to "hear" animals more clearly when I contacted them energetically (for example, I was able to help one very special cat overcome his abandonment fears when he was newly adopted, something I was honored to have been a part of), Teri came along and we had our shoot. I knew that I wanted some of this deeper spirituality to be reflected in something we shot, but I wasn't really sure how. However, I did know that I wanted to photograph Teri in a beautiful lace dress I had… that combined with feeling inspired by some images Geoff shot recently with a back-lit model that made me decide I would shoot an "angelic" look with the gauzy white fabric and light behind her. (Although really, just try and make her NOT look angelic; that would be a far more difficult job.)
As I suspected, Teri made the perfect angel. Sorting through the images later, I realized that I was creating a new race of DreamWorld beings. The Aethereans, as I called them, are DreamWorld's angels. They live high in the mountains, away from the more populated areas so they can be focus on devoting themselves to spiritual studies. They are very wise from their decades of pursuing the truth in every facet of life, as well as skilled and compassionate healers. Many of the other DreamWorld inhabitants send their young to train with the Aethereans for several years, where they are taught empathy, love, plant and animal care, healing, sacred geometry and the mysteries of the universe. I thought that the Aethereans needed some kind of uniform or mark that visually informed everyone of who they are and the spiritual life they have chosen for themselves, so I decided they would all have a flower of life symbol on their foreheads. I wish I'd thought to actually apply this in real life to Teri, but this idea only came later. Thankfully, Photoshop made it possible to add it to all the images!
Teri did such a spectacular job modeling, she made it so very difficult to choose which images to work up! I ended up editing quite a few more photos than I typically would pick because I simply could not narrow my selections down any more. It took a bit longer to finish these because of the volume I had to work through, but also because of a couple other wonderful new journeys I was taking…
Through a very miraculous series of events, I discovered Calista Ascension. Calista is one of those very rare spiritual teachers who actually embodies and lives everything she preaches; I have met very few more accepting, genuinely loving and wise people in my life. She offers numerous classes which I was lusting after, but when I saw that she created her own Unicorn Healing System which I could take online from the comfort of my home, I was hooked. I had to take it. Immediately.
I'll let Calista explain the course in her own words:
Unicorn Healing™ is a hands-on healing modality for empowerment and wellness, but also a development tool that can awaken your Souls' gifts and purpose. It can be used as a stand-alone therapy or complemented with other energy practices.
Brought forward in 2009, direct from the Unicorn realm via Calista, it is a very sacred modality that can provide all that you are ready to receive.This is a course for those who are ready to step-up, break-through and arise in their POWER!
Just as you have a Guardian Angel that walks with you so to you have a Guardian Unicorn. Once regarded as the fabric of fairytales, Unicorns are very much real. They have walked with us since the times of Atlantis and are now returning to our awareness to help us awaken to love and the infinite potential we hold within.
As this is a distant learning course, you can set your own pace and progression. A commitment is required however as this course is deeply transformational – the more you put in, the more you will receive. The Unicorns are ever-present to those who wish to better themselves and assist Mother Earth to ascend with grace.
Yes. Unicorns. REAL Unicorns. As I mentioned earlier, I am well-versed with Reiki energy, which, I learned, is apparently an earth-based energy. The Unicorns however hail from another planet (bear with me here) so their energy is cosmically-based. (For those interested, Calista recorded an excellent podcast all about who and what the Unicorns are, where they come from, etc, with much more detail than I'm giving in this post, which you can listen to here.) I hadn't expected their energies to feel particularly different from each other; I just hadn't thought about it. You may believe that these Unicorns are simply a pretty fantasy I'm escaping to in my imagination (which I'll freely admit is an escape I would likely pick!) but OH MY GOD – once you've felt their energy, there is NO mistaking them. They are every bit as real as we are, and their energy is incredibly powerful… yet also full of the most unconditional love I've ever experienced. It's nearly impossible to describe how energy feels in words, but the ones that keep coming to mind when I think about my Unicorns are high, clear, clean, bright, powerful, silvery, shimmery, penetrating, deep, beautiful, wise, loving, celestial, ethereal, and immense. I love Reiki, but the Unicorns really kicked things up a huge notch for me.
As part of my studying, I went through an attunement with their energy, where I met my three guardian Unicorns, who all serve different roles, and who are all equally exquisitely beautiful. I spent 30 consecutive days meditating and communing with them every day in different ways so we could really get to know each other. And I also practiced doing healings with the Unicorn energy, both in person and across distance, much like you do with Reiki. The Unicorn healings I've done so far have been the most powerful I've yet witnessed in my life. Problems that have bothered people for very long times suddenly lose their sting, allowing the people to let go of them. Hurts are overcome, trauma is healed. They are truly miraculous. And my guides assure me that I will become physically healthy myself in time.
My guides… yes, I should mention the other guides too. Meeting the Unicorns as well as my angels has opened my mind up to the idea of there being more spiritual guides for us in the universe than I had previously realized. Currently, in addition to my guardian angels and Unicorns, I also have a dragon guide, a pegasus guide and a mermaid guide, although I have not worked with them nearly as long or as deeply as the Unicorns. I've also started to sense and sometimes communicate with the elementals all around me. The trees in my yard, for example, will remind me if the bird feeder has gotten low or the plants need watering. I'm becoming a MUCH better gardener with their help! 🙂
Then, right on the heels on my finishing up my Unicorn Healing course, I began taking Doreen Virtue's Fairyologist course! This is more or less what it sounds like; you learn all about the various fairies that exist, what they're about (the fairies are mostly concerned with environmental and animal issues, but certain groups emphasize different causes), how to communicate and work with them. At the end, you take a quiz and, assuming you pass, you become a certified Fairyologist. As I'm also in the process of having all my Unicorn work reviewed by Calista as we speak, I'm on the cusp of becoming both a certified Unicorn Healer and a certified Fairyologist… both are NOT things I expected that I'd be saying if you'd asked me at the beginning of this year!
I'm telling you guys about all this for several reasons. One, working with my guides and walking my spiritual journey is becoming an ever-more-present, ever-larger part of my life. I wanted to just lay it all out there in one go and not feel like I had to tiptoe around it on my own blog. Two, everything in my personal life effects my art. Case in point, the images I'm releasing today. I probably wouldn't have even shot them if I hadn't met my guardian angels, and I certainly wouldn't have added the Flower of Life symbol to the Aethereans (who would not exist) without having learned more about sacred geometry in my studies. In my life, there is very little separation between the real world and my art. It's all one big pot of stew where each ingredient enhances all the others.
And lastly, I'd like to invite all of you to explore your own spirituality. When you find what works for you, there is very, very little in life that is as rewarding! There are many charlatans both online and off, so you must be discerning in who you choose to listen to. A strong connection to your intuition and sense of truth will help you navigate the waters. Any of the people or authors I've mentioned in this post have gotten the thumb's up from me if you'd like to start there!
I am an energy worker. I work with Unicorns and angels. I talk to animals, fairies and elementals. I am a creator. I collect crystals. I am an empath. I am a photographer. I am clairvoyant and clairsentient. I am a fulltime student of truth. I am a healer. I am a woman. I am an artist. I am Sarah. I am me. I don't apologize for any of that. You go be you, and don't apologize for any of it either. 🙂


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Phil Sturgeon has a new post to his site today looking at a new feature that's included with PHP 5.5, Curlfile, and how he uses it with calls to the Facebook API (and a fix to make it cooperate).
One of the features implemented in PHP 5.5 was CurlFile, a nice addition to the Curl extension to allow you to specify specific arguments as a file for upload. In previous versions (pre-PHP 5.5) the syntax looked like this: [@/foo/bar.jpg]. A little digging around lead me to try this syntax: [new CURLFile('/foo/bar.jpg','image/jpeg')]. Sadly while Curl was happy with this, the Facebook PHP SDK (v3.2.2) was not. It turns out the SDK will turn ANY value you send it in that params array into a string.
To get around the issue, he worked up his own fix to the Facebook PHP SDK and submitted a patch to get it introduced into the tool. He also includes a reminder to filter incoming user data for things containing the "@" too to prevent unwanted file transfers.


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Friday, November 21, 2008
Home Offices
One of my favorite rooms to really put a lot of thought into is my home office. With spaces being scarce, it takes some thought. Mine is in my main living area, taking up one small wall. I think the main thing you have to consider is what you actual use your home office for, and then go from there. Sometimes keeping the laptop by your bedside is all you will really need. Do you have a dedicated space for a home office? Mine is used primarily to pay bills, keep all the "papers" organized and surf the net.
Posted by Lisa at 9:07 AM 30 comments:
Labels: Home Office
Friday, November 7, 2008
Word Number Play
I love a whimsical touch in decor. Try a lighthearted fun touch. I have lots of "words" all over my house. Just took a huge wall by my front door and turned it into a giant chalkboard. Have fun when you decorated. Your kids will love it too..
Posted by Lisa at 12:41 PM 21 comments:
Labels: Entryway, Home Office
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MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, is one of the high-profile destinations that Microsoft Corp. likes to trot out (download Word document) as a user of its new high-definition media player, Silverlight.
The problem with this picture? Apart from the video downloads, virtually all of the site's other interactive multimedia -- including its streaming video -- is still provided using Silverlight's competitor, Flash from Adobe Systems Inc.
Once used mostly to deliver cartoon-style animations, Flash has suddenly become the choice of Web video broadcasters, leapfrogging formats such as Apple Inc.'s QuickTime Movie (.mov) and Microsoft's Windows Media Video (.wmv).
Adobe claims that 70% of Web video today is in the Flash (.flv) format. Major users include YouTube Inc. and its parent company, Google Inc.; Yahoo Video; and MySpace.com.
The only people not using Flash video are "media companies that are being bought, paid and bribed to go to another solution," said Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen during a group interview last week at the company's MAX user conference.
The future of Flash
But behind the bold words, acknowledge Adobe executives, is real concern about the future of Flash. Though Flash is dominant on PCs -- the Flash Player is installed on more than 90% of Web-connected computers, according to Adobe -- it has failed to make much headway yet in the key cell phone market.
Moreover, Microsoft's Silverlight poses a serious technical and marketing challenge to Flash.
"Is there any moment that I am not worried about Microsoft?" said John Loiacono, senior vice president for creative solutions at Adobe. "I always treat them as a formidable foe, if only because they have a huge checkbook and are a monopoly."
Released officially in September, Silverlight trumps Flash in two key areas: video quality and the digital rights management (DRM) technology desired by advertisers and content providers.
Moreover, Microsoft is offering some of the necessary Silverlight server software cheaper than Adobe or, in the case of Expression Encoder, for free. Adobe's equivalent, the Flash Media Server, costs over $4,000.
Rather than automatically distributing Silverlight to Windows users via Windows Updates, Microsoft has inked almost 10 deals with broadcast partners -- enough, it believes, to get Silverlight onto 80% of Internet-connected PCs within a short time.
The adoption of Silverlight "has been great so far," according to an e-mail from a Microsoft spokeswoman, with "downloads right in line with expectations to date."
A market up for grabs
One design firm that is a longtime 100% Adobe shop said it recently met with Microsoft about adding Silverlight to its repertoire.


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Rules of the Game: Debate Over Corporate Spending Spans Parallel Universes
Are big corporations taking over American elections? It depends whether you ask liberals or conservatives, who can't even agree on the basic facts.
In the liberal universe, big corporations have swallowed politics. Common Cause President Bob Edgar summed up this version of reality at a press conference in March, declaring: "We, the people, will not stand idly by while the country's major corporations use their massive wealth to buy our democracy."
In the parallel universe occupied by conservatives, leading corporations are actually playing no role at all in the elections, which are thriving post-Citizens United. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued this case at the American Enterprise Institute last month, asserting that "not a single Fortune 100 company contributed a penny to the eight super PACs that supported the Republican primary candidates."
There's plenty of room for disagreement over whether unrestricted political money helps or hurts campaigns and whether fixes such as full disclosure would work. But when starting points differ so wildly, it's time to set the record straight. No matter how you slice it, corporations are spending unprecedented sums in this campaign.
To be sure, McConnell's argument contains a grain of truth. In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling that deregulated political spending, it turns out that the big money is coming from individuals, not corporate treasuries.
A February analysis by a pair of progressive groups found that 17 percent (more than $30 million) of the money that super PACs raised post-Citizens United came from for-profit businesses. The largest share — 56 percent — came from wealthy individuals, according to the study by Demos and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which will be updated later this month.
"The rhetoric has been way overblown," said conservative election lawyer James Bopp Jr.
But GOP talking points that downplay the role of big business after Citizens United omit major routes for corporate campaign spending. These include the tens of millions that corporate CEOs from the casino, real estate, energy and financial services industries have given to super PACs this cycle.
Also missing from the conservative narrative are politically active nonprofits, from the Democratic-friendly Priorities USA to the pro-GOP Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which are spending millions of dollars collected from undisclosed donors — many of which could well be big corporations.
Last month, SNL Financial disclosed that Aetna had donated more than $3.3 million to the American Action Network in 2011, and another nearly $4.5 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — two nonprofits spending heavily in targeted Congressional races. That prompted a complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to the IRS.
In some cases, McConnell and his allies have chosen their data selectively. In others, their assertions are flat wrong.
A recent statement by election lawyer Jan Baran to the New York Times that super PACs have spent "not a nickel" of Fortune 500 money is at odds with public disclosures compiled by U.S. PIRG for its analysis.
U.S. PIRG shows donations from both Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies, including $300,000 from MGM Resorts International to Patriot Majority PAC, $10,000 from PG&E Corp. to Rebuilding America, and smaller super PAC donations from Chesapeake Energy and PepsiCo Inc.
In his recent amicus brief to the Supreme Court involving a Montana law banning corporate spending, McConnell and his lawyers asserted that the eight super PACs backing the GOP presidential candidates had collected "not a single cent" from any Fortune 100 company and had raised only 12.9 percent of their funds from privately held corporations and less than 1 percent from public companies.
What the brief leaves out are the six- and seven-figure contributions that these PACs raised from the CEOs of such publicly traded companies as Dreamworks Animation, Huntsman Corp. and the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson has given $20 million to two Republican super PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and is poised to give another $10 million or more to a super PAC backing presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Harold Simmons, owner of Contran Corp., a privately held manufacturing company based in Dallas, has given $15.2 million to half a dozen super PACs, according to the CRP. Contran has also made $3.5 million in direct corporate treasury donations to American Crossroads and three other super PACs, according to the CRP.
"It's still individual money," Bopp said of the super PAC donations from CEOs. "It's not corporate money. No shareholder has any claim to it."
But money given by a public figure associated with a company can be or appear to be as potentially corrupting as direct corporate treasury money, watchdogs said.
The debate over corporate treasury dollars and cents is "a bit of a red herring," said Lisa Rosenberg, government affairs consultant with the Sunlight Foundation. Whether the money comes from a corporation's CEO or from its general fund, she said, "it's still unlimited money — most of it secret, most of it undisclosed."
Clarification: July 24, 2:09 p.m.
An earlier version of this column incorrectly attributed comments on corporate spending made to the New York Times. The comments were made by election lawyer Jan Baran of Wiley Rein.
Correction: July 11, 2:12 p.m.
An earlier version of this column had incorrect references to Universal Health Care Group and Wells Fargo Bank. Universal Health Care Group is not a Fortune 500 company. Wells Fargo Bank refunded banking fees to a super PAC client but has made no super PAC donations.


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FONTANA >> A 51-year-old military veteran from Fontana fought off an attempted robbery after the two alleged assailants surrounded him Sunday night.
Police said the suspected attackers were arrested a short time later.
Thomas Brooks, 19, of Fontana and an unnamed 17-year-old boy, were taken into custody by police following the incident near the intersection of Reed Street and Bennett Avenue around 8 p.m. Sunday night.
According to police records, the boy walked up to the veteran and demanded he give him all the money he had.
When the veteran refused to do it, the boy allegedly began hitting him, police said.
That's when the unnamed veteran began to fight off his attacker.
"He began to fight back, and that's when Brooks jumped in," police spokesman Doug Imhof said. "About that time is when a police cruiser showed up."
The two attackers fled the scene with officers in hot pursuit catching them a short distance away near an apartment in the 16700 block of Village Lane, police said.
"There were two more individuals that were questioned by officers who were seen on video surveillance," Imhof said. "We don't want people to get hurt and don't suggest fighting back, but his actions were fruitful and without injury in this instance."
Police did not release the veteran's name or any other information about him.
The incident got the attention of those celebrating Veterans Day Monday.
"As a retired Army officer I will say the training instilled into all members of the military is to fight off aggressors of every shape and size no matter how outnumbered we are," said Maj. James Hall, U.S. Army retired. "It's a shame when our young people try to take advantage of others because they see age as a weakness. This time it looks as if they were proven wrong."
The veteran was treated at the scene for minor cuts and bruises.
Brooks was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and being held in lieu of $50,000 for suspicion of attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
The juvenile boy was booked into juvenile detention center at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga for suspicion of attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
"Maybe we need to educate some of these young thugs out on the street about respect by ordering them to serve in the military," Hall added. "We are still a nation at war."


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The PC industry got another does of sour news Friday when Intel announced it's cutting its third-quarter revenue outlook.
The world's largest chip maker lowered its revenue forecast from an expected $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion for the quarter to $13.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million. The company blamed a reduction in supply chain inventory, a sluggish enterprise PC market and waning demand in emerging markets.
None of that is good news for a PC industry that has been repeatedly hammered by the growing popularity of small, cool tablets and several years of a slow economy.
It's also not good news for the overall tech industry, since analysts generally agree that Intel itself is a bellwether for the high-tech industry.
"Intel is a bellwether of the overall health of the PC market and the cut of its revenue estimate certainly isn't a good sign," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "Chips are the bellwether for tech. Right now, however, it looks like it's the PC segment that's sick, not the industry overall."
He was quick to point out that server demand, for instance, is reasonably solid.
"Customers are paying more attention to what they're buying and the associated price tags, but they're still buying," said Olds.
The fact that the PC market and the chip market are struggling comes as no surprise.
Late last month, industry analyst firm IHS iSuppli downgraded its 2012 forecast for the global semiconductor market based on slumping economic conditions and chip revenue. Analysts there noted that the worldwide chip market, which had been expected to grow by less than 3% for the year, is projected to decline by 0.1%
The downgrade for the chip market is relatively new, though.
In March, analysts at Gartner felt the industry was set for a solid turnaround this year, predicting that global computer chip revenue would reach $316 billion, a 4% increase over 2011.
IHS iSupply, however, isn't seeing that. And analysts there say the lagging PC market is largely to blame.
"The overall PC industry is challenged right now, including PC makers, distribution channels and component suppliers," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "This PC slowdown couldn't have come at a worse time, given the close proximity to the holiday selling season, where 50% of all consumer PCs are sold."
Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, noted that many PC makers may have scaled back production as they nervously wait to see whether Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system will be popular with buyers. That, he said, is one of several issues affecting the PC market, and hence the chip market, as well.
"It's the combination of tablets and an existing slowdown prior to a new OS," said Enderle. "The difficulty is that Microsoft's demand-generation program for Windows 8 hasn't kicked off yet, so no one is seeing demand for that product. If you look into the market, no one, not even Apple, is pushing traditional computers now and consumer buying continues to decline."
Not all is bleak, however.
Lenovo seems to be bucking the downward trend.
The China-based computer manufacturer has been quickly moving up the rungs of the list of top computer makers. While other companies have been struggling, Lenovo has been moving ahead.
At this point, if Lenovo continues on at its current pace, it will surpass long-time top PC-maker Hewlett-Packard to become the world's largest PC manufacturer by early next year.
"HP recently reported a 10% drop in its PC unit and we've seen Dell's PC business sliding, as well," said Olds. "The only PC vendor showing much growth is Lenovo, playing on their home court advantage in Asia.... I simply think people are taking a much closer look at all the technology they're buying and starting to ration their spending."
Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT, Inc., was quick to note that the fourth quarter of this year is unlikely to look any better.
"It suggests PC vendors are preparing for lower demand in the final quarter of the year by reducing existing inventory rather than gearing up manufacturing," he said. "Given the overall importance of the holiday shopping season to the consumer electronics and PC industries, that's lousy news."
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her email address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com.
Read more about it industry in Computerworld's IT Industry Topic Center.


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Valid through April 30, 2023
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- Overnight accommodations on The Ritz-Carlton Club® Level
- Daily internet access in guest room
- One complimentary night — stay five nights, pay for four
Offer is subject to availability. Rate is per room/per night, based on single or double occupancy, exclusive of taxes, gratuities, fees and other charges; does not apply to groups; cannot be combined with any other offer and is not applicable for Rewards redemption. Advanced reservations are required. No refund or credit for unused portion. Void where prohibited.
Complimentary night requires purchase and minimum length of stay, and will be credited at time of check-out. A stay is defined as consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, regardless of check-in/check-out activity. Parking or Transfer option varies by hotel.


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FCC aims to end NFL blackouts
The Federal Communications Commission is pushing to end the sports blackout rule — a move that would roll back nearly 40 years of blocking TV broadcasts of NFL games in which the local team doesn't sell out its stadium.
A ripple effect across the television sports spectrum could come with the commission's historic and unanimous vote to look into the change. Ultimately, it could affect what games are seen in which cities and allow fans of long suffering teams to actually watch their hometown teams on TV. But the FCC action also could create a new problem for NFL team owners trying to sell out massive football stadiums.
According to the commission's notice of proposed rule making, the FCC thinks the rule is obsolete.
"Changes in the sports industry in the last four decades have called into question whether the sports blackout rules remain necessary to ensure the overall availability of sports programming to the general public," the commission wrote. "In this proceeding, we will determine whether the sports blackout rules have become outdated due to marketplace changes since their adoption, and whether modification or elimination of those rules is appropriate."
Even though the blackout rule applies to all televised sporting events, it has, in effect, become the NFL's rule as the league has some of the most restrictive blackout policies and is fighting the hardest to keep the rule. The NFL contends the rule is still needed because it helps fill stadiums and enhances the game for both the TV viewer and fans on-site.
( PHOTOS: Presidential coin tosses)
"We will strongly oppose any change in the rule," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. "We are on pace for a historic low number of blackouts since the policy was implemented 40 years ago. While affecting very few games the past decade, the blackout rule is very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets and keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds."
According to the league, there has been only one blackout for attendance this year.
Lawmakers in D.C. were quick to weigh in.
"The FCC's unanimous vote today is a big victory for sports fans," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "This June, Senator [Richard] Blumenthal and I sent a letter to FCC Acting Chair [Mignon] Clyburn, urging the Commission to move to eliminate the Sports Blackout Rule, which is no longer supported by facts or logic."
Blumenthal (D-Conn.) added: "Existing blackout policies quite literally leave fans in the dark, and leagues or programmers that enforce them should not be rewarded with special regulatory status, antitrust exemptions, or taxpayer subsidies."
While the FCC has yet to make a final decision on the rule, the fact that it is seeking to end the rule is significant. For many sports fans, the move was a long time coming.
"The American sports fan just won another round, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission's latest action," said David Goodfriend, chairman of the Sports Fans Coalition, which is pushing to put an end to the rule. "This is the beginning of the end of the Sports Blackout Rule in particular and government subsidization of anti-fan behavior by sports leagues more generally."
But the National Association of Broadcasters contends that the FCC's proposal is a solution in search of a problem. Instead of putting more games on TV, the action will put more sports on pay-platforms, the organization argues.
"Sports blackouts are exceedingly rare, and NAB dislikes these disruptions as much as our viewers," the NAB wrote in a statement. "We're concerned that the FCC proposal may hasten the migration of sports to pay-TV platforms, and will disadvantage the growing number of people who rely on free, over-the-air television as their primary source for sports."
While proponents of the rule will get a chance to argue its merits before the FCC, the commission made it clear that those wanting to retain the rule will have an uphill battle.
"We propose to eliminate the sports blackout rules and seek comment on the potential benefits and harms of that proposed action on interested parties, including sports leagues, broadcasters, and consumers," the commission wrote.
If the commission votes to end the rule, it may not immediately spell the end of sports blackouts as contractual arrangements between the sports leagues and television providers would still be in effect.
Blackouts have drawn increased scrutiny from Washington policymakers recently amid concerns that high ticket prices put games out of the reach of many consumers. Others have worried that the FCC's rules haven't kept pace with the explosion of new ways people consume sports, including on iPads and other devices.
According to the NFL, the number of blackouts has fallen by the decade with 92 percent of the games going on the air in the 2000s compared with 69 percent in the '90s and 60 percent in the '80s.
Congress took action in 1973 so local blackouts could come only when a venue fails to sell out 72 hours before game time. In 2012, the NFL changed its policy: A blackout can now be avoided if a team sells 85 percent of its tickets.


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This article is more than 1 year old
QLogic to launch Transformers-style adapter cards: They're also flash caches
Robot-car-plane-style tech promises more virtual machines, faster applications
QLogic is adding flash storage to its server adapter cards so they become PCIe-connected flash caches, speeding up SAN I/O-bound applications in the servers with read I/O acceleration.
The company makes a line of Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and Ethernet-based Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) that can run the FCoE protocol over Ethernet as well as perform all the other Ethernet adapter functions. QLogic's main rival is Emulex, and SAN and Ethernet switch supplier Brocade has a line of adapters as well. Q's cards are connected to a server's PCIe bus and sit inline between servers and networked block storage arrays.
In recent years, the idea of the PCIe-connected flash memory card has been popularised by Fusion-io as a way of caching or storing hot data from the arrays on flash memory within the server. Having a PCIe-connected flash cache means you can avoid CPU-delaying I/O waits due to disk drive latency and network crossing times. Such PCIe flash can accelerate applications up to 90 per cent or more, making them more responsive to their users and enabling virtualised servers to run more virtual machines.
With QLogic cards already PCIe-connected, and sitting firmly on the server-SAN data path, it makes sense for to add PCIe flash caching, and will be good move in terms of its product, channel and market capabilities. In its latest quarterly results earnings call, Q's CEO Simon Biddiscombe spoke of a coming new server host-based product: "We will... shortly be deploying highly innovative new products which solve significant data centre problems and will result in increased available markets. These exciting products are unlike anything we have previously undertaken and represent promising new expansion opportunity. A public announcement on this topic will be forthcoming shortly."
A flash HBA/CNA would combine the functions of a flash card and an adapter on one card, making better use of PCIe slots and, presumably, simplifying the drivers within the server.
Today NetApp announced its Flash Accel server flash caching software and strategy, with seven partners – including Fusion-io, LSI, Micron and Virident – providing NetApp-validated server flash hardware. QLogic was also one of those partners with its new caching card.
Q, of course, has a substantial OEM and VAR channel for its HBAs and CNAs and its partners will, no doubt, be keen to have a look at this new product line.
We understand that a formal announcement from Q will take place in the next couple of weeks or so. ®


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Cisco and Akamai this week announced a collaboration to boost application performance for branch office sites.
The companies rolled out Akamai Connect, an enhancement to Cisco ISR-AX branch routers that better optimizes HTTP traffic to allow businesses to deliver, for example, HD digital content over bandwidth-constrained networks with minimal impact. Akamai Connect combines WAN optimization with content caching to boost the performance of cloud-based business and Web applications.
The partnership extends one the companies struck late last year to integrate Akamai's Unified Performance technology into Cisco's ISR-AX branch routers to optimize WAN and hybrid cloud performance.
+ MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Akamai admits its OpenSSL patch was faulty, reissues keys +
Features of Akamai Connect include a transparent cache capability for private cloud/data center, which uses Akamai's HTTP object cache for Web applications to create LAN-like performance for Intranet Web applications, and to offload the corporate WAN. Another is dynamic HTTP cache for public cloud/Internet, which is an object and byte level cache for HTTP content even though URLs for the same HTTP objects frequently change.
The technology combination is also designed to allow IT to position any content with a URL inside the branch during non-peak hours and improve performance during work hours by offloading content from the corporate WAN.
Akamai Connect is targeted at several vertical markets, such as retail, with eCatalogs, guest Wi-Fi and online product demos; banks opening virtual branches; schools delivering a content-rich media curriculum; healthcare clinics sharing large images such as X-Rays; and enterprises delivering sales or new hire training.
The offering can be managed through Cisco's WAAS Central Manager application for WAN optimization. This interface can provide one-click enablement of Akamai Connect, visualization and reporting, and scheduling of content positioning.
Akamai Connect is packaged as an integrated component of Cisco WAAS WAN optimization software, or as blade and native form factors on the Cisco ISR G2 router. It is offered as an add-on license, a perpetual right-to-use license, or on the Cisco Global Price List as a Cisco product.
Pricing for Akamai Connect starts at $3,000 for 200 connections.
Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 28 years, 23 at Network World. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy.


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Togo's, a "West Coast Original" since 1971 serving up big, made-to-order sandwiches, is celebrating the return of its Lemon Pepper Tuna.
Fans can get hooked once again on the melt and cold sandwich, available for a limited time through May 28 at all 250 Togo's locations.
Togo's Lemon Pepper Tuna returns as a hot melt, as well as a cold sandwich, and features 100 percent Albacore Tuna seasoned with tangy lemon, crackled black pepper, diced celery, and red onions.
The Lemon Pepper Tuna Melt is topped with melted cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, red onions, pickles, and pepperoncinis on toasted San Francisco–style Sourdough bread.
The Lemon Pepper Tuna Classic is served on classic white bread and stuffed with Lemon Pepper Tuna with shredded lettuce, tomato, red onions, pickles, and pepperoncinis.
"Togo's guests continue to get hooked again on our Lemon Pepper Tuna, which is why we continue to bring it back year after year," says Renae Scott, vice president of branding and marketing at Togo's Eateries. "It's a popular item for guests looking for non-meat alternatives during Lent or for those who just crave a tasty, fresh seafood sandwich."
Additionally, guests looking for healthy options this spring can ditch their forks and pick up one of Togo's salad wraps, ideal for living on-the-go lifestyles.
Any one of Togo's salads can be made into a wrap on a whole wheat or spinach wrap.
Togo's Lemon Pepper Tuna sandwiches are available in mini classic, regular six-inch, large nine-inch, and 24-inch family sizes, starting at just $3.
Togo's Salad Wraps start at $5.50.


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Before you read further, you need to understand
that articles you read online may NOT be accurate information. Always find out
why they write information that says,"Natural ways are such quackery."
The word "Quackery" was an old term used to stop competition. Sadly, it is still used today, almost 100 years later. John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were the most instrumental in the crusade of pharmaceutical drugs. These two individuals put up substantial amounts of money for the schools that agreed to cooperate with them. The men who started the take over of the medical industry accomplished this by the take over of the medical schools. They then wanted to put some of their men on the board of directors at the very same schools that took these donations. At this point, the men that appointed to the board of directors by the schools, literally were taken over by these financial contributors.
The schools got new equipment, hired the best teachers and were all taught pharmaceutical drugs. Now, surgeries could be done with anesthesia and infection control. This produced a need for a large lucrative hospital system! Doctors then started performing expensive radical operations. A drug industry then started to grow from a booming patent medical business. This produced a need for a large lucrative hospital system. The doctors then changed the licensing regulations to exclude the guys promoting "natural ways." This made it impossible for anyone that wasn't part of the AMA (American Medical Association) to practice medicine.
In next 20 years AMA dominated medicine and then launched a campaign against anyone doing natural ways as "quackery." This was the code word for competition in those days! So today this word still exists to fool people into thinking all "natural ways" are quackery!
Is there a significant payday to keep you on drugs? You might wonder what is our interest for this site.
It is all about FREE Information showing how to get rid of the disease without drugs! There is not a site on the web that goes this much into depth on how to get rid of diseases naturally for FREE. Finally, some natural answers for your unwanted problems!
Here's a post from Lahey Hospital and medical center showing some of the benefits of olive leaf extract. Just remember there more than likely will never be a full study that shows everything that olive leaf extract really does. Not because it won't be an exciting subject, but only drugs go through these stages. Drugs have to be approved and go through these studies. It also costs hundreds of millions of dollars. There isn't enough money in natural ways to pay for it. The research for drugs really only show that they work about half the time but what happens to the other half of the study where the drugs don't work? Think about it? Do we really see everything that they cause. Are we all just lab rats ourselves? Great questions anyone should ask themselves when taking them. What happens to those people? Is the media reporting all the deaths from these drugs?
The real studies are with the people that use olive leaf extract and see results! This article proves there are not adverse effects, except occasional digestive distress. Wow, such a positive finding, even though it states it was a limited study! I wonder why it was so limited? Something with really no side effects?? It truly seems more people shouldn't know all the great things about olive leaf extract and have to find out for themselves!! This is very different from what you hear on a television ad that advertises all the many side effects and other problems prescription drugs can cause. Glad to see a few selected medical communities are waking up and at least talking about what this one powerful herb can do:
We all need to understand how most
infectious diseases can
possibly turn into or help other health issues, like a weakened immune
system. This will then help in getting rid of another disease that could
have antibiotic resistance to drugs. Most infectious diseases are fueled by a
weakened immune system, health issue, or other illness in the body! Adding
another illness, like the seasonal flu, bird flu, H1N1 flu or other infectious
diseases like HIV on top of that can just about kill you, especially if you
have an antibiotic resistance bacteria.
Right now, we have a major epidemic
of health issues on our hands! Health
issues arise from foods we eat, air we breath, stress, lack of sleep,
our overall daily lives that just wear us down and put us at risk for
infectious diseases or a disease in general. The types of infectious diseases
that are happening inside our bodies are usually not found until its too late
and someone already could have an antibiotic resistance type of bacteria. Severe
disease such as cancer or other infectious diseases is usually not found until
later stages of these health issues. Even if it is found early, it will take
several months of traditional therapy methods to try to destroy a disease that
will kill you!


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I'd thought about leaving so many times. Going back through some old posts last night, even back to when I first started blogging, it was abundantly clear to me that I had been feeling depressed, lonely and trapped for years.
It was something I discussed occasionally with people I trusted. Not that I had many of those. But I was always more scared by the uncertainty of the unknown than I was of remaining somewhere that didn't feel like a home. My fears always drove me back.
I tried. But it's hard when the love you once had has been replaced by fear. Too many angry outbursts, too many times when my needs were dismissed, too many times when my anxiety reached overload. I tried to explain but when I never knew how what I said would be received it was impossible to be completely open and candid.
Even when I did manage to speak up, the import of what I was saying became lost in translation. These weren't shared feelings or experiences; I might as well have been speaking a foreign language. Situations where my daughter or neurodivergent friends would grasp it immediately, not need it to be spelled out in detail.
In the end it had become obvious that living in that place with that person was harming me. Day by day my mental health was declining with anxiety and depression making it difficult to function. I was struggling with work, I was struggling with self care. Well, not just struggling: I was failing.
I knew the signs. I'd been through similar times before although every time it happened it brought me further down, hurt me more, killed another piece of my soul. So this time I asked for help. I went to my doctor, I referred myself for counselling. And I talked at length with my daughter.
At my second counselling session I all but broke down in tears as I described how I felt, how a steady drip, drip, drip of teasing, controlling behaviour, threats (even when later retracted) and aggressive actions had built up to the point where I didn't feel safe. It doesn't matter what the motivation was, whether harm was intended: it was emotional abuse and it did cause harm.
I explained how I was afraid of losing my job because my mind was in too much turmoil to focus. I explained how every time I tried to think of what I needed to do to get away I quickly became overwhelmed with the magnitude of it all.
My counsellor was brilliant. She helped me organise my thoughts so that right in the middle was my goal, "To Get Out" and around it were the factors that I needed to address.
I came out of there feeling enabled, that this was something I could achieve. I phoned my boss at work and explained everything (and I mean everything) to him. Because I was that anxious about it I came straight out and asked him if I still had a job to get back to: he reassured me. I felt so much better after that.
In conjunction with my doctor I worked out a schedule that would get me back to working regularly, and my boss was very supportive, saying that I should do what I had to do, take as much time as I needed, and asking if there was anything I needed from him or the company.
So, knowing my job was secure I went to my bank to see about taking out a loan for setting up a new home, which went through without a hitch giving me the funds I needed to cover fees and buying furniture.
My daughter helped me look for a new place, and we made a shortlist. I prepared myself and managed to phone up and make appointments with the letting agents to view two of them, the first on the very next day which was a Saturday. To cut a long story short we both loved the first place we looked at and I started the process of securing the lease.
Just two weeks after that viewing I got the keys and moved in to the place I'm sitting in now, a month later. My home. And it really does feel like home. It's a lovely flat in a beautiful location, but more than that it is a nurturing environment where I feel comfortable and safe.
To borrow the most apt of phrases, it is as if I have come through an unseen metaphorical door. As if I escaped from a cage to live in freedom. My counsellor was in shock at the speed of the change in me: she had never before seen somebody go from tears and hopelessness in one session to joy and optimism in the next.
I'm not the kind of person who worries that it might all be a dream and on waking I'd be back to the harmful existence I had before. I know this is real, that this is my new life. It feels like a rebirth, even more so than my gender transition. I've broken the shell that confined me, emerged from the egg and I'm stretching my wings.
I've said before that I never managed to live independently. I'm not independent now. Oh, I can feed and wash and clothe myself, and I can do the things that need doing around my home. But I also have a network of friends who I can turn to if I need support. I live by myself but I am not alone.
My friends on Facebook and the people I work with could see how happy I was when I got out of the situation I was living in: a relationship that was ultimately toxic and slowly killing me. I got my drive back, my motivation. I started to enjoy working again. I got up in the mornings feeling ready for the day.
And then, a week ago today, I was sitting here. Well, actually sitting and feeling restless, then getting up and pacing, then trying to sit again. My thoughts going round and round: should I? Should I not? A dilemma: do I tell someone how I feel? Is that fair to them if they don't feel the same way? Might I ruin a friendship? Could it even work?
I talked to my daughter. I talked to a dear friend. I knew what I wanted to do, but I needed to work up the courage to take that chance. The emotions were so powerful that I was overwhelmed. But in the end I sent my message.
And then I waited. Minutes have never passed so slowly, a lifetime between each tick of the clock. They responded! This person I have fallen so much in love with loves me too!!! And so I am flying, lifted high by the joy of love.
Two people who felt some spark between them, who are both starting to grow and learn who they can be at a point in their lives when that had no longer seemed possible. It's a wonderful experience to be sure, but how much better it is, how much more meaningful and joyful when there is somebody with whom to share the journey.