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Excerpt, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, v7: Tempest

On January 12, leading the entire fleet that was under his command, Lutz departed from Iserlohn Fortress. The fleet was composed of more than 15,000 vessels, and the embarkation of this stately swarm of light flecks was picked up by the Yang Fleet right away—though since this was being done for show, that was only natural.

“Admiral Lutz has left Iserlohn.”

On January 13, that report from Bagdash was greeted with cheers and whistles among the crew of the Yang Fleet. Another of “Yang Wen-li’s miracles” was on the verge of coming to pass, and it was how well theyfought that would determine whether or not it came true. Voices rose up calling for an advance celebration, and in no time bottles of whiskey were passing from hand to hand, each soldier drinking in turn.

In the midst of such a cheerful, fearless crew, not even calm, imperturbable Merkatz—whom some even called “the Yang Fleet’s only gentleman”—could maintain the dignified aloofness of his imperial days. Although he just touched his lips to the drink for appearances’ sake, when he awkwardly raised aloft a small flask of whiskey, the applause and the cheers grew even louder, and that was when he opened his mouth with something important to say.

“We have Lutz acting in accordance with our plan, but Lutz must also think that he has us acting according to his plan. He is an outstanding tactician, and the fleet he commands is ten times the size of ours. Unless we can gain control of the fortress before he turns around and overwhelms us, our chance for victory will be lost forever. The battle to capture the fortress will commence immediately. Vice Admiral von Schönkopf, I’d like to ask you to command the front line.”

“You can rest assured, Admiral. Just leave it to me.”

Von Schönkopf saluted, showing not a hint of apprehension. In that year of SE 800, he would turn thirty-six, a graceful gentleman in his prime. Watching him, Julian was remembering Yang’s explanation of the plan to capture the fortress.

“…Lutz is a fine admiral. He understands just how important Iserlohn is, so even if the kaiser orders him to mobilize, it’s possible that he’ll stay put and beg him to reconsider. And even if he departs Iserlohn per the kaiser’s command, there’s no telling when he might catch on to our plan and turn back. That’s why we’re letting him know up front what our plan is. If he sits there and doesn’t mobilize, there’s nothing we can do, but depending on how we leak the intel, we can probably make him think that he’s catching us in a trap. And to catch us in that trap, it will be necessary for him to be a certain distance away from the fortress. The farther away he moves, the easier it gets for our plan to succeed. You may think I’m relying too much on cheap tricks, but cheap tricks are what we need… so that Lutz can see through them…”

Lutz fell splendidly into Yang’s trap. At that time, the orthodox tactician—who under normal circumstances would have led a large force and an impregnable fortress to crush Yang’s group head-on without resorting to stopgap tricks—was 800,000 kilometers from port, watching on the screen of his flagship as the Yang fleet bore down on the fortress.

“They’ve fallen for it, those wandering bandits.”

Kornelias Lutz was hardly what might he called a frivolous man, but just this once, he couldn’t contain the joy that was bubbling up inside him. At long last, Yang Wen-li, that living treasure trove of trickery and ingenious plans, was about to become ensnared in his own trap, and the knee of the Imperial Navy would soon weigh heavily against his neck.

His joy, however, was not to be long-lived. Though he waited and waited, the white column of Thor’s Hammer—the fortress’s main cannon, capable at any moment of erasing those impertinent enemies from the sky at point-blank range—never roared forth. The commanding officer’s eyes were locked on the screen, while behind him, his staff officers were exchanging uneasy and suspicious glances.

“Why isn’t Thor’s Hammer firing?” Lutz shouted. A nervous, agitated sweat dampened the brow of the Imperial Navy’s intrepid admiral. His carefully timed, intricately constructed plan was beginning to collapse like a wall of sand.

On the other side of an 800,000-kilometer void, the tension inside Iserlohn Fortress had rapidly grown into worry, followed by panic. Operators flooded the comm channels with a mixture of screams and curses, and their fingers raced vainly across their keyboards as though they were amateur pianists.

“It isn’t working!”

“No response!”

“Control is not possible!”

Their cries resounded against one another. Numerous transmissions had been broadcast from the rapidly closing Yang Fleet. One of them that Iserlohn’s computers picked up was a string of words no operator could have considered a normal transmission—“For health and beauty, have a cup of tea after every meal”—and in that instant, all defensive systems immediately went down.

Vice Admiral Wöhler, entrusted by Lutz with the vital mission of defending the fortress, could feel something akin to a toothache shooting through his mental circuitry. The sense of victory he had felt up until a moment ago had been purged from his body, replaced by the oppressive weight of a nightmare presaging doom.

“Break off computer control and switch over to manual! Fire Thor’s Hammer at all costs!” The orders caught in his throat, and wouldn’t easily leave his mouth.

Despair transformed into sound, and leapt from the operator’s mouth.

“It’s no good, Commander! It’s impossible!”

Understanding and terror invaded Vice Admiral Wöhler’s right and left lungs, and finding it increasingly hard to breathe, he sat there frozen in the command seat.

That keyword for disabling the fortress defenses had been the seed of Yang Wen-li’s magic trick—one he had planted one year ago, when he had fled from the fortress. Even so, what an absurd pass phrase! For his part, Yang felt he had worked very hard to come up with an utterance that carried no risk of being used in Iserlohn’s official transmissions during the next few years—although not even he could have put up a strong argument for it in terms of stylishness and taste.

Clearly, there had to be another phrase to unlock the systems, but as a practical problem, discovering it was an impossibility.

When the Imperial Navy had recovered Iserlohn, a large number of ultra-low-frequency bombs had been discovered. It had been believed that the fleeing Free Planets’ forces had tried and failed to detonate the fortress. However, when he thought about it now, that had actually been an exceedingly clever feint, designed to divert the Imperial Navy’s eyes from the real trap.

“The enemy is about to storm the port!”

“Close the gates! Don’t let them inside!”

Although the order was given, the reply was not hard to guess. When he heard the operator’s cry that the gates couldn’t he closed, Wöhler stood up from the command seat, and gave the order to prepare for hand-to-hand combat. The air inside the fortress vibrated with the sound of alarms.

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Elfriede stirred on the sofa. The evergreen oak door opened, and the master of the von Reuentahl residence cast his tall shadow across the floor. With his mismatched eyes, the man who’d taken Elfriede’s virginity admired her cream-colored hair and fresh limbs.

“I’m touched. It seems you haven’t run away after all.”

“It’s not as if I’ve done anything wrong. Why would I need to run away?”

“You’re a criminal who tried to kill the secretary-general of the Imperial Navy’s Supreme Command Headquarters. I could have you executed on the spot. The fact that I haven’t put you in chains should tell you what a forgiving man I can be.”

“I’m not a habitual criminal like all of you.”

One couldn’t wound the pride of a veteran hero with such cynicism and get away with it. The young admiral with the heterochromatic eyes let out a short, derisive laugh. He closed the door behind him and made his slow approach. His ferocity and grace were in perfect harmony. Ignoring his intention, the woman’s eyes were drawn to him. When she came to her senses, her right wrist was firmly in his grasp.

“Such a beautiful hand,” he said, his breath reeking of alcohol. “I’ve been told my mother’s hands were also beautiful, as if carved from the finest ivory. She never once used those hands for anyone but herself. The first time she picked up her own son, she tried to stab him in the eye with a knife. That was the last time she ever touched me.”

Caught in von Reuentahl’s attractive gaze of gold and silver, Elfriede held her breath for a moment.

“Such a pity! Even your own mother knew her son would one day commit treason. She threw her feelings aside and took matters into her own hands. If only I had an ounce of her bravery. That such a splendid mother could give birth to such an unworthy son!”

“With a little adjustment, we could use that as your epitaph.”

Von Reuentahl released Elfriede’s white hand and brushed back the dark-brown hair hanging over his forehead. The sensation of his hand remained as a hot ring on the woman’s wrist. Von Reuentahl leaned his tall frame against a wall tapestry, deep in thought.

“I just don’t get it. Is it so terrible losing the privileges you had until your father’s generation? It’s not like your father or grandfather worked to earn those privileges. All they did was run around like children.”

Elfriede swallowed her response.

“Where’s the justice in that lifestyle? Noblemen are institutionalized thieves. Haven’t you ever noticed that? If taking something by force is evil, then how is taking something by one’s inherited authority any different?”

Von Reuentahl stood upright from the wall, his expression deflated.

“I thought you were better than that. What a turnoff. Get out, right now, and find yourself a man more ‘worthy’ of you. Some dimwit who clings to a bygone era in which his comfortable little life would’ve been guaranteed by authority and law. But before that, I have one thing to say.”

The heterochromatic admiral banged the wall with his fist, enunciating every word.

“There’s nothing uglier or lowlier in this world than gaining political authority regardless of ability or talent. Even an act of usurpation is infinitely better. In that case, at least one makes a real effort to gain that authority, because he knows it wasn’t his to begin with.”

Elfriede remained on the sofa, a seated tempest.

“I get it,” she spat out, her voice filled with heat lightning. “You’re just a regular rebel to the bone, aren’t you?! If you think you have so much ability and talent, then why not have a go at it yourself? Sooner or later, your conceit will compel you to go against your present lord.”

Elfriede ran out of breath and sank into silence. Von Reuentahl changed his expression. With renewed interest, he gazed at this woman who’d tried to kill him. A few seconds of silence passed before he spoke.

“The emperor is nine years younger than I am, and yet he holds the entire universe in his own hands. I may harbor animosity toward the Goldenbaum royal family and the noble elite, but I lack the backbone to overthrow the dynasty itself. There’s no way I could ever be a match for him.”

As he turned his back on the woman struggling to find her retort, von Reuentahl left the salon in stride. Elfriede watched as his broad-shouldered silhouette receded, but she suddenly turned away, having caught herself waiting for this abominable man to look back over his shoulder. Her gaze was fixed on an unremarkable oil painting and stayed that way for ten seconds. When she finally looked back, the master of the house was gone. Elfriede had no idea whether von Reuentahl had indeed looked back at her.

It’s the LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES giveaway contest!

To celebrate the release of Legend of the Galactic Heroes v4: Stratagem, we are doing a giveaway contest, and a special one. We’re giving away copies of v2, v3, or v4 to one of four lucky winners. (Winners’ choice, of course!)  We’ve not done giveaways for the prior volumes of LOGH for the simple reason that many people were eager for the series—word of mouth is the best marketing tool. But as we are almost halfway through the series now, we wanted to remind fans who may have read the first volume that it is continuing, and at a rapid pace. We’re here to help you keep track and catch up!

The contest is a simple one: in the form of a comment to this point, write about your favorite science fiction series: it can be a set of novels, films, comics, manga, pulp stories from the Golden Age, what have you—just make sure it’s science fiction and a series. Tell is why it’s your favorite, and what the series element of it brings to you as a reader. (And as we’re publishers here, we probably will have a bias toward novel series.) You can submit in English, Spanish, Japanese, or Greek, and on Friday we’ll announce four winners! Pick the volume you need and we’ll send it your way. And yes, we ship worldwide.

So, favorite SF series and why? Ready, go!

It’s the LEGEND OF THE GALACTIC HEROES giveaway contest!

We know you’re excited. Get more excited. Our Legend of the Galactic Heroes, v1: Dawn product page is up, and our friends at io9.com are running an excerpt today. So, now it’s time to channel that excitement into the possibility of a few copy of the book!

We’re giving away six copies of Dawn, and it’s easy to win. Just leave a brief essay, or poem, on the comments of this post, basically flipping out at us about how much you love LOGH. You can talk about the anime, the manga, your attempts to learn Japanese to read the books, dreams you’ve had, how you think it compares to other space operas…whatever you like. The six best essays and/or poems will get free copies! We read English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, and Greek around here, and we ship anywhere, so please try! We’ll announce the winners around noon, Pacific time, on Friday, March 4th.

Sound good? Get typin’!

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Guns & Ammo Network

Tactics & Training

What Really Happens In A Gunfight?

by Dave Spaulding   |  September 24th, 2010 8

The conclusions from twenty-five years of lethal force investigation.

Most lethal confrontations occur in bad light, Criminals like the dark. This complicates and confuses the situation.

Like many serious students of personal defense, I constantly update my knowledge of what actually happens when one is faced with a deadly threat. The best way to do this, at least to my way of thinking, is to talk with the folks who have been there. This means talking to gunfight survivors, getting their perspective on what transpired at the moment of truth. It only makes sense that by talking to those who have won in life’s ultimate contest, to see what they saw, felt and heard, the rest of us will be better able to understand what to expect and how to prepare for it.

There are some who question such an approach, saying that the mind often does not “record” events clearly, which I admit does have some merit. I can remember working as a violent crime detective and taking witness statements from not only the victim of a particular crime, but also from people who witnessed the event. The discrepancies between what the various people saw and heard can sometimes be quite dramatic. These discrepancies are due to the shock effect that such an incident has on the witness’ psyche.

Most people who witness a violent event (such as a crime in progress) are not accustomed to violent acts. Crime witnesses have told me that they always thought a violent attack would look like the antiseptic event as portrayed by television. When a bystander witnesses blood, victim screams, pandemonium and the shear violence of the real thing, they are taken back and oftentimes tell themselves, “This can’t be happening; this can’t be real.” This denial state will certainly interfere with their re-telling of events.

Unfortunately, this same attitude and level of perception is also the norm with crime victims, oftentimes resulting in a deadly lag time. Criminals and terrorists know this and believe me, they use it. Additionally, criminal attacks tend to happen in times of reduced light (predators like the dark), and the human eye does not function as well when the light is low, further clouding the witness perception of the event. I have interviewed people who were just a few yards from a crime and cannot remember what type of weapon was used in the attack. Interestingly, this is usually due not to low light, but to inconsistent light. While what the perpetrator was doing was clear, his face, hands or other actions are often cast in shadows by the inconsistent light at the scene. Think about the environment that you live in. How often is there a totally dark environment? Isn’t there usually a street or house light that lights up an area with darkness all around? Look down an alley sometime.

It is likely that you will see a lighted area but with dark spots, like the shadowed area behind a nearby dumpster. This inconsistent light environment is very real and is a factor in armed confrontations. Police officers have told me of incidents where they left their flashlight behind because they were working the day shift and they didn’t need a light because the sun was out. Then they get into a situation where they need to look into a dark closet, alcove or basement and they just can’t see well enough. Being able to see well is critical.

Perception is a funny thing, but it is really all that we have when trying to investigate such events. The human mind is not infallible…actually it is easily tricked. There are any number of magicians and illusionist who are making a good living making people think they saw something they did not. Unless a video camera is running at the time of the event (which is happening more and more), then the testimony of the participants is still the best indicator of what transpired. This is still the standard for our court system and I feel that it will remain a big part of defense research for years to come.

Even the video camera does not always tell a complete story. Quite often, what the viewer sees is not necessarily what actually transpired. For example, a student of mine was involved in one of the most publicized shoot-outs in recent history. In this case, this young deputy assisted a state trooper on a traffic stop that turned out to involve two domestic terrorists who were also murder suspects in another state. The fight took place at very close range and fortunately, the deputy was not hit. Unfortunately, neither was the suspect who then became the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

After the trial was over and the court imposed “gag order” was lifted, I was able to talk with the deputy at length. I was quite gratified when he told me, “Lieutenant, everything that you told us in the basic academy was true. It happened just like you said it would. I felt that I was very well prepared for what happened.” We instructors live for such moments; they make all of the frustration worthwhile. I then went on to ask him a battery of questions that I had asked so many others over the years, feeling that I already knew the answers since I had watched the video over and over again. It was at this point that I found out that my eyes had not seen what really happened. I said, “I was glad to see after the initial exchange that you moved behind the engine block of your cruiser to take cover.”

Changing light conditions aggravated by muzzle flash and loud noise all add to the confusion of a gunfight.

His response to this was surprising, “I didn’t take cover, I fell down and it was the scariest part of the whole situation. Here I was in the middle of a gunfight and I was flat on my back. I was terrified that I was going to get shot in the butt. I felt so helpless. What you told us in the academy about not trying to walk backwards was so true.” This and other such incidents have made me realize that videos do not necessarily tell the whole story. It is essential to interview the participants.

Over the last 25 I have made it a point to talk with every gunfight survivor that I could find. Last count, I had spoken with almost 200 individuals. These people include men and women, military (including war veterans), law enforcement and legally armed citizens. These confrontations include battlefield situations, back alley struggles, attempted muggins, attempted rapes (and successful rapes) and the like.

Right after I started my law enforcement career, a local police officer was involved in a shooting incident. I had the opportunity to speak with him and found myself fascinated with his accounting of what transpired. Afterward, I thought that what had happened to him could happen to me and I needed to be better prepared than he had.

So I undertook this project to educate myself on what happens during lethal encounters. At every opportunity, I sought out others and asked them what happened. I then developed a list of questions and included them in my interview process. I did not try and make this process “scientific” as it was for my own edification. Once I got involved in defensive skills instruction, I began to rely on what I was told to develop my lesson plans and decide what I should teach. Over time, I have found this approach to be quite reliable.

I began to seek training from the best and most famous firearms instructors and was concerned when what I had learned sometimes conflicted with what they taught. On one occasion, I spoke with one of these well-known instructors and inquired about a discrepancy regarding a technique he taught based on what I had been told. He looked at me and said, “Young man, I have been teaching this technique around the world with a great deal of success. I’m not going to change now based on a few war stories.” This technique was one of this instructor’s flagship techniques. It was quite clear that he was not going to let reality get in his way.

Gunfights are high-stress situations that are often aggravated by one being taken by surprise and caught flat-footed.

Several weeks ago, I was talking with Handguns editor Dave Arnold about this same topic. When I told him of some of the trends that I had seen, he asked me to write an article about the myths of gun fighting. I had a few reservations about this, as I never intended to do this. I have not catalogued it, nor have I tried to put percentages on how often something happens. Quite frankly, there seems to be no set pattern on what people remember about their confrontation. What I have found, however, is that there are certain trends that seem to occur, in some fashion, over and over again. With this is mind, I agreed to Dave’s request to report on what I have been told. I am not trying to go head to head with the research of others, nor am I trying to become the guru of gun fighting. It is information that the reader may use as they see fit. If it helps someone somewhere, that’s great.

One of the great controversies of gun fighting has long been whether or not people can use their sights during the high stress of a gunfight. First, let me say that some version of point shooting needs to be taught in any defensive handgun course. There are going to be times when pointing the gun at someone close will be a necessity, period. However, I am not convinced that it is impossible to see the sights in a gun battle. This being the case, I always ask the people I interview if they remember seeing their sights during their confrontation. I know that there are different scientific studies explaining how it is impossible to see the sights on a pistol during an armed confrontation. Recently, AO Sight System released a document entitled “Factors Influencing Visibility of Firearm Sights During BAR” (BAR meaning body alarm reaction) in which author Dr. Edward C. Godnig claims that it is possible “to maintain visual awareness of the ‘sight picture’.” I, too, have found this to be the case, but it is dependent on several factors. The first is whether or not the subject in question was caught unaware and the startle response kicked in. When startled, people will respond out of fear and panic, which usually does not result in the desired outcome.

The biggest factor during a startle response is luck. While luck will always be a factor in every confrontation, I am not convinced that we should make it a factor in our training. When statements are made such as, “I’m not going to be able to use the sights anyway, why spend training time using them?” It is almost as if we are expecting to be caught unaware and allowing luck to be the deciding factor. Clint Smith has said, “When you get up close you don’t have to be good, you just have to be lucky,” which is certainly true. Maybe the answer to this problem is not to be worried about whether or not to use sights, but to concentrate on being “switched on” to what is going on around you.

Without fail, the people who remember seeing or using their front sight are the ones who were prepared to engage in combat. Good examples of this are soldiers on the field of battle or SWAT cops who know going in that they are quite likely to shoot. These folks kept sights in their “cone of vision” and relied on them when a hostile target was encountered. I have also experienced this phenomenon while working narcotics for a number of years. Prior to raids and vehicle takedowns, I would visualize in my head what I planned on doing, including where my firearm would be. This position would always be some type of high ready position where the gun and its sights were within my “cone.” I found that during the operation itself, that when I encountered potential hostiles, I could shift between the actions of the suspect and the location of my front sight with little problem. The big difference here is that I was “prepared” to engage and not caught in startlement. Awareness is as important to gun fighting as is trigger control.

Along these same lines, the speed of the event is also reported frequently. While it is common knowledge that people report a sense of slow motion during an armed confrontation, there are also people who say, “It happened so fast, I just couldn’t get caught up.” While some may relate this to being startled, I’m not sure that the speed of the event and startle response is one in the same thing. Being startled is being caught flat footed and not being able to get in the fight quickly enough. The people I have spoken with report that their aggressor was fast, moved quickly and aggressively, moved with purpose, and inhibited rational, controlled thought on their part. One person told me that they actually were aware of their attacker’s presence and were preparing to respond, but when the attack came, it just happened faster than they thought it would. This same person asked me, “What happened to all this slow motion s**t that I’ve heard about? This guy moved at warp speed.” Add to this trying to draw a gun, necessary movement, muzzle flash and other related things and, well, speed kills.

For many years, we have been taught that armed confrontations occur at very close distances (often times at arm’s length), that few shots are fired and the person involved usually misses. These statistics were compiled from the FBI’s Officer Killed Summary, which are released on an annual basis. Note that the operative word here is killed; these are officers that lost their confrontation. Have you ever wondered what happened with the officers that won? Did they do anything different to help ensure they would prevail?

Being able to see one’s assailant and being clearly able to identify them as a lethal threat is very important to avoid liability.

In 1992, veteran police officer Dick Fairburn, now a trai
ner for the Illinois State Police, was commissioned by the Police Marksmen Association to answer this very question. Mr. Fairburn’s original quest was to try and answer the stopping power debate of the time, in which he failed because the database of 241 shooting incidents was too small. However, what he did develop were some interesting trends that showed what officers did when they won the confrontation. One of the most interesting was the distances involved. While the FBI statistics show distances as being around ten feet, the PMA study showed the average distance being more like twenty. This makes sense, as distance will favor the person with the most training. This relates directly back to awareness as the sooner you see trouble coming, the more time you have to prepare for war. The PMA study also shows that the hit ratio per encounter was closer to 62 percent instead of the often-reported 18 percent. The history of gun fighting for more than a century has shown that the person that lands the first solid hit will usually win the confrontation. Hitting is hard to do without preparation and relying on luck is an invitation to disaster.

While talking with the people that I have interviewed, I could not help but notice that the people who performed the best (and could also remember the best) were the ones who were able to keep control of him or her self. Many remember getting control of their breathing and using this to fuel their inner drive. Those who could get control and overcome the startle response were able to handle the situation. Many of these folks reported that they were not surprised, but were angered by the audacity of the person trying to attack them. It appears that those who became angered were able to channel the chemicals flowing into their system into fight instead of flight or freeze. Many advised that they had taken the time to think about what they would do in the event they were attacked and had even played out scenarios in their head. It is clear that this role-playing or visualization prepared them to take action with little lag time. For years this has been called if/then thinking. For my students, I tell the to think of it as when/then thinking.

The other trend that I have noted in regards to the use of sights is the actual configuration of the sight itself. I have noted two distinct categories of individuals who remember using their sights; they are those that used long guns and those that used a revolver. The reason for the long gun use of sights seems to be directly related to responding as one is trained. All that I spoke with advised that when they saw the threat facing them, they brought the gun up until their cheek connected with the stock and the fired. None of the people I spoke with advised that they had ever been taught to fire their rifle or shotgun from the hip. When asked why they remember their sights, a common response was, “Because they were shoved up in front of my face.”

Revolver shooters continuously told me things like, “I remember that big red (or orange, or green) front sight coming right up in front of my eyes and laying right on his chest.” For those of us who broke into defensive shooting using revolvers, we can remember how well that red front insert contrasted with the wide black rear sight on our Smith & Wesson Model 66 or Ruger Security-Six. Those of us who did not have such an insert would usually paint our front sight with some high visibility color. Think about what is now available on semi-automatic pistols. We now have to line up three dots or we have to place a dot on top of a bar, all of which I believe is too complicated for our eyes to do quickly. The revolvers simple, but contrasting, sight system was easy for the eyes to use under stress.

Fear and panic are reduced by preparation and an awareness of potential danger.

Dr. Godnig reports on this phenomenon, “Contrast of a target is a critical variable directly related to ease of visibility. Contrast corresponds to the ability to discriminate a dark visual image from a lighter visual image within a total visual surrounding. In general terms, contrast is the relationship between the lighting intensity of two adjacent areas. A dark image, approaching black (having no reflected light) is most easily seen next to a white (reflecting all light) background. Shades of gray that mostly resemble each other in light intensity and reflection are most difficult to visually discriminate and separate because the contrast values are most similar.” Dr. Godnig also states, “Size of an object is related to visibility because relatively larger image sizes have the potential to stimulate more retinal cells inside the eye resulting in higher numbers of cones and rods sending information via the optic nerve to the brain for visual information processing.” Objects that are large and of contrasting color are easier to see under stress, which makes the current generation of semi-auto sights on the wrong end of the sight plane. I, for one, have highlighted the front sight of all my pistols with bright orange emergency warning tape. It offers a contrast that is large and bold and I feel is the reason that I can recall my sights during high stress events.

Another area that I address with the people I interview is the subject of bullet effectiveness. Like many, I am interested in whether one caliber is better than another or whether hollow point ammo is more effective than full metal jacket. Truly, the most important thing in all this is where you hit your opponent. I have spoken with a little old lady who severed the aorta of a home invader with a FMJ .32 while, at the same time, talking to a police officer that could not stop a knife-wielding assailant with five rounds of .45 ACP hollow-point. As a matter of fact, many of the people that I spoke with continued to fire until the threat was no longer in front of their gun. Think about the time it takes for gravity to pull a 200-pound male to the ground. As a matter of fact, time it for yourself.

Lay a mattress on the floor and just collapse on it. It will take between one and two seconds to hit the floor. A lot of rounds can be fired in one to two seconds. Dr. Vincent DiMaio, a noted pathologist and author of the book Gunshot Wounds, has been quoted as saying the stopping power comes from, “Where you hit the person and how many times you can hit them.”

Interestingly, few people remember taking notice of any immediate effects of their bullet strikes. Some reported that they expected small chest explosions like they saw in the movies and were surprised when that did not happen. Some recall the suspect’s shirt puckering or moving, but most have no recollection of any bullet strikes. Most of the people I spoke with remember shooting and then their opponent “just not being there any more.” At the same time, gunfight survivors who are shot vary greatly in their recollection of what happened when they were shot. People, who are shot in the leg, unless a bone is hit, take less notice than other areas of the body that are hit. People who are shot in the chest remember being slammed or being punched at the time. How they handled the impact seems to fall totally on how much anger and resolve they felt at the time they were shot. Doctors and emergency medical technicians have told me over the years that if you are not killed instantly by a gun shot wound (a vital organ bein
g hit) or bleed out in a few very short moments, you probably will not die from your wound.

The most dramatic wound that I ever personally saw involved a woman who was shot in the head by a .357 Magnum. I was a patrol deputy and responded to a public housing project on the report of a shooting. I arrived at the same time as the medic crew and found a white female sitting on the sofa with a dimpled hole in her forehead.

There was a similar wound on the back of her head. As I spoke to her at the scene (to find out who shot her, not to further my personal research) I was told that she had been in an argument with her live-in boyfriend when he picked up a snub-nosed .357 revolver and shot her in the forehead. She advised that her head, “Slammed back and I fell back onto the sofa. I have been sitting here ever since. I have a big head ache.” It later turned out that the 158-grain jacketed semi-wadcutter bullet used in the shooting had spilt the lobes of her brain finer than any surgeon could have hoped to. The bullet left a hole in the rear of her skull, which was patched in some way. This victim was released from the hospital and then refused to testify against her boyfriend. (“I still love him.”) He was prosecuted anyway. This incident remains one of the strangest things that I have ever seen.

It is safe to say that the larger the bullet, the more effective it will be. I do not feel that it is a real dramatic difference, but bigger is better. At the same time, it is safe to say that hollow-point ammo is more effective than ball. This seems to be the result not of expansion, but from the bullet’s energy being dumped in the body and not exiting.

While not trying to place a percentage on how often they will be effective with one or two shots, I have seen certain rounds be effective over and over again. They are the .38 Special 158-grain lead hollow-point; 9mm +P+ jacketed hollow-point; .40 155- and 165-grain jacketed hollow-point; .45 ACP hollow-points; .223 55 grain FMJ and hollow-point; 12 gauge 00 buckshot; and 12 gauge rifled slugs.

The author believes one reason why many do not see their sights in a gun fight is because the low profile front sights of many of today’s auto pistols (left) are not as prominent as those of revolvers (right).

The various phases of body alarm reaction that have been discussed over the years such as tunnel vision, slow motion movement, loss of digital dexterity and the like, were all recalled by the subjects interviewed. None of the people I spoke with remember suffering all phases, but everyone remembers suffering at least one of the sensations listed under the category of body alarm reaction. Those that understood what was happening to them better handled the sensation during the encounter versus the people who did not. Without a doubt, forewarned is forearmed.

Finally, how did these people feel after the incident was over and they were the victor? Again, a wide variety of responses are reported. There are those who survived only by sheer luck and actually had little input into their own survival. These people were “horrified” by what happened and what they had to do and will never be the same person that they were prior to the incident. These folks all seem to share one common trait–they thought that nothing could ever happen to them. They are life’s sheep and felt that criminal attacks happened to others or to society’s underbelly. It should be noted that some “gun shop commandos” or “gun bullies,” regardless of their outward bravado, fall into this category.

The other extreme, those who are totally comfortable with what they did, have no doubt in their justification to do so and have suffered no side effects whatsoever. These people tend to be those who are confident and well adjusted in their everyday life. They took the time to think about what may be, without dwelling on it, and made proper mental and physical preparations. The majority fall somewhere in the middle, what I call the compassionate survivor.

These folks regret having to take action against another human (it is not normal in the animal kingdom to prey on one’s own species. Mankind seem to have the patent on this), but they realize that if they had not, they would have been seriously hurt or killed. Some have a period of physical and mental distress, but it passes and they go on to live productive lives.

Where most survivors are taken off guard is what happens in the court system. Few (including police officers) are prepared for the grand jury and court system. While they think they understand what will happen, few actually do. Others are amazed that the relatives of “the lowlife” who attacked them are suing them. The process is, “Hey, I am the good guy here. This person attacked me and I just defended myself. How can these people possibly sue me?” People can sue for anything and they will–be prepared for it.

Take this information for what it is worth. I’m not trying to dispute research that has already been published, nor am I trying to take on any specific group or theory. This is merely what I have been told by a little fewer than 200 survivors. Take it for what it is worth and use it as you please.

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Difference between revisions of "Cleanup after inlay, and final blank sizing"

From Monkey Wiki, a guide to snowboard construction
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[[Category:Core shaping]]
[[Category:Core shaping]]
[[Category:Edited - Needs Review]]

Latest revision as of 23:57, 20 May 2012

After the glue has dried, the core blank has to be cleaned up quite a bit. The excess glue must be scraped away, and the blank has to be smoothed completely on both sides using a planer. In order to get a good first pass out of the planer, any high spots on the ash and PTEX need to be shaved down by hand with a block plane. Once the blank is finished in the planer, the base side is pretty much finished. No further smoothing is done on it, and it must be perfectly flat. I take great care to keep the planer in good working order, and I make sure the final passes on the base side are light. This gives me a high quality finish.

I love the way our blanks look at this stage. They’re perfectly smooth, and the PTEX and 2cm ash along the effective edge is perfectly smooth. It’s usually at this point that I get sad that the beauty of these cores is obscured in the final product.

After this step, the blank is still thicker than the final thickness of the board. The thickness profile will be applied by the CNC machine in a later step.

The planer I use is a JET 15” planer, which is wide enough to accommodate the width of a snowboard core blank. You could use a smaller planer if you’re making skis.


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Cinnamon's Healthy Nutrition Benefits

Cinnamon is useful during all seasons, but fall conjures up images of hot cocoa with whipped cream and powdered cinnamon sprinkled on top, or a hot cup of tea with a cinnamon stick. And who can forget cinnamon toast, something my grandmother and mother gave us as children...a little butter, a little sugar, and a little cinnamon sprinkled on the top. At that time, I thought of cinnamon as a seasoning, but studies show us that it is much more.

"We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar; one was the American favorite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. We expected it to be bad. But it helped," he says.

The active ingredient in cinnamon turned out to be a water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. In test tube experiments, MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin in cells.
To see if it would work in people, Alam Khan, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Anderson's lab, organized a study in Pakistan. Volunteers with Type 2 diabetes were given one, three or six grams of cinnamon powder a day, in capsules after meals.
 All responded within weeks, with blood sugar levels that were on average 20 per cent lower than a control group. Some even achieved normal blood sugar levels. Tellingly, blood sugar started creeping up again after the diabetics stopped taking cinnamon.

In the volunteers, the Cinnamon also lowered blood levels of fats and "bad" cholesterol, which are also partly controlled by insulin. And in test tube experiments it neutralized free radicals, damaging chemicals which are elevated in diabetics.

Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida.

In a study, published in the August 2003 issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, the addition of just a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to approximately 3 ounces of carrot broth, which was then refrigerated, inhibited the growth of the food borne pathogenic Bacillus cereus for at least 60 days. When the broth was refrigerated without the addition of cinnamon oil, the pathogenic B. cereus flourished despite the cold temperature. In addition, researchers noted that the addition of cinnamon not only acted as an effective preservative but improved the flavor of the broth.

Research led by Dr. P. Zoladz and presented April 24, 2004, at the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, in Sarasota, FL, found that chewing cinnamon flavored gum or just smelling cinnamon enhanced study participants' cognitive processing. Specifically, cinnamon improved participants' scores on attention related processes, virtual recognition memory, working memory, and visual-motor speed while working on a computer-based program.

In addition to the active components in its essential oils and its nutrient composition, cinnamon has also been valued in energy-based medical system, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), for its warming qualities.  In these traditions, cinnamon has been used to provide relief when faced with the onset of a cold or flu, especially when mixed in tea with some fresh ginger.

Since publishing this page I have been contacted and reminded the Cinnamon is also known for its ability to regulate menstrual flow in women.  I also received a comment that excessive amounts of Cinnamon can be toxic, but I didn't receive any supporting evidence as to how much.  If anyone has such information, please let me know.  But taken in amounts suggested, I would think all will be fine.  Too much of anything is generally not a good thing.

TIP:  Simmer a few cinnamon sticks in water while your kids are doing their homework - this will also serve as wonderful yet non-toxic air freshener for your home as well as enhance cognitive processing.

Updated 1/17/13

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July 11th, 2012

Four Seasons bets big on Baltimore

By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY

With a sleek, rooftop infinity pool and bar dispensing trendy cocktails and hourly treats such as frozen grapes, sun-glass cleaning and Evian water spritzes, you could confuse the newest Four Seasons for another hotel in one of the luxury chain’s more glamorous destinations.

Add to the mix 250 guest rooms and suites with fancy bathrooms, rich walnut finishes and floor-to-ceiling windows; panoramic water views; a full-service spa; two distinct restaurants by celebrity chef Michael Mina, and it’s clear that with this hotel, Four Seasons is making a big bet on Baltimore.

Read full article


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Link Page

There are many other organizations and initiatives that wish to address the problem of troubled youths. This is the reason why we want to include them in our research and advice giving. We find it useful to include a plurality of arguments and notions in other to best see the developments in the field. Sometimes these findings can be contradictory to our own, and sometimes they can complement them. This does not mean that we wish to exclude those that don’t think like us. Since there is no ideal solution for the problem of troubled youth, we can give our self the space to hear others and to look at the variations in order to fully understand these phenomena in our children’s lives. This is why we want to include links to other sites and organizations that we think can be of use to you in your child’s journey.


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PUPLyricVidScreen PUP came out of no where in 2014. They released their self-titled debut album, which was highly lauded by all the music editorial bigwigs, played 250 shows throughout the US, Australia, Canada and Europe, and solidified themselves as one of the year's undoubted "buzz bands".

Now, the Canadian punks are readying their follow-up, releasing a brand new video for a song they released late last month dubbed “DVP”.  The track is a rip-roaring taste of the band's slightly heavier and definitely more aggressive sound. Directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, the video shows the track's lyrics playfully worked into footage from classic videogames such as Punch-Out!!Super Mario Bros.Mega ManPokémonMortal Kombat and a wealth of others.

"The four of us grew up in the golden-age of spastic, seizure inducing video games (see: the '90s)," vocalist Stefan Babcock said in a press release. "Our best bud Jeremy had the idea to smash together scenes from some of our favourite games in a hot pile of ADHD-insanity. Turns out that pairs really well with our music. Go figure."

Watch the video below.


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 Hbgmag.com | Young ASMODA - forum
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The elegance in the behavior
For: D. Rafael Etcheverría
Often the concept of “elegance“ usually makes a mistake in the world of the fashion. Today, everything is labeled of elegantly and, in many cases, it it is not. That's why, from young Asmoda we want to investigate thoroughly on a question of supreme importance. We all want to be elegant but often we know neither what the elegance is not even, nor how it is acquired. Let's see this essay of D. Rafael Etcheverría, I hope it gives us some tracks.

For D. Rafael Etcheverría (digital Magazine Good to Live)

One of the arts most difficult of conquering is the elegance so, how any art, it has rules and becomes polished for the continuous repetition up to achieving the perfection. The elegance does not diminish to fulfilling a fistful of social norms. That would be learned easily and a machine might be "elegant". The elegance is the splendor of the properly human thing, because it is conquered and forms from the only thing that person does to one: the soul.

Although schools, fashions and tendencies exist in the elegance, this one always expresses herself in an individual way, of a such way that one is elegant, morally beautiful and top, and the hour matters or neither the environment nor the activity that we redeem.

The beauty in the behavior our being crowns, since of all the arts of the elegance, the most difficult to dominate is that of the behavior. He says the saying that "although the monkey should dress itself of silk, monkey stays". It is possible to climb economically, it is possible to acquire popular fame, it is possible to live perhaps in the show business and to manage to appear even in the toothbrushes. We even can obtain big fortunes and perhaps some suit of well-known mark. But it does not matter in that area of the city we live not that purchasing power that we possess. The elegance of the behavior is revealed by our intimate being, our culture and worth. It talks each other, in the fund, of mulberry tree, of beauty and of perfection.

This elegance goes, then, much further of the adapted of dressing or of a guessed right social intervention. The authentic elegance is evident being alone or in company of the others, without importing the social or economic status of the one who accompanies us or the ambience in which we move. He is born for himself, without need to be forced by the circumstances. It blooms in the most prosaic questions with so many clarity as in the most noble acts.

How to recognize the elegance?

- For his heroic charity, his dealing considered for with all, without changing for expediencies or tastes. The elegance is attentive and solicitous.

- For his form and way of praising, of stimulating, of promoting the good, beautiful and real things. The elegance is proactive and stimulating. The elegance praises when he might criticize, listens when he might speak, she is quiet being able to say gossip or increase rumors.

- For being capable of dominating a group of angered without raising the voice or in whom it abstains from humiliating the others, being able to do it.

- For the others pay attention, interested by matters that we do not know or they import little for us. There will be elegant who expires with his duty without considering the benefit or the opinion about the others. It is elegant, for example, if it was decided to attend to a call and to answer without asking the one who calls to decide if the dialogue is continued or not.

- For being polite, in contrast to the style change to please the others. The elegance avoids the shame to us of speaking of dineros in an informal chat, as well as of bloody or impressionable matters. The elegance scents our word eliminating the flippancy of cutting words or of bad taste. To think about the vile ones. It will always be elegant to keep silence before a flippancy, making to notice, then, how inopportune or unjust that moment / comment was.

- For being generous. The elegance turns us attentive, smiling, kind, cooperative, valuable. To look at the eyes while they speak to us, to smile at the one whom it tries to please us, excuse a term of abuse, keep silence before a slander, suppress a natural but uncivilized impulse.


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 Hbgmag.com | ASMODA - EVENTS
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For: Mercedes Álvarez
“Coconut, from the rebelliousness to the Chanel legend” it is the storied title for the biography on the young years of the brilliant French seamstress, Gabrielle Chanel, from his years of orphan-asylum in Aubazine until it begins to triumph in Paris. The director of the movie, Anne Fontaine, said that it was trying “to discover the interior Coconut life when it was young, poor, without education, but already with a slightly common impressive personality in a woman of his epoch“.
To reconstruct these young years of Chanel, Fontaine bases on the biography of Edmonde Charles-Roux, L'Irrégulière, in which Coconut – nicknamed this way by a coplilla that alumnus was singing “I have lost Cocó, my dear dog” - is a girl of strong, unconformist genius, although capricious and a little unbalanced, that wants to go out as it is of the poverty without having to marry for it, although, of course, it is not important for him to accumulate and even simultanear lovers.

Two are the masculine replies that help him to obtain it, as they are the millionaire Balsan (Benoît Poelvoorde) and his big love, the Englishman Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola), died prematurely in car accident.

The result is a melancholic and very cynical version on the personality of Cocó and his position with regard to the marriage and the love. Yes it proved to be opposed to the conventionalities and social fashions, and there the actress Audrey Tautou shows all his records in looks, silences and rebelliousnesses, increased by his big similar physicist with the certification Chanel. A curious fact is that proper Audrey Tautou has been an image of the mark only one year ago, for the interest of the French signature to recover this clearly French, slightly diluted style.

The movie is not any marvel. It is slow, sometimes tedious and it is not known very well what Cocó de Fontaine wants really. The photo is simply correct, and perhaps the most notable thing the sugerente staging is, with the beautiful French country. The scriptwriters show, without criticizing it, the hypocrisy of the epoch, the frivolous and amoral way in the diversions of the rich ones or the way of dressing of the women. More they are interested in the reiteration in the sexual tension of the plot, and there manages to make not to come to the public this emotive element that gives him something of soul.

As for the topic of the fashion, it happens on tiptoe. Scarcely it covers the records with some phrase opposite to the corsets, to the brads and frippery or to the pens of the hats – “there look like confectionery meringues on the head”-. Scarcely there is shown the design of the black "fourreau" in the scene of the dance and only a few strokes on the inspiration in the popular elements or in the jerséis of point that so much he liked. The best thing, undoubtedly – although they obviate the decades jump - there is the final scene of the parade of models between mirrors, with one Audrey really radiant Tautou, embedded in his characteristic pearls and in his most famous suit of tweed.

Title role:
Original title: Coconut avant Chanel
Director: Anne Fontaine
Script: Anne Fontaine, Camille Fontaine.
Interpreters: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos.
Producer: Warner BROS France
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Latest Analysis And News

Though there’s increased speak across the prognosis and therapy of frequent temper and mental problems like nervousness and melancholy , there’s still a lot of work to be carried out to raise consciousness. That statement is the focus of this text. That statement is an outright lie. You and Gov. Palin could really feel the ethics violation was much ado about nothing, but you can’t just say with a straight face that the report cleared her of all unethical activity. It specifically didn’t do this; it found she abused her power and violated the Ethics Act. It’s possible you’ll think that is not an enormous deal. Frankly, in contrast together with her gross underqualification for the Vice Presidency, it isn’t. But there’s no doubt that in discussing the conclusions of the report, Palin has repeatedly lied.

WhÐ Âµn Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•u wÐ Â°nt a payday mortgage Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•u Ð¡ÐƒÐ ÂµrtÐ Â°inlÐ¡Ñ“ wÐ Â°nt Ð Ñ•nÐ Âµ thÐ Â°t iÐ¡â€¢ simple Ð Â°nd stress free. ThÐ ÂµrÐ Âµ rÐ ÂµÐ Â°llÐ¡Ñ“ Ð¡ÐƒÐ Ñ•uldn’t bÐ Âµ Ð Â°n easier wÐ Â°Ð¡Ñ“ tÐ Ñ• gÐ Âµt Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•ur money mortgage thÐ Â°n with a faxless payday cash advance. ThÐ Âµ Ð Ñ•thÐ Âµr great point Ð Â°bÐ Ñ•ut thÐ ÂµÐ¡â€¢Ð Âµ loans whÐ Âµn Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•u apply fÐ Ñ•r thÐ Âµm online iÐ¡â€¢ thÐ Â°t thÐ ÂµÐ¡Ñ“ Ð Â°rÐ Âµ completely safe. ThÐ Âµ network thrÐ Ñ•ugh whiÐ¡Ðƒh thÐ ÂµÐ¡â€¢Ð Âµ types Ð Â°rÐ Âµ submitted online iÐ¡â€¢ safe Ð¡â€¢Ð Ñ• thÐ ÂµrÐ Âµ rÐ ÂµÐ Â°llÐ¡Ñ“ iÐ¡â€¢ nÐ Ñ• nÐ ÂµÐ Âµd nÐ Ñ•t tÐ Ñ• make thÐ Âµ mÐ Ñ•Ð¡â€¢t Ð Ñ•f hÐ Ñ•w straightforward trendy expertise hÐ Â°Ð¡â€¢ made things fÐ Ñ•r us.

A payday money mortgage iÐ¡â€¢ a short-time period mortgage, in mÐ Ñ•Ð¡â€¢t states frÐ Ñ•m Ð¡â€¢Ð ÂµvÐ Âµn tÐ Ñ• thirty-one days, whiÐ¡Ðƒh Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•u Ð¡ÐƒÐ Â°n uÐ¡â€¢Ð Âµ tÐ Ñ• cowl Ð¡â€¢Ð Ñ•mÐ Âµ emergency expenses whilÐ Âµ waiting fÐ Ñ•r Ð¡Ñ“Ð Ñ•ur nÐ Âµxt paycheck. In Ð¡â€¢Ð Ñ•mÐ Âµ states, thÐ Âµ lenders hÐ Â°vÐ Âµ tÐ Ñ• bÐ Âµ licensed in order tÐ Ñ• Ð¡Ð‚rÐ Ñ•vidÐ Âµ Ð¡â€¢uÐ¡Ðƒh service, whilÐ Âµ in others, thÐ ÂµÐ¡Ñ“ dÐ Ñ• nÐ Ñ•t nÐ ÂµÐ Âµd a license, but Ð Â°lmÐ Ñ•Ð¡â€¢t Ð ÂµvÐ ÂµrÐ¡Ñ“whÐ ÂµrÐ Âµ thÐ ÂµÐ¡Ñ“ hÐ Â°vÐ Âµ tÐ Ñ• comply with Ð¡ÐƒÐ ÂµrtÐ Â°in laws Ð Â°nd rules. ThÐ Âµ mÐ Ñ•Ð¡â€¢t widespread most quantity Ð Â°Ð¡ÐƒrÐ Ñ•Ð¡â€¢Ð¡â€¢ thÐ Âµ states iÐ¡â€¢ $500, but Ð¡ÐƒÐ ÂµrtÐ Â°in states allow larger payday cash advance quantities Ð Â°Ð¡â€¢ well.

I read the report and it’s absolutely clear that Sarah and Todd Palin abused the ability of Alaka’s top executive place to pressure subordinates to fireplace their ex-brother-in-law. They both used the governor’s office, the governor’s workers, government resources to settle a private vandetta. She can fireplace whoever she needs however she can’t strain her subordinates to conduct in illegal activities. If Monegan would have fired Wooten due the stress Monegan would have broke the regulation and been charged with a misdemeanor.

Nobody said anything about “acquittal” – because no formal fees were even filed against her – the Legislature merely hired an outside occasion to report again on his findings. Gov. Palin is just not lying about the findings. And, neither is the “pressuring Monegan to fireside Wooten” allegation was not a “separate charge of misconduct” (because it was specifically included within the Report, saying EVEN WHEN SHE PRESSURED MONEGAN, it was not the only real cause he was fired and, due to this fact, correct and lawful).


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Refers to a covering that replaces a major part or the whole of a tooth’s crown. A crown is different from a filling because it often comprises a large portion, if not the entire natural crown of a tooth. There are a variety of dental crowns used, including those that cover an entire tooth, or those placed on a tooth to act as a support for a dental prosthesis such as a fixed denture. Dental crowns can give support to a weakened tooth and also improve the cosmetic quality of a tooth that has been discolored or decayed with time. Crowns are often referred to as "caps."
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That His name be great among the nations

Malachi 1:11

Nicolas Serrano.Teaching07.JPGIt appears we have another case of a conversion among us: a young Brazilian man who is in Rosario studying medicine. He came to our church as a result of the personal evangelism of one of our members. He is a professing Evangelical, the son of a former pastor, who believed at least to a degree the histo... Keep Reading

Missionary Spotlight | Jose Luis Siancas

Posted June 8, 2017  by: Luke Nash |0 Comments

Jose Luis is the co-pastor of “Jesus es la Puerta” (Jesus is the Door) Baptist Church in Mallaritos, just outside of Sullana. He also helps teach and lead different sections of the theological education by extension in several different locations. Testimony of Conversion and Call to Ministry I was born into a Christian home, and from a very young age I was involved in all of the activities in our church. I knew about God, sin, and some other things from the Bible, but I did not hav... Keep Reading

Street Evangelism and a Surprising Story

Posted June 8, 2017  by: Marshal Kasongo |0 Comments

profile_marshal_kMarshal Kasongo is pastor of Mapalo Reformed Baptist Church in Ndola, Zambia. In a recent report, Marshal tells of an evangelistic outreach where he heard a very surprising story: “Our ongoing evangelism outreach is gaining momentum through church activities and good individual participation from the church members. We have recei... Keep Reading

New Coordinator for Africa - S. R.

Posted March 9, 2017  by: S. R. |0 Comments

S. R. rejoined the HeartCry staff in August. Forrest Hite, who previously held the position, has now moved on to coordinate our efforts to translate sound literature into the languages of some of the most needy people groups on the globe. The following was written by S.R. Now that Forrest has posted his "farewell" to the Africa Blog [], I suppose it is time for me to make introductions. For those who have followed HeartCry for some time, introductions are not necessary, but for th... Keep Reading

Tags: magazine, Issue 84

Regional Mission Reports

Posted February 2, 2017 |0 Comments

In lieu of the Winter Edition of the HeartCry magazine, we have put together several in-depth video updates outlining the work around the world in which the Lord allowed HeartCry to participate in 2016. We hope that these videos will bless you and your families and that they will help you to know how to pray more effectively for HeartCry and for God's kingdom in general. Introduction | Paul Washer Africa | Sean Reece Asia | J. T. India | Jeff S. Eurasia | Holden Barry Europe | Lu... Keep Reading

Tags: video

The Growth of God's Word

Posted December 9, 2016 |0 Comments

hc88-150x263The mission appears impossible. No, I’m not referring to a small team of secret agents toppling rogue dictators, but rather a paltry group of believers commissioned to proclaim the gospel to the remotest parts of the earth and to make disciples from all people groups! Honestly, the mission which Christ gave to his disciples was impossible&m... Keep Reading

Tags: magazine, Issue 88

Lord Hears the Petitions of His People!

Posted December 9, 2016  by: Samuel B. |0 Comments

Brothers and Sisters in Christ: on March 4, 2015, an update was given on the Asia blog entitled, “One Baptism Observed and Another Hindered.” (It was printed in Issue 82 of the HeartCry Magazine). It spoke of a young man (who we called “Daniel”) who had been attending the church for the past two years, showed great evidence of faith, and was scheduled to be baptized. However, his family, displeased with his actions, prevented the baptism from taking place. Our request for... Keep Reading

Tags: magazine, Issue 88

Training Pastors in a Closed Country

Posted December 9, 2016  by: Josh C. |0 Comments

Earlier this year Lucas A. became the first HeartCry-supported missionary in the Greater Middle East region (Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Afghanistan) after he was forced to leave his home country and ministry behind in 2015. He currently trains pastors and church leaders who still live there. His ministry consists of translating biblical resources into his native tongue, corresponding regularly with church leaders, and organizing training conferences for pastors. He and his w... Keep Reading

HeartCry began supporting five new missionaries this year who are working with Middle East Student Fellowship† (MESF), a university student ministry in an undisclosed country in the Middle East. MESF was launched shortly after September 11, 2001. They are active on about twenty campuses across the country, sharing the gospel with students from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Their aim is to establish indigenous fellowships of students on the campuses, supported and led by an ... Keep Reading

Summer Update from the Netherlands

Posted December 9, 2016  by: Jacques Brunt |0 Comments

We are grateful and happy to be able to once again report of the work that we have been doing over the past few months. The mere fact that the Lord is willing to use weak people in His divine hands is astonishing to us. I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Our family st... Keep Reading

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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Alex Geisinger - Distance Beast

6'3" - 225 pounds.
Minnesota hockey player.
Strong as an oxe.

It's hard to imagine a better starting point for throwing as far as humanly possible. Alex Geisinger is one of the frustrating icons of form perfection. Frustrating?! Yes indeed.

And here's why:

HeavyDisc: How did your distance skills develop? Can you give us some idea of what kind of distance you were throwing early on, and when you started pushing into the top level?

Alex: Well, I'll start off with my very first throw.  I'll never forget it.

Innova DX Wolf, nose up hyzer. Max distance 110ft, but within my first month - I started to hone in my form and was pressing 300.

My 3rd month is when it just clicked. I never really watched videos on technique or anything like that, I just went through the process of trial and error. I would spend all day on the course, throwing non-stop, and when it clicked... I couldn't believe what I had done. My first throw of 500+ was just three months into playing, yet I had no consistency or accuracy whatsoever.

500'+ in 3 months?! That's why it's frustrating!

Cale Leiviska(L) and Alex (R)

In the world of top level disc golf - it's pretty rare for somebody to step out of the shadows and truly turn heads. Alex was somebody I'd never heard of before, and I watch a ton of A-Tier and N-Tier tournament footage. When the last USDGC went down, I was watching the results of the field-events like a hawk. Word spread pretty quickly that Alex won with 739', out throwing Simon who hit 722' (

This was the recurring conversation in my circles: wait, what happened?!  WHO? Seriously... the list of guys who can throw 700'+ on flat ground is SHORT. It turned some serious heads and here's the kicker: 739' was not his best throw.

HeavyDisc: You mentioned that you feel like you are going to outpace the 739' mark. First off,  for those of us who weren't there -  this was flat ground at the 2015 USDGC field events? Can you just tell us a bit about that experience.  Simon is currently the world record holder and I believe you out threw him my 17'? What was going through your mind?
Alex: Yes, it was on flat ground and there was a decent wind but nothing too substantial. I was happy with my throw of 739' but it wasn't my longest throw that day and there where a few issues with the throw.

First off, I blew out the ground on my plant foot on that particular throw, so I lost some power on it.

Second, it hit a tree nearing the end of the flight which caused it to quickly drop hyzer. I threw maybe 8-10 warm up shots before my qualifying round and had one that was over 800'. I threw earlier in the day than Simon, so I didn't know I had beat him until that night. Honestly because of that, I didn't really think much about it.
[Jason here... I can't tell you how many times I've had a 400' throw that felt like an absolute crush... he had a throw that was DOUBLE that in his warm up session. DOUBLE a 400' throw. Dear god. Alright, I'm going to shut up now and just let you guys read the interview!]

HeavyDisc: When did you start playing disc golf?  How did you get into it?

Alex: I started playing in late 2011, progressing to leagues and my first tournament in 2012. I was introduced to disc golf by a long time friend Anthony Ulrich, the fall of my freshman year of college.

Minnesota off-season training.
HeavyDisc: Can you give us a general idea of what Minnesota courses are like? What's your home course and any local favorites?

Alex: Well, I'd like to say you can find almost every type of golf in Minnesota.

Tightly wooded courses like Kaposia, and Sportsman Hill and wide open courses like Hyland SSA and Fort Snelling.

My home course is Alimagnet Park in Apple Valley,MN. It's a fairly short 12-hole course with a good mix of shots. Although the newer Kenwood Trails DGC is closer to my house I still consider Alimagnet to be home because it's where it all began.

Local favorites: Kaposia, Kenwood, Blue Ribbon Pines, The Valley, and Bryant Lake

HeavyDisc: I looked through your PDGA history and it seemed like you had a short stint playing Advanced (and winning)  before jumping into Open (and ranking well very quickly).  Was tournament play something you were immediately drawn to?
Alex: To be honest, I didn't even know disc golf existed until maybe 2010. But once I started playing Leagues, I quickly began to gain interest in tournaments as well.

As many know, I had my son Owen at the end of my very first season playing tournaments. Being a dad, I am very limited on my travel while carrying a full time job and being in my son's life. With that said, I am trying to get to more big tournaments every year. 2015 was my biggest season yet.

Grow the sport!
HeavyDisc: You're not just a distance guy. Last year you beat Wysocki, Leiviska, McCray at the Minnesota Majestic and this year you did the same thing to Steve Rico, Matt Dollar and again to Leiviska. I think playing more tournaments is a wise choice!  Assuming that you're as human as I am,  I imagine that you have hit some plateaus in distance shots.  What do you do to work through form fixes? Did you read or DGCR to work stuff out,  or did it come more natural?

Alex: I'd like to start off by saying yes, I am a human.

I've hit quite a few plateaus, but I always seem to break them pretty quickly.  I used to do a lot more field work than I do now due to time restraints, but that was always the fastest way to get myself from stalling.

As far as DGCR forums and such, I never really got into that as I'm not the most tech-savvy person. I prefer to work things out myself. However, I was given some tips from other local big arms.

HeavyDisc: Did you have any light-bulb moments, when you found that form changes really increased distance?

Alex: Personally, no. I have what most people like to call "weird" form, but it's what I found to be the most comfortable. I have a very short reach back and a lot of explosion in my hips and power coming from my lower body that helps with my distance.

HeavyDisc: Whoever calls your form "weird" doesn't know much about form. Outside of dg, did you play or excel at any sports that correlates to the backhand?

Alex: Hockey was my life through high school and it's where I would say most of my power comes from. However, I also played baseball football, and lacrosse growing up. I still play pond hockey.

HeavyDisc: Ahh yes... HeavyDisc readers know all about my hockey hips! Go to distance disc?

Alex: Prodigy D1 for all occasions. Uphill, down-hill, distance, tail wind. D1.

HeavyDisc: Are there any thoughts running through your mind when you are throwing for distance.  Are the things you are focusing on different from when you are throwing golf shots?

Alex: Distance throwing is very different from golf throwing in many ways. For one, I will throw a disc that is considerably less stable than I would trust on any golf shot.

It really comes down to how good you can read the wind and execute the shot - to get the most turn on your disc

I throw almost every golf shot with at least a touch of hyzer, and when going for big distance I throw even more hyzer to get the extra turn in the shot for more distance: hyzer-flipping if you will. Generally the height of the distance shot is about 3 times what it would be for a golf shot.

More Minnesota off-season training
HeavyDisc: Do you throw any ultra light discs in distance comps?  Is there a noticeable difference between throwing the light stuff from your perspective,  in terms of distance?

Alex: I tend to struggle with the light weight discs and prefer discs in the low 170's for distance throws. However, I have never thrown a light weight disc in high wind situations like they have at Big D in The Desert.

I would be interested to see if I could get a light weight disc to come back for the full flight with those winds.

HeavyDisc: Do you have a set style of fieldwork or is it mostly playing rounds?

Alex: I used to go throw max distance shots out in the field and then throw them back to a target on golf lines. But as I stated earlier its been some time since I've been out for field work. Generally my practice these days comes while playing courses.

[Jason again]... so that was really great. Awesome to see a fellow Minnesota kid representing some serious skills. Alex is going to try to shoot some slow motion footage soon and I'd like to do a dedicated form breakdown similar to this one I did for Tyler Liebman

Can't thank Alex enough for his time and looking forward to seeing what 2016 has in store for him.

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More cool characters

I wanted to share some of the really cool characters people have already been making with HeroMachine 3. You can find these and more on the UGO HeroMachine - Hero Archives board. Hats off to all the creators, and hope you don't mind me linking to your guys!

Imp and I think the same way on character creation, so I end up naturally drawn to his images. I like the way he uses the background gradient spotlight, his color selection, and they way he manages to get unique looks out of the program.

Kublajkan (hope I got that right) uses multiple capes, the arm positioning, and even the facial expression to make it look like this guy is active even though he's just standing there.

Count Libido, a blast from the past, has returned briefly to work with the new HM3 applet. Good to have him back, and you can see why here. The spider web pattern fits in with the metallic shoulder pads for a really nice, unexpected effect, and in general the layering is great, making it look like this guy is really well protected.

Hakoon Kublajkan's done some really nice work here, including this sterling example of how you can use the transform tools to get a dwarf-like body from the basic items.

Finally, I foolishly didn't write down the creator when I copied the link, but with Kaldath's "Blizzard", notice how he's used the fire from the hair slot as hand-energy effects, then further confounded expectations by coloring them to look like ice. Really nice!

Just a sample of what can be done with the program even at this somewhat early stage. Great job guys!

13 Responses to More cool characters

  1. jeff: is hm6 going to be 3d??
    nice work so far!!

  2. ITEM REQUEST: I already made this request before, but I thought you might not know what I was talking about. The folowing website has the images where I got the idea. Armor pieces like this would be cool. For the male option too though (why should girls have all the fun).

  3. Blizard would be would of mine

  4. Thanks Kaldath, I’ve updated the post. Phew!

    Kryptkal, those are neat, I’ve bookmarked the page for later on down the road.

    Hofter, no way — I don’t know jack about 3D! It’d be neat, though.

  5. Yeah you can do amazing things with this new version of HM my only dissappointment is that you can only do Male characters at the moment ( well there is a Female body in the zombie section but I Do not care for it at all ) I know that the female is coming down the line and believe me I am not pushing for it now as I know it isn’t happening until you are finished with all the male stuff but I have a ton of female character just waiting to be remade with HM3

  6. “Too much good stuff,” as the advert goes.

    Working out all the kinks for one pose before moving on the remaining poses is a a good strategy. Am happy to have the privilege of being able to play with it before it is prime-time ready.

  7. Yep, I agree with Violodion, it’s great to be able to screw around with HM3 before it’s ready for official public consumption. And it’s great that Jeff actually listens to his fans to create something that’s so much greater than the sum of its parts (literally! 😀 ).

    One thing I noticed when creating Blackhawk is that I had to shrink the left forearm a bit to get it to balance right with the rest of the image; the part as-is was a little too chunky to look exactly right. The more I think about it, the more I think the scaleable option is the most genius part of HM3 (well, and the masking).

  8. Imp, you’re exactly right, the scaling and moving are huge. The reason is that it gets you away from my inadequacies as an artist and designer. If I made a poor choice on positioning or size, it’s not “Tough, deal with it” any more — you can fix it and make it right. Ditto on the multiple items thing, if I screw up and didn’t put the right coat in the right slot, no biggie — you don’t have to live with my error, you can load it from another slot and off you go.

    If HeroMachine 2 was like having a huuuuuuge set of paper doll pieces to work with, HeroMachine 3 is like giving you the drawing skill to make your OWN paper doll pieces.

  9. I’m sorry Jeff but that Dwarf Creation isn’t mine. It also belongs to Kublajkan. Although I’m quite flattered that you thought of me when doing it 😉

  10. Gah, I can’t get anything right! Thanks Hakoon, I’ll go fix it.

  11. “Coloring outside the lines” with perfectly good Items (took a couple minutes to figure out *HOW* the wings were done). One from ‘darkvatican’ on UGO:

  12. That’s really cool, Violodion!


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Thursday, December 12, 2013

HIMCR #126 Winners!

I'm getting better! It's still Wednesday here in California! :)

The Two Winners from HIMCR #126 are .........

Pamela from Scrap-n-Sew Granny

Congratulations D- & Pamela! Use the 'Contact Me' button to send me your shipping information. Please put the Challenge number in the subject line and be sure and let me know which Cricut cartridge you want: Robot Party or Space Party!

Thanks for all the GREAT entries!

Be sure and check out this week's challenge and giveaway!

  1. Oh WOW! Thank you so much! I will send my info.

  2. Thanks so much!
    Sending my info.
    Just realized I forgot to add my address so I'll send a second one now.

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This week I presented my thesis in an European doctoral consortium, talking about the current state of my research, which is in a beginning stage but already with a valuable content. The purpose of this consortium is to give some industrial audience for PhD Students, which presented their works with a more realistic approach.

I appreciated the purpose of this conference, the organization as a whole, my own session, and some speakers there, but I was really disappointed with the invited speaker, who gave an inappropriate advice for all those PhD students there. He has a PhD degree and was hired by a Belgian industry when he finished his research in the university. He had worked for other industries until he stabilized this career in his current company. Well, indeed a very well managed career, which started 10 years ago when the world was very different. Is his real story still valid for students who don’t have yet a clear vision about their future?

He concluded his speech saying that there is a big probability that most PhD students nowadays get jobs in the industry because of their needs for constant innovation. A co-chair of the conference added that 70% of new PhDs get a job in the industry, giving some credibility to the speaker’s arguments. I should agree that there is some logic on what they are trying to say. Actually they explained the standard logic of the market today. Of course PhD students will find an excellent work environment in the industry, of course they will find funds to make more research, of course they will get good salaries, of course the 70% above is realistic, but they should also know that the industry is migrating from Europe to other countries because of pressure for competitiveness.

I couldn’t resist to open a discussion about global tendencies. I mentioned about a fact very present on newspapers, books, magazines, saying that the industry in Europe, the USA, Japan and other rich nations is in decline because they are migrating to countries with more human resources and lower operation costs. These countries compose the famous acronym “BRIC“: Brazil, Russia, India and China. The answer of the speaker scared me: “This is what the international press is creating. The reality is different.” – Oh My God! I don’t know what it is. Blindness? Lack of reading? Over confidence? Fear? He complemented saying that what is produced there has lower quality and they should not threaten the European industry for a long time. Now, I think I know what it is: Blindness!

You and I know about the low quality of products coming from the BRIC. They sell a lot, but they still offer not so good products. About this I agree with the speaker, but he forgot that the current generation of people there are poor, offering their services by a shaming salary. The consequence is, of course, production of low quality products. However, their children will grow-up healthy and educated because, now, they have better conditions than ever. The second generation will place the BRIC economies in a higher competitive position, with an important differential: scale – exactly what the USA, Europe and Japan is losing now, aggravated by the current economic crisis.

So, is it fair to hide this facts from students? I don’t think so. Get that 70% and check previous years. Is this index growing or decreasing? My position is that the predominant model in Europe will be service providing. Europe should take its high educated people to innovate in high scale and offer these innovations for one or more industries spread around the world instead of creating their own industries. This is only possible if universities and colleges redesign their programs emphasizing entrepreneurship. PhD students should be highly motivated to transform their thesis in real products, opening spin offs to develop ideas until their economical viability.

I’m very proud to study in an university where this process already started and with great results. The Université catholique de Louvain is really committed to transform research in real business. My lab in particular – TELE – already pushed many spin-offs to the market and many others are born in the offices of that building.

My adviser, Benoit Macq, is a great enthusiast of entrepreneurship. He pushes everybody here to make the difference, to develop something really useful, unique and, why not, salable. One month ago, he saw me tired, not so motivated and I got one of his special massages to keep my motivation higher. Thanks Boss!

Little tip: Always keep your camera with you. Singular moments can unexpectedly happen with you or around you.


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Looking through the tiny keyhole

We all see the world through our own tiny keyhole.

Today we are living in a comparatively peaceful world then the last couple of centuries. We should be grateful for that. Days of literal war are a talk of the past. But everyone fights a different kind of war today. We fight it everyday. A beggar fights for a meal, a rich fight to stay rich, an artist fights the block, an athlete fights to reach their optimum performance.

It doesn’t matter how hard you fight, what matters the most is if you are consistently putting efforts. Its not about how furious you are its about how consistent you are.

Continue reading

How these 3 things will change your life forever.

Building a good habit or cutting out a bad habit is not that easy. As we grow up, we start to change, cause life happens. Things which we used to like few years back, might not interest us now. Vice-verse, things which we didn’t like a few years back, we might start liking.

We as humans are prone to change in ourselves. More over, the age and time demands change as well. But sometimes a single incident can change your life forever. I’ll tell you a story about that.

“In mid 50’s, there was a lower middle class couple living in a small town in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India.  They were living a frugal life. They had a girl named ‘Shanti’ as their only child.

Shanti who couldn’t get too much in her childhood in comparison of any other child of a middle class family kid in that time. But still she was a happy child. She would run behind the sheep, the shepherd will shout at her in joy as she was a cute little freak.

As she grew up she got habituated of treating the animals badly. She would throw stones at the street dogs, kick the sheep or abuse any of the sort of animals. Her parents who thought they were giving her great cultural values didn’t know about this bad habit of her.

Continue reading

Creation is the best way to self-contentment!

Creating something takes a lot of efforts. It’s something which takes thinking, it’s something which requires us to go that extra mile and when you do that, when you take that step, when you take that action which results in a creation. That’s when you feel complete in yourself. That’s when you feel ultimate contentment. That’s what gives you eternal joy. It releases those juices of happiness into your brains.

Most of the successful artisans create things very frequently. But in the process of making things they fail too, they fail on regular basis. They are the curious souls who always wonder how things work. As kids they take things apart to see inside, ‘what makes that thing tick?’. Then they put it back together as well.

A normal person who might not be an artisan but still if he creates something (creating something can be anything, writing, drawing, painting, joining parts with screws to make a machine, sculpturing, making strategies, developing buildings or may be codes for a software) it will eventually give him great eternal joy which will make him content with himself.

We should always keep creating things, like we did in our childhoods. We should always be curious, because this world is a never ending mystery. It will always keep us surprising. But if we keep exploring, keep making things, we will enjoy and cherish this life more than just fearing all the time with the uncertainties of this world and this life.

Creation is the base of evolution. When we create things, even if that thing is not pretty good, it facilitates a path of evolution, from there it can evolve, it can be better. So the basic rule is, something will only evolve if it exists. For example if a beginner painter starts painting, he can’t create his masterpiece just by fluke. Creating a masterpiece takes earth shattering efforts. First of all he should start painting, then in the process of the creation he’ll fail one time, two times, may be hundred times. Even though he’s failing but in the process he’s evolving as well. When he would have put more efforts then he actually was supposed to, then comes a moment of the perfection. Then comes the masterpiece.

Pablo Picasso the legendary Spanish painter was once was once passing by some local thrift shops. A lady comes praising and requests him to make a painting of her. Picasso who rarely carried his painting tools, fortunately was carrying them that day. He agreed and started making the painting, while talking to her, in 10 minutes he created a painting of her and handed it over to her saying ‘that will be 10,000 pesetas (España currency of that time)’. Lady was awestruck on seeing the masterpiece but was also astounded by the price and said, “It only took you ten minutes to make this painting, isn’t 10,000 pesetas a lot for 10 minutes work?”

“It took me 30 years to make that painting in 10 minutes, that’s why.” Picasso replied.
Some people are gifted artists but even they have to practice their artistry regularly. But when they create their masterpieces, is only when they find their extreme contentment.

Creating requires creativity, but it requires discipline more. Some people say, I am only creative at certain times. But this is far from truth. Most of the successful writers, painters, artisans created their masterpieces after years of practice and failure, they followed their routines religiously. Hence it’s safe to say that if you practice your creation on regular basis, it’s most probable that you’ll achieve it faster than just sitting back and waiting for that creative thought to occur. If you are a writer, write daily. If you are a painter, paint daily. If you are a coder, code daily. That’s the only thing which will make you better in your creation. Create things and then make them better. That’s how things evolve to get perfect.

So belt up, put your creative cap on and start putting your efforts towards creating something, anything which gives you joy and satisfaction. Make things and then make them better. I bet you’ll discover self-contentment which you have never ever discovered before.

Making the difference!

How will I make a difference?

It’s the question every graduate asks himself, on the day he leaves the college. There are many answers to this question in this tricky world. There are many paths which leads you to a successful life. But how to choose that one path based on your individuality, based on your personal goals, based on the things which you think will make this world a better place.

If you go through any path, you can make a difference. It’s not the decision of choosing the correct one. It’s the decision of choosing one. Paths are supposed to take you to a certain destination. You just have to decide for which destination you are most passionate. Having said that, let me cite a quote here. “In the end, reaching the destination isn’t what will make you happy, it’s the travel you did which led you there.”

Whatever you do to make a difference, whichever path you take to your destination. Don’t forget from where you started, don’t forget your roots. Instead of doing a post-mortem of your life in your end days and regretting the paths you didn’t take, things you didn’t do, steps you didn’t take; do a pre-mortem of your life right now to see where you had imagined yourself some years ago and where have you reached now. Keep doing this in a regular practice. If your trajectory is still in right direction, then great. If not, then it’s time to list down the things which you might have done wrongly, which led your life course towards a deviated direction. Jot those things down on a piece of paper, read them, read them again and again until you reach a conclusion. Then you start working on rectifying those things, step by step. Don’t rush, just be steady and take action. Acting upon something, even in a tiny bit is any day better then just sitting and thinking about a better solution.

Knowing what matters and what doesn’t, is the key to be successful in any task. It eventually leads you to the answers of any impossible looking problem. But for reaching there you’ll have to act. For example, for an obese person  loosing weight is a problem. He can’t leave out on the cravings of eating junk foods. He thinks everyday that he will start exercising. He knows what will make a difference in regards to his problem of obesity. But all of this knowing is of no value if he doesn’t act. On the flip side if he start acting on the things which really matters, like eating appropriate calories on daily basis. Start exercising 3-4 days in a week and then shaping his way up to a fit body. This is what will solve his problem.

Don’t just think, take action!

Life will be way better if you start doing what really matters. You’ll be reaping great returns, which life gives to it’s courageous liver.

Every generation leaves a plethora of knowledge and resources for the upcoming generation to build upon what they had learned, so that the future generation don’t have to start from the ground up, they can just forge ahead from the point where the past generation had left of. So take your time listening to the people of your previous generation. People who had experienced life already. People who can really guide you on how to make that journey of life better. It can give you a head-start. Love your family, cherish you friends, take time out for the people whom you really care for, be emotional, take time out for the people who had supported you in the times of setbacks. How you make them feel will reflect on your future life. There is a famous quote by the great American author and poet Maya Angelou who died on this 28th May. I’ll cite it here in her remembrance and for your absorbency.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

So take a path which ignites your passion, work hard, put your emotions in there, take time out for the ones you really care. I bet you’ll be right on your way to make a difference to your own life and to the world.


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