HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TWILIGHT SERIES???? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE MOVIES??? DO YOU LIKE THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER??? DO YOU FEEL THAT MIDNIGHT SUN SHOULD BE CONTINUED??? AND...... HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NIGHTLIGHT A PARODY OF TWILIGHT.......

What organizers claim will be the largest fashion show since Coco Chanel is set to hit the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium at 6 p.m. Aug. 7 for the inaugural Designing Dreams fashion show.

Designer Tiana Vega and Northern California fashion public relations firm Couture Connections will join forces to co-produce their first fashion show benefiting the Sweet Dreams Foundation.

The Sweet Dreams Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Sacramento dedicated to improving the quality of life for children with life-threatening diseases through the design of their dream bedroom.

CEO and interior designer Jennifer Richards founded the Sweet Dreams Foundation in April 2006.

“The concept of designing dream bedrooms for people suffering from illnesses came to me when I experienced my grandfather going through an illness. He was living in a room with no color, with nothing in it.” Richards said.

“Most children with life-threatening diseases cannot live a normal life and usually require special living conditions,” she added. “I decided to do something to help them cope with their illness. We take the time to personally get to know the child before designing the room.”

The name “Designing Dreams” was inspired by Richards and created by Vega.

Richards and Vega decided to combine their talents, fashion design and interior design, to raise funds for a good cause. The idea came after a brief meeting in February at a charity event benefiting the Sweet Dreams Foundation.

“When I met Jennifer, I was instantly inspired by her,” Vega said. “She is so passionate about her charity, and that inspired me to work with her. We always joke around and say meeting was love at first sight.”

The Designing Dreams fashion show will showcase eight up-and-coming fashion designers along with Vega.

Headliner Vega will be showcasing her Spring/Summer 2010 collection, featuring 16 pieces.

“This collection was inspired by a person’s alter ego,” Vega said. “It’s a classical, poised way of showing a hidden alter ego. It’s about capturing the person you are and the person you lust to be.”

Proceeds from the show will be used to design a dream bedroom for 8-year-old Aimee, who has been battling Xeroderma Pigmentosa since birth.

“The disease that Aimee suffers from makes her skin extremely sensitive to the sun, forcing her to spend most of her time indoors,” Richards said. “She has suffered from 26 different skin cancers.”

Since Aimee’s condition forces her to spend most of her time indoors, Richards decided to design her an ocean-themed bedroom.

“I am so excited to be designing this room,” Richards said. “We have already started working on her room and hope to be done by the end of August. There’s going to be a rock where she can crawl inside of and a waterfall in the room.”

“Seeing the smile on Aimee’s face when the room is complete will make all of the hard work worthwhile,” Richards said.

Their love at first sight has blossomed into one of the biggest fashion show events in Sacramento. Both Vega and Richards are ready and excited to be a part of something big, and all for a good cause.

“I plan to bring Los Angeles fashion to Sacramento. It’s going to be one of the biggest shows to hit Sacramento,” Vega said. “I’m kind of nervous about that pressure, but I’m ready for it, so bring it on.”

Tickets to the Designing Dreams fashion show can be purchased at designingdreamsfashionshow.com.

Photos 1 - 4 courtesy of Couture Connections

Photos 5 - 7 taken by David Alvarez.

I hope the following reading is useful for those who have trouble understanding Yin and Yang's interaction, beyond the dualistic nature of Samsara:

Five elements theory is the eternal balance between yin and yang forces, which in turn create:

1. Wood...expansive energy
2. Fire...rising energy
3. Metal...solidifying energy
4. Earth...stable energy
5. Water...sinking energy

The Tao gave birth to One. The One gave birth to Two. The Two gave birth to Three. The Three gave birth to all of creation. All things carry Yin yet embrace Yang. They blend their life breaths in order to produce harmony (Tao Teh Ching, ch. 42)

One = Qi
Two = Yin and Yang
Three = Jing (essence), Qi as materialised life and Shen (spirit)


Five elements interact in two distinctive ways:

1. Creative cycles or cycles of balance
2. Controlling cycle or cycles of imbalance

A graphic explanation showing the cyclical flow of these energies:

"The five phases of energy (Wood, Metal, Water, Earth and Fire) appear in their specific nature, during the transformations of Yang force and from their union with the Yin force. These energy phases are constantly changing activity, each one nourishing and controlling the other so that there is a constant circular movement without beginning or end. The interaction of these primordial forces creates harmony in the changing course of nature's cycles. The five elemnts combine and recombine in countless forms and produce material life. Everything that exists contains the five elements in varying proportions.

Let's analyse these ideas observing the seasons of the year that influence the Earth. Water is the energy phase associated with winter, when the Yin force is prevalent. The winter is a time of rest and quiet, when energy is saved, gathered, condensed, conserved and stored. Water is a very concentrated element containing great potential, a great power waiting to be liberated. In the human body water is associated with essential fluids like hormones, lymphatic liquids, marrow, enzymes, all with great energetic potential. Its color is black or midnight blue. It is the color that contains all the other colors in concentrated form. In nature, water evaporates under excess heat; in human beings water's energy disperses because of excess stress and strong emotions. The way to conserve water's energy is with quiet and rest, by staying "cold".

The next phase in the seasonal cycle is spring. Wood grows as a result of the energising force of water, like plants grown in the earth in springtime. This is the new Yang season of the energy cycle. The Wood phase is expansive, happy and explosive. It is a creative generation of energy, awakening the sexual desire to procreate. It is associated with vigor, youth, growth and development. The Wood energy seeks free expression and space to expand. To block its development creates feelings of frustration, anger, jealousy and stagnation.

Just like spring changes naturally into summer, the expansive and creative Wood energy matures into the fluorescent energy of the old Yang, Fire energy. This is the fullest energetic phase in the whole cycle, when the hottest phase of the yang energy is full. All life forms heat up in this phase marked by the fire energy's growth. Heat is associated with the heart, which is the home of human emotions and the organ that pulses and distributes the blood and its energy throughout the body. Red is the color of blood's heat. This energy is associated with love and compassion, generosity and happiness, openness and abundance. If we block this energy, the result is hypertension, heart disease and nervous disorders.

At the end of summer there is an interlude of perfect balance when the fire energy diminishes and transforms into Earth energy, neither very Yin nor very Yang, and a state of perfect equilibrium is achieved. This moment is the cycle's climax, the interval between the Yang energies of spring and summer and the Yin energies of autumn and winter. The temper of the 5 energy phases is in harmony at this moment, bringing a sensation of well-being and completeness. The energy at the end of summer is earth energy, its color is yellow, the color of the earth and sun. In human anatomy it is associated with the stomach, the spleen and the pancreas that are situated in the center of the body and feed the body's system. If the earth energy is insufficient, the system becomes malnourished, digestion is affected and the whole system becomes weak and unbalanced.

As summer passes into autumn, the energy of Earth transforms into Metal. During the Metal phase, energy once again begins to condense, contract, and draw inward for accumulation and storage, just as the crops of summer are harvested and stored in autumn for use in winter. Wastes are eliminated, like winnowing chaff from wheat, and only the essence is kept in preparation for the nonproductive Water phase of winter. If the harvest fails or falls short, there may not be sufficient energy stored during Water/winter to generate a strong and healthy cycle in the following Wood/spring. Metal energy controls the lungs, which extract and store essential energy from air and expel wastes from the blood, and the large intestine, which eliminates solid wastes while retaining and recycling water. Its color is white, the color of purity and essence. Autumn is the season of retrospection and meditative insight, for shedding old skin and dumping the excess baggage of external attachments and emotions accumulated in summer, just as trees shed their leaves and bees drive drones from the hive at this time of year. Resisting this energy by clinging sentimentally to past attachments can cause feelings of melancholy, grief, and anxiety, which manifest themselves physiologically in breathing difficulties, chest pain, skin problems, and low resistance. Flues, colds, and other respiratory ailments are common indicators of blocked Metal energy, which is associated with the lungs. Just as Metal is a refined extract of Earth forged by Fire, so autumn is the season for extracting and refining essential lessons from the activities and experiences of summer, transforming them into the quiet wisdom of winter."

To live a healthy and balanced life one must follow these forces at any level; however, we must also bear in mind that the 5 elements also interact in the so-called destructive or controlling cycles.
But try not to think of it as one element destroying another. Instead, think of it as one energy influencing another in a controlling manner. For example:

Think of a metal axe. You use it to chop down a tree hence Metal destroys Wood. Think of a large tree. It extracts water and minerals from the earth to grow hence Wood destroy Earth.

When a river burst its bank, you use bags of sand (earth) to stop the overflow hence Earth controls Water. You can extinguish fire with water hence Water destroy Fire. Finally as in a iron foundry, you use fire to metal. Hence Fire destroy Metal.

 

First of all, one thing college football fans really need to remember is that a team’s non-conference portion of the schedule is generally made out years in advance. Of course, the NCAA made it even more difficult for athletic directors and head coaches five years ago when they instituted a 12th game, starting with the 2006 season.

Since Jim Tressel took over as head coach in 2001, the Buckeyes have faced a ranked non-conference opponent seven out of the last nine years.

During Tressel’s tenure, Ohio State has taken on No. 12 UCLA (2001), No. 10 Washington State (2002), No. 17 Washington (2003), No. 24 North Carolina State (2003), No. 2 Texas (2005 and 2006), No. 1 USC (2008), and No. 3 USC (2009).

In those two seasons when the Buckeyes did not face a ranked non-conference foe, they did play on the road against Washington and N.C. State, who were both previously ranked.

For the 2010 season, Ohio State will host Miami-Fla., a team that’s more than likely going to start out in the top 10. The Buckeyes return the favor and travel to Sun Life Stadium to take on the Hurricanes in 2011.

For the next eight years following (2012-2019), Ohio State has four home-and-home series (i.e. two teams meet twice, once at each team’s respective home field) in the books with the likes of California, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Of those four teams, three of them should be in the top 25 to start out this season.

Again, though, it’s really a crap shoot. You can’t really predict how these programs will fare down the road, but it’s still a very probable that all four will still be in the upper echelon of college football.

Another thing that college football fans need to realize is that it’s a sport driven on the economics of the game. While Ohio State will take on a highly-ranked Miami team in September, they also play Marshall, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan.

It’s all about money. In all likelihood, those three teams signed one-year contracts, which means the Buckeyes do not travel to their home fields. Plus, all three of the schools are a less than three hours by bus to Columbus. Ohio State gets their home games (eight this season), while those three get a decent paycheck ($400,000-500,000) while keeping their costs down with such a short trip.

Still think Ohio State’s 2010 football schedule is weak? Let’s take a look at others, like Alabama.

Kudos to the Crimson Tide for scheduling Penn State, but they also host San Jose State, a team that went 2-10 last season. After Penn State, Bama plays at Duke, which hasn’t been to a bowl game since 1989 and hasn’t won one since 1960. It’s also Bama’s first true road game against a Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A) opponent since 2002.

Later in the season, Alabama will play Georgia State, a school that has never fielded a football team until this year, ever! In the history of the school! Located in Atlanta, GSU has been around since 1913, but this is their first year of intercollegiate football and are in Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA).

In fact, 10 out of the 12 Southeastern Conference schools take on at least one opponent from the FCS, which seems to be a growing trend and is troubling. There are, at last count, 120 teams that play in the FBS. It also seems hard to believe that these schools can’t fill in their schedules entirely of Division I-A teams.

While you may still think Ohio State’s schedule is weak, three of their four non-conference opponents went to a bowl game last season and none of them play in Division I-AA.

Now, if we can just get a 16-team playoff for the FBS teams where some of those games are played in the elements of the North during December and January, instead of in places like Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, and California, then we’ll be all set.

It’s happened to the best of us—the enchanting charms of summer seduce us into spending long periods of time frolicking under the sun. And while it’s fun while it lasts, the skin-scorching effects of a ruby red sunburn will quickly turn your smile into a frown. If you forgot to apply (or in some cases, re-apply) sunscreen, and are now in a world of pain, fret not. TruTricks has offered up five tips for treating sunburns and alleviating pain. See some highlights below:

• Apply a cold compress covered in chilled aloe vera. Doing this with a hemp washcloth is best if you can.
• Take a cool shower. Or apply chilled used tea bags. Tea has tannis, which speeds up the healing process.
• Spritz yourself with organic vinegar.

See them all at TruTricks.

Lifehacks make life easier.

Photo credit: Fotolia

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Far from being 'a breather between biggies' as it was described by critics when it was first published 20 years ago, Thomas Pynchon's Vineland is one of his greatest achievements, argues Andy Beckett

In 1993, when I first read Vineland, Thomas Pynchon's great novel about washed-up 60s radicals, I was living in northern California with two middle-aged hippies. A certain bohemianism and lawlessness still lingered in their creaking house in Berkeley. The cable TV service was siphoned off from a neighbouring property. One housemate drank rank-smelling wheatgrass for her breakfast. The other disappeared at weekends on unspecified operations against the logging companies in the redwood forests up near the Oregon border. When she was home, she almost never left her basement room. She emphatically instructed me to deny her existence if anyone called.

I was an inquisitive male postgraduate in my early 20s: a classic potential Pynchon reader. One day after the winter had set in, with its low skies and week-long rains, I went down to one of the bookshops on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, where some of the legendary 60s student demonstrations had taken place, and bought Vineland.

The book had come out three years earlier, to approving but subtly disappointed reviews. Pynchon's previous novel, the seemingly all-encompassing second world war adventure and postmodern box of tricks Gravity's Rainbow, had been published in 1973; during the 17-year wait for a follow-up, all sorts of rumours had spread about what the famously brainy and reclusive American prodigy, only 35 in 1973, would produce next. "We heard he was doing something about Lewis and Clark," Salman Rushdie wrote in the New York Times in 1990. "Mason and Dixon? A Japanese science-fiction novel? . . . A 900-page Pynchon megabook about the American civil war?"

In fact, Vineland was less than 400 pages long, largely American rather than international in its settings, realistic in style for long stretches, and relatively earnest, even sentimental, compared with what Pynchon had previously written. In a typical response in Time magazine, Paul Gray compared an early, lovingly drawn scene of greedy birds stealing food from a dog bowl left outside by the absent-minded main character, Zoyd Wheeler, with the dazzling opening panorama in Gravity's Rainbow of a V-2 rocket descending on London ("A screaming comes across the sky . . ."). Gray concluded: "There seems to have been a little downscaling going on." In the Nation, John Leonard suggested an explanation: Vineland was "a breather between biggies", a John the Baptist of a novel preparing the ground for "another, darker, [more] magisterial" Pynchon production.

Pynchon's post-Vineland career hasn't quite turned out like that. But in 1993, as soon as I started reading the book, I forgot all about his professional arc. Vineland begins in a small northern Californian city of the same name, fictional but incorporating elements – misty weather, marijuana production, a freewheeling, end-of-the-road population – of existing local settlements. It is 1984, the height of Ronald Reagan's rightwing ascendancy, and the tentacles of the American state are reaching into the crevices where former 60s rebels such as Wheeler have been scratching a living relatively undisturbed for the past decade and a half.

Zoyd is a typically cartoonish Pynchon character, equal parts Homer Simpson and the Dude in The Big Lebowski, but unlike previous Pynchon protagonists, there's a depth and a sadness to him. He lives with his teenage daughter, Prairie, who regards him with a mix of fondness and contempt and is more at home with materialistic Reagan-era values. Prairie's mother, a radical 60s film-maker called Frenesi, is long gone. Wheeler yearns for her. In one of the book's many lyrical passages, he remembers their wedding: "afternoon on a smooth green gold California hillside, with oak in darker patches, a freeway in the distance, dogs and children playing and running, and the sky, for many of the guests, awriggle with patterns of many colors, some indescribable."

By the time Vineland came out, looking back at the 60s from the vantage point of the 80s was a well-worked theme in American and British culture, particularly in films, such as Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), The Big Chill (1983) and Withnail and I (1987). There was nothing like a few years of Thatcherism or Reaganomics to make communes and experiments with chemicals look alluring again.

But the fact that Pynchon had published nothing between 1973 and 1990, between the oil crisis that marked the effective end of the 60s and the decade when, with communism having just collapsed, rightwing capitalism seemed at its most all-conquering, gave his thoughts on how the world had changed real weight. His earlier novels, V, The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow, were packed with clever facts and speculations about secret power networks and European colonialism and the American military-industrial complex. Vineland marked a maturing. Instead of a precocious cynicism about politics, Pynchon, now 53, expressed anguish about America's trajectory from Nixon to Reagan: "the Repression went on, growing wider, deeper, and less visible, regardless of the names in power."

Frenesi, it is revealed, has been a government informer since the 60s. In a series of cinematic flashbacks, Pynchon shows her journey: from wide-eyed witness of the decade's student upheavals, to on-off lover of a manipulative government operative called Brock Vond, to spectacular betrayer of her counterculture peers and a shameful, transient life in "a pale humid Sun Belt city", whose name would "be denied to civilian eyes [in her official file] by federal marker pens".

When the narrative returns to 1984, Frenesi, Zoyd, Prairie and Brock are all set on converging paths, with the showdown seemingly destined to take place in the last crumbling bastion of the American 60s, the city of Vineland. But this overarching, potentially melodramatic story develops instead in unpredictable fits and starts, regularly looping back on itself or disappearing beneath a tangle of other plotlines. There are extended sequences involving ninja warriors, possible extraterrestrials and a huge monster which stamps on a laboratory "belonging to the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco". Finding a concealed geometry behind such apparent digressions is one of the main pleasures for hardcore Pynchon fans, but for me, even at 23 and with time on my hands, there were wacky, lurching chapters I could not quite be bothered to work out.

I preferred the slower sections set around Vineland. In long, intoxicating sentences, with chains of adjectives and commas strung out across the page like telegraph lines through a forest, Pynchon mapped the city and its hinterland: a maze of old logging mansions and unmarked roads, sudden fogs and "long redwood mountainslopes where shadows came early and brought easy suspicion of another order of things".

Reading these passages late at night, as the same trickling winter murk hung over Berkeley and my housemates went about their unfathomable hippie rituals, Vineland spooked me like the best landscapes of Conrad and Dickens. I soon forgot precisely how the book ended but its atmospheres stayed with me.

A few months ago, short of something to read, I picked up Vineland again. Within a page I was committed to finishing it. The book seemed wiser and warmer; rather than its sense of foreboding, I noticed all the writing about mealtimes and family gatherings. While Pynchon's earlier novels are full of brittle parties and orgies, the participants feverishly trying to blot out the horrors of the outside world, Vineland offers a more solid conviviality. Even Brock Vond's climactic arrival in the city, as malign and otherworldly as Darth Vader in Star Wars, is delayed by a leisurely description of an outdoor family reunion involving the book's more benign characters:

Behind the mountains . . . light grew in the sky . . . Soon toasters and wood fires . . . working on bacon, links, eggs, flapjacks, waffles, hash browns, French toast . . . were sending out branching invisible fractals of smell . . . fat smoke, charring spices, toasted bread, just-made coffee.

One of Vineland's strengths, it becomes obvious second time round, is its ability to hold opposing themes in balance: a defiant optimism that some communal instincts had survived the end of the 60s, alongside a deep pessimism about the behaviour of the state. Even the book's heroes and villains, defined with romantic simplicity at first glance, blur together more interestingly as you get to know them properly. Frenesi is still half in love with the counter- culture she is betraying. Zoyd, the anti- Reagan dissident, is dependent on regular government disability cheques. Brock, the conservative zealot, is out-manoeuvred by rival Washington players. And the counterculture which Pynchon seems so to venerate? There are suggestions it always had a spivvy capitalist side: in Vineland "Prairie worked at the Bodhi Dharma Pizza Temple . . . twelve-grain crust with the lightness and digestibility of a manhole cover."

All these hypocrisies and mixed motives and contradictions, as well as being a good source of comedy and plot twists, have the feel of political lives as they are actually lived. This gives Vineland much more depth than most political novels. In recent years, the radicalism of the 60s and 70s and what happened to it subsequently has again become a favoured theme for American and British fiction; but the resulting books, such as Hari Kunzru's My Revolutions and Dana Spiotta's Eat the Document, while compelling as storytelling, have contrasted the past and present too crudely. As the 60s and 70s counterculture recedes further into history and some of its elements – early feminism, early environmentalism – come to seem ever more important and prescient, it is easy to paint the participants as a uniquely heroic generation. But Vineland reminds you that heroic and unheroic political eras, such as they exist at all, are always intertwined.

Its warnings about the capacity for repressiveness of US governments also read well now. Perhaps the most dramatic section in the book describes the abduction of Frenesi and other activists – in "field-gray trucks, locked shut, unmarked" – from a rebellious 60s campus to a secret old military base in a concealed California valley. Location aside, it sounds awfully like Guantánamo.

Yet since Vineland, despite the creeping authoritarianism of the Bush administration and the war on terror, Pynchon has not written so directly about contemporary politics again. Instead he has published the kind of books Rushdie and others were expecting to appear when Vineland did: Mason & Dixon (1997), a vast, semi-parodic historical novel about the surveyors of 18th-century America, and Against the Day (2006), an even vaster fiction about early 20th-century balloonists, anarchists and other characters so numerous and eclectic as to be almost beyond summary. Reviewers of these two books grew increasingly impatient with their archness and shagginess and scale. The relatively modest and heartfelt Vineland began to look more of an achievement: not "a breather between biggies", but perhaps Pynchon's last fully realised novel.

Then again, he is only 73, and his rate of production seems to be accelerating again: last summer, after only a three-year silence, he produced a Vineland prequel of sorts, Inherent Vice, set in some of the same California locations during 1969 and 1970, and involving a similar-sounding cast of hippies and government agents. I've not read it yet. But it's short by his standards, and the reviews were warm. Maybe all I need is the right Californian summer rental.

Sue Wassef's son Pierre was arrested in Cairo in 2007 and charged with drug trafficking. Coerced into a confession, he is now serving 25 years in prison. His devastated mother can only sit and wait

One Wednesday evening, nearly three years ago, Sue Wassef had the sort of phone call every parent dreads. It came from the British embassy in Cairo. "It's regarding your sons. They've both been arrested."

"I remember the time exactly, because I was on my way to my ladies' darts evening. It was 8.45pm," says Sue. "I stopped breathing. I just asked, 'What for?' They said drugs, and all I could say was, 'Do they still have hanging?'

"I started to hyperventilate. I  couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. My life stopped that evening." And Sue's life is still on hold, because although her younger son, Philippe, was released several days after his arrest, Pierre is still in prison in Egypt serving a 25-year sentence.

Sue runs a large pub in north London. She is a warm, personable and energetic woman. She looks outwardly cheery and robust, sitting in the sun outside the pub, but she frequently cries when she talks about Pierre, and keeping going is clearly a great struggle. Both sons were born in England – Pierre is 30 and has a partner here, Kelly, and three young children. In 2005, their father, who is Eyptian, had a heart attack and both boys went over to Cairo to look after him. They helped on the family farm and worked as mechanics to help pay their father's hospital bills.

"Pierre is very close to his dad, although we are divorced," says Sue. "He loved living in Egypt. Kelly and the children had been over there and stayed on his father's farm. They loved their grandpa, who bought them a donkey. They loved the animals on the farm."

Pierre and Kelly had planned to move to Egypt to live there while their children were still small because they loved it so much.

While her sons were in Egypt, looking after their father, Sue rang them twice a day. On the day of their arrest, she had begun to worry. "I'd been unable to get through to them the night before and all that day, and I'd had a twinge of worry. They know what I'm like. I ring all the time, but I thought if anything was wrong their dad would have phoned me.

"Pierre had asked the embassy to let me know. He didn't want his father told, in case he had another heart attack. I didn't sleep that night. I don't think I've had a proper night's sleep since it happened." The campaigning human rights organisation Fair Trials International (FTI) has taken up Pierre's case and has many concerns about his treatment and conviction. They consider him "especially vulnerable as a foreigner who doesn't speak Arabic", and believe his "confession" was obtained through mental and physical coercion. He was "beaten, handcuffed to a stairwell and denied food, water, access to toilet facilities and sleep for approximately two days".

Frightened for the safety of his younger brother, who he had been forced to watch being beaten and threatened with the death sentence or 25 years in prison, Pierre confessed to the importation and sale of large quantities of cocaine. He was refused a solicitor until he had done so. According to FTI, "Pierre could not understand the papers he was made to sign … because his interpreter was blind [and he has had only] intermittent or no interpretation at all during his court hearings. Police accounts of the arrest differ wildly."

No drugs were found on the brothers or in their car. Pierre has withdrawn his confession, but there was widespread newspaper and television coverage of his arrest as an "international narcotics dealer" before his conviction, which FTI suggests denied him the presumpion of innocence.

It is agonising for Sue to be so far away from her son. She feels frightened, helpless and physically sick much of the time. But she has to keep the pub running in order to send money to her sons every week. The family spent £22,000 on Pierre's trial; he is hoping to appeal against his sentence, and Sue now needs to find £14,000 for the appeal. "I flew over about 10 days after his arrest. He was being held on remand at the police station, which had no facilities at all – no food, no bedding. His father and brother had to take him everything and were able to see him for four minutes a day. The conditions were horrendous. I cried and cried. I wouldn't put a dog in there. People were screaming and shouting, trying to get in to their family members, bringing them food. You don't know what people are saying. It's very intimidating. Pierre was in his cell 24/7, but the police were quite kind to him. The chief police officer could see it wasn't fair. He would let Pierre come out for three or four minutes and I could give him a kiss and a cuddle. This was my hardest time. At this stage he was upset and nervous, but at the back of his mind I'm sure he was thinking, 'This isn't happening. It's all a big mistake. I'm going to get out.'"

His family and solicitor also thought Pierre was innocent and would be released, but at his first trial, three months after his arrest, he was sentenced in absentia while he was present, but downstairs in custody. "That's illegal," says Sue. "You can't be sentenced in your absence if you're there. I was relieved to know that the solicitor registered this and Pierre was allowed a retrial, which is quite unusual."

Sue insists that her boys "have never been arrested or involved in drugs, ever". But Pierre was found guilty of trafficking, dealing and being a user. "He's none of those. Trafficking is a hangable offence. But according to Egyptian law, to traffic drugs you have to bring them across the border. Pierre hadn't left the country for two years."

The retrial took place two years later. "The solicitor listed all the police mistakes for two hours, then asked for a recess, then continued for another seven hours," says Sue. "He produced evidence that police documents had been doctored, witness statements ignored, no warrants were in place at the time of their arrest. When he had finished, all the other solicitors in court shook his hand. All the other prisoners wanted to be his client. He was so brilliant. But it made no difference. Pierre got 25 years again."

A few weeks ago Pierre was moved to a high-security prison on the desert road between Cairo and Alexandria. Having never seen it, Sue imagines the worst. "I want help. I don't want to wait for the embassy to tell me something's happened to my son and there'll be an investigation. In the remand prison, everyone was fantastic to him. The prisoners looked after each other. They shared food. There'd never be a prisoner who didn't eat.

"But the conditions in the desert prison are much tougher. He's sharing a cell with more than 20 people. I can't imagine what the heat's like. I'm terrified he'll get hepatitis. He's got problems with his teeth. Several are broken and infected. He's in considerable pain but it's difficult to get him medical help. His brother has been taking in antibiotics. You have to take everything in: antiseptic cream, medical wipes, disinfectant. We've asked the embassy to get him a dentist. I'm worried about his state of mind.

"I can't imagine how he must feel – in another country, in a strange prison system where you can't communicate properly. He still can't speak much Arabic and no one in the new prison speaks English. He must feel so cut off, so isolated. The only contact he now has with his family is through Philippe, who is allowed to speak to him for a few minutes when he takes in his food. He hardly knows how Kelly and his children are; his brother can't tell him much in the brief time allowed together. A lifelong friend of his has died in a motorbike accident since he's been in there. We didn't dare tell him. We thought it might push him over the edge.

"Prisoners wear white on remand and navy when they've been convicted. Pierre has told his dad that what really distressed him was seeing the area for people sentenced to death. They have to wear red. It worries me. What sort of psychological damage is being done?"

Pierre's incarceration is taking its toll on Sue, too. "Sometimes I don't feel I get any rest at all. I'm not with my partner any more, I work seven days a week, every night. I'm taking diazepam. Sometimes I go to bed really late but I still can't sleep. I sit down to a Sunday roast and I can't eat it because he's not having it. It takes over your whole life. You end up feeling guilty if you do anything nice. Every night I'm lying in my really comfortable bed thinking of him on the floor. I think about him all the time – in the bath, eating, sleeping – or trying to. He loves Only Fools and Horses. I can't watch it.

"He's a big lad – 6ft 2ins. He's very funny, witty, chatty – people love to be with him. He and Kelly have been together since he was 16. He loves his kids and was always playing with them, taking them out. Every penny he had he spent on his children.

"He can adapt himself to whoever he's with. Without a doubt, that's what has carried him through. I'm still ringing his brother two or three times a day. I go into panic mode if he doesn't answer.

"Pierre's children don't know what's happened to him. We haven't told them yet. We've said he's working in the desert and there's no satellite signal out there. But the oldest boy, Josh, is 11 now and he's not really wearing it. Kelly is a really good mother, but it's a nightmare for her.

"I took the children to a farm and Josh said, 'You know what, Nan, I see an aeroplane and I think, is my dad on that? One day he'll be on one of them, won't he?' I mustn't cry in front of him."

At the end of June, when I first met Sue, she had just had news that Pierre would at last see a dentist and that embassy staff would be allowed to take in a mobile phone so he could speak to his family. He was allowed 10 minutes to speak to Kelly and his oldest son.

FTI say they are hoping Pierre is given "a fair hearing on appeal and that the horrendous ordeal that he and his family are going through soon comes to an end." The British embassy, meanwhile, will "continue to provide consular assistance and remain in contact with the family".

fairtrials.net. If you wish to express your concern, write to Alistair Burt, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Middle East and North Africa

Flytower Films, London

The BFI Southbank and IMAX are well-stocked enough, but you won't even have to go inside them to see some films over August. Just wander along the South Bank and look up at the National Theatre's flytower, where every Friday and Saturday, free movies will be projected on to this accidental outdoor screen. For a start, the idiosyncratic Matthew Robins will be performing/projecting his "shadow opera" The Death Of Flyboy (about an insectoid mutant who's in love with a robot) and other works, then there are screenings of archive material with an Anglo-Indian focus: rare documentary footage of pre-independence life in India and stunning "cast of thousands plus the odd tiger for good measure" 1929 Rajasthan epic A Throw Of Dice. On the British side is Free Cinema footage of lost 1950s London: sweaty jazz clubs, the Festival of Britain, or a surprisingly seedy sketch of Piccadilly Circus on a Saturday night.

National Theatre Flytower, SE1, Sat to 22 Aug

Great Scots, Glasgow

When Scottish film-makers find success, they're invariably reclassified as "British" (Danny Boyle, Andrea Arnold, etc), which could explain why this patriotic showcase was so well received at the Glasgow Film Festival in February. Now it's doing the rounds of Scottish cinemas, stopping in Glasgow before heading to Eden Court in Inverness next week. Two documentaries are of particular interest: Burning, a black-and-white concert movie of sonic architects Mogwai, and a rigorous study of unsung painter and illustrator William McLaren. Both are accompanied by remarkable short films. The First Movie follows Mark Cousins (who's Northern Irish, but it was produced in Scotland) on a magical mission to bring cinema to war-torn Kurdish Iraq, while John Forsyth's quintessential 1980s comedy Gregory's Girl needs no introduction.

Glasgow Film Theatre, Wed to 25 Aug

Unknown Pleasures, Manchester

You wouldn't think there were many pleasures left to know when it comes to Joy Division, what with their tragically curtailed lifespan and meagre output, but such is the long, dark shadow they've cast over the post-punk era, we can't stop raking over the ashes. And alongside two seminal Joy Division-related films, Anton Corbijn's Control and Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, this event, marking the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis's death, does, indeed, produce new goods. There's previously unseen footage of their much-bootlegged gig at Plan K in Brussels in 1980, and a panel discussion including Mark Kermode, Miranda Sawyer and Control screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh. Also, running until 7 August, there's an exhibition of photographs, personal exhibits and art installations inspired by Curtis and the band.

Macclesfield Silk Museum, Sat & Sun, visit joydivisionexhibition.com

Cyclescreen, Bristol

If you feel lost once the Tour de France finishes on Sunday, pedal to Bristol for your next fix of cycle porn. There's plenty of "vanilla" road cycling for the hardcore: documentary Tour Des Légendes gives you the heritage; Breaking Away gives you the 1970s Hollywood version (with Dennis Quaid). The pedal-powered cinema gives you bike shorts and green cred at the same time, and there are films on BMX, extreme mountain biking, round-the-world touring, the revival of stationary indoor roller-racing (Rollapalooza!), even cycling blind, plus on-hand advice.

Watershed, Thu to 8 Aug

Readers' favourite photographs, songs and recipes

Snapshot Thanks for this precious picture

This is to the unknown man who took this photograph. You probably don't remember this at all. It was a sparkling cold, sunny day by the entrance to the Coronation Gardens, just opposite the Roundhay Fox pub in Leeds. It was 3 October last year. You were leaving Tropical World. I asked you to take a picture of Mum and me. You said you were no expert and I said what people always say: "You can't go wrong, just point and press."

What you probably saw were two women, alike in looks and 20-odd years apart in age. You would have seen the turquoise blue of what Mum still called her "windjammer", her defiantly red hair, her smile, which I recognise as that curious mix of her dad, Charlie, and her mum, Bella's, smile. You might even have glimpsed Mum's spirit, her love of life.

What you probably didn't notice was the way Mum was propped up against the wall. She looked as if she was perching, relaxed. In fact, she was leaning against me, clinging to the wall, the wheelchair somewhere in the background. You didn't see her slippers, the Velcro-ed maroon velvet flaps semi-fastened over toes curled by 12 years of Parkinson's disease. You didn't see the way the drugs she took every day had reddened the rims of her eyes. You didn't see the way something as trivial as a urinary tract infection had unravelled her life.

And what you couldn't have known was that this is the last photograph of Mum and me together. Fifteen weeks ago, the manager at her care home rang, his voice shaky. "June's died," he said, and everything changed.

In a couple of weeks it will be my birthday. Last year, I wrote Mum a card listing what I know about my birth: that I was conceived in love near the Buddha's footprint on Adam's Peak, in Sri Lanka. That in the last days of pregnancy, X-rays incorrectly suggested Mum was carrying twins. She was driven down the steeply winding road from Nuwara Eliya to Colombo where I was delivered – singly – by caesarean section. That my dad was staying at a friend's house on one of the tea plantations in Talawakelle, so absorbed in listening to Dvorák's New World Symphony and reading Nevil Shute's On the Beach that he forgot to visit Mum and me until I was four days old.

These are stories told and embroidered over the years. But it is the photographs, the 12 balsa wood boxes of slides, that hold most of our family memories. Yet for all the thousands of images, I can number only three or four just of Mum and me together.

Perhaps because of this, I have for years embarrassed my husband by asking complete strangers taking photos of each other if they want me to take their picture together. I know how hard it can be to ask. And I know how often the photographer is missing from the memory captured by the image.

So to the man who took this last photograph of my lovely mum and me at Rounday park last autumn, I just want to say thank you, for finally putting us both together in the picture. Jane Maitland

Playlist The cycle of life comes round again

Beethoven's Symphony No 7 in A major, second movement, Allegretto

The Sounds of the Seventies version, a synth-mash of strings and Casio keyboards, an orchestra pretending to be Freddie Mercury under the influence of Beethoven. It crackled out of the cassette player of our purple Ford Cortina, a sad song for our sombre cruise across the Pennines. It was 1976.

Grandma's died, Dad said, she won't be standing on the doorstep in her apron and pale pink glasses, ready to embrace you with a "Why, Pet!" and then curl you towards the parlour table flowing with cakes and home-baked goodies. She's died.

The clouds fled past the window. Dad was driving slowly and silently. She was your mum, I thought, and you must be very sad, sad like this music. The orchestra played its synthesised sorrow, and I wondered if Grandma was up there in the clouds with the sun and the wind, and I felt sad too.

Thirty four years later and it's my turn now. I'm taking my children to my dad's funeral. Grandad's died, I told them. He won't be hiding behind the door whistling, he won't jump out and give you a big hug. He's died.

I stare at the sky above the A1 as we drive north in our green Audi estate. We're playing Beethoven's Seventh, the second movement, on the iPod, but we're making do with the London Symphony Orchestra version, because Sounds of the Seventies has long been consigned to landfill. But it's the same tune, and as I listen I'm back in the Cortina, watching the clouds and thinking of Grandma. I stare at the sky above the A1. Your son's on his way, I tell the grey clouds, and the strings soar and it makes me cry all over again. Rachel Watson

We love to eat Angels on horseback

Ingredients

Baked beans

Poached eggs

Small children are easily pleased. This dish was first served to me by my grandparents. I'm sure it was my grandad, a tiny man with a big laugh, who gave this dish its name. As soon as I heard it, I was enchanted and never wanted to eat anything else.

The baked beans were the horses who seemed to gallop around my plate in their sea of tomato sauce. The two poached eggs on top were the white-robed angels. My grandparents would let me stir the beans and, a few years later, even break the eggs as well, which I would do with great trepidation.

My mum brought me up on a diet of homemade wholemeal bread, sugar-free biscuits and home-grown vegetables. I adore this kind of food as an adult and I'm full of admiration for her now. Yet as a child, I felt hard done by and longed for the lurid prepackaged foods that my friends ate. Only once did I convince her to make angels on horseback. I'd been ill and hadn't eaten for days, so she could hardly refuse. However, it just didn't taste the same. I suspect she used reduced-salt beans.

I was stunned to see angels on horseback on a restaurant menu recently. They turned out to be oysters wrapped in bacon. I think I prefer the simpler version. I have them for breakfast occasionally and I always think of Grandad as I eat them. Alison Reynolds

The Author, Edinburgh

Theatre about theatre can be a yawn, but not Tim Crouch's The Author, which was an extraordinary experience when it premiered at the Royal Court last year. Playful and teasing, this is a play with a dark heart as it unpicks art's capacity to feed upon the horrors of the real world under cover of creativity and the imagination, asking what it does to an audience and how we become complicit. As ever with Crouch's work, the set-up is ingenious and the interrogation rigorous – there is nowhere for either art or the audience to hide, so much so that during its Royal Court run some audience members were upset and outraged as much by their own complicity as the material, which fills your head and colonises your imagination. It's slippery and brilliant and suggests that we all have a choice: to see or not to see.

Traverse, Thu to 29 Aug

Lyn Gardner

Steam Industry At The Scoop, London

The Steam Industry's season of free, open-air theatre for all ages is a fixture of the London theatre season – this year marks the eighth season of plays at The Scoop amphitheatre at More London next to City Hall. The main production is Don Juan In Love by the Spanish 19th-century playwright José Zorrilla, a tale of swashbuckling and seduction that will see ghosts exacting their revenge on the lothario as the sun sets over the 1,000-seat amphitheatre. For younger ones, company director Phil Willmott offers Toad Hall!, adapted from the Graham Greene classic The Wind In The Willows and featuring young people from Southwark. Any likeness between the main character and the current incumbent of City Hall is entirely coincidental. Performances are Thursdays to Sundays and it's possible to see both shows in one night. No need to book – just turn up.

The Scoop, SE1, Thu to 5 Sep

Mark Cook

The Firework-Maker's Daughter, Chichester

Philip Pullman's brilliant story about Lila, who dreams of becoming a firework-maker just like her dad, is much more than a simple quest story. It knows how to get you where it hurts. It's already been tackled successfully on stage by Told By An Idiot, but this may be its best theatrical incarnation yet. Played out in the grounds of the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum by a huge cast from the award-winning Chichester Youth Theatre, the show follows Lila's adventures as she heads to a volcano to win fire from the Fire-Fiend. The book ends with a firework competition that Lila must win, and it's a scene that's difficult to do full justice to inside a theatre. No such problem here, as the performance will end with a real firework display.

Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, to 12 Aug

Lyn Gardner

Biblical Tales, London

Never one to hide his light under a bushel, Steven Berkoff is back on stage with a new take on the Bible. Biblical Tales is made up of four one-act plays that give a modern, controversial twist to the biblical pairings of Adam and Eve, Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath and Moses and Pharaoh. Lust, betrayal, blackmail and materialism are among the themes raised in a series that undoubtedly will have a contemporary resonance.

New End Theatre, NW3, Tue to 28 Aug

Mark Cook

Beautiful Burnout, Edinburgh

With Roy Williams's Sucker Punch recently at the Royal Court and Ragroof's Gloves On touring the country, boxing is very much in theatrical vogue. The latest company to enter the ring is Frantic Assembly, whose physical style should be well suited to capturing the visceral thrill of a live boxing match. With Bryony Lavery as writer, this is likely to raise ethical questions too about a sport that has as many detractors as admirers. The cast have spent recent months training in gyms, not just to reach the required levels of fitness and expertise, but also to try and understand the mindset that pits one man against another in a quest for dominance and the knockout punch. The show is directed and choreographed by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett and takes its title and soundtrack from the dance music of Underworld.

Pleasance Courtyard, Wed to 29 Aug

Lyn Gardner

Penelope, Edinburgh

Since Disco Pigs back in the mid-90s, Enda Walsh has been a consistent Edinburgh fringe presence, with hits including The New Electric Ballroom. Those two plays were produced by that superb Irish company Druid, and they are also behind this latest Walsh piece, which is set at the bottom of a drained swimming pool where competing suitors to the pool's owner, Penelope, look set to be barbecued in more ways than one. If you can't catch it in Edinburgh, it'll be at Hampstead Theatre in the new year.

Traverse, Thu to 29 Aug

Lyn Gardner

The Falling Sky, nr Nottingham

Headphone and iPod shows are very much in vogue at the moment. In London, David Leddy's Susurrus can be experienced in Holland Park Gardens as part of the InTransit Festival, while, out of town, New Perspectives Theatre Company has come up with a canny new method of distributing touring work with their audio version of Brendan Murray's The Falling Sky. It works like this: go to the New Perspectives website, where you will find a list of participating villages and dates, and then book a slot. You'll be directed to where you can pick up the equipment and map, then off you go on a guided walk around the village in which the location and story should come together in an idiosyncratic way. It's a good idea and the cast for this story – about a woman who doesn't find things quite as peaceful as she had expected when she swaps her city desk for life in a rural community – is top notch, including Amanda Root, Stephanie Cole and Julian Glover.

Aslockton Church, Wed to 8 Aug, visit newperspectives.co.uk

Lyn Gardner

Blast! nr Truro

There are four dates only for Blast!, Kneehigh's explosive show for all the family that is as Cornish as a deep-filled pasty and just as tasty. Part of the company's Asylum season, it tells of a proud Cornishman, Trevor Stuggs, who decides that direct action is the only answer to his problems. But his saffron buns go with more of a bang than he had planned. So keep your powder dry and make sure the fuse doesn't get damp for this sharp blast of a show where only the laughter is truly explosive. Performances will be followed by a Kneehigh knees-up. Sounds fun.

Tywarnhayle Farm, Fri to 27 Aug

Lyn Gardner

Festival In The Sky, Edinburgh

At first, the idea of eating your lunch suspended 100 feet above Edinburgh on a 22-seat platform-cum-dining-table sounds like nonsense. The calibre of chefs involved with Festival In The Sky, however, may make you think again. The cold courses served during the standard half-hour airborne sessions, such as bilini with smoked salmon mousse at breakfast, or pressed pork and caramelised shallot terrine over lunch, have been designed by former Le Gavroche head chef, Steven Doherty. Doherty is now chef-director at Cook School Scotland, who are co-ordinating the FITS food. The guest chefs, meanwhile, who will actually cook certain dishes on the platform, include such Michelin-starred names as Tony Borthwick (Plumed Horse) and Geoffrey Smeddle (Peat Inn). It will be a meal to remember, if only – with those guest chef tickets costing £97.50 – for the gaping hole it leaves in your wallet.

Princes Street Gardens, Sun to 31 Aug, from £32.50, visit festivalinthesky.com

Tony Naylor

one9seven, Lewes

Chef-turned-journalist turned chef-patron Stuart Ferguson, and his wife Sue, run this newcomer to the burgeoning foodie scene in historic Lewes. Serving from breakfast till dinner, one9seven is a relaxed kinda place, stylish yet homely. Ferguson's cooking style is wacky and experimental modern British with airs and jellies aplenty. It's not a case of style over substance, though, with ingredients diligently sourced within a 15-mile radius. Try a signature starter of parmesan custard pot with Marmite soldiers or a prawn cocktail smoothie; it might look like a strawberry milkshake but its creamy textures work perfectly against a cooling cucumber and lettuce jelly. Move on to mains like lamb's shoulder shepherd's pie, garlic purée, confit tomatoes and garden mint jelly, and finish with a pleasingly retro, intensely flavoured dandelion and burdock espuma.

197 High St (Tel: 01273-479713) price per head £30

Carina Murphy

Café Luc, London

Ensconced on the site where Eat And Two Veg gave the ideal of the vegetarian brasserie its best shot, Café Luc brings us a more classic European version: this is steak tartare and beef fillet territory. The food is good, at times excellent. Organic chicken with pappardelle, wild mushrooms and champagne is shot through with bright flavours, while a vegetable marinière and basil pesto sauce really brings scallops to life. A Mediterranean influence on the menu isn't always so successful: a nicely steamed sea bass is totally overwhelmed by the accompanying exotic fruit salad. The other problem is the Café's schizophrenic attempt at sophisticated casual: it wants to be an informal, continental, open-all-day eatery, yet the prices and fussy service lend themselves to a fine dining experience, leaving customers unsatisfyingly stranded inbetween.

50 Marylebone High Street, W1 (Tel: 020-7258 9878) price per head £34

Martin Skegg

Lumosity.com Customer Care Representative (part-time)


Do you thrive on providing superior customer service? Are you continuously looking for ways to improve service and support for your customers? Does talking to people and helping them make you happy? If so, we have the perfect job for you! We are looking for a representative to join our Customer Care Team and provide excellent support to our customers.

Responsibilities:
• Professionally handle incoming phone and email requests from customers, and ensure that issues are resolved both promptly and accurately.
• Provide consistent, quality service and support in a variety of areas including but not limited to billing, equipment, user account support, and technical troubleshooting.
• Communicate themes in customer inquiries to the appropriate teams, and help determine the best ways to implement customer suggestions.
• General office support functions

Qualifications:
• Good understanding of a customer/user-focused environment
• Keen web and technical aptitude with the ability to quickly pick up new technologies
• Demonstrated passion for excellence with respect to caring for customers
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Upbeat, caring and empathetic personality
• Highly motivated self-starter
• Positive, personable demeanor with a passion for working on a friendly, energetic team
• Team player
• Bachelor’s degree



Why work for Lumosity?

1. Our People Rock.
We only hire the brightest, savviest, most energetic and awesome people we can find, so if this sounds like you, then you’ll fit right in and we’ll do anything to get you on board! You’ll work alongside graduates from Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Penn, who have diverse experience from prior positions at companies including Sun Microsystems, Disney, JP Morgan Chase, Apple, and Goldman Sachs. But don’t worry – we’re smart, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. This is a gaming company, so everyone plays nice and knows how to have fun.

2. We’re the Leader in our space. And we’re growing.
Lumos Labs created lumosity.com, the leading platform for games that improve brain performance. We’re venture-backed and generate real revenue. Our games are on tons of
platforms (including Facebook, iPhone, and Palm Pre), and we have over 2 million members on lumosity.com. We’ve received great reviews from consumers and the press (New York Times, LA Times, London Times, TechCrunch, PC Magazine, Women’s Health, etc.). And we love celebrating our milestones and record-breaking successes.

3. You Will Learn, Grow, and Make a BIG Impact.
We work in very small teams so your contributions WILL matter. You can dramatically shape and impact our culture, product, and customers’ experiences.

4. Location! Location! Location!
We’re in the city, yay! Our office is located in downtown San Francisco, so we’re walking distance from BART and lots of other cool start-ups.



To Apply:

Please email your resume, cover letter, and writing samples to: jobs@lumoslabs.com.

Cover Letter - As part of your cover letter, please tell us which trait you believe is most useful in customer correspondence and why: humor, patience, or integrity.

Writing Samples – Please respond to the questions below as you would to a customer's email. We will assess you on these questions based on your response style, not on your knowledge of the questions asked.
1. I want to create an email signature that will append automatically to the end of any of my outgoing emails. Can you help me? (You can provide instructions specific to whatever email application you use.)
2. Can you explain to me the difference between film photography and digital photography? I'm not interested in the technical differences but would like to know which type of camera is better for me. I'm 70 and would like to be able to take my camera everywhere, get good pictures, and keep my life and the organization of my pictures as simple as possible.

Please note: submissions without a cover letter and writing samples will not be reviewed.

I have been a mother for twenty years.

I have learned to defend against and battle many things during those years, some of which include ear infections, kidney infections, urinary tract infections, head lice, allergies, crooked teeth, poor fashion judgment, best friends and backstabbers, and boys who break your heart. Nothing, and I repeat nothing, prepared me to defend against someone threatening my daughter’s life.

It was last fall, and Sassy was a high school senior when she finally broke down and confessed about being scared for her life. She was a starting varsity field hockey player, for God’s sake -- a girl who was in as good a physical shape of any other athlete in her school, a strong, outspoken young woman who scared not only her sister and her brother, but often her parents. Scaring her? It was a formidable task.

We spent a harrowing night listening as she poured out her heartache -- the stories that began three years earlier after an innocent trip to the Dairy Queen.

“You know, Mom, when I think back the only reason I went was because he was relentless. He pursued me so much -- and basically I went so he would finally leave me alone.”

What ensued was three years of relentless texts, Facebook messages, and phone calls until it finally escalated to her being followed around town, home from Wal-Mart and a terrifying encounter at her high school. As he had graduated two years earlier after being suspended for weapons violations, this sufficiently horrified her enough to come to us.

The local police, fortunately for us, took her very, very seriously, and after hearing her story and taking her statement took immediate action.

They did all they needed to do, and it wasn’t long until the actions of this young man landed him in jail.

The Erin Andrews case is national news. To us, however, it hits us right in our hearts. We applaud those who realize that these acts of stalking are a life-changer for the victim and her family.

We applaud Erin's strength, and the strength of those who endure this horror every single day.

Sassy’s advice to young women who are just not sure about a relationship?

“If something doesn’t feel right -- you can’t ignore it. It probably isn’t right. There’s a fine line between okay and creepy, and your gut knows where that line ends. Follow your gut, and tell someone. You have to protect yourself.”

We have used this experience and the advice of those around us to help us learn and grow.   Sassy is undergoing some counseling to prepare her for college and has taken to heart lessons learned from the amazing book, The Gift of Fear.  

Will Sassy ever be the same?  No.   Will she be able to turn her face to the sun and smile once again?  Yes.   Have many other stalking victims been so lucky?   

No. 

But, with the help of victims such as Erin, and those who are listening, there is hope for those who are brave enough to ask someone for help.

Vodkamom blogs at Vodkamom.com.

 

Abbey Road revisited.

 

 

 

 

John Johnson and Gerry Spence (Summer 1985).

 

 

This morning, a gaggle of geese crossing a busy street gave drivers a chance to step back from their Friday hustle-bustle. I excused myself from my cellphone call to snap this photo.

 

 

 

John Johnson emphasized to me the importance of finding quiet and calm among the potential turmoil of trial practice. The geese have inspired me to re-post about John and his following poem "A Meeting with Mother Earth":

 

 

The late John Johnson of Friday Harbor, Washington, was a great man and a great jury trial consultant. He believed strongly in people's ability to derive great power from being real, feeling and expressing love, and finding inner peace. To deal with our pain, John said, we first must embrace the pain before sending it on its way; this sounds similar to the t'ai chi approach of embrace tiger, return to mountain. John much preferred having a bucket of cow dung to a bucket of beautiful fake flowers, for at least the cow dung bucket holds something real. For John, the necessity and power of realness was underlined by the Velveteen Rabbit.

 

John was on staff at the Trial Lawyers College in the College's first two years of 1994 and 1995, at his close friend Gerry Spence's ranch. For four weeks in 1995 at the Trial Lawyers College, I experienced John's friendship, caring, and essence. John departed the planet in early 1996 over his conflict with cancer. John and I spoke later in 1995, when John emphasized how much peace was lacking where I live, in the Washington, DC, area, where he also once lived. My view is that the best way to reach a harmonious life is to learn to do so in the eye of the storm. 

 

 

One morning during the last week of the Trial Lawyers College, we awoke before sunrise to find a place in this mountainous region away from the sight or sound of anyone else, to reflect on our lives and the courses thereof, before returning to the hustle-bustle of our work and homes. We continued the silence through breakfast and beyond, and John handed each of us his following very applicable signed poem, "A Meeting With Mother Earth":

 

 

A MEETING WITH MOTHER EARTH

 

    The life of lawyering is filled with noise and turmoil. Peace is hard to find - even in seeking after justice. Modern mankind runs amok in anxious pursuit of an elusive technological happiness.

 

    But we are sons and daughters of mother earth. She gives us an abundant house, made bright and glorious by sun, moon and stars and nurtured by the waters. She gives the wind upon which seeds blow and birds fly to us with their songs.

 

    Our mother earth speaks to us of peace and fulfillment and love. But we must listen to hear those gifts our mother holds for us. To hear we must let our souls be quiet; we must learn how to be still so that our mother earth can touch us with her wisdom and show us the way to peace.

 

    It is among us already. It is in the earth and sky and the water for all of us to share.

 

   Let us be still and quiet together and ask our mother to help us receive her gifts.

 

    When we find peace we can have power and courage and wisdom. We can go forth as true warriors in seeking after justice.

 

/s/ John C. Johnson, OFW*

 

Trial Lawyer's College

 

August 1994

 

Reprint permission granted by Lenore Bayuk

 

*OFW - Old F----- Warrior

It took me quite some time to work out which way was up on this card, never mind what it was showing.  It helped when I read the back.

Old buoys (boys?) ending their life fading in the sun, after many years' loyal service at sea.

There is beauty in age.

by Randy Rieland.

There’s an oil spill in Michigan and the energy bill’s now a little slip of a thing, but a lot of other stuff happened this week that didn’t grab big headlines. Here are 10 stories from the greenosphere that you might have missed:

A really, really mighty wind:  If wind power is truly going to be reliable and realize economies of scale, it needs to go offshore and it needs to go big, the thinking goes. Beyond big, actually. Massive. How massive? A British firm working on the next generation of offshore wind turbines has designed one that could provide electricity to 5,000 to 10,000 homes. It would stand almost 600 feet above the waves and have a wingspan of three football fields. John Vidal, writing for The Guardian, has more.
Flush with power: The basic principle of renewable power, of course, is that you use sources of energy that will always be around: the sun ... the wind ... wastewater? British industrial design student Tom Broadbent started thinking about all the water that goes down the drains in a typical high-rise. That inspired him to create HyDro Power, a system that works like this: 1) Person takes shower or flushes toilet; 2) Water goes down drain; 3) On the way down, it hits four turbine blades; 4) Turning blades crank generator; 5) We get drain power. Maria Popova goes with the flow at Big Think.
Tell it to the crabs: In answer to the question now being raised about the BP spill—“Where’s all the oil?”—scientists have at least part of an answer: it’s in crab larvae. Through much of the summer, they’ve been finding blobs of oil mixed with the chemical dispersant Corexit inside blue crab larvae. That means the toxic droplets have made their way into the food chain, since the larvae is a tasty treat for other marine life. Knowing that what you can’t see can’t hurt them, boosters of deepwater drilling can be expected to start reassuring us that this spill wasn’t so bad after all. Huffington Post’s Dan Froomkin shares a different story from under the sea.
Unless, of course, Obama did it: Remember the chortling of climate-change deniers last winter when Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were sitting under several feet of snow? It was Whack-a-Gore Week. But a new study by scientists at Columbia University, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, concludes that the whole mess wasn’t so surprising (and certainly doesn’t disprove global warming)—it was just the result of a quirky collision of weather patterns. “Snowy winters will happen regardless of climate change,” said climate scientist Richard Seager, lead author of the study. It may take a while for Fox News to get to this one, but you can get the lowdown from Columbia’s Earth Institute.
Got juice? The Energy Department announced that it guaranteed a loan to build a new wind farm in Oahu, Hawaii. No big deal, right? But this isn’t your ordinary wind farm—it will be one of the first in the country to use a new kind of storage battery that ultimately could help power companies deal with the problem that the wind doesn’t always blow when you need it to. Matthew Wald of The New York Times explains how it would work.
Matches? We don’t need no stinking matches: Shifting from winter in D.C. to summer in Moscow, the heat in the Russian capital this summer has been brutal enough—it hit an all-time high of 99 degrees F on Monday. But then there’s the smog, the kind of smog people will talk about years from now—if they live that long. As Russia’s chief lung doctor put it, the people of Moscow have been inhaling the equivalent of 40 cigarettes every few hours. Alexei Anishchuk of Reuters has the dirty details.
The green, green blasts of home:  On the East Coast, it’s been the kind of summer where the air conditioner becomes white noise, a constant, comforting hum that makes you forget it’s a power-sucking beast. That, of course, leads to the emission of more greenhouse gases, which brings more heat, which keeps the AC running, which ... well, you get the picture. Fortunately, scientists are looking to stop the madness, or at least slow it down, by finding ways to green air conditioners, from replacing conventional refrigerants with CO2 to using sound waves. Helen Knight of New Scientist fills you in.
It’s lonely at the bottom:  You’re already at the bottom of the food chain, and now you find out that thanks to global warming—which, by the way, you’ve had nothing to do with—you’re dying off. Such is the plight of phytoplankton, those tiny plants eaten by not-quite-as-tiny sea creatures. After an extensive study of the transparency of seawater, a team of Canadian researchers found that the phytoplankton population has dropped about 40 percent since 1950. They ask for so little and now this? Lauren Morello, writing for ClimateWire, tells the sad story.
Clean your plate: Scientists at the University of Texas estimate that in the U.S., more energy is used to produce the food we throw away than is available in the oil and gas reserves off our coasts. New Scientist does the math. 
Just fade away: For those who want to show that their commitment to a sustainable lifestyle doesn’t end when they do, there’s the Ecopod. It’s a coffin made of recycled newspaper and silk, along with mulberry leaves, and it comes in four designs: blue with doves, green with a Celtic cross, red with an Aztec sun, and gold leaf. Yuka Yoneda has more at Inhabit, and Agence France-Presse has this video. 

Related Links:

Reports of BP disaster’s death are greatly exaggerated

The South has renewable energy too!

Drill deep and don’t spill a drop with Oil Spill Condoms

Carrie Underwood flashed her new diamonds this morning during her performance on The Today Show in NYC. We had a first glimpse at her band a few weeks ago when she and husband Mike Fisher headed off to their honeymoon in Tahiti, where Carrie broke out her bikini to take a swim and soak up the sun. Now that she and Mike have wrapped up their vacation, Carrie's out on the road again, and she's apparently settling right into married life.

To see more Carrie, just read more.

Morrissey's songs might not be the most upbeat, lyrically, but the man sure can croon -- and he looks great in a suit -- so it's no surprise that Katy Perry and Russell Brand, who's a pal of the Moz, would love to have him perform at their upcoming nuptials.

"It's going to be a small ceremony, so I don't think we'll have a proper band," Perry tells U.K. tabloid The Sun. "I'd love to have Morrissey."

Pop star Perry (whose album Teenage Dream drops August 24) and actor-comedian Brand (who's filming a reboot of Arthur in NYC) are reportedly tying the knot this September in India. Perry recently met Morrissey for the first time, and chatted about the upcoming wedding over tea.

But the Moz, an invited guest to the affair, wasn't too supportive about the idea of marriage. "[Morrissey] swooned and sighed, 'Oh, left hand third finger, don't do it,'" Perry says. "It was just so eloquent and poetic and like one of his songs."

Not a shocker coming from the Pope of Mope, though: Morrissey made his opinions on relationships very clear in a 2004 SPIN interview with Marc Spitz. "I don't believe in that at all," he said, when asked if he thought he'd one day meet a special someone who'd change his life. "I don't actually believe in, as you so eloquently term it, 'one day.'" Instead, he said he'd rather devote his time to animal rights causes: "I still prefer horses to human beings."

Would you like Morrissey to sing at your wedding? What song? Sound off in the comments.

As an offshoot of a discussion that started in the Dylan Mono Box / Bootleg Series 9 thread found here: http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=223214&page;=5 Here is my recent compilation of 5 discs of (mainly) studio officially released Dylan rarities -- some more rare than others I understand. The flow of the comp works better when the "rare" live tracks are not intertwined with the studio tracks. I have all of the tracks for the live set, but my guess is that it would be around 8 to 10 discs -- crazy, I know -- and right now I don't know that I have the time to put it all together. Anyway -- please chime in if you see any glaring omissions. Bob Dylan | Official Rarities Volume One 1962-1965 1. *Mixed Up Confusion *- Alternate take of Bob's first single, released on the 1985 edition of Biograph, and now replaced by a stereo version of the original mono take. 2. *Corrina, Corrina *- B-side of Bob's first single, alternate take to Freewheelin' version. 3. *Roll On John *- Performed by Bob during an interview with Cynthia Gooding for the "Folksinger's Choice" WBAI radio program. Recorded in early 1962, in New York City, and released on the Smithsonian Folkways album There Is No Eye: Music For Photographs, Nov 2001. 4. *Train A-Travelin' *- From the Folkways album Broadside Balllads Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion, recorded 1962-63, released 1971. 5. *(I'd Hate To Be You On That) Dreadful Day *- From the Folkways album Broadside Balllads Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion, recorded 1962-63, released 1971. 6. *The Death Of Emmett Till *- From the Folkways album Broadside Balllads Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion, recorded 1962-63, released 1971. 7. *The Ballad Of Donald White* - From the Folkways album Broadside Ballads Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion, recorded 1962-63, released 1971, now also on the Smithsonian Folkways CD boxed set, The Best of Broadside 1962-1988, 2000. 8. *Talkin' Devil* - Broadside version, from the Folkways album Broadside Ballads Vol. 1, 1963. 9. *John Brown *- Original Broadside version, from the Folkways album Broadside Ballads Vol. 1, 1963. Now available on the Smithsonian/Folkways CD boxed set, The Best of Broadside 1962-1988, 2000. 10. *Only A Hobo *- Broadside version, from the Folkways album Broadside Ballads Vol. 1, 1963, alternate version to the one released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3. 11. *Blowin’ In the Wind *– Witmark demo version recorded in the Witmark offices, New York, Jul 1962. Available on a bonus DVD released with the deluxe version of Together Through Life, 2009. 12. *Baby, Please Don't Go *– iTunes exclusive release, outtake from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, recorded Columbia Studios, New York, 25 Apr 1962. 13. *Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues* – The original withdrawn version of the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan had four tracks that were quickly replaced before the album was commercially released. This mono studio version is still unreleased, the one released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 is a live performance from Carnegie Hall, New York, 26 Oct 1963. 14. *Let Me Die In My Footsteps *– Another track from the withdrawn mono promotional version of Freewheelin’. The version released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3 in 1991 has a verse missing 15. *Rocks and Gravel *- Also available on the withdrawn mono promotion copy of Freewheelin' and this studio version remains unreleased. A live version was released in 2005 on the CD Bob Dylan Live at the Gaslight 1962. 16. *The Times They Are A-Changin' *- Alternate take recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, Oct 1963, released on limited edition 2 disc set of "Love And Theft", Sep 2001. 17. *House Of The Rising Sun* - Electric version, 1964 overdub by Tom Wilson with Bob not present, from the now out-of-print 1995 Highway 61 Interactive Columbia/Graphix Zone CD-ROM. The basic tracks (vocal and guitar) were released on the debut album Bob Dylan, 1962. 18. *California *- Early version of Outlaw Blues from Bringing It All Back Home with different lyrics (which appeared in "Writings and Drawings" under this title and on bobdylan.com), recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, 13 Jan 1965. Available on NCIS: The Official TV Series Soundtrack Vol. 2, 2009. 19. *Outlaw Blues *– iTunes exclusive release. Alternate take from Bringing It All Back Home, recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, 13 Jan 1965. 20. *Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? *- Early version released on 7” by mistake in July 1965 under the title “Positively 4th Street”. 21. *From A Buick 6 *- Alternate take, with harmonica intro, from the first US stereo pressing of Highway 61 Revisited and also the Japanese stereo LP, 1965. 22. *If You Gotta Go, Go Now *- Single released in Benelux countries only, Jul 1967. Features a group called The Poppies singing backup vocals on the choruses. This take is different from the version released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3, 1991. 23-27. *Like A Rolling Stone* – Highway 61 Revisited outtakes from the now out-of-print Highway 61 Interactive Columbia/Graphix Zone CD-ROM, 1995. Bob Dylan | Official Rarities Volume Two 1965-1976 1. *Like A Rolling Stone *– This 1992 release was remastered by Steve Hoffman from the original 1965 master tapes and released by DCC under license from Columbia. It is accepted by some to be the definitive version of the album on CD (others now prefer the recent hybrid SA-CD/CD version released in 2003 (CH 90324)), 1965. 2. *One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) *– US unfaded album mono mix, 1966. 3. *I'm Not There *- Outtake from The Basement Tapes, recorded at Big Pink, Saugerties, New York, Jun-Oct 1967. Available on the soundtrack to the film I’m Not There. 4. *One Too Many Mornings* – A duet featuring Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash from the film and video Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music, 1969. 5. *Lay Lady Lay *- Studio rehearsal, Columbia Studios, Nashville, TN, 13 Feb 1969, released with iTunes pre-ordered download of Together Through Life, Apr 2009. 6. *Country Pie *– 16 seconds longer than standard album version (1969) and mixed differently on Quadraphonic release of Nashville Skyline, 1974. 7. *Nashville Skyline Rag *- Earl Scruggs on banjo and Bob on guitar, from the Columbia album Earl Scruggs Performing With His Family & Friends, 1971. 8. *New Morning *- Early copies of the album New Morning have Bob saying "OK, here we go" at start of the track. This remastered version is available on the 6 track promotional CD that accompanied the release of the book Chronicles Vol. 1. 9. *Went To See the Gypsy* – Previously unreleased demo version (with Bob on piano) of the 1970 track from New Morning, available from the Apple iTunes Online Music Store, Oct 2004. 10. *Spanish Is The Loving Tongue* - B-side of Watching The River Flow single, Jun 1971, solo version (authorized by Bob), not band version from 1973 Dylan album (not authorized by Bob). 11. *George Jackson *- Big Band version from 1971 single released on the 1993 Japanese limited release CD Mr D's Collection #3. 12. *George Jackson *- Acoustic version from 1971 single released on the 1993 Japanese limited release CD Mr D's Collection #3. 13. *Wallflower* - Bob shares lead vocal and plays guitar for Doug Sahm on the Atlantic album Doug Sahm & Band, 1972. 14. *Knockin' On Heavens Door *– The standard album version, overdubbed with a childrens choir, found on the charity album Voices Of Hope, Ark 21 Records (USA), 2002. 15. *Idiot Wind *- Unreleased alternate version from the 1974 Columbia test pressing of Blood On The Tracks (alternate take to the New York sessions version released on The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3), 1974. 16. *Shelter From The Storm *- Alternate version with extra verse, outtake from the Blood On The Tracks sessions, 1974, from the Jerry Maguire soundtrack album, Epic, 1997. 17. *Sign Language *- Bob duets with Eric Clapton on his otherwise unreleased song from Eric's 1976 RSO album No Reason To Cry. 18. *Romance In Durango* – Version with a vocal mistake at the end of verse three from the Quadraphonic release of Desire, 1976. 19. *Rita May *- Desire outtake, B-side of the Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again single from Hard Rain, 1976. Bob Dylan | Official Rarities Volume Three 1978-1990 1. *Baby Stop Crying *- Short version (radio edit - 4:17) on Columbia 3-10805 promo 7" single (USA), 1978. 2. *Trouble In Mind *– B-side of a 1979 Brazilian single -- Slow Train Coming outtake. This release had the full song unlike the versions released elsewhere in the world in which one verse was edited out. 3. *Let It Be Me *- B-side of Heart Of Mine single, Jul 1981, Shot Of Love outtake recorded May 1981 - not the version from Self Portrait. 4. *Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground *- Infidels outtake released as single B-side in 1983. 5. *I and I *- Reggae remix of album track from Infidels on Is It Rolling, Bob? A Reggae Tribute To Bob Dylan Vol. 1, 2004. 6. *Band of the Hand *- Recorded with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, title track from the film of the same name, on MCA, 1986. 7. *Brownsville Girl *– Remixed in 2007 from the basic tracks recorded in 1986 and released exclusively on Dylan, the career spanning 3 CD set, released in 2007. 8. *The Usual *- From the Hearts Of Fire soundtrack album, 1987. 9. *Night After Night *- From the Hearts Of Fire soundtrack album, 1987. 10. *Had A Dream About You, Baby *– From the Hearts Of Fire soundtrack album, 1987. The original version, released in May 1988 on Down In The Groove, was completely remixed (it used the same vocal track apart from two overdubbed lines and a new backing track). 11. *A Couple More Years *- About a minute of this cover of a Dr Hook song is used in the film Hearts Of Fire (complete with clucking chickens!), Guild Home Video, 1989. 12. *Pretty Boy Floyd *- From the Columbia Records Woody Guthrie/Leadbelly tribute album Folkways: A Vision Shared, 1988. 13. *Important Words *- From promo cassettes of Down In The Groove and also included in error on the Argentinean LP release, 1988. This track was not released in any form in the rest of the world. 14. *Got Love If You Want It *- From promo cassettes of Down In The Groove and also included in error on the Argentinean LP release, 1988. This track was not released in any form in the rest of the world. 15. *Let's Stick Together* - Unfaded finish, on both the Columbia acetate and first and second versions of the promo cassette for Down In The Groove, 1988. 16. *People Get Ready* - From the Flashback soundtrack album on WTG Records,1989. 17. *Like A Ship *- 1990 outtake from Traveling Wilburys Volume Three, Wilbury Records (Warner Brothers), finally released on the Rhino boxed set The Traveling Wilburys Collection, 2007. 18. *Nobody's Child *- By the Traveling Wilburys, title track of the 1990 Warner Bros Romanian Angel Appeal charity album, also released as a single. Finally, released on the Rhino boxed set The Traveling Wilburys Collection, 2007. Bob Dylan | Official Rarities Volume Four 1989-1997 1. *Dignity *– The original Oh Mercy outtake produced by Daniel Lanois (not the 1994 Brendan O'Brien remixed version for Greatest Hits Vol. 3) from the 550 Music/Sony Music Soundtrax compilation Touched By An Angel: The Album, 1998. 2. *Most Of The Time *- Alternate version #2, outtake from Oh Mercy, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 3. *Ring Them Bells *- Alternate version of track from Oh Mercy on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 4. *Born In Time *- Unreleased version #2, outtake from Oh Mercy, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 5. *Most of the Time *- New version for 1990 Columbia promo single, recorded 16 Mar 1990 at the Record Plant, Hollywood, CA, produced by Don Was. 6. *This Old Man *- From the Walt Disney Records children's charity album For Our Children, 1991. 7. *Duncan & Brady *- From an unreleased album with David Bromberg, 1992, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 8. *Heartland* - Bob duets with Willie Nelson on this co-written song from Willie's 1993 Columbia album Across The Borderline. 9. *You Belong To Me *- from the Natural Born Killers OST album, Nothing/Interscope, 1994. 10. *Mary And The Soldier *- Unreleased outtake from World Gone Wrong, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 11. *Blood in My Eyes *– 1993 promotional video version, with extended intro, released with the deluxe edition of Modern Times, 2006. 12. *Ballad Of Hollis Brown *- Bob sings to Mike Seeger's accompaniment on Mike's Rounder Records album Third Annual Farewell Reunion, 1995. 13. *Boogie Woogie Country Girl *- From the Doc Pomus tribute album 'Til The Night Is Gone, Rhino, 1995. 14. *Interfere *- With Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagen and Willie Weeks. Instrumental recorded at Ron Wood's home studio, Sandymount, County Kildare, Ireland, early 1996, from Ronnie Wood’s album Not For Beginners, SPV Records, 2001. Written by Ronnie Wood. 15. *King Of Kings *- A previously unreleased instrumental with Ronnie Wood and Bob on guitars, presumably recorded at Ron Wood's home studio, Sandymount, County Kildare, Ireland, early 1996, at the same time as Interfere. From Ronnie Woods album Not For Beginners, SPV Records, 2001. 16. *Ring of Fire *- From the Feeling Minnesota soundtrack album, Atlantic, 1996, recorded specially for the album. 17. *My Blue-Eyed Jane *- From The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers tribute album, Egyptian Records, 1997. 18. *Love Sick *- Remix of 1997 album version from Columbia. Released on a US 9-track promo CD produced exclusively for Victoria's Secret, 2004. Bob Dylan | Official Rarities Volume Five 1997-2009 1. *Mississippi *- Unreleased version #3, an outtake from Time Out of Mind, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 2. *Red River Shore *- Unreleased version #2, an outtake from Time Out of Mind, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 3. *Marchin' To The City *- Unreleased version #2, an outtake from Time Out of Mind, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 4. *Can't Wait *- Alternate version #2, outtake from Time Out of Mind, released on the 3CD Limited Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 - Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989-2006, Oct 2008. 5. *Chimes Of Freedom *- New version with Joan Osborne, recorded Oct 1998, from the Mercury soundtrack album of the TV mini-series The '60s, 1999. 6. *Things Have Changed *- Specially-written song for the film and Columbia film soundtrack of Wonder Boys, 2000. 7. *Train of Love *- From the Johnny Cash Tribute special, recorded Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 5 Apr 1999, on the Columbia Johnny Cash Tribute album Kindred Spirits: A Tribute To The Songs Of Johnny Cash, 2002. 8. *Return To Me *- From The Sopranos 2 TV series soundtrack album, Play Tone/Columbia, March 2001. 9. *I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind *- From the Hank Williams tribute album Timeless, Lost Highway Records, Sep 2001. 10. *A Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache *- From Sun Records tribute album Good Rockin' Tonight, Sire, Oct 2001. 11. *Waitin' For You *– From the original film soundtrack, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, DMZ Records/Sony, May 2002. 12. *Cold Iron Bounds *- Recorded at Stage 6, Ray-Art Studios, Canoga Park, CA, 18 Jul 2002. Released on the Masked and Anonymous soundtrack, 2003. 13. *Diamond Joe *- Recorded at Stage 6, Ray-Art Studios, Canoga Park, CA, 18 Jul 2002. Released on the Masked and Anonymous soundtrack, 2003. 14. *Dixie *- Recorded at Stage 6, Ray-Art Studios, Canoga Park, CA, 18 Jul 2002. Released on the Masked and Anonymous soundtrack, 2003. 15. *Down In The Flood *- Recorded at Stage 6, Ray-Art Studios, Canoga Park, CA, 18 Jul 2002. Released on the Masked and Anonymous soundtrack, 2003. 16. *Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking *- Duet with Mavis Staples, new recording of album track from Slow Train Coming on the compilation album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan, Columbia, 2003. 17. *Tell 'Ol Bill *– A previously unreleased song from the Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrack album North Country: Music From The Motion Picture, 2005. A newly recorded version, not the uncirculating outtake from Self Portrait recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, 4 Mar 1970. 18. *Twas the Night Before Christmas *- B-side of Must Be Santa, Columbia US 7" vinyl single, 2009. This is taken from Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" Christmas show broadcast on 20 Dec 2006, with Bob reciting the poem to accompanying music performed and written by John Fahey, a guitarist who has released several albums of Christmas music. 19. *Do Re Mi *- New recording for this compilation, recorded at the Malibu Performing Arts Center, Malibu, CA, 2009, with Ry Cooder on guitar and Van Dyke Parks on piano. From the TV documentary soundtrack album The People Speak, Hip-O Records, 2009. 20. *Take Me Out To The Ball Game *- A cappella version from Theme Time Radio Hour With Bob Dylan: Baseball, a CD of Dylan's historic performance on XM satellite radio on 24 May 2006, given away by bobdylan.com, in conjunction with the Sony Music Store, with purchases of the Limited Edition version of Modern Times, 2006.

There is something almost primal about home-baked bread.

For millennia, mostly women (but I'm sure some men too) across every single continent have engaged in a fairly painstaking process of patiently grinding wheat or corn into flour, finding and adding just the right amount of water, and kneading, kneading, kneading until, finally, on a flat rock in the sun or atop an enclosed fire somewhere the cornerstone of the human diet was finished. How could they have known how much water to add, or that one must knead and not beat or grind the dough? Perhaps bread was born within us and simply came out.

Maybe it emerged in the form of a baguette, or a tortilla, a loaf, a pita, a crust or a stick, but it was bread and it was being made every day by somebody somewhere.

Humans engaged in this long process, over and over again, for their children, their mates, their communities or themselves. To celebrate, to mourn, to barter or to heal. In honor of their religion and sometimes, even, bread was made to renounce religion. Bread was at once precious and yet universal. It was for the rich to enjoy, the poor to need and the destitute to yearn for.

Environment, time and later wealth would play their defining roles, of course.

In France the nobles feasted on croissants, a rich bread because it required eggs for browning and a scandalous amount of butter.

Meanwhile, in Tuscany, the bread had to last and was often stale. Not to be denied any pleasure, the Tuscans soaked the leftover slices of the long, narrow loaves in olive oil and topped with basil and tomatoes and re-warmed the bread over the fire. Today, you can pay up to $25.00 for a plate of that--only we call it bruschetta and the bread isn't usually stale (though it may have been deliberately left out overnight to harden for authenticity).

French toast, or as I grew up calling it, arme ritter (poor knight) was fed as a dessert dish to knights. It contained key ingredients wealthier noblemen were likely to have, such as milk and eggs. As such, it was considered a bit of a luxurious dish and by serving it the noblemen were paying the knights proper respect...that being said, it was also appealing because it was a dish that was still relatively cheap to provide. In fact, French toast is sometimes called "The Poor Knights of Windsor."

Rich, poor, warring or at peace....everyone ate or at least needed bread. Of all the foods in the world, it is bread that became synonymous with currency the world over (lettuce is a distinctly American term).

All of which is well and good, of course, and lends to a deep sense of comfort when baking bread, but doesn't have a whole lot to do with why I bake it.

No, I think it would be far more accurate to say that I love dough more than I love baking bread.

I love the dough.

I love the way yeast proofs in warm water, as though the water, at just the right temperature, was holding some eternal secret of life and by adding the yeast and waiting I discovered it. Dough is love, and love is the essence of life.

I love how it transforms from a sticky, gooey sludge into a smooth, warm and elastic dough with just a bit of patient coaxing from my fingers. That my small, weak and unskilled hands could produce such an strong but elastic substance amazes me just a little bit each and every time.

I especially associate yeast dough with love. Like love, yeast dough is pliable but strong, but also requires just the right amount of attention to become something life-sustaining. Given too much kneading or water or flour, it can be ruined in an instant and become stiff, dry or cracked. Sometimes, just sometimes, like particularly strong love, if the dough has become too watery and is getting away from the baker, it can be fixed by slowly and carefully adding flour.

Both yeast dough and love can be coaxed, cajoled, rolled, folded and rocked into shape, but never, ever forced.

You have to truly feel the dough to understand it, and if you are only going through the motions you may end up with bread that is edible, but not bread that is also joyous. Yeast dough, like love, will give back whatever you put into it, and if you don't pay attention you will end up with nothing but a useless, heavy mass and a lot of wasted time you can never get back.

Yeast dough is warm from the inside out and, without even touching it, yeast dough can grow and grow until it doubles or triples in volume and can seem unstoppable. Anyone who has ever secretely loved another can surely relate.

The warmth of yeast dough doesn't come from an oven or a grill, but emanates gently from within it. Cover the bowl, come back in an hour or even just twenty minutes and--magic!--twice as much dough as there was before.

And like love, even punching it down a bit and reshaping it won't stop the way it will grow from within.

Some breads, just like some loves, need a bit more attention even when they're in the oven.

A baguette, for example, has to be perfectly misted while baking.

A challah bread (and is there any bread that celebrates life, family, love and tradition more? And no, I'm not Jewish, but it really is one of the richest breads in so many ways) won't settle for being shaped but must be braided.

The quietly demanding sourdough requires no less than at least three days of your time for the starter and, even then, can be a bit fickle.

And the croissant is a downright diva, demanding days of preparation and folding process akin the welding and hammering that goes into a genuine Samurai sword (only slightly less than 100 layers). It is a deceptively innocent-looking bread that requires a remarkable amount of skill.

Yes, some breads require the attention of a lover, others are as demanding as children, still other are as low-maintenance and accepting as an old friend, and still other breads ultimately require the patience, work and understanding that love for family and in-laws are exceedingly likely to require.

But all of them, if done properly, are unquestionably worth every second.

Naturally, after taking a golden-brown or spice-speckled or rich dark bread out of the oven, I'll treat myself to just a bit of it.

I'll allow myself that first moment of basking in the rich, comforting warmth of the oven, still lazily lingering within the welcoming center of the loaf. And I'll revel in the barely-there hint of sugar or natural sweetness that is woven tightly amidst the magical sponge of flour and yeast.

When the mood strikes me, sometimes that gentle, warm center is hugged by a protective crust with just enough crunch to turn that very first bite into an experience of its own, a sharp but simple contrast of texture that elevates the flavor exponentially.

But after that, really, the bread becomes almost a thing of the past. Baked, the loaf is now something that I take pride in having made and while I genuinely look forward to sharing with others, something is gone. I am forced to confront the fact that the towel-wrapped testimony to my secret baking obsession is not why I ever began making it in the first place.

We’re a family-vacation-loving bunch. My husband and I take multiple trips during the summer with our two sons, as I did with my family when I was growing up. We just spent ten days doing the camping thing in mid-July and are preparing for our annual multi-generational family vacation to Emerald Isle, North Carolina at the end of August. We look forward to these trips all year, so when I heard that summer vacation won’t make you happier, I tried my hardest not to laugh out loud. But I failed.

I do agree that the return from vacation-land involves a bit of an emotional drop. It’s hard to get back into a routine with the kids. It’s hard to deal with the fact that the beach is not glimmering right outside our windows. It’s hard to get caught up on the sleep that we lost while staying up late exchanging old stories with family members or waking up early to catch the sunrise on the Atlantic. But the dip in mood soon passes, and life goes on.

What I don’t agree with is the pessimistic view of vacations in general. This article in Newsweek concentrated too hard on the things that can go wrong on vacation.

“For one thing, holiday trips are not 24/7 bliss. There are missed flight connections, disappointing hotels, bad food, and illness. Looking back on all that, once we’re back home, can understandably put a dent in our happiness.”

Or, you know, you could not be such a Negative Nancy about the fact that you just went on vacation, a thing not everyone is privy to on a regular basis.

Things do go wrong on vacation. Last year on our way home from the beach, we got stuck in a massive traffic jam at the bottle-neck of 77 near Wytheville, Virginia. (Why on Earth is that only one lane? Can’t anyone fix it? Before late August?) We got kind of grumpy. Earlier in the trip, I had an argument with my mother. But we worked it out, much like we eventually got through the traffic. When I think of last year’s vacation, those negatives aren’t what come to mind. Not at all.

I remember watching my youngest son dip his toes into the ocean for the very first time. I remember taking walks with my husband ... alone. I remember a meal that I made for the whole family that got rave reviews. I remember my husband buying me a pink fishing pole that lights up. I remember my oldest son giggling with glee as he jumped over the waves, his little beach shoes making that slopping-wet-beachy sound. I remember the smell. And the breeze. And the laughter. I could have focused on things gone wrong, but that’s not how my family rolls. Or vacations.

Another anti-summer-vacation argument recently covered in Time, is that the time off hurts kids’ progress in school. Perhaps. I understand that our family is privileged in the fact that we can make time and spend the money on these vacations. But our kids have earned their vacation time, as my husband and I have, by working hard at whatever they’re doing and learning during the year. Just because our oldest son isn’t actively in a classroom during the summer doesn’t mean that we’re not working with him on various aspects of his educational growth. But, to be honest, we don’t bring the workbooks on vacation. We might draw some letters in the sand, discuss why the sun “comes up earlier” at the beach (causing our oldest to rise earlier, too) or talk about tides, but we’re not doing science projects. Vacations are for relaxing (even if parents sometimes have to work during them). Kids deserve some relaxation, too.

So, while my kids may come out dumber and we may have a case of the Post-Vacation Grumpies come the first of September, we're still going on our family vacation. I'd be willing to bet money that we won't think, "Gee, I wish we would have spent that time drilling our sons on math." Or even, "I'm so upset we went on vacation and experience all of those fun moments." Instead, I bet we'll be glad that we took the time for us, for our family.

Jenna Hatfield (@FireMom), from Stop, Drop and Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land, is a freelance writer and newspaper photographer.

Summer Surgeries get to the heart of issues that concern young people, like relationships and alcohol, says Aled Haydn Jones

Lots of people associate BBC Radio 1 with our DJs, celebrity guests and pop music and are unaware of what else goes on at the station in terms of advice, support and social action campaigns.

Nearly 50% of all young people aged 15-24 in the UK listen to BBC Radio 1 and we are the authentic voice for young people in Britain, with my regular Sunday Surgery show attracting hundreds of questions from young people all over the country who need help and guidance on all sorts of issues.

At this time of year, with exams over and the prospect of parent-free holidays and questions about their future on the horizon, the issues that affect young people – alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships, body image, money, travel, further education – become even more important than usual.

So we decided to organise a week-long special of Summer Surgeries that get right to the heart of these issues and offer a one-stop shop for young people who are about to embark on a summer of discovery.

And what better way to gain a real perspective of the kinds of things our listeners face than go to the mecca for school and college-leavers – and a place that has attracted some criticism in the past with its influx of teens over the summer weeks – Newquay in Cornwall.

This is where we chose to launch the Summer Surgery, with a special live show from the seaside town last Sunday, broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra in front of an audience of teens on their holidays.

On the train journey from London to Newquay, I met a group of University students and twelve 17-year-olds from Cambridge. I asked them what they were most looking forward to. The surf? Sea? Sun? Clubs? The unanimous answer was, no, drink. And the prospect of not getting a cheap supply of booze was the most stressful thing facing them over the next 7 days!

In Newquay, three groups of guys on stag weekends pass us before we've had a chance to have our first drink yet — there are already plenty who are well on their way to a messy night …

So what? You might say. Isn't this typical binge Britain? 

According to Sergeant Bob Murray, the local police sergeant on the evening shift, "We've got the ambulance service here, and the bus to take on anyone who has injured themselves or had too much to drink – they will come and take care of them here".

Overall I'm impressed by his positivity – the emphasis is on everyone having a good, yet safe time. A far cry from the usual moral panic one hears.

From media reports, my impression of Newquay town centre was of a no-go area dominated by young people who had just finished their exams and were now out of control. Sergeant Murray talked about some of the latest crackdown measures and schemes that are in place to ensure the well-being of young teenagers holidaying in Newquay – including using Alco blow sticks to test 'Cola bottles' that young people carry around for traces of alcohol, and cracking down on ID at bars and clubs with a 'No ID – No Newquay' policy.

Other initiatives he spoke about included the Exodus scheme that encourages venues to host under-age nights so young people have somewhere to go; town centre paramedics in the Newquay Street Safe portacabin to help with minor injuries; a Drinkaware youth centre on Fistral beach offering advice on alcohol; and police more likely to drive lost drunken teens home than arrest them.

And although many people got drunk, I didn't see any fights, although I did witness a man in his thirties walking down the high street with his trousers and underwear around his ankles and another being thrown out of a club forcefully. 

By 1am, police and paramedic numbers have been increased with the addition of eight voluntary staff – a combination of Special Constables and St John's Ambulance staff. The Newquay Safe Partnership – the collaborative effort between local organisations to prevent underage drinking and to keep young people safe – looks like it's having a positive effect on the town.

The weekend sets the scene for the rest of the week.

The special shows that have run on The Summer Surgery have focused on sex and relationships, alcohol and drugs, body image and life stress. They threw up all kinds of questions and we were overwhelmed by the amount of questions we received from listeners and surprised by how they need what we consider to be the most basic information on these issues.

By far the busiest shows were the ones covering sex and alcohol. It seems that, no matter how much sex education and information they get, young people still have lots of questions they need answering about sex and they often feel uncomfortable asking their family, teachers and even friends about the things they really want to know.

And, when it comes to alcohol – well, we have to acknowledge that young people are drinking, whether we like it or not. In preparation for one of the shows I conducted a straw poll via Twitter to find out how young people were when they first got drunk. The average age for the respondents was 14. We should be educating them about the effects of alcohol so if they do choose to drink they know what they're getting themselves into.

There's still a huge amount of confusion around even the most basic facts – many young people still don't know what a 'unit' of alcohol consists of and, worryingly, some had absolutely no clue how much they could drink safely before they were over the drink drive limit.

I believe we need to be a society that's much more comfortable talking about sex and alcohol in a straightforward way – as this will empower our younger generation to be more informed when making decisions.

• The Surgery airs Sundays 9pm-10pm on BBC Radio 1

sadly offering........ up for sale............. 16.2 hand double registered, TWH Spotted Saddle (breeding purposes only) 11 yr old Black mare and her 2010 black colt. her DNA has already been converted and is ready to go. this mare is really broke for about anyone to ride that has a good handle on horses. i would not say she is for beginners simply because of her size (not her temperment), she is trained using leg pressure and voice command and she can flat move out when asked. she is the smoothest horse i have ever owned and/or ridden. but will walk along with the slower horses on a loose rein. she was shown in her younger years and placed several times in the blues. only flat shod NEVER in pads.she is smooth as silk, she neck reins and is basically a honest mare. she is also HOMOZYGOUS for BLACKso she can never produce a red based foal......if you are looking for a BUCKSKIN producer, here she is!!!!! Bred to the right stallion, she will throw a buckskin everytime. she is not your typical TWH in her build, other than her height, she is a big muscular heavy built mare and can carry a more heavier rider. she does all the basics, farrier, bathing, will jump in the trailer, she will ride out alone or with others. i will guarantee her sound or you can bring her back. VET CHECKS WELCOME. she has almost an Arabian dished head and the wonderful crooked ears of the walker. she is the daughter of Sensational Stuntman grandaughter of Evil's Stuntman and has old bloodlines like Merry Go Boy, Midnight Sun, ETC. she is an excellent trail horse and not a go go go all the time mare and not moody or kicky with other horses. she only has 2 what i call bad habits , she is a little head (ear) shy (only when trimming not with halter or bridle..she knows the difference) and she can have her days when she is hard to catch. but i usually bring her in second and she will walk right up to you then. she isn't always that way but she has her days. never impossible to catch. she has never offered to kick, rear, never been sick, coliced, no cribbing, no ving, knows her place in the herd and not really marish with new or strange horses. now, her colt, foaled 4/22/10 (smokey black) is out of a 16.3 cremello Reg. TWH stallion owned by Dream Makers Farm in Mt Sterling. he is a stunning stallion and produces very well gaited, tempered foals. have pics of him if you would like to see them. i took a chance in breeding to him with a 50/50 shot of getting a buckskin. the stallion is not genetically Double Agouti so i could get a smokey black or a buckskin only. well, i got a smokey black. but man,,,,,,this is still a nice looking colt. short backed, his neck comes out just right and he hit the ground gaiting his brains out. very, very , very naturally gaited. this will a big colt, i measured him at birth and she should mature out AT LEAST 16.1 hands or better. he's build like a powerhouse big chested and very muscular. he's a little shy with new people, but has been handled since birth. he leads and loves to be petted and get a good butt scratch. he sells with reg application and will be fully registered. not sent in yet so if you want to pick out his name , you can still do it. he stands for a bath and has had his feet done twice. he is the nicest foal i have ever bred and i hate to part with them. i am only selling them simply for the lack of time. they are both very healthy, up to date on shots, wormings etc. theses are excellent horses and would not be up for sale if not for my life moving in a different direction.i have no time anymore to show and have a 4 yr old mare i am currently breaking. time constraints at home and work are forcing me to sell them to give them more attention than i can offer. these are too nice of horses to be just pastrue ornaments. the only thing she needs is a current coggins and health certificate pulled (expired 7/13/10)which i will get when ready to be sold. she was ridden consistently before she foaled and has had about 5 rides since she foaled in april. never missed a beat and was not worried about where her foal is when riding. shes not the type horse you have to ride consistently for her to be the same every time. ride her once a week or once every 6-9 months.....the same mare every time. i am selling her with a buy back Guarantee,,,,if she is not exactly what i tell you she is, bring her back and i will refund your money. these are not SALE horses that have been passed around. only 2 owners the original owner and myself. i will not come off my asking price of 2900.00 for the pair....a tremendous amount so please don't make a silly offer. i'm really giving them away at the 2900.00. i paid more for the mare alone when i bought her. this is not a HAVE TO SELL because of money, lack of pasture or anything else negative on my part except i think she/they deserve more one on one time. come out and ride her and you will fall in love. she doesn't have a mean bone in her body if wanted, i can sell mare when foal is weaned in late august for 2000.00 and foal at weaning but with registration already paid for at 6 months old for 1200.00. you are getting a heck of a deal with the pair together and under priced for the quality of these horses/breeding and training. i had hopes of showing this colt because his mother was awesome in the ring, and he was bred to be shown or be a super trail mount with the ook at me personnaabout him. i have had him genetically color tested to be 100 sure of his color (smokey black) befor registering him. i have lots more pics two. please email me and i will send them to you. i am open to reasonable offers, BUT NO TRADES! I WILL HAVE A VIDEO SOON OF HER BEING RIDDEN IF IT IS NOT POSTED ON HERE, PLEASE EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND IT TO YOU. email or call me if you have any questions. thanks 859-983-4200

As part of BCS Know How’s 2010 college football season preview, we will be breaking down each week’s most important games that could have BCS and postseason implications in the “Road to Glendale 2011.″

Let’s move to Week 6 where two marquee matchups in non-BCS conferences will probably be your best bet for pressure packed college football this early in the season.

Troy at Middle Tennessee State: Tuesday Oct. 5, 8:00 p.m. ET

This mid-season Sun Belt showdown between the two conference favorites could act as a de facto Sun Belt championship game. With the skill both teams bring to the table in 2010, it wouldn’t be surprising to find these two teams at the top at season’s end.

This seemingly unimportant non-BCS conference game suddenly becomes a marquee matchup of Week 6, and could also provide high entertainment for 60 straight minutes of football.

The likely star here, Middle Tennessee State’s quarterback Dwight Dasher, is an all-around threat with the ability to pick apart defenses with both his feet and arm. Dasher will put his skills to the test against Troy, whose run of Sun Belt titles may be over this year after losing their long-time quarterback Levi Brown.

Brown, who holds many Troy all-time records, will be sorely missed in what will likely be a shootout between the two teams. However, the Trojans won’t be without any hope when they travel to MTSU’s Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in early October.

Long time Trojan coach Larry Blakeney returns star running backs DuJuan Harris and Shawn Southward, along with defensive ends sophomore Jonathan Massaquoi and senior Mario Addison, who will need to put the pressure on Dasher if they are to have any hope of pulling off the road victory.

Temple at Northern Illinois: Saturday Oct. 9, 12:00 p.m. ET

Another high quality non-BCS matchup will again feature two conference title hopefuls, this time the Temple Owls and Northern Illinois Huskies of the Mid-American Conference.

Both teams fell just short of the conference title game last season. With major changes occurring all over the conference, both teams could be right in the middle of the hunt for a berth in the championship game.

The game will feature two unheralded running backs in Northern Illinois’s Chad Spann and Temple’s Bernard Pierce. Both had shining seasons, including Pierce’s surprising MAC rushing title as a freshman in the ’09 season. Questionable quarterback situations will cuase both teams to rely heavily on their running games.

Florida State at Miami (FL): Saturday Oct. 9, TBA

A rivalry that was once a non-conference affair has lost some of its luster after the teams joined the same conference and were unable to keep pace with the results of past decades for both teams.

However, after an entertaining edition of the rivalry in 2009, 2010 looks like it could be a reminder of what made both programs so strong during a dominant stretch of Florida football.

Quarterbacks Jacory Harris and Christian Ponder have a lot to do with it, and are early ACC Player of the Year favorites along with Heisman contenders. Coaches Randy Shannon and Jimbo Fisher, although both young and relatively inexperienced in relation to their programs’ history, have returned some youthful energy in the programs and could make the upcoming years more successful.

When the teams meet in Sun Life Stadium in Miami in Week 6, don’t be surprised if you see a game that reminds you of the “Wide Rights I-IV” and “Wide Left” that seemingly define this rivalry.

Just in case you’re wondering: Senior Matt Bosher kicks for the Hurricanes and sophomore Dustin Hopkins takes kicks for the Seminoles.

Other Games of Note: Wyoming at TCU, Pittsburgh at Notre Dame, Mississippi State at Houston, Alabama at South Carolina

Boy, has my day in the life done an about face recently! Those are birds you hear chirping …and yes… that is a breeze through the open window. It’s about 6am, the sun has risen and I am wide awake. A mere 90 miles from New York City ~ but it might as well be a world away!

I roll out of my bed onto the sawdust covered floor. I am achy from sleeping on my budget-friendly Ikea mattress. I rub ...

The most interesting interviews for me, are the ones which touch on icons life outside of their profession. These interviews give an insight into who the person really is. Pharrell Williams speaks with Interview Magazine, and with, professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, about one of Williams interests, Science. See the entire feature here.

DIMITRI EHRLICH: Dr. Ramachandran, let’s begin with you. I’m assuming Pharrell’s music is not on the playlists of the majority of your colleagues in neuroscience. How did you first become aware of him?

DR. V.s. RAMACHANDRAN: Through my son, Jaya. He showed me some videos on YouTube.

EHRLICH: And Pharrell, how did you first become aware of Dr. Ramachandran and what drew you to him?

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: I think my first time seeing him was probably also on YouTube. But I’d seen him on the Discovery Channel a couple times before, and I was just so intrigued by the way he approached neuroscience. Sometimes when you’re listening to a neuroscientist, they have a tendency to use a particular type of jargon that works in their world perfectly but that would lose the average layman. And while I can keep up with most of them, he just had an eloquent way with his words and I understood it. I mean, it was like listening to [the late astronomer] Carl Sagan or [astrophysicist] Neil deGrasse Tyson. Both of those guys just have this thing, and that’s why they’re rock stars in my opinion, because they have the ability to translate genius to the masses. What we all do is art, you know? We are noticers, we’re sensitives, we notice the rhythms in certain things and we identify them, and then we coin terms for them, and most of the world is not able to keep up. But some people just have that innate thing that allows them to express themselves in a way the majority can follow. That’s when you’re affecting culture.

EHRLICH: A couple of years ago, Pharrell released an album with N.E.R.D called Seeing Sounds [2008] which was loosely organized around the concept of synesthesia—the mixing of sense consciousnesses, like “hearing” colors and so forth. Dr. Ramachandran, you’ve also done some experiments in the field of synesthesia, right?

RAMACHANDRAN: Yes, I’ve long been interested in the creative process, whether in art or in science. People think of art and science as being fundamentally opposed to each other, because art is about celebrating individual human creativity, and science is about discovering general principles, not about individual people. But in fact, the two have a lot in common, and the creative spirit is similar in both. It’s about seeing hidden links, which nobody else has discovered before. And in synesthesia, what’s going on is the brain sees all these amazing links, which you and I can barely glimpse. With grapheme-color synesthesia, every time a person sees a number, a letter, or hears a note, he sees a particular color. For most of us, that doesn’t happen. But some people, maybe one in a hundred, have this ability. And it’s been believed to mean that you’re crazy. But now we’ve shown in our lab, using brain imaging, and also by doing psychological testing, that, in fact, it’s a perfectly real, legitimate phenomenon, and it’s also eight or nine times more common among artists, poets, and novelists than in the general population. The question is why does that happen? Well, it turns out that synesthesia is caused by excessive cross-wiring in the brain. In the fetus, or a really young child, all the different brain areas are connected to each other, diffusely. And as the brain develops, the excess connections are turned off, so you get very specialized areas. So most people have really specialized talents. What happens in creative people is this pooling doesn’t take place. This creates a propensity to link seemingly unrelated things, like tones and colors. But also, because of the excess links, it makes them see hidden connections, made just between things that are seemingly unrelated to most of us. Like when Shakespeare says, “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.” That’s a beautiful metaphor. You think, She’s radiant like the sun, she’s warm like the sun, she’s nurturing like the sun. Shakespeare’s brain probably had more of these connections that enabled him to make these amazingly, hauntingly beautiful connections, which most of us can’t. So my interest in synesthesia is trying to find the link between art and science, and trying to get a scientific understanding of things like creativity and artistic talent. I was invited to watch Pharrell work in the studio, and I was absolutely mesmerized—Pharrell, fill him in on it.

WILLIAMS: Well, he just kind of watched me make a song and how, as a musician, we react to something being right, how we react to something being wrong, and we go searching for it out of what’s seemingly thin air. But for us, we’re noticing rhythms, we’re catching something. My explanation is that curiosity illuminates the correct path to anything in life. If you’re not curious, that’s when your brain is starting to die. And discovering, I think, that’s what separates us from the rest of the other species. It’s that we discover and pioneer, we don’t forget from whence we came. My parents played a lot of Earth, Wind, & Fire, and the lead singer, Maurice White, was part of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, so he had an extensive jazz background, and so all of the songs had very interesting changes that I was privy to as a child. But at the same time, I used to see those colors as a kid. I thought everyone saw music in that way: That’s kind of burgundy, or, This is baby blue! But you start to notice when your friends are like, “Okay . . .” I just kind of blew it off, but what Dr. Ramachandran witnessed with me in the studio was, I’m just the average musician but I was just allowing my GPS to do what it does.

Pharrell Williams Interview | Interview Magazine is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Sun Life looks to China; Golden dividends

Photographer Samuel Cockedey created this impressive time-lapse video, floating point, using Canon 350D and 5D DSLRs. Music is R-Gent by Sun Electric from the album Kitchen (R&S Records). Photographer Samuel Cockedey created this impressive time-lapse video, static:pulse, using Canon 350D and 5D DSLRs. Music is Edge to Life by Recoil. You can see more of Cockedey’s videos at his Vimeo site.

Titian's art drinks in the air and light of his native city and breathes it out across the world

Titian is an artist who travels well. The very name we know him by in the English-speaking world, derived from Tiziano, is testament to his capacity to take root in cultures remote from his own. In his later life, he painted for export, sending paintings by ship from his native Venice to his employer, the Spanish king. Amazingly, he was on salary as a Habsburg court artist, paid lavishly first by Charles V and then Philip II, while being allowed to live in his own city.

That was an astute as well as magnificent decision by Charles V, for Titian's art breathes in the air and light of Venice and softly breathes it out again, as gold, as fire, as flesh. That's right – I've just come back from a holiday in La Serenissima. Man, those Titians.

In fact, because Titian travels so well, because he was so sought after by princes in his lifetime and has been so keenly collected by connoisseurs and museums ever since, there are not that many canvases by him in Venice itself. You can see his works all over Europe and America, from Edinburgh to Boston. What you can see in Venice, however, are paintings intimately connected with the city and his life there.

Titian's Assumption in the church of the Frari is a strong candidate for the title of the world's greatest painting. It is his answer to Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, Leonardo's Last Supper. But in Venice a fresco would have faded – the moist air eats works on plaster. So the Assumption is an oil painting placed by the artist against the glorious natural light of a Gothic window. Titian competes with the sun; he challenges God. His light equals and enriches that of nature itself.

In the Accademia gallery you can see his Pieta, the crushing last work in which he prays for the light to last, for its dying embers to linger on. Titian, in extreme old age and with his city ravaged by plague, painted a work of such force it is like a building, a cathedral, made of paint – his answer to Michelangelo's terrifying Vestibule of the Laurentian Library.

Titian showed what oil paints can do, how they can even create an architecture. He is sensual, profound and audacious. In Venice, his art mirrors the light-filled waters, the blazing sunsets, the dawn copper that filters in through medieval windows. His canvases have drunk in enough of that light to fill the whole world.

Sun Life looks to China; Golden dividends

Sun Life Financial expects premium growth at its China insurance venture to more than double this year, a senior executive said, after receiving approval to turn the company into a Chinese-owned entity

Expects premium growth at Chinese joint venture to more than double this year

• Charles River, Wuxi call off merger. Charles River Laboratories (CRL) and Wuxi PharmaTech (WX) called off their merger agreement following continued opposition from investors and proxy advisory firms. The $1.6B deal would have been the largest foreign takeover of a Chinese company, and would have allowed Charles River to expand in China, where revenue from drug-testing services is growing as much as 30% annually. Instead, Charles River will pay a $30M breakup fee to Wuxi and will begin a new $500M share buyback program. Premarket: CRL +6.4% (7:00 ET).
• EDF sells U.K. unit for $9.1B. A group led by Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CHEUY) is buying Electricite de France's (ECIFF.PK) U.K. power networks unit for £5.8B ($9.1B). EDF is selling the unit as part of its plans to reduce its debt, while Cheung Kong Infrastructure is working to increase its overseas investments because of difficulties in expanding in Hong Kong's mature market.
• Disney offloads Miramax. At long last, Disney (DIS) announced it's selling its Miramax film studio. Filmyard Holdings, whose partners include construction tycoon Ron Tutor and investment firm Colony Capital, will buy the studio for $660M, ending months of talks with various bidders. Disney agreed to the plan after Tutor and his investment partners paid a nonrefundable $40M deposit and presented a financing plan.
• Life insurers face fraud probe. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed Prudential (PRU) and MetLife (MET) as part of a "major fraud" investigation into life insurers. The probe is focused on whether the firms misled military families into placing benefits in insurer-controlled, low-yield, potentially risky accounts which "reaped millions of secret profits for the insurers." Six other firms, including Genworth Financial (GNW) and Unum Group (UNM), have reportedly been subpoenaed as well.
• DoJ sues Oracle. The Justice Department has joined an existing whistle-blower lawsuit against Oracle (ORCL), alleging the firm defrauded the federal government on a software contract in effect from 1998 to 2006 that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. According to the suit, Oracle misrepresented its commercial sales practices, causing government customers to receive deals that were inferior to those Oracle gave its commercial customers. Oracle closed down 2.4% yesterday.
• Google calls China blackout a miscalculation. Google (GOOG) said yesterday that its search and advertising services were being blocked in China for the first time since the company reached a compromise with Chinese regulators earlier in the month. However, Google later said the blockage was because of its own miscalculation: "Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.”
• Visa may face antitrust suit. Visa (V) disclosed it may face an antitrust suit from the Justice Department over its policy of prohibiting merchants from charging customers extra for credit card transactions. CEO Joseph Saunders said the company is "currently engaged in constructive negotiations with the department to resolve its concerns as it relates to Visa without litigation or payment of monetary damages.” Merchants already have a pending antitrust suit against both Visa and MasterCard (MA). In yesterday's trading, Visa closed down 4.3%.
• Fed sees paper profit on Bear, AIG. The Federal Reserve now has a paper profit on the toxic assets it's holding from Bear Stearns and AIG (AIG). The assets are presently worth $69.1B, around $2B more than last quarter, with the unrealized gains on the Maiden Lane portfolios standing at $10.8B.
• Vale buys Brazilian copper firm. Vale (VALE), the world’s largest iron-ore producer, said it plans to buy Brazilian copper producer Paranapanema for about 2B reais ($1.14B) as it seeks to diversify its metals output. The company will pay 6.30 reais per share to buy all of Paranapanema’s voting stock in a Sept. 1 auction. Vale aims to become one of the world’s largest copper producers in the medium term, rivaling companies like Xstrata (XSRAF.PK) and Anglo American Plc (AAUKY.PK).
• Citigroup settles subprime charge. Citigroup (C) agreed to pay $75M to settle regulatory charges that it failed to disclose $40B in subprime exposure to investors during 2007. Gary Crittenden, Citigroup's former CFO, agreed to pay $100,000 as part of the settlement. Arthur Tildesley, a former head of investor relations, agreed to pay $80,000.
• Reliance, Universal discuss theme park in India. India's Reliance ADA Group is reportedly in early stage talks with Universal Studios, a unit of GE's (GE) NBC Universal, to build a $1.5B theme park and resort in India, a move that would capitalize on rising demand for entertainment in one of the world's fastest-growing markets. A deal would help Reliance in its efforts to become a global media giant, while allowing Universal to extend its brand to a new market. (Comcast (CMCSA) is in the midst of seeking regulatory approval to buy control of NBC Universal.)
• IMF: U.S. financial system at risk. Though the U.S. financial system is "slowly recovering," the IMF said it remains vulnerable to crisis, partly because lawmakers have failed to streamline the regulatory system or take bolder action. The IMF also conducted stress tests on the 53 largest banks in the U.S. and found that 12 banks, nearly all of them small or regional, would need to raise more capital.

Earnings: Friday Before Open

• Aon Corporation (AON): Q2 EPS of $0.81 beats by $0.06. Revenue of $1.89B (+0.9%) vs. $1.87B. (PR)
• CapitalSource Inc. (CSE): Q2 EPS of $0.06 beats by $0.07. (PR)
• Newell Rubbermaid (NWL): Q2 EPS of $0.51 beats by $0.07. (PR)

Earnings: Thursday After Close

• Acme Packet (APKT): Q2 EPS of $0.18 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $53.3M (+62%) vs. $52.5M. Shares -13.7% AH. (PR)
• Amgen (AMGN): Q2 EPS of $1.38 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $3.8B (+2.5%) vs. $3.7B. Shares -0.2% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• Coinstar (CSTR): Q2 EPS of $0.39 beats by $0.06. Revenue of $342M (+34.8%) vs. $381M. Shares -7.5% AH. (PR)
• DTE Energy Company (DTE): Q2 EPS of $0.51 misses by $0.09. Revenue of $1.8B (+6.2%) vs. $1.7B. Shares -0.3% AH. (PR)
• Eastman Chemical Company (EMN): Q2 EPS of $2.05 beats by $0.40. Revenue of $1.7M (+37.6%) vs. $1.6M. Shares +6.3% AH. (PR)
• Expedia (EXPE): Q2 EPS of $0.44 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $834M (+8.3%) vs. $846M. Shares +2.9% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• First Solar (FSLR): Q2 EPS of $1.84 beats by $0.23. Revenue of $588M (+11.8%) vs. $543M. Shares -3.9% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• Genworth Financial (GNW): Q2 EPS of $0.24 may not be comparable to consensus of $0.28. Shares -4.8% AH. (PR)
• Ingram Micro (IM): Q2 EPS of $.41 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $8.2B (+24%) vs. $7.9B. Shares -0.7% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• KLA-Tencor (KLAC): FQ4 EPS of $0.70 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $559M (+98.2%) vs. $558M. Shares -0.4% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM): FQ4 EPS of $0.33 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $566M (+43.5%) vs. $562M. Shares +3.3% AH. (PR)
• McAfee (MFE): Q2 EPS of $0.63 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $495M (+5.7%) vs. $507M. Shares +0.6% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR): Q2 EPS of $0.06 misses by $0.03. Revenue of $448M (+58.5%) vs. $466M. Shares -7.1% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• MetLife (MET): Q2 EPS of $1.23 beats by $0.23. Revenue of $12.8B (+4.8%) vs. $13B. Shares +3.2% AH. (PR)
• Monster Worldwide, Inc. (MWW): Q2 EPS of $0.00 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $215M (-4%) vs. $216M. Shares +0.2% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• Pactiv (PTV): Q2 EPS of $0.56 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $973M (+8%) vs. $1010M. Shares -0.9% AH. (PR)
• Regal Entertainment Group (RGC): Q2 EPS of $0.03 may not be comparable to consensus of $0.17. Revenue of $731M (-7.4%) vs. $757M. Shares -0.5% AH. (PR)
• Republic Services (RSG): Q2 EPS of $0.43 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $2.1B in-line. Shares +0.8% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)
• Rovi Corporation (ROVI): Q2 EPS of $0.55 beats by $0.09. Revenue of $135M (+12.8%) vs. $129M. Shares +3.4% AH. (PR)
• Sunoco (SUN): Q2 EPS of $1.31 beats by $0.54. Revenue of $9.6B (+31.4%) vs. $8.3B. Shares +3.2% AH. (PR, earnings call transcript)

Today's Markets

• In Asia, Japan -1.6% to 9537.3. Hong Kong -0.3% to 21030. "China Shanghai Co" -0.4% to 2638. India -0.7% to 17868.
• In Europe, at midday, London -0.6%. Paris -0.5%. Frankfurt -0.8%.
• Futures: Dow -0.2%. S&P -0.3%. Nasdaq -0.4%. Crude -0.6% to $77.90. Gold +0.1% to $1172.80.

Friday's Economic Calendar

• 8:30 GDP Q2
  8:30 Employment Cost Index
  8:30 ISM New York Business Index
  9:45 Chicago PMI
  9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
  3:00 PM USDA Ag. Prices
• Notable earnings before Friday's open: ACI, AEP, AIV, AON, BPO, BWA, CSE, CVH, CVX, ENDP, FO, ITT, LPX, MCK, MRK, NWL, PEG, SPG, UFS, UPL, WY

Seeking Alpha's Market Currents team contributed to this post.

Joint venture with China Everbright aims to be among country’s top 10 insurers

To borrow a line from a favourite show of mine, much like one-hit wonder Natalie Imbruglia, Cesc Fabregas is torn.

Arsenal's captain was speaking about the situation with his proposed move to Barcelona, or rather the lack of it. This is what he had to say: "I'm a Barca fan, I'm a socio, as is my grandfather, my uncle, my cousin...I have felt the colours from a young age. I'm Catalan. 

"However, I'm the captain of Arsenal, I'm a 'Gunner', and I have become a player there and matured as a person."

He then goes on to speak about the influence of Arsene Wenger on his career and indeed his life, saying, "He is a second father for me, the most important person in my life after my father. He has behaved really well with me and taken me in like a son. I am part of his family.

"He doesn't want me to leave. And in my last conversation with him in London, it was one of the most difficult moments I have experienced. I ended up very upset."

Now some fans I'm sure would criticise Fabregas for the first part of those quotes, for seemingly inviting more interest from Barcelona, but I don't see it that way.

I find his comments refreshingly honest, and I believe that he has a genuine dilemma on his mind. 

I've said in the past I think the best thing for Fabregas's career is for him to stay at Arsenal for now. I understand his desire to go and fulfil this lifelong dream of playing for Barcelona, but if he does it now he is going to struggle to play every week, at least in the position where he is most effective.

I doubt all those childhood dreams of being in a Barcelona shirt included a lot of bench time, or of being made to fit into the team wherever there was a gap.

The time is coming where Xavi particularly will be on the wane. He's 30 now and will need replacing, and I'm sure Cesc Fabregas can do that. Until then, though, it would be better for him to stay with Arsenal and keep playing every week at his best. There's still plenty of time for Fabregas to go to Barcelona and have great years there even if he doesn't go this summer or even next summer.

I don't think Fabregas should be condemned for his comments, or accused of trying to grease the wheels of a transfer. I just think he's been honest there.

Moving on, Arsene Wenger   is confident of Arsenal improving this season. He says,  "I am very confident [we'll do better than last season]. We know in England that the Premier League is the biggest league in the world and everybody invests a lot of money. 

"We invest in our work, in our beliefs, in the quality of our behaviour and I am confident that will pay off. 

"We finished third last year and we hope we can improve on that. But the race will be tough."

A pessimist might say that Wenger was preparing the ground for no more signings there, but I don't think that's all there is to the comments.

Obviously, Arsenal don't have the spending resources of some of the other top teams, so things have to be done differently. Arsenal are a club that looks to its academy for new players first before it looks outside for new additions. Sometimes I think some fans expect the club to ditch that policy completely, which simply isn't possible.

I believe the squad has it in them to be stronger than last season. I think we need to be more solid at the back, and one thing that could help that along is if we had a goalkeeper the defence could trust.

Fulham have appointed a new manager, which is good news because there were reports that was holding up any deal for Mark Schwarzer. The bad news is that new manager is Mark Hughes, a man we've had our share of run-ins with in the past. Will he stand in the way of the deal? Time will tell.

The Sun has a piece of sheer speculation linking us with Ibrahim Afellay. He's in the last year of his contract apparently so he might be available on the cheap. I don't expect to see this one go anywhere, but I wouldn't mind being wrong.

It's quite quiet today so that will have to do. I am moving over the weekend, I don't expect any blogs to be missed, but if one does go missing that will be why. Take it easy, and I should be back tomorrow.

My good friend Lisa Honcharuk will be writing for me today. Lisa is a constant source of amusement to me; I swear, everyone needs a friend like Lisa. She will always stand by you and tell you just like it is.

I look around and see humanity struggling to achieve peace Half of humanity is for it, the other half is against it adamantly And this division of unity only brings grief Because it is written that a house divided unto its self cannot stand. So I won't be surprised if right now earth was blasted into sand. By a Heavenly beam from GOD's hands. It is a dream to see people united, yet now I witness sinner lightning Striking from inside me breaking everything I am righteously into a dying piece Of an underlying grief, but the sun is shining in gleams so no one besides me can bring me to my knees in misery And I wont let it happen, I choose to live this life with a grin, Unafraid, unworried within The person I am is a solid foundation for my soul to build it's eternity upon The devils cackle and call, the darkness was once appealing as we shared it But now I have my own corner of darkness that the only demon and angel residing in it is me Me: A demon and angel in one person, But the angel's shining radiance is too much for the cracked-flesh demon to bear; So the demon is scare, aware, yet unprepared, of the final glare, that will incinerate it And release me to fully be who GOD wants me to be, whether on earth or in eternity You see this demon inside me will flee; This demon inside me, is Every bad action That I've enacted on the masses without a reason to be clashing And it's afraid to be fully good, so because of GOD I'm not misunderstood The angel will conquer the demon with a swift cut of the sword and peace will finally reign free Unhindered by the withered mister-y, the answer to lifes question is fix your being Be all you can be, for humanity Be all you can be, for we Because humanity is we And I can't wait to be freed from my reputation on these streets Because image is nothing in the end It's touching down on a few different subjects.

The last few days have been very changeable after a mostly dry July - we have had some rain now, and what rain! I am thankful that things were dry on Saturday (24th) for the Phuket Photo Walk, but Sunday was wet in the afternoon and our power went out in the dive shop for a couple of hours, and then Monday was rather nasty, lots of rain and strong winds, Tuesday not a huge amount better. It happens. And we do need rain. Don't like it? I hear the Atacama is a nice dry place.

"The voice of the rain" by Walt Whitman

And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed, and
yet the same,
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
and make pure and beautify it;

Wednesday, after those 2 wet days, was perfect. Sunny, warm, sea calmes down. I took a late afternoon walk at Kata beach. Low season on the beaches. Not many people. Some folks enjoying the sun. Enjoying it doubly so having been denied it for a couple of days.





And then Thursday was pretty dark and wet too. I drove my daughter to school at about 7:30am. We missed the rain, but from our house we look west to the hills, and what I described to my daughter as a "black wall" was coming over the hills. Meanwhile, at about the same time, Alasdair was in Kamala - he later posted this photo on his blog:



Looks very dramatic, but didn't last that long! Today has been mostly grey and rainy too. Saturday tomorrow - a day off for me. I have a plan to go visit a remote fishing village in the mangroves of Phang Nga Bay, but think that can wait another week - our whole family seems very tired at the moment. Son was a bit ill for a few days last weekend, daughter has developed a cough, my dear wife slept late this morning, I dropped the kids at school. I think this week a lazy Saturday is called for. Check the ad below, the first one sums up my current Friday feeling:

; ; customers: boss, would this pants How much? ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; boss: 180 yuan, Guangzhou authentic goods, or not? Customer: Let me see ... ... boss: Do not look, and things are good things, give you discount points 170. Customer: This is also called discount ah? Boss: Oh, all right on the 140 yuan, and this time instead. customers: ha ha ha ha, I laugh! boss: What are you laughing Is Xiangui? Customer: No, even greater than you, simply use the pump is pumping my blood! boss: Where there are so exaggerated,Adidas Superstar Mens, see you're a local bar on the 120. Customer: ... ... boss: You would not also Xiangui,ugg bailey button, my up earns you a few dollars. Customer: No,nike air max, I did not say you, these pants worth the price. boss: Do you really have the sun, and buy it soon. customer: good pants pants, only limited tickets in my pocket ah. boss: how much money in your pocket that ah? Customer: 90. boss: Oh dear, you are joking, costing me die add another 10 yuan. Customer: No, Tim, I would like to give you 120 yuan, can do nothing. boss: Well, making friends, you pull down to 90 yuan. Customer: I will not give you 90 yuan, I want to stay 10 yuan fare. boss: the fare? This is what relationship you buy pants? Customer: Of course, I come from a place far, far away, I have to sit back coach fare is 10 yuan. boss: You lie! customer, I no longer fool after 18 years of age who, believe me. You see my face, how sincere ah. boss: Although I do not see your sincerity, but I think lost, and let you have 80 better. Customer: Wait, I should add that I have not eaten breakfast, I'm hungry. boss: You! ! God, you too much, you play tricks. customers: Believe me, I am very sincere. If we do not eat, I would faint in front of you. boss: I am out of luck, you encountered such a slick. But you do too, one would want to ride, one would then eat breakfast. You will not have to say you a thirst, drink drinks? Customer: You Tai Xiaoqiao me. Believe me,uggs, I did not request. boss: I believe you? The last time? Customer: Yes, believe me. boss: Well, happy those, 70 per. Customer: I'll give you money. boss: faster. Customer: Wait, here's the color seems a bit wrong ah. boss: No, no, this is frosted colors, deliberately inflicted in this way, is called pop. Customer: Really, how looks like the old pants, strange. Boss: What? I did not insult your relationship, please do not insult my pants. This is the real thing. Customer: ... ... boss: Well, I give you my Jinhuo Dan ... ... You see, purchase date is the last week, purchase units of a certain garment factory in Guangzhou, how can this it is the old pants? Customer: Oh, I'm sorry I misunderstood, but ... ... My god, the purchase price: 20 yuan each. Boss: Oh, no, not right. This is not the pre-tax price,ugg casuals, after tax cost is 40 yuan each. customers: you lie, you thought I was a fool you, this is the VAT **, is the price after tax. This pants only 20 dollars, can you ... ... boss: Hey ... ... do business with you, you know every day I face to the Housing rents hundreds, it does not make money I eat? customers: the light of day, reciting the tide, you Xintai Hei! boss: Hey, 30 per line does not! I earn. customers: money is a mere trifle. Your actions only make me angry. You have deeply hurt a consumer's mind. boss: Is it that serious? Customer: Do you think that cheating is not serious? Further develop, can be that fraud is a crime! boss: Do not we look good exaggeration ah. In this way,jordan shoes 10.5, you Xiaoxiao Huo, I sell you 25 yuan, 5 yuan to make. Customer: What? Means 25 is 250, you despise me? boss: No, no, on the 24 bar. Customer: There is a 4, is \ boss: Days, 23 no problems, right? Customer: Okay, deal! reading does not change, the future will never have to buy new clothes about_: Feel tired, they look at the life I Qzone record _ + Desperate grief pain

Determined to do,puma women, always make me hesitant, and not one I would hurt a firm. each encounter every day things backfire, including you, me, and he will be disappointed ... we will be a loss, of pain, helplessness. winter, late autumn is always cruel to rid of. Snow is a pure heart is cold, life is so continued. thick snow, do not know when it will completely disappear. Even if the sun was shining,christian louboutin mid shaft, but also a little bit away. It takes time, yes, it takes time. I understand what you want is not always me, and I have been living in their own weaving dreams, where you have me, have a future. But reality tells me, that is my dream. I'm not your man, you been my fantasy into my Who. This is ridiculous, how ridiculous. I still can squander their youth,Men of Adidas 35th, but how much of my youth can squander it. This issue even I do not know. obsession for a person can be counted on how long infatuated; for a number of people hurt the situation to pay off debts owed by previous life; as a person, how much patience I can wait. People often say: Wait for itself is a old. I was to die slowly, slowly court death. life is no way to turn back, why we should cherish. I want to say is,puma men, whether it is past, present and future. you are my most beautiful scenery,ugg classic mini, but just passing scenery, and always have a new beginning. heart to begin the road, there certainly will not have you. I will regret,ugg women sandals, will be sad, but I think I'll get used to. Because you always want not me. might really like is not necessarily going to have, but leave a corner in his heart to you, there is only you, no one else. accompanied me on so quietly, quietly waiting for, because you want is not me, but you must be happy ...about_: Ultra-detailed steps to learn to drive Not have been speaking. ★ ★ Secretary Dy!

Today's tell-all is getting very sensible in its old age

Having made front-page news earlier this week for offering to find a nice sanctuary for para-sailing Russian donkey Anapka, Harry Redknapp is showing no such compassion to David Bentley, Jermaine Jenas and Robbie Keane, who he appears ready to ship out to Aston Villa in exchange for Ashley Young. Having stuck one of their comedy £30m price-tags on a winger so mediocre he couldn't even get in the England World Cup squad, Villa were obviously hoping to ward off potential suitors, but clearly hadn't bargained for 'Arry's initiative and imagination in the face of transfer market adversity.

The amount of sniggering at ill-advised tattoos in the dressing room of Fulham's training ground is almost certain to increase if new manager Mark Hughes is successful in his attempts to take well-inked box-to-box midfielder Stephen Ireland and golf club swinging karaoke administrator Craig Bellamy off Manchester City's hands. In need of an over-rated non-scoring striker now that Bobby Zamora has finally rediscovered his mojo, Fulham will also rescue Roque Santa Cruz from Eastlands. The Daily Mail reports that West Ham goalkeeper Rob Green is also wanted by Hughes, but only if Mark Schwarzer ups sticks from between the Craven Cottage sticks and pitches up at Arsenal.

Beşiktaş have expressed an interest in taking John Carew back to the banks of the Bosphorus. The lumbering Norse god of occasional bullet-headers from well-placed corners. The Aston Villa striker spent a season at the Turkish club in 2004-05, scoring 13 goals in 24 appearances, a better goals-per-game average than the one-in-three he's managed fairly consistently throughout the rest of his career.

Having had Ivan Klasnic on loan from Nantes all last season, Bolton Wanderers and the Croatian striker are hoping the move can be made permanent in the next few weeks. Klasnic has reportedly told the Trotters' boss that he "wants to come back home", but only if Bolton chairman Phil Gartside is prepared to pay him £3m a year to live there.

Cesc Fàbregas - please, stop yawning - has told Spanish magazine DIR Emotions that he is torn between Arsenal and Barcelona. It's an epic internal struggle, much like that endured by Charlie Sheen when he felt torn between Sergeant Elias and Staff Sergeant Barnes in the 1986 Oliver Stone movie Platoon, but with fewer helicopters and no winning Smokey Robinson soundtrack. "I'm a Barca fan, I'm a socio, as is my grandfather, my uncle, my cousin... I have felt the colours from a young age, I'm Catalan," said Fabregas to DIR Emotions, a publication whose pages make a cool swishing sound when you click the arrow to turn them online. "However, I'm the captain of Arsenal, I'm a Gunner, and I have become a player there and matured as a person."

Matured enough to feel comfortable about vocalising his love for his manager? Oh yeah. "He is a second father for me, the most important person in my life after my father," says Cesc. "He has behaved really well with me and taken me in like a son. I am part of his family."

But as heartwarming and fuzzy as that might sound, Fabregas's fellow Catalan, the Barcelona defender Carles Puyol suspects there's something sinister - Fritzl-esque even - about the manner his Spanish team-mate's is being held against his will by Wenger. "He is having to stay at a club where he no longer wants to be for another year," said the poodle-permed centre-half. "I wonder how intelligent it is keeping a player who doesn't want to be there."

In other transfer non-news, the Independent reports that Manchester City remain "a substantial distance" from agreeing a fee with Internazionale for petulant Italian teenage striker Mario Balotelli, while the Daily Star reveals that Luke Young's mooted move from Aston Villa to Liverpool hit the skids because the full back was unwilling to take the £10,000-per-week pay-cut the transfer would have entailed.

Premier League newcomers West Brom are among a trio of clubs interested in recruiting Stoke's James Beattie, with the player's former clubs Sheffield United and Blackburn being the other two. The Sun says that the Baggies are in the box-seat to secure the ageing target-man's scrawl, with Roberto Di Matteo having made an offer of £1.5m, as opposed to Kevin Blackwell and Big Sam Allardyce, who've yet to do anything more concrete than day-dream about skipping hand-in-hand through a sun-drenched meadow with the occasionally violent but undeniably handsome club Christmas party organiser.

And having been released from prison after serving half a nine-month sentence for sexual assault and ABH, former Wigan and Watford striker Marlon King is back in the market for a new club, with Neil Warnock's QPR and Aidy Boothroyd's Coventry City reported to be at least thinking about giving him another chance. "I've spoken to people in football and I'm asking for interviews, and I'm asking clubs who may have been interested in the past to sit in the room with this person and interview him," said King's agent, Tony Finnigan, in a rare and heartwarming instance of a football agent actually having to work hard for his money.

To borrow a line from a favourite show of mine, much like one hit wonder Natalie Imbruglia, Cesc Fabregas is torn. Arsenal's captain was speaking about the situation with his proposed move to Barcelona, or rather the lack of it. This is what he had to say, "I'm a Barca fan, I'm a socio, as is my grandfather, my uncle, my cousin... I have felt the colours from a young age, I'm Catalan," 

"However, I'm the captain of Arsenal, I'm a 'Gunner', and I have become a player there and matured as a person."

He then goes on to speak about the influence of Arsene Wenger on his career and indeed his life, saying, "He is a second father for me, the most important person in my life after my father. He has behaved really well with me and taken me in like a son. I am part of his family," 

"He doesn't want me to leave. And in my last conversation with him in London, it was one of the most difficult moments I have experienced. I ended up very upset."

Now some fans I'm sure would criticise Fabregas for the first part of those quotes, for seemingly inviting more interest from Barcelona, but I don't see it that way.

I find his comments refreshingly honest, and I believe that he has a genuine dilemma on his mind. 

I've said in the past I think the best thing for Fabregas' career is for him to stay at Arsenal for now. I understand his desire to go and fulfil this lifelong dream of playing for Barcelona, but if he does it now he is going to struggle to play every week, at least in the position where he is most effective.

I doubt all those childhood dreams of being in a Barcelona shirt included a lot of bench time, or of being made to fit into the team wherever there was a gap.

The time is coming where Xavi particularly will be on the wane, he's 30 now and will need replacing and I'm sure Cesc Fabregas can do that. Until then though, it would be better for him to stay with Arsenal and keep playing every week at his best. There's still plenty of time for Fabregas to go to Barcelona and have great years there even if he doesn't go this summer or even next summer.

I don't think Fabregas should be condemned for his comments, or accused of trying to grease the wheels of a transfer. I just think he's been honest there.

Moving on, Arsene Wenger is confident of Arsenal improving this season. He says, "I am very confident [we'll do better than last season]," "We know in England that the Premier League is the biggest league in the world and everybody invests a lot of money. 

"We invest in our work, in our beliefs, in the quality of our behaviour and I am confident that will pay off. 

"We finished third last year and we hope we can improve on that. But the race will be tough."

A pessimist might say that Mr Wenger was preparing the ground for no more signings there, but I don't think that's all there is to the comments.

Obviously Arsenal don't have the spending resources of some of the other top teams so things have to be done differently. Arsenal are a club that looks to its academy for new players first before it looks outside for new additions. Sometimes I think some fans expect the club to ditch that policy completely, which simply isn't possible.

I believe the squad has it in them to be stronger than last season, I think we need to be more solid at the back and one thing that could help that along is if we had a goalkeeper the defence could trust.

Fulham have appointed a new manager, which is good news because there were reports that was holding up any deal for Mark Schwarzer. The bad news is that new manager is Mark Hughes, a man we've had our share of run-ins with in the past. Will he stand in the way of the deal? Time will tell.

The Sun has a piece of sheer speculation linking us with Ibrahim Afellay. He's in the last year of his contract apparently so he might be available on the cheap. I don't expect to see this one go anywhere, but I wouldn't mind being wrong.

It's quite quiet today so that will have to do. I am moving over the weekend, I don't expect any blogs to be missed, but if one does go missing that will be why. Take it easy, and I should be back tomorrow.

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