Writing prompt: “Write about what you didn’t say.”

They arrived a few days before Christmas.

“Oh! You people are so good to me!” she exclaimed, hugging them all closely. “To drive all this way!”

They smiled and made cups of tea and opened the biscuits they’d brought. They put up a small tree that had fibre optic lights on the ends of the branches, and which sparkled and shone as soon as they plugged it in. They got a list of errands she wanted to run, and asked about her expectations of Christmas Day, and then they went off to their lodgings.

They came again the next morning, and flitted in and out and around about during the day, running her errands, taking her places, and generally making everything ready for Christmas. They brought food and they chatted with her, and she drank in all she could from the adults. The children stayed quiet for the most part, and when they did speak she ignored them. This wasn’t about them.

They went again of course, to their lodgings overnight. They wouldn’t have all fitted in her tiny space, all stretched out to sleep. She felt an emptiness when they left, but it would only be a few short hours until they returned again.

She went shopping the next day. They had asked which shops she wanted to go to, but she did not say which shops she wanted to go to. Instead, she said what she wanted to buy, so they took her to the best places to buy those things. Those shops were not where she wanted to shop, however, but she did not say that. Instead, she politely explained why the shops they’d taken her to would not do. When they finally figured out her preference, she brightened visibly. “Yes, that will do,” she said, and they took her to her favourite shops.

Christmas Day dawned, and when they came, everybody was on their best behaviour. They brought all the food with them and got busy creating a festive Christmas lunch. Everyone wore tinsel in their hair, they played carols and other Christmassy tunes on the CD player, and at first there was a lot of laughter and noise.

They gave her a glass of wine, and they all sat around together opening presents and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each other’s treasures. Her pile was the biggest, and she was well pleased with that. They handed around bowls of nuts and cherries, and she stockpiled her chocolates and books and clothes and perfumes and photos and gadgetry. It all felt very Christmassy and she felt very special. Someone even tied some tinsel in her freshly-dyed platinum hair.

While they ate the Christmas feast, tightly seated around her small table on an assortment of borrowed garden chairs, she regaled them with stories of her neighbour’s childhood in a concentration camp in Germany, another friend’s bowel cancer, and her own incontinence. The trays of honey-glazed ham, stuffed and roasted turkey, and mountains of baked vegetables, jugs of gravy and dishes of cranberry sauce steadily diminished as she talked, but when the children could take no more doom and gloom, and one of them showed her their cartilage piercing, she was affronted.

She could not have said exactly what it was she was affronted about, but clearly they were not enthralled with her stories, as indeed they should have been. Mavis’s horror stories were fascinating, as was the saga of Wanda’s rapidly progressing cancer. And they should all know what dramas they might face regarding incontinence in their old age!

She feigned an interest in a mobile phone function, but by the time the explanation was complete, she was tired and very miffed that the attention had not remained on her.

She did not say that she was tired and would like a rest. Instead, resuming her place at head of the table while dessert was being prepared, she said loudly so everyone would hear, “Right! As soon as we’ve eaten, you people can go! I’ll do the tidying up. You people have done enough.”

Calmly they explained that they had brought dishes from their lodgings, which they would need to clean and take with them. They assured her that they would clean up swiftly and be gone as soon as they could. She was not pleased at their disobedience, however, and repeated her edict.

Her son, her precious, perfect son spoke sharply to her then, rephrasing the reply she had already been given. She did not soften, saying that she was just tired, but understood the requirement for them to return their borrowed dishes. Instead she snapped, “All right! I heard you the first time!”

Between themselves, they restored the affable atmosphere that had been destroyed, somehow sweeping her along and into it again. The dessert, a frozen ice cream pudding covered in chocolate, was delicious, and that probably helped her to resume a pleasant countenance. Soon after dessert was consumed, they were indeed gone, and she was left to finger over her gifts and ponder the lovingness behind each gift choice. “Ah, how they love me,” she sighed into the quiet. “They did all this for me.”

They took her out to a restaurant for dinner, on the last night of their stay.  She was not pleased with the choice of restaurant. She said several times that she liked this place or that place, but she did not say outright which place she did want to go to, and there were dietary considerations beyond her own needs, and so the choice was made.

“Oh, I don’t much like the range on this menu,” she said. “The place down the road has a lovely lazonya.” The children tried to correct her pronunciation of ‘lasagne,’ but she just smiled at them patronisingly and added. “Or the Club has a lovely schnitzel. The Chinese place does a lovely sweet and sour. Or there’s that seafood place down by the river. I hear that’s lovely!”

The didn’t get the hint, however, and stayed where they were. She finally made a selection, and worked hard to keep the conversation centred around Mavis’s horror childhood in the concentration camp in Germany, Wanda’s aggressive bowel cancer, and her own inconvenient incontinence. Rudely, the children kept popping up with other topics, and it became increasingly difficult for her to tell them again about poor Mavis’s horrors, Wanda’s suffering, or her own bladder issues. This time, even the parents didn’t help.

The food arrived, and clearly it was below par. “Oh, I don’t go much on this!” she exclaimed. “Look at the pink in that steak!” she charged her son, poking her knife towards his plate. “You should send that back!” When he refused, she solicited agreement from everyone else around the table that their meal was not the best they’d ever eaten, either. “Even that meal on Christmas Day was better than this!”

Perhaps she had meant to elevate the Christmas Day fare over restaurant quality food, and she missed entirely that her words did not sound like that.

“Mum’s a very good cook,” a child said quietly.

“Oh, there’s no better cook than your mother!” she said, offended that they thought she might say otherwise. She was focused, however, on making it clear that their choice of restaurant was at fault on this particular occasion. “We had a meal once, at Circular Quay, do you remember?” she aimed at her son. “The schnitzel at that place was just beautiful!” She said it loudly, inferring that the chef should hear and understand that he really had some work to do to get his efforts anywhere near that superb standard.

She would have liked dessert, but nobody else seemed keen. Not wanting to appear greedy, she declined too. “Oh, you’re probably right,” she said to them. “It wouldn’t be worth the money to have dessert in this place. You’ve wasted enough of your money already!” She rather hoped the staff might hear that comment too, and improve their service and menu in future.

“Will we go for ice cream?” she asked brightly as they headed back to the mini-van.

“No, we have to be out of here early in the morning,” they replied. “It’s a long drive home.”

They took her back to her place. They hugged her. Her son walked her to her door and saw her safely inside. When the door closed, she felt strangely alone.

They had not said how much they would miss her. They had not said what a beloved grandmother she was. She had said how much she would  miss them, and how wonderful they were for coming all this way just for her. No matter how hard she tried, they just did not adore her in the way she longed for.

They did not say to her that the joy of a meal shared, whether in a restaurant or at home, is enjoying the people you share it with. Perhaps, as someone older and supposedly wiser, they expected it was something she would already know.

They did not tell her that she had behaved like a self-centred, ungrateful brat. Good manners did not permit speaking to your elders in such a way.

In the car, on the way back to their lodgings, one of the children did say, “Dad, can we go for a drive?”

Usually, he would have just said no. Instead, he asked, “How come?”

“I feel like I need to detoxify!” the child replied passionately.

They all agreed. They knew the prettiest sights around the place and drove to those, purging their souls of the unavoidable nastiness they had endured all evening.

They bought gelato from a late-night roadside stall and enjoyed licking icy sweetness from the cones, all huddled together at the end of a pier.

“It’s good to be us,” someone ventured.

They all agreed, and hugged each other close.

“Dad, how come Grandma isn’t part of us?” the youngest child asked.

“I don’t know, mate,” he replied. “We’ve tried every way we know how to include her. And be a part of her life. It’s just that it’s always got to be about her, and she gets upset the minute that it’s not.”

“I know that Christmas is about others,” a teenager put forward. “But next year does it have to be about Grandma? She sucks all the joy out of it.”

“Selfishness does that,” another child responded with downcast insight.

They all held each other close, and the adults smiled over the children’s heads at each other. Whatever they did next Christmas, they would not bow to anyone’s selfishness.

Selfishness is isolating. This Christmas, make a vow to yourself that you will not be selfish, and you will not allow your life to be one of isolation. Love others.

Have you ever experienced a dull ache or sharp pain in your shoulder or upper arm? Maybe you are unable to sleep on one side because your shoulder wakes you up at night. Perhaps, you have discomfort reaching behind your back to tuck in your shirt or grab your wallet. If so, you may be suffering from a rotator cuff injury.

Rotator cuff injuries, such as tendonitis, bursitis and tears plague several people in our population. The rotator cuff consists of four small muscles, which form a sleeve around the shoulder and allow us to raise our arm overhead effectively. These muscles, consisting of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis, oppose the action of the deltoid and depress the head of the humerus (upper arm) during shoulder elevation to prevent impingement.

The most commonly injured muscle is the supraspinatus. It is responsible for initiating and aiding in elevation of the arm. If torn, the individual typically experiences persistent pain in the upper lateral arm and significant difficulty raising the arm without compensatory motion from the scapula (shrug sign). The hallmark signs of a tear are nocturnal pain, loss of strength, and inability to raise the arm overhead.

However, acute tendonitis may also present with similar signs and symptoms, as pain can inhibit motion and strength. Yet, symptoms associated with tendonitis normally respond to rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication and therapeutic exercise.

Rotator cuff tears are most common in men age 65 and older. Tears and/or injury are typically related to degeneration, instability, bone spurs, trauma, overuse and diminished strength/flexibility related to the aging process. However, youth are also at risk for injury if they are involved in repetitive overhead sports, including swimming, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, gymnastics, etc.

Many people can function adequately with a torn rotator cuff provided they have a low to moderate pain level. The primary reason for performing rotator cuff surgery is to alleviate pain rather than to restore function. It is common for post surgical patients to lose some mobility/range of motion. Strength recovery is dictated by the size of tear, quality of the torn tissue at the time of surgery, time elapsed between injury and repair, and the surgeon’s ability to recreate the proper anatomical relationship.

It may take up to 18 months following surgery to completely recover, although most people return to normal activities of daily living in 3-6 months. On the contrary, tendonitis usually resolves within 4-6 weeks, depending on the management of the injury.

The key to avoiding rotator cuff injury is performing adequate conditioning prior to stressing it with vigorous activities. Many weekend warriors try to pick up the softball, baseball, football, etc. and begin throwing repetitively and forcefully without properly warming up. In addition, they are not likely to condition before the season like competitive athletes.

This often leads to excessive strain on the rotator cuff and swelling. The inevitable result is soreness, especially with overhead movement or reaching behind the back. The act of throwing is the most stressful motion on the shoulder. The rotator cuff is forced to decelerate the humerus during follow through at speeds up to 7000 degrees/second.

Without proper strength and conditioning, the shoulder easily becomes inflamed.

Since the rotator cuff muscles are small, it is best to utilize lower resistance and higher repetitions to sufficiently strengthen them. Sample exercises include theraband or light dumbbell external and internal rotation exercises, which can be performed at various degrees of abduction.

Other common exercises include forward elevation to shoulder height in the plane of the scapula (scaption), press-ups, prone dumbbell horizontal abduction with external rotation, and diagonal arm patterns with bands, weights or medicine balls. In addition to cuff specific exercises, it is also important to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blade. These exercises include wall push-ups with a plus (rounding shoulder blades), shrugs, rows and lower trapezius exercises.

Finally, it is important to note some precautions with general exercises routinely performed in health clubs. I recommend the following suggestions to prevent rotator cuff problems:

• Avoid lat pull downs and military presses behind the head, as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position encouraging impingement.

• Do not lower the bar or dumbbells below parallel with incline/flat bench press for the aforementioned reason.

• Refrain from using too much weight with lateral shoulder raises. This exercise increases the load on the shoulder to 90% of the body weight, so there is no need to use heavy weight. It is best to maintain an arc of movement slightly in front of the body with lateral raises to decrease stress on the rotator cuff, while avoiding elevation above 90 degrees.

• Specific rotator cuff exercises can be incorporated into upper body workouts. Perform 2 sets of 15-25 repetitions for each exercise. These exercises should be done no more than three times per week to avoid overtraining.

Brian Schiff, PT, CSCS, is a respected author, physical therapist and fitness expert. For more information on his e-book on resolving rotator cuff pain, visit http://www.rotatorcufftraining.com. This article was originally published in Business First Columbus, Ohio in 2004.

Copyright © 2004 Brian Schiff

Visit : Healthy Life Info Your Health Media

In high parodic form (in the way Shakespeare seriously parodied the revenge tragedy in Hamlet, for example), plot one of the following: a gothic, a mystery, a sci-fi, a Western, a drugstore romance.

A man is looking for gauze when a woman fumbles a box of tampons and spills them at his feet. He helps her pick them up and asks her how they work. She explains and sparks fly, as they say. He has pink dyed hair and is a stripper; she is a lawyer and very serious and unhappy. He will help her remember how to have fun and break the ice within herself.

They start off well but then they falter. She goes back to her old ways and so does he. They have another chance encounter and this time they forge a stronger bond. They have chapters of beautiful moments before it starts to go bad again. He changes her enough and once he sees that his work there has been completed, he leaves her. The story ends with her hair dyed pink shopping for gauze.

Write a passage using abrupt and radical–but thoroughly acceptable–shifts from the authorial-omniscient point of view to the third person subjective.

Esme Daniels heard the pop. She looked down at the sprocket and saw her chain dragging on the ground. This was exactly what she didn’t need to have happen. She was the kind of woman that had bad enough luck–mechanical failure on the way to work seemed like a gratuitous amount of misfortune. It began to rain as she moved on to the sidewalk.

She walked along Stark street headed east past the Lone Fir cemetery. She kind of would’ve rather had been in the cemetery than doing what she was doing. Lucky bastards, she muttered to herself. Now all she had to do was walk thirty blocks in the rain to get to work and put up with screaming children all day. No big deal. Yep, this was just what she needed. Above her, two crows sat on a telephone pole, squawking.

Her phone rang and vibrated in her pocket. She wasn’t answering that goddamn thing. It was probably just somebody that wanted something. No one ever called her unless they needed something. What a beautiful day it is to be an American, she thought. The greatest country in the world. She walked on, the sound of the wheels clicking in time with her footsteps, the chain dragging on the ground.

Fat burning exercises work when the body breaks a sweat

Fat burning exercises are exercises that make us break a sweat because when our bodies break a sweat they are burning calories. This is our body’s way of telling us we are losing weight and burning excess fat.

The best fat burning exercises are the types that make us happy when we do them, we can do any kind of activity as long as it makes us break a sweat.

Take for example, swimming, I love swimming; it is one of my favorite exercises to do. If I swim hard and long enough my body will start to sweat, this means I am burning calories and an added benefit is I am also toning muscle.

Because I love swimming, this type of exercise I would love to do every single day, this is the type of exercise which will work to help me lose weight because I will never get board of doing it. This is what we want, to pick any kind of activity, which makes us sweat and then do it every day to lose weight.

So what are your favorite fat burning exercises? There are so many to choose from and you do not have to choose only one, if you love to do more than one exercise, than alternate between them.

Some of the best fat burning exercises I can think of are these listed below.

Horseback riding: This exercise can be a lot of fun and tons of exercise, if you like horses or have some yourself this exercise is great. I guess this type of exercise would only work if you owned your own horse otherwise it would probably be quite expensive.

Swimming: This is one of my favorites; this exercise can be done anywhere there is a pool. I once lived in Oregon State and right by my house about fifteen minutes away was an Olympic sized swimming pool, which was free to the public. Any pool will do as long as you can do laps back and forth. Click here to locate a swimming pool in your area, this website can find a swimming pool anywhere in the world.

Biking: I also love biking, this exercise is a great one for burning that thigh and butt fat. Bike riding can easily make anyone sweat, especially if we ride uphill. It is also a great exercise for building bigger lungs and a stronger heart. Click here to find any bike rout near your area, just type the name of your town in the search and you will get a list of all the bike routes near your location.

Hiking: Another great fat burning exercise is hiking which tones many thigh and butt muscles. Hiking can be done anywhere you have a hill or mountain, better to have a mountain because it makes the climb harder and longer. Hiking will build more muscle, burn fat, help with a stronger heart and once you are at the top, you get a great view. Click here to find hiking trails near your location, all that is needed is your city, or zip code.

Dancing: This type of exercise is a lot of fun to do with a group of people. Dancing tones muscles, burns fat and lets your wild side out. I love to dance and when I am with friends, it is even better.

The point is for you to pick a type of activity you love doing. Do not pick the exercise because it is good for burning a certain type of fat or that it helps you to lose weight faster. All exercises are good, they all burn calories that help you lose weight and they all tone muscles.

In a fully developed monologue (see exercise 7) present a philosophical position you tend to favor, but present it through a character and in a context that modifies or undermines it.

These times. This is no time for a man who would be a man, he says, taking a shot of tequila off the bar. Where is the honor? Where is the chance at glory? Drink up. What else is there? A woman passes and gives them both a challenging glance. Fffff. A woman. What do you want? You come here for the same thing we all do. You want someone to take you away from yourself. I drink to quiet myself. I drink because if I didn’t I’d become something and there’s nothing worse than a man who becomes something just because he’s afraid of being nothing. I imagine myself dying on some great battlefield somewhere. Just ask Frankie–she’s always saying I’m a warrior, that this isn’t the type of life a guy like me should lead. Now I’m not saying I want to kill something or someone. I would if I had to. But I’m saying there’s a time for men like us and that time is not now. What should we be? Should we be actors? Should we be men that put on makeup and stand in front of cameras? Is that the only way to have true glory in this world? Should we be politicians? Should we be professional athletes and play a game for glory? Should we fight in an unjust war that the world hates and come back to derision just to be decorated? Tell me! He opens his arms and rests his back against the bar. What is there in this world that men can do to feel noble? And moral and noble are two different things. Taking the easy way isn’t noble. Working at a craft and mastering it is a good and useful thing but there are no moments of heroism in shipbuilding or masonry. Is it becoming a firefighter? Is that as far as we get in modern humanity? And what does that say about us–firefighters–I mean that’s a good way to live, full of action, saving people’s lives, but if you look at how we view them, how much they’re paid versus how much they risk–name for me one firefighter you know in this world. You can’t do it! Doctors are the same. We give all our money to people that portray them, to entertainers, to mimics, bit players and stooges. Where is the honor in that line of work? Making people happy or sad for what, two hours? He turned back to the bar and ordered another pair of tequila shots, his sixth of the night. The bartender brought them with limes across the rims. He handed him a ten dollar bill and turned back to the crowd. Hell, a bartender should get paid as much as an actor. These hipsters. This irony. It means nothing and that’s the point. They’re intentionally nothing. It’s like they’ve recognized what we’ve been talking about and because they don’t want to deal with it they mock it. So that’s what our generation is then, an entire generation made up of insincere cowards. Children. Men and women who don’t want to grow up. Who don’t want to build something new or good out of our own community, our own youth. And now we’re almost too old to matter anyway. The ground’s shifted under our feet. I’m going to get more drunk and wake up tomorrow hungover and listless. The alcohol will make it hard enough to care. I could’ve been something, man, if it wasn’t for these times.

Plot each of the following: a short-short story, a yarn, a fable, a sketch, a tale, a short story, an energeic novel, an architectonic novel, a novel in which episodes are not causally related (allegorical or lyrical structure, for example), a radio play, an opera, a film that could only be a film.

A short-short story

Best friends reunite and go surfing. One has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It is not revealed but the tone fits the premise.

A yarn

Over beers with their friends, two Nebraska Cornhusker football fans tell the story of how they stole the Colorado buffaloes and rode them around Boulder the night before the big game.

A fable

A story about the environment where the trees revolt and start cutting down the humans and building houses out of animals. The moral of the story is you get what you deserve.

A sketch

A portrait of a middle-aged man who is a failed artist but a successful athlete and is not happy.

A tale

A man is walking down the street when he sees a boy on a bicycle hit by a car. The car drives off, the boy says, in a pleading Russian accent, “thank you, sir, but no police, please.” The man helps him home where he is invited in by his mother who is single and attractive. Together the boy and the mother rob him of everything.

A short story

Two long-distance lovers, separated by continents, meet each other halfway and spend four days together. They have other lives apart from the world of their relationship, but for the four days they pretend the other person is all they have and all they need in the world.

An energeic novel

An unhappily married man meets a young woman at a club. His wife meets the same young woman at the gym. They deceive each other to secretly spend time with the young woman. The first climax comes when they meet her in public together. The first denouement is the fallout. The action rises again when she picks the wife. The husband seeks to win her over. The second climax comes when she leaves the wife for the husband. The wife seeks revenge. The third climax comes when it’s revealed that the woman has a husband of her own she has been running from. It ends in tragedy.

An architectonic novel

The novel focuses on the theme of compromising quality of life for living a life of principle. It questions whether that leads to compromising principles in other areas in place of maintaining purity of occupation, vocation, etc.

1. An unknown sculptor lives in a small, bug-infested apartment. He works as a dishwasher. He has lost the only woman he has ever loved because he refuses to take a job that would require any type of commitment from him. He is in danger of holding out for too long. He meets another possible love of his life, for there are more than one for everyone, and is faced with deciding on giving up his dream for a decent lifestyle/job that would help him give her what she deserves.

2. A successful woman doctor who has always written poetry has everything she wants–she is a leader in her field of medicine and goes on speaking engagements all over the world promoting and reading her poetry. Yet she is completely devoid of love in her life. She wants to give up one of her passions but she can’t decide which, at least not consciously. She becomes severely unhappy and begins to subconsciously sabotage herself. It’s not until she has wrecked her medical and writing careers that she begins a healthy relationship with another woman. The resolution comes with her finding a way to balance all three.

A novel in which episodes are not causally related

A 3-part novel

1. A young boy in late-19th century Texas joins up with a band of outlaws poaching buffalo from the Apaches. The Apaches hunt down and kill the whole band save for the boy and one man named Gompert.

2. The boy, now a man, takes to robbing trains to make his living. He robs a train unknown to him owned by Gompert.

3. Gompert goes after the man, now the leader of the most notorious gang of train-robbers in Texas, and attempts to kill him. Their showdown is the climax.

A radio play

It is the story of two aspiring musicians. A couple, a man and a woman, and they tell of their attempts to find work and get gigs as they sing their own songs in auditions, for promoters, record labels, and record in the studio. It is a drama but they are also funny and good-natured about their struggle.

An opera

A tragic comedy of the presidency of George W. Bush set to music.

A film that could only be a film

It is about a girl who can see people’s energy, or auras, and is kidnapped by the government and used for intelligence gathering, namely lie detection and torture.

In 1972, David Parnas proposed the construction of a permuted index, also known as a keyword-in-context or kwic index, as an exercise in program design. For example, the three sentences

    All's well that ends well.
    Nature abhors a vacuum.
    Every man has a price.

produce the permuted index:

                          Nature     abhors a vacuum.
                                     All's well that ends well.
                 All's well that     ends well.
                                     Every man has a price.
                       Every man     has a price.
                           Every     man has a price.
                                     Nature abhors a vacuum.
                 Every man has a     price.
                      All's well     that ends well.
                 Nature abhors a     vacuum.
                           All's     well that ends well.
            All's well that ends     well.

Parnas proposed a three-step algorithm: rotate, sort, unrotate. The rotate step takes a sentence and produces all its rotations. The sort step sorts the rotations by their back half. The unrotate step produces neatly-formatted output. Somewhere, in one of the three steps, rotations that produce back halves starting with words on a stop list are discarded; note that there is no output for “a vacuum” or “a price.”

Your task is to implement a program that produces permuted indexes using Parnas’ three-step algorithm. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

Rot-file performs the first step, collecting the rotations of each input line:

(define (rot-file filename)
  (define (split s) (string-split #\space s))
  (with-input-from-file filename
    (lambda ()
      (let loop ((line (read-line)) (rs '()))
        (if (eof-object? line) rs
          (loop (read-line)
                (append (rot-line (split line)) rs)))))))

Rot-line produces the rotations of each line, one rotation for each word not on the stop list, stored as a list of pairs with the left half of the sentence (which may be null) in the car and the right half of the sentence (which may not be null) in the cdr. A word is defined as anything between spaces, including letters, digits and punctuation. Rot-line works back-to-front through the list of words:

(define (rot-line words)
  (define (join xs) (string-join #\space xs))
  (let loop ((front (reverse words)) (back '()) (rots '()))
    (if (null? front) rots
      (let ((f (cdr front)) (b (cons (car front) back)))
        (loop f b (if (and (pair? f) (member (car b) stop-list)) rots
                    (cons (cons (join (reverse f)) (join b)) rots)))))))

Our stop list is brief; you may want to extend yours:

(define stop-list
  '("a" "an" "and" "by" "for" "if" "in" "is" "of" "on" "the" "to"))

The third step of Parnas’ algorithm runs through the sorted list of front/back pairs, neatly printing each:

(define (print rots)
  (define (print-line x)
    (display (rjust 32 (car x)))
    (display " ")
    (display (ljust 32 (cdr x)))
    (newline))
  (for-each print-line rots))

Print calls rjust and ljust to align the output:

(define (rjust n str)
  (let ((len (string-length str)))
    (if (< n len)
        (substring str (- len n) len)
        (string-append (make-string (- n len) #\space) str))))

(define (ljust n str)
  (let ((len (string-length str)))
    (if (< n len)
        (substring str 0 n)
        (string-append str (make-string (- n len) #\space)))))

The ptx function puts all the pieces together:

(define (ptx filename)
  (define (order-by a b) (string-ci<? (cdr a) (cdr b)))
  (print (sort order-by (rot-file filename))))

Assuming the three sentences of the example are in a file test.ptx, calling (ptx "test.ptx") produces the permuted index shown on the prior page. The code, including read-line, string-split and string-join from the Standard Prelude, is collected at http://programmingpraxis.codepad.org/ay27GbL9.

cure for infertility

Exercising during abundance has a lot of benefits. It will advice accumulate you in appearance and accomplish activity a lot easier for both you and your baby. It has additionally been apparent that mothers that acclimatized during abundance had babies that were added lean and had an all-embracing college intelligence.

Exercising while abundant cure for infertility can be absolutely accessible to do. If you accept a approved accepted that you commonly Cure For Infertility follow you should be able to accumulate with that conditioning with some slight modifications. If you are not acclimated to Pregnancy Remedy exercising I am activity to accord Pregnancy Cures you safe contest that you can calmly do. It is brash that you see your Pregnancy Remedy doctor afore starting any exercise accepted while pregnant.

The aboriginal exercise is the Pregnancy Remedy abduction leg lift. It is a absolutely simple exercise that will assignment the achievement and advice accomplish them stronger and accessible for labor. What you do is lay on the attic on your side. Bend your basal leg slightly and lift your Cure For Infertility top leg beeline up. This is a abundant exercise that will assignment all kinds of lower muscles. It will additionally advice to accumulate the hip affliction abroad afterwards in pregnancy.

The additional abundance is actual simple. It is artlessly to walk. Walking is a actual acceptable low appulse Cure For Infertility exercise that will advice you get in appearance and accessible for labor. You don’t accept to accent and airing for miles but the added you do airing Cure For Infertility the bigger you will feel and the added activity you are activity to accept every day. Take time to attending at copse and attending at Pregnancy Cures the sky. It can be a actual adequate time aback you are walking. Pregnancy Cures Put all of your day abaft you and accept some time for yourself.

The third exercise is alleged a butterfly columnist Pregnancy Cures for abundant women. What you do Pregnancy Remedy is authority both accoutrements to anatomy a U array of what you would see aback a football article makes a acreage ambition and the ref holds up his Pregnancy Cures arms. You will appetite to clasp your chest anatomy and move your accoutrements in calm slowly and again go aback out. Concentrate on authoritative your anatomy bound in your chest and aback on the way in and on the way out.

Exercising has so abounding allowances during pregnancy. It can advice you accept a advantageous baby acceleration up delivery and acceleration up the accretion time appropriate afterwards delivery. You will additionally apprehension that you are not annoyed all of the time. That is one of the better complaints of abundant women. I animate them to exercise and they will see a aberration cure for infertility in day to day fatigue. Appliance is so acceptable for the body.

Must have been Santa! Somewhere outthere in the net I’ve found some streams of this perfectly groß gebruestet mature lady I wanted to share these snapshots with you.

Looks like she’s from some place in Eastern Europe (don’t know where exactly from). She’s got that “post-communist-female-touch” I really like.

THERE’S M(o)(o)A

She’s kind of playing in the Milena Velba league and I’m wondering why she’s not running her own website. Would certainly earn her some bucks.

These females that have been socialized under communism have good education, special dignity and awareness of their sexus. Usually I would trade ‘em with most of those supposedly “emancipated” western chicks in a minute.

feel free to email me at  xolepsis@yahoo.de

Still on a recital high, I felt pretty good going into tonight’s lesson. I played “Twinkle, Twinkle” for Corey and he thought it was pretty good considering that I just learned the song last week. I think I did better on Sunday night than tonight’s playing for Corey. Either way, Corey was impressed and he said that he doesn’t sugar coat his comments either.

We had a good lesson on music theory too. I was having trouble with reading music and he worked with me on identifying notes with the flashcards and showing me how the pattern repeats from A-G. I’ll have to come up with my own acronyms to remember the line note pattern and space note pattern. For the space notes, I’ve come up with All Cows Eat Grass.

Learning to read the notes goes hand in hand with timing and tempo, too. Corey and I were clapping out beats for whole, half and quarter notes. This is where the metronome comes into play again too.

I’ve got three songs to practice before next week. Let’s hope I can make time to practice.

Write a prose passage that makes effective and noticeable use of rhyme.

He wasn’t sure if it was the tiger tattoo on her back or the way she swayed from the rack. But something made him blow 300 dollars on dances without any real, tangible advances. He was the kind of guy that thought the dancers loved him; he was the kind of guy the dancers loved. She said her name was Malice but everyone knew it was just Alice. He went through the looking glass and came out with visions of her ass. Now he tries not to go to Sassy’s anymore–it’s no fun when the girls know what you’re there for. Instead he heads down to Union Jacks, the girls don’t know him and he sits in the back, stays away from the rack. Pride he never had that, but at least this way he keeps his stack intact. The girls aren’t the same. They all want to be Bettie Page, but they all just look pasty and plain. He goes home and curls up to google searches of the Suicide Girls until his pain unfurls. Then it’s Cricket and Stormy and Jasmine and Janice, Bridgette and Laurie and Kashmir and Lotus, Gidget and Tori and Talisman and Locust. But it’s never Malice–she’s at Sassy’s–and he’s not too fast getting back to that and the rack.

Describe a character in a brief passage (one or two pages) using mostly long vowels and soft consonants (o as in “moan,” e as in “see”; l, m, n, sh, etc.); then describe the same character, using mostly short vowels and hard consonants (i as in “sit,”; k, t, p, gg, etc.)

He was a lonely seeker easing through his life. He roamed the way he pleased–slowly rolling away to peaceful places and looking to the sky for nicer people, kinder faces. The places he made voyages to gave him ways of seeing life and showed him kinds and types and styles of going truly through the day. He gained a seemingly nigh untold range of mind-changing sights and tales by trying, by playing his game, by seeking his fate, his holy grail.

It isn’t kismet that pushes a traveler. It’s will. It’s putting yourself out into the world and watching as the world works back against you. The traveler puts his back up to the wall–he deliberately backs himself into a corner–and only then does he get what he’s looking for, that small amount of alchemy, that shift of perspective that is the purpose of hard traveling. He wants to have his persona worked on and altered from his travels, from the countries and cities and towns he visits. He wants to come back a different man, better, stronger. It’s simple: he wants to learn.

Aveva un cerchio di plastica molto largo attorno all’anulare della sua mano destra.

Era il suo anello di fidanzamento, quello che Phil le aveva regalato dopo averlo sfilato da una bottiglia di plastica trovata sul bordo di una strada. Tutto intorno una linea frastagliata di sangue provocata dal contatto della parte segmentata dell’anello con la sua pelle troppo arida per il freddo che ogni giorno la afferrava come in una morsa. È difficile affrontare l’inverno quando la propria casa è un sacco che ci si trascina sulle spalle e il proprio letto una fredda panchina di pietra. Ogni volta che, stremata dal peso, appoggiava a terra quel sacco logoro, sulle sue mani rimanevano impressi profondi solchi violacei, le pieghe della vita. Le unghie erano contornate da un bordo nero, il segno della strada che si insinuava dentro di lei.  Erano attraversate da sottili linee bianche, come segni di gesso su una lavagna.

Mancanza di calcio.

Mancanza di casa.

Mancanza d’amore.

No d’amore no.

Quando dalla vita è stato rimosso tutto il superfluo restano solo i bisogni primordiali e l’amore ne fa parte. La sua mano sinistra è intrecciata a quella di Phil. Ne sente la forza che la sostiene. Ne sente il calore. No, non è quel grigio guanto di lana bucato e liso a tenerla al caldo, ne è certa.

Do you find making changes a difficult thing to do? If so why not practice making some smaller less threatening changes with a fun exercise. You will be able to see how resistant you are to change and may even have a few laughs too. I had great fun doing this exercise and was amazed at how difficult it felt to do something I would never have dreamt of doing.

If you are in recovery from an eating disorder or addiction, change is the one thing that you will have to learn to do if you are to find recovery. I have used this exercise with most of my clients at some stage of their recovery journey. You can’t recover if you are not prepared to change. That applies to all habits as Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes. Some of the changes will be major, while others will be smaller. Resisting changes will only make it a much harder struggle than it has to be.

Why change can be difficult

• Fear – this is one of the most common reasons. Are you afraid of the unknown; terrified you might be proved wrong or scared that you may actually be successful in your goals?

• Denial – if you can’t accept that you have a real problem that needs to be addressed, then you will remain resistant to change regardless of what others say. If several people are saying the same thing, then perhaps it is time to listen.

• Overwhelmed – do the changes seem too huge to tackle so rather than have a go, you quit? The best way to overcome being overwhelmed is to set one small goal. When you achieve it and feel comfortable, then set the next and so on. Remember it’s baby steps.

• Overcome – do you know the changes that you need to make but don’t know where to start? Start anywhere that seems reasonable. After all doing nothing is unlikely to lead to change.

Photo by Anyjazz65

How to succeed

If you are determined to succeed you will need to push through the hard times when you feel uncomfortable with the new behaviours. Initially change can feel very strange, but it doesn’t take long before it begins to feel normal.

Here are some top tips:-

1. Be positive in your approach, using positive affirmations to counteract negative thinking
2. Talk with other people who have already made these changes in their life
3. Ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen if you change. This helps you to put your fears into perspective

Making change fun

I always like to introduce a bit of fun when I suggest homework activities. The Yes / No exercise is one that is designed to encourage you to practice changing your behaviour for just one day. You get to choose the level of the change you are prepared to do. Some people will make small changes others will make large ones. The more challenging the change you choose, the more prepared you will be for the changes that you will have to make in order to stop your habits.

How to do the exercise

• Day 1 – say Yes to something you would always say No to
• Day 2 – say No to something you would always say Yes to
• Day 3 – 8 continue repeating Days 1 & 2

Examples

• Get up 1 hour earlier than you would normally
• Leave the dishes for an hour, if you always clear them away
• Dress up / down for the day when you normally wouldn’t
• Leave your bed unmade
• Phone someone you wouldn’t normally phone
• Wear unusually bright coloured clothes, nail varnish, make up

Photo by Dogbomb

Whenever I suggest these type of exercises you can guarantee that I have always done them myself. This was an exercise that was given during a training class.  I went in old gardening clothes and no make up on. I felt incredibly uncomfortable at times as I travelled through London at rush hour with all the smartly dressed commuters! When I arrived the lecturer asked me what I had done. I stood with my mouth open as I thought everyone could see I was dressed in jeans and not smart clothes! Her reply was that she would never have even realised. Here is an example of what others did:-

• One man painted his finger nails black
• Another man wore a smart suit with odd coloured shoes:- black and tan!
• One lady dressed as though she was going to a ball
• Others left their house a tip when it would always be spotless

Uncomfortable feelings

This exercise can cause anxiety depending upon the level of change you have made. The bigger the change the more this exercise will prepare you for the changes that lie ahead. Why not have a go this week and don’t forget to tell me all about it.

So if you want to change, then what are you waiting for? Change is essential in life and nothing will ever change this fact. So why not add a bit of fun as you learn to experience what change feels like.