I think that being grateful is a true measure of how much you enjoy life.  I’ve recently been contemplating doing an exercise in which you write down 1000 things you are grateful for.  That’s right.  You read 1000.  It’s a daunting task, but something I feel like I need to do because I take too much for granted.  So, here we go!

I’m thankful for…

0001.  My faith in God.

0002.  My family that I’ll be seeing in less than a week for Thanksgiving!

0003.  The beautiful colors that are in the trees right now.

0004.  Knowing that there are even better colors in terms of foliage up north.

0005.  That it is finally getting cool!

0006.  My wonderful boyfriend who teaches me knew things about myself all the time!

0007.  College.  I’ll miss ya, buddy!

0008.  My homegroup in Nac.  My goodness, you guys have made me a better person!

0009.  Hot tea (especially chai, peppermint, and green tea)

0010.  My cell phone.  What a wonderful way to keep in touch with people!

0011.  Communication.  Without it, life would be preeetty boring.

0012.  Painting.  I need to do this more.  It’s good for the soul.

0013.  Calendars and scheduling.  The more you get to know me, the more you’ll see how I like to plan.

0014.  My Grandma Lindsay’s peanut pralines and toffee.  A normal Christmas time occurrence.

0015.  Fans.  A must if you live anywhere where there is lots of warmth.  Plus, i now need mine to fall asleep!

0016.  Tips.  I currently work in a coffee shop.  Tips make my day so so so much better.  Plus, if you tip me, I might like ya better.  Just keep it in mind next time you are in a coffee place.

0017.  I’m thankful for the tips I made last year that let me go to Hawaii this past summer.

0018.  I’m thankful for the tips made this semester that are going to my new camera fund.

0019.  The Thai peanut noodles I’m eating right now with chicken.  I made it.  It is yummy!

0020.  The encouragement, support, and amazingness of my friends and family and clients who all believe in me.

With gratitude,

Rachel

Caitlin only lived in the same place as me for two semesters.  In those two semesters she challenged me to be a better person.  I’m proud to be her friend and wish I saw her more often.

Watch out!  She’s gonna be a world changer!

Two exciting tidbits:

• If you would like a session over the Thanksgiving break, I’ll be in Houston.  Spots are filling up, so let me know!
• If you haven’t voted for me (or if you have and are on a new computer) please vote here.  All the top ten finalist have already received a SmugMug site (which I totally wanted!  Amazing!), but having it customized to fit with my blog would be quite spectacular.  So please send a vote for me!

As always, thanks for reading!

Rachel

A few days ago I entered a contest at MCP Actions for a new web design and a year pro subscription to SmugMug.

Here’s what I wrote -

“My heart longs for creativity and learning and teaching. As I am nearing the end of my college career I want to find a way to merge my love for photography and the ingenuity that goes into it while serving others and helping. I want to make it so that a portion of my profits goes to charity. Each month I plan on highlighting a Non-Profit so I raise awareness. I feel that using my craft, which attracts attention, to show what is happening in our neighborhoods, our cities, and our world, could better those around me and myself.

I would love the help of fusing this into a cohesive and thoughtful website that would make it much more appealing so I can reach more people. Thank you for doing this giveaway and good luck everyone!”

Now, I need your help to win this!  I would greatly appreciate your vote at http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/11/15/vote-for-the-most-deserving-of-a-custom-website-25-off-smugmug-pro/

And because every post (even if it is a shameless self plug) is better with some photos, here are my beautiful friends Hannah and Leah.  These were taken a little while back, but I love them.

Now, go vote!

With love,

Rachel

All’s well that ends well and Schaübhne Theatre Company’s revised and updated production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler ends very well.

The final moments of this production border on gloriousness. Unfortunately, the 130 minutes that proceed them are nowhere near as satisfying. Overall, this up-dated version of Ibsen comes across like a well-executed soap opera intermittently punctuated with rare moments of aesthetic brilliance.

Hedda Gabbler, our heroine, is bored and petulant from the very moment we meet her. We soon learn that she has married someone she doesn’t love because, of all her suitors, he is the only one willing to foot the bill for her pampered but boring lifestyle.

An old love re-enters her life, riding a wave of unexpected success. Hedda, fueled by a toxic mixture of bordeom and jealousy, decides to destroy his life and, effortlessly, she does. Her game, however, does not play out as she hopes and, because of her own criminal actions, she ends up at the mercy of someone who intends to take full sexual advantage of his power.

In one last desperate attempt to rail against the people and the world around her, Hedda kills herself. Unfortunately, for our heroine, her final act of defiance is ignored by the very people she intends to defy. Their indifference carries with it a hint of ridicule.

I suppose, in the late 19th century, Hedda’s situation might have engendered some sympathy because, at least in that context, it is more plausible to believe her existence is largely determined by her social circumstances. Even so, it is difficult to sympathize too much with Hedda because the aristocratic tragedy of her circumstances seems to be only that she is forced to marry beneath her station.

In the early 21st century, however, Hedda’s situation does not generate any sympathy. She is simply a spoiled brat who plays with pistols instead of surfing the net, who destroys the lives of old lovers because it is more vivid than HDTV, and who kills herself because she can’t be bothered finding a good lawyer.

On the one hand, it is plausible that the production intends to satirize the lifestyle of the German middle class, generally-speaking, and the 21st century Hedda, in particular, and the satire is lost on me because the play is performed in German, with French and English surtitles. Moreover, this more charitable reading helps justify performances, costume choices, and staging choices that are reminiscent of television soap opera.

For example, at one point, the German actor seems to use the word “kitsch”, the French translation uses “kitsch”, and the English translation uses the word “sentiment.” The expression “kitsch” brings with it a host of conations not at all captured by the word “sentiment.”  The result is the francophones in the audience have a big laugh that simply does not translate.

On the other hand, as far as I can gather from his interviews, director Thomas Ostermeier expects us to sympathize and identify with Hedda. From this I can only infer he also expects us to identify with her ennui, her disdain for the people around her, and her nihilism.

And with that discovery, we return to the final glorious scene.

Hedda lies dead, her suicide ignored. Suddenly, the conventions of realism are ruptured, as Hedda’s hopelessly naive husband discovers his home is revolving. He carries on as if nothing is really the matter. He ignores the absurdity of his metaphysical reality in the same way he ignores Hedda’s reaction to it.

I suspect Ostermeier’s intention is that we are meant to feel sympathy for Hedda whose last desperate effort at glory in an absurd world is ignored by a mediocre and naive middle class who likewise ignore the absurd foundations of their existence and carry on living as if nothing really is the matter.

On this reading, the final scene is a beautiful yet tragic homage to our nihilist heroine.

In contrast, in this final scene, I see a spoiled brat, whose last pathetic and self-indulgent tantrum is rightly ignored, along with the snobbery and metaphysical absurdity that motivates it. Her nihilist tragedy is, for me, a moment of delight. She is the fool, and the last laugh is on her.

The world’s middle classes are rightly criticized for many of their life choices, however, the decision to ignore the tantrums of a spoiled nihilist and to choose life in the face of its metaphysical absurdity is a choice that should always be celebrated — whoever makes it.

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Now that we have entered the middle of November, things have been pretty normal.  In fact, the schedule from week to week is the exact same.  The only difference is that I have been learning so much each week.  However, there has not been a lot of extra time to explore the city of Rome.  By the time I get done with my classes, lunch, studying and exercising, I just want to relax.  Having to walk throughout the city never sounds that enticing when I have time to actually explore.

There was a couple visiting from Norman, Oklahoma last weekend that made me realize how much I need to see in Rome.  Many tour groups fly into Rome, jump on a bus, and then fly from one historic or religious site to another.  However, there are a few seminarians here that make a list of places they want to visit and then they just go down the list.  Perhaps I should start doing that in my spare time.  At least I could share my experience with you in this blog.

At the college, we are preparing for New Man Weekend, which takes place the weekend following Thanksgiving.  There are many fun things for the community to do and see.  The highlight of the weekend is the Spaghetti Bowl.  This North American College tradition is a flag football game between the New Men and the Old Men from the college.  In years past, the Old Men tend to win, in part because they have the entire seminary to scout through, while the New Men have limited numbers.  However, I think we might have a chance to win this year.

QB James Platania fires a pass to his receiver.

The Spaghetti Bowl Old Men Team openly wept while watching the incredible football skills of the New Men of '13.

New Men finish up practice with a prayer of thanksgiving.

In addition to the Spaghetti Bowl, we also have a talent show and a huge Thanksgiving Banquet, which the college is known for holding.  Many Americans in Rome that are not associated with an American organization are welcomed to the North American College for this special feast, unique to the United States.  One of the Scottish seminarians told me yesterday that he heard that tickets for the banquet go for a thousand dollars.  Can you believe that?  He asked me if it was true and I assured him it was not.  It is more like two thousand!  haha  The whole point of keeping us busy during Thanksgiving Weekend is to keep us from missing home too much.  Thanksgiving is such a family-oriented holiday and I am looking forward to video conferencing with my family during our annual Family Thanksgiving Dinner at my house.  It will be nice to see my grandmother, cousins, aunts, uncles, and my immediate family.  I am so thankful for SKYPE!  It has helped me feel closer to home every time I talk to my family and friends from back home.

Finally there is some good news for the North American College!  It is possible that the seminarians from the college will be invited to a private audience with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, early next year to commemorate the close of the 150 year anniversary celebration of the founding of the North American College in Rome.  The college is the largest national seminary in Rome, celebrating a big anniversary, and during the Year of the Priest.  I think our chances are pretty good that it will actually happen.

That is about all that is going on right now in Rome!  Ciao!

On Friday, November 6th, 2009, I saw my first live ballet: the National Ballet of Canada’s production of The Sleeping Beauty at the National Arts Centre. If this production is representative of what live ballet has to offer, I’ve been missing something wonderful.

I attended Friday primarily because I had never seen a live ballet before. It seemed like an oversight on my part. I love contemporary dance, I love orchestral music, and I love theatre. It seemed a no-brainer: I should love ballet. So, how is it possible that I’ve never seen a live ballet?

In conversation over coffee before the show, I realized that, despite all the very obvious reasons why I should love ballet, a worry remained: it might just be too damn boring.

After all, that’s exactly what contemporary pop culture has been hammering into my head since as far back as I can remember. Of all the arts, no other is so consistently characterized as being the epitome of boring — especially for men. Sure, girls might like all that prancing about, but guys — well, guys are genetically programmed to be bored to tears by all of it. Right. Right?

I’m sure you will all be surprised to learn: contemporary pop culture is wrong about ballet. Period.

The Sleeping Beauty is stunning. An absolute orgy for the eyes, ears, and aesthetic gland. The athletic grace and power on display is a wonder to behold, the stagecraft is gorgeous, and the music glorious. Ballet is beauty unbound.

The only thing really not present in The Sleeping Beauty is story. The story in The Sleeping Beauty is highly allegorical and mostly irrelevant to the experience. Notice, however, I don’t say “the story is missing” because I’m not convinced narrative elements would add much to the experience and could conceivably detract from it.

In fact, the only aspect of the performance that is less than ideal is the attempt to convey narrative with some rather hammy mime and many sweeps of — admittedly — majestic capes. Fortunately, there is the wonderful music and the beautiful costumes and set pieces to entertain the audience until the dancers get back at it.

As a newcomer to the art form, three aspect of ballet stuck out for me in particular.

First, no doubt about it, dancers en pointe is an alien sight. All those fuzzy paintings of ballerinas don’t capture the kinesthetics of this very demanding approach to dance. Overtime, once I became accustomed to the experience of en point dancing, I began to appreciate the aesthetic opportunities it offered but I admit, in the early-going, it was a little off-putting.

Second, on more than one occasion, the dancers moved in a way that I thought was an error until he or she repeated the movement. In other words, some of the physical vocabulary of ballet, at first sight, will be alien the uninitiated. Again, overtime, these alien elements of dance began to make more sense aesthetically.

Finally, in the early going, especially in comparison to the female dancers, the male dancers seemed quite clunky and almost cumbersome. I suspect this may have been an intentional consequence of the choreography because once the male soloing began the fusion of grace and power was downright bewildering. These guys soar.

Overall, my first experience of ballet can only be described as mind-blowing. I look forward to the next performance I can attend.

I was also left wondering why ballet gets such a rough ride in contemporary pop culture. Ballet is ultimately about incredibly skilled athletes performing incredibly beautiful feats of grace, agility, and strength against a stunning visual and aural backdrop. How can people not enjoy that?

Are there any other ballet fans out there? Any reflections or memories from your first experience of ballet? Has anyone else seen the National Ballet of Canada? Any theories about the pop cultural prejudice against ballet?

I’d love to hear any and all thoughts on ballet.

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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the NIH is funding a study at Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, NY) on the use of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study was motivated by some promising related research in Europe, where NAC is much more widely used and investigated than in the US. Here’s an excerpt from the study description:

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease which often has debilitating and potentially life-threatening consequences. The cause of SLE is unknown and current therapies lack specificity and carry significant side effects. Existing data in the literature provide evidence that a natural antioxidant, glutathione, is depleted in T cells of patients with SLE which may be a key factor underlying abnormal activation and predisposition of T lymphocytes to pro-inflammatory cell death via necrosis. Administration of N-acetylcysteine (NAC), that serves as a precursor of GSH, improves the clinical outcome of murine lupus, and limits the toxicity of pro-oxidant/immunosuppressant medications commonly used in patients with SLE. NAC is widely available in health food stores and large doses (up to 8 g/day) can be safely administered to humans. In a one-year study of patients with inflammatory lung disease treated with prednisone and azathioprine, addition of NAC (1.8g/day) diminished disease severity and reduced drug toxicity in comparison to placebo. Moreover, oral NAC has been found to improve muscle fatigue which is reported to be the most disabling symptom in 53% of patients with SLE. Thus, establishing a dose ranging between 1.8-7.2 g/day that is well-tolerated and capable of raising intracellular GSH in lupus patients and determining its immunological and therapeutic impact in SLE appear to be well justified.

The project is reported on the NCCAM website: Abstracts of 2008 Funded Projects.

For more on NAC, see the NYBC entry for PharmaNAC. This form of NAC is manufactured to the quality standards of the European Pharmacopoeia, and provides a good way to get the dosages under study in this research on SLE.

The National Honor Society is teaming up with Cell Phones for Soldiers , an organization dedicated to providing soldiers with calling cards through the recycling of donated phones. We encourage you to participate in our collection and show your support for the men and women who make endless sacrifices to secure our freedom. If you have any cell phones no longer of use we would greatly appreciate your donation.

We will accept any cell phones, inoperable ones included!

You can drop them off in our Cell Phones for Soldiers collection box located in the high school lobby. Our kick off date is November 1, 2009 and will run throughout the 2009-2010 school year.

Thank you for your support!

Traffic Safety Specialist, Mitch Carriere from the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department will be conducting a car seat safety check on Monday, November 23rd. He will be at the NAC bus garage from 3 pm to 7 pm. Please take a moment to stop in and be sure your child’s car seat is properly installed. Make safety a number one priority!

As reported by The Press Republican the NAC Bobcats successfully defended its Section VII Class C championship Wednesday night at Plattsburgh High School. They beat Seton Catholic 1-0, with Tyler LaValley scoring the only goal on an assist from Spencer Ferguson.

If you’re in fifth grade — or your child is in fifth grade! — pay attention!

Students in Grade 5 will be administered the NYS Social Studies Test on Monday, November 16 and Tuesday, November 17, 2009. Please make every effort to have your fifth grader at school and on time those days! Ensure a good night’s sleep on Sunday and Monday evening to help your student perform better on these critical exams!

Students should be prepared with several #2 pencils.

Parents and visitors to the elementary school will now need to enter and sign in through the wing doors. This entrance is manned by a full time person who will monitor the arrival and departure of all visitors to the building.

Parents and visitors will get a visitor pass to go to the offices in the building.

Parents will still need to sign their children out from the Elementary Office. Visitor passes WILL NOT be issued to go directly to classrooms as the interruption of instructional time is not allowed.

“Het is zaterdagavond. Buiten is het koud, binnen zit Stephan Sanders.” Dit is een bekende zin in radioland. Zo begint namelijk vrijwel elke aflevering van Met het Oog op Morgen, het dagelijkse late nieuwsprogramma op Radio 1. Op zaterdag heeft het radioprogramma De Radiominuut, een blokje gemaakt door studenten journalistiek. Ik heb deze ook een keer gemaakt.

De Radiominuut is een project van Met het Oog op Morgen, waarbij studenten journalistiek van de vier verschillende opleidingen (Utrecht, Zwolle, Ede en Tilburg) ieder om beurten een geluidsverhaal maken over een evenement op zaterdag en dat dan in één minuut vertellen. Ik mocht de Minuut maken voor de uitzending van 22 november 2008.

De vrijdag ervoor was er eerst overleg met de redactie over het onderwerp. In overleg besloot ik een Minuut te gaan maken over ‘Een avondje NAC’. NAC Breda stond op dat moment hoog in de eredivisie en die avond speelde de Bredase club thuis tegen NEC Nijmegen. Voor de fans van NAC een belangrijke wedstrijd, want tussen de twee clubs bestaat al jaren rivaliteit.

De Minuut
Het idee was om te kijken wat een avondje NAC in Breda nou eigenlijk is. De Brabanders worden gezien als Bourgondiërs en zo beleven ze dan ook de wedstrijden, was de gedachte. Aan mij de taak om dat in één minuut vast te leggen. Het idee van de minuut is dat jezelf niet aan het woord komt, maar dat je alleen door middel van anderen de sfeer vastlegt.

Ik ben daarheen gegaan en heb voor aanvang van de wedstrijd verschillende NAC-fans gesproken en gevraagd of ze mij konden uitleggen wat dat nu is, een avondje NAC. Al die quotes heb ik verwerkt in de minuut. In de Minuut heb ik het clublied van NAC verwerkt, omdat dat zo vrolijk en feestelijk is, iets wat past bij het genieten van een avond voetbal kijken.

Deadline
Om het op tijd aan te leveren, betekent wel dat je moet doorwerken. De deadline was 22.00 uur. Op zich niet een heel groot probleem, alleen beginnen voetbalwedstrijden op zaterdag om 20.30 uur. Dat betekent dat de meeste fans een uur eerder pas bij het stadion aankomen. En omdat dat in Breda is, was het logistiek wel even plannen. Daarom heb ik besloten niet het stadion in te gaan.

Om iets over elven was mijn Radiominuut aan de beurt. Ik was er zelf tevreden over, hoewel ik een iets te lang item had gemaakt. Het was namelijk 1’17 minuut, dus is er een stukje uitgehaald door de eindredacteur. Ook hoorde je mij één keer terugkomen in het item, wat eigenlijk niet mocht. Maar verder vond de eindredacteur het een goed item.

Nog een keer
Het project loopt nog steeds en ook dit jaar zou ik weer een radiominuut maken, maar door fysieke problemen is dat helaas niet doorgegaan. Zodra dat allemaal weer beter is, wil ik zeker nog een Radiominuut maken.

The Northern Arts Council is having a Mask-Art Silent Auction and Halloween Party today (Friday) from 7-9pm.  Costumes are optional, but appreciated.  Wear a mask and eat it, too.  Refreshments will be served, including this tray of gluten free baked goods from Free Range Cookies. 

The NAC Gallery is located at 27 S. Florissant Road in Ferguson, MO, across the street from the Ferguson Farmers’ Market.  Last market day, by the way, is this Saturday, Oct. 31 for one of the most popular farmers’ markets in the St. Louis area.

-Linda

As reported here by the Press Republican, here by WPTZ and here by WCAX Joshua and Dustin Snide,both of Ellenburg Depot, were charged Wednesday with burglary and criminal mischief for damaging the Northern Adirondack Central School on Oct. 23.

School superintendent Laura Marlow said “We see this as an act of terrorism on our own campus.”

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project and the XO laptop. A previous OLPC related post may be found here. As a result I follow the OLPC News blog which recently had this great article by 16-year-old Derek Chan on his experience with a small scale OLPC implementation in Kenya.

My name is Derek Chan, I’m 16 years old, and I was part of Mark Battley’s team of high school students from Upper Canada College that initiated a small scale OLPC implementation at the Ntugi Day Secondary School.
Part of our goal was to provide Ntugi with power for their initial complement of 8 XOs and 2 Cradlepoint PHS300s at a school that had no access to the country’s power grid.

In addition to this being a very well written piece about an extremely fascinating project, Derek enumerates some lessons learned that are directly applicable to any Infrastructure and Integration project. Especially security infrastructure projects like say a Network Access Control (NAC) or Enterprise Single Sign On (SSO) project. Just replace the word “school” with “enterprise” or “business“.

Ultimately, we were successful, but not without missteps and failures along the way. We did lots of things right, but we made a few newbie errors. Here’s what we learned!

1. Learn as much as you can about your destination school’s physical resources.
2. Don’t assume that tests in the lab will duplicate conditions in the field.
3. Read all the relevant blogs, forums and bulletin boards before implementing.
4. Don’t underestimate the sophistication of local technology and expertise at your destination.

 

Let’s think about each of these in turn, much as Derek did in his post.

Learn as much as you can about your destination physical resources.
Who hasn’t heard the horror stories from the installation team that just tried to add “one more appliance” to the customer’s data center, only to find out that the power or cooling or rack space just wasn’t there. Always verify ahead of implementation that the destination has all of the physical resources required by your hardware, all of the compute resources required by your software, and all of the network resources, including IP address space, required to connect it all together. An actual visit to the site by your Systems Engineers is a really great idea. Never assume that the destination is a “typical” configuration or that the customer knows the difference.

Don’t assume that tests in the lab will duplicate conditions in the field.
Boy Howdy! This assumption ranks right up there with “no customer would ever do that” as a surefire path to failure. The point is that the lab, by definition, is an artificial environment. Sure our QA engineers do the best job they can to simulate a real world environment, but the key word here is simulate. It’s pretty hard to simulate things like network latencies or ATM noise in the lab. Remember your lab techs are good, not god. What a difference that “o” makes.

Read all the relevant blogs, forums and bulletin boards before implementing.
Not that this has ever happened to me, mind you, but I’ve heard of engineers that actually believe the promo literature and design the system around that, assuming that all the details are handled. I mean how much difference can there be between Server 2K3 and Server 2K3 R2? Yeah. Just do the homework. That’s called “due diligence” in business speak.

Don’t underestimate the sophistication of local technology and expertise at your destination.
As engineers we always like to think we’re way smarter than the mere mortals we tolerate in our presence. But never fool yourself into believing that you can understand the ins and outs of a customer’s infrastructure as well as they do. You may think they are yokels, but they are yokels with way more relevant experience than you. And they are the ones who control your payday. Just suck it up and let them make it easier (or possible) for the project to succeed.

So there you have it. Excellent advice from a 16-year-old who has already learned some important lessons. Well done Derek.

NOTE: These posts are taken directly from campaign literature from the candidates. We will repost all campaign literature received from all parties without commentary. You, of course, are more than welcome to comment to the posts

Jamie Guay is your Democratic candidate for Tax Collector for the Town of Ellenburg. She grew up in the North Country and now resides in Ellenburg Depot.

She is married to John Guay and tey have two children. Jamie is currently enrolled in college, pursuing a degree in teaching. She is presently employed as a Title One Reading Aide at Northern Adirondack Central School.

Jamie is an energetic person with a lot of motivation to see that any assignment is completed in a timely and satisfactory manner.

This past weekend was a lovely and wonderful one.  First of all, one of my best friends in the whole world came to visit me!  Stephanie is awesome and beautiful and we had a lot of fun hanging out.  Second of all, a bunch of my friends and I went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate my birthday (which is actually this week.  The 29th.  I love birthdays!) and did a few more things.  There will be a post.  Promise.  It involves a bonfire, a junk yard, and toilets.  It is something you won’t want to miss!

But on to Stephanie.  Recently she bought a DSLR camera and we went out and I gave her a little tutorial.  She caught on quick!  I think she’ll get the hang of it soon!  In the meantime, I took the opportunity to capture some photographs of her.

She was cool enough to lay on the ground for a few awesome shots!  You can ask her.  I freaked out when I started taking this group of shots.  It was just what I had wanted to add depth, texture, and fabulousness!  It doesn’t hurt that my subject is seriously gorgeous.

One last portrait of Steph…

Now, to showcase some of her work…  Remember, Stephanie is just learning!  You wouldn’t know it by these!  She caught on quick to things like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc.  She snapped a few of me and I love them!

I hope you guys enjoyed!  Leave a comment telling me which one is your fav!

The NACS PTO is collecting COATS and JACKETS for the 1st Annual Coat Drive.

Coats and jackets will be collected through October 30th. Drop boxes are located in the lobbies of the Elementary and High School/Middle School buildings.    Collected items will be made available to students and families in the Northern Adirondack Central School District.  (Times and locations to be announced!)

Donations of new/unused hats, mittens and gloves also gladly accepted.

Make someone’s winter WARMER!

Pomysł na dzisiejszy wpis zrodził się dawno temu, ale rozliczne, związane z brakiem czasu ale i pomysłu na realizację problemy, opóźniły jego opublikowanie aż do dzisiaj. Jest on swoistym podziękowaniem dla internautów, którzy umieszczając na swoich stronach odnośniki do tej strony przyczynili się do jej popularyzacji. Od strony graficznej, prezentowane prace są ucieczką od ciężkiego gotyckiego stylu jaki dominuje na blogu.

Kryterium wyboru było proste. Przeglądając statystyki mojego bloga wybrałem te osoby, z których stron zanotowałem najwięcej wizyt. Dodam, że wszystkie odnośniki pojawiły się w pierwszym miesiącu funkcjonowania bloga, kiedy wcale nie zapowiadał się on obiecująco.

Najwięcej wizyt zaobserwowałem ze strony Naguiba i Fadilah z Singapuru. Jako że Nagfa jest już w posiadaniu mojego ambigramu ze swoim nickiem, zdecydowałem się na ambigram z imieniem ich córki: Nayla Najwa.

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Drugim miejscem, z którego odnotowałem najwięcej wizyt okazał się blog mojego starego druha MacKozera. Grafika łączy w sobie dwa ambigramy, w jakimś sensie odzwierciedlające dwie sfery aktywności MacKozera.

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Trzecią osobą, która przywiodła najwięcej gości w to miejsce okazał się Jose Manuel z Malagi. Nie ukrywam, że stworzenie ambigramu dla niego przysporzyło mi najwięcej trudności. Pierwsze próby podjąłem przygotowując ambigramy dla uczestników NAC Into the Labyrinth. Dopiero olśnienie, że można połączyć literę O z S aby utworzyć E, umożliwiło ukończenie ambigramu.

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Czym był by blog bez swoich komentatorów? W tym miejscu chciałbym również podziękować stałym komentatorom. Cieszę się, że na bieżąco śledzicie moje zmagania i dajecie wyraz swojej opinii w komentarzach. Jako, że stałych komentatorów nie ma zbyt wielu – uhonorowałem wszystkich trzech

W pierwszej kolejności dziękuję Sophe. Układ liter w nicku predestynował go do utworzenia ambigramu łańcuchowego. Praca, która powstała jest chyba najlepszym ambigramem tego typu jaki stworzyłem.

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Za pełne entuzjazmu komentarze dziękuję również Jose Fraga z Brazylii. Jakiś czas temu stworzyłem ambigram Fraga, ale jego proste gotyckie kształty nie do końca satysfakcjonowały mnie.

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Na koniec podziękowania dla Edrache, nie tylko za komentarze ale i popularyzację mojej strony. Ambigram ściśle nawiązuje do jego pasji – gier planszowych. Pojawia się w nim również stworzony przez Edrache bohater komiksowych pasków o tematyce, a jakże -  związanej z grami.

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Nieustająco wpatruję się w statystyki bloga, więc być może wpis podobny do powyższego kiedyś jeszcze zagości na nim;-)

Researchers wanted to find out if there was any correlation between breast cancer risk and blood serum levels of cysteine – an amino acid and precursor of glutathione, the intracellular antioxidant that I’ve told you about many times. The most dramatic results were recorded among pre-menopausal women…

The glutathione factor

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) enhances the production of glutathione, one of the body’s most powerful antioxidant enzymes. Glutathione is found in every cell of the body (most notably in immune system cells), which is one of the reasons why its antioxidant action is so effective in protecting against disease and repairing damage throughout the body. In addition, glutathione is believed to protect other antioxidants (among them, vitamins C and E), prolonging and enhancing their effectiveness. It also acts directly against certain carcinogenic substances by binding to these toxins and eliminating them through urine or bile.

Three recent e-Alerts about mammography prompted a batch of member comments that could be called a ‘heated debate’ – some arguing that mammograms are necessary, while others offered experiences that would make anyone think twice about signing on for the procedure when less problematic screening tools are available.

Today, however, I’ll calm the waters with a subject we can all agree on: An effective way to prevent breast cancer would be a welcome addition to any screening process a woman might choose. Fortunately, new evidence shows that an important amino acid may provide significant breast cancer prevention.

Something in the blood

At last month’s American Association for Cancer Research meeting, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health released the results of a new study using data from the Nurses’ Health Study.

Researchers wanted to find out if there was any correlation between breast cancer risk and blood serum levels of cysteine – an amino acid and precursor of glutathione, the intracellular antioxidant that I’ve told you about many times.

Taking the lead from previous studies that have shown glutathione to be capable of detoxifying carcinogens, the Brigham researchers examined blood sample data from more than 700 breast-cancer patients. All patient records were matched with records of subjects who were healthy and of similar age.

The most dramatic results were recorded among pre-menopausal women. In this group, women who had the highest levels of cysteine were more than 75 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those with the lowest cysteine levels. And the risk was reduced even more among women who had normal body weight.

Post-menopausal women with the highest cysteine levels also fared well, reducing their breast cancer risk by almost half compared to women with the lowest levels.

In the conclusions to the Brigham study, lead author Shumin Zhang named a specific supplement, known to boost cysteine levels. Zhang wrote: ‘N-acetylcysteine, a synthetic precursor of cysteine, might have the potential to be chemopreventive against breast cancer.’

But all of this effectiveness comes at a price. Because when the immune system is taxed (by everything from pollution, to poor diet, infection, radiation, emotional stress, and all types of trauma), stores of glutathione become depleted. Drugs can also take their toll. In fact, acetaminophen has been shown to deplete glutathione stores in the liver. And as if all of that weren’t enough, our glutathione levels tend to steadily drop as we grow older.

Second week of classes at the Gregorian University just wrapped up, yet I just passed the three-month mark of being in Italy.  Things have been going well, but very busy.  While the schedule is different everyday, I thought you may want to know what consists of an average day studying for the priesthood at the North American College.

I begin the day at 5:15am and arrive in the Immaculate Conception Chapel for the 6:15am Morning Prayer, followed by Mass.  Mass is normally over around 7:10am, which gives me just enough time to grab a quick bowl of cereal in the refectory and then leave for the Gregorian University at 7:45am.

5:15am            Wake-up

6:15am            Morning Prayer in the Immaculate Conception Chapel

6:30am            Mass in the Immaculate Conception Chapel

7:15am            Breakfast in the refectory

7:45am            Leave for classes at the Gregorian University

8:15am            Arrive at the Gregorian University

8:30am            First class begins

9:30am            Second class begins

10:30am            Third class begins

11:30am            Fourth class begins

12:30pm            Depart the Gregorian University for the North American College

1:00pm            Arrive at the North American College

1:15pm            Pranzo (Italian word for “lunch”)

2:10pm            Finish pranzo

2:45pm            Workout time

4:00pm            Study, Seminars, Meetings, etc.

5:45pm            Eucharistic Adoration

6:45pm            Benediction and Evening Prayer

7:00pm            Cena (Italian word for “dinner”)

7:30pm            Get together with friends in the Student Lounge, study, formation conferences, etc.

9:30pm            Shower, pack book bag for following day, and read

10:00pm            Go to sleep

On top of this general schedule, I have meetings with my formation advisor and spiritual director on a regular basis and there is always something going on.  It is a tight schedule, but it makes the days go by quickly.  One thing is for sure, I am always looking forward to the weekend!

There’s a great story in the 10/18/09 Press Republican featuring NAC art teacher Henry McGovern.

Mr. McGovern has been teaching for fifty years! Talk about a life’s work!

HARARE, 12 Outubro 2009 (PlusNews) – O Conselho Nacional de SIDA do Zimbabwe (NAC, na sigla em inglês) comprou US$ 890 mil em medicamentos antiretrovirais (ARVs) após alegações de que estava a abusar dos fundos gerados por um imposto de três por cento sobre os rendimentos, conhecido por imposto da SIDA.

O órgão federal encarregado de coordenar a resposta à SIDA colectou cerca de US$ 1,7 millhão desde Fevereiro de 2009, mas havia gasto apenas US$ 20 mil em ARVs, o que impeliu os activistas de HIV/SIDA a exigirem uma auditoria nas contas do Conselho.

O imposto da SIDA foi introduzido em 1999 para ajudar a financiar programas de HIV/SIDA, particularmente a compra de ARVs; entretanto, a NAC têm sido alvo de críticas sistemáticas por fracassar em utilizar os recursos com os seropositivos.

Diversas reportagens recentes publicadas pela imprensa local, alegam que a maior parte do dinheiro estava a ser gasta com salários e bonificações.

“Há anos que esses fundos têm sido mais controvertidos do que benéficos para nós seropositivos”, afirmou Stanley Takaona, vice-presidente da União Activista de HIV/SIDA (ZHAU, na sigla em inglês), que está a exigir mudanças na NAC.

“Nós queremos que a NAC seja removida da administração desse fundo para poder concentrar-se na coordenação de outros programas de HIV/SIDA no Zimbabwe. Uma organização mais confiável deveria assumir a função de administrador. Nós queremos também uma auditoria completa do imposto da SIDA ao longo dos anos.”

Cerca de 400 morrem a cada dia

A ONG internacional Médicos Sem Fronteiras (MSF) estima que 400 pessoas morrem a cada dia no país de doenças relacionadas ao SIDA. Há mais de 1,7 milhão seropositivos no Zimbabwe e cerca de 155 mil estão a receber ARVs das no serviço público de saúde – pouco menos da metade dos que precisam do tratamento, de acordo com estimativas.

Em Julho, o Fundo Global das Nações Unidas Contra HIV/SIDA, Tuberculose e Malária substituiu a NAC como principal recipiente dos fundos, após o Banco de Reserva do Zimbabwe (RBZ, na sigla em inglês) ter desviado mais de US$7 milhões das verbas do Fundo Global.

O RBZ eventualmente devolveu o dinheiro, que era destinado a expandir o programa nacional de ARVs. As verbas do Fundo Global passaram a ser gerenciadas pelo Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD).

Quando o imposto da Sida foi estabelecido, a intenção era cuidar das pessoas seropositivas e não de pagar salários e comprar carros caros para os administradores do fundo

“Quando o imposto da Sida foi estabelecido, a intenção era cuidar das pessoas seropositivas e não de pagar salários e comprar carros caros para os administradores do fundo”, desabafou Douglas Gwatidzo, Presidente da Associação Zimbabueana dos Médicos pelos Direitos Humanos (ZADHR, na sigla em inglês). Para ele “se aceitarmos isso, estaremos perdendo a batalha”.

“As verbas para a administração do imposto da SIDA devem vir do fisco, de forma que permaneçam destinados exclusivamente à aquisição de ARVs, atendimento e amparo aos seropositivos”, segundo o presidente da ZADHR.

A NAC refutou as alegações, insistindo em afirmar que não houve mal emprego de verbas e diz que a demora em adquirir ARVs deve-se aos “longos processos de licitação para a compra” e “ao facto de que não compensa financeiramente adquirir ARVs usando o imposto da SIDA numa base mensal, porque o custo do processo de compra iria exceder o custo dos medicamentos em si.

O Dr. Gwatidzo afirmou que a NAC não deveria ter o poder de “colocar a vida dos seropositivos em jogo em função de processos de compra. Eu não acredito que as licitações demorem mais de oito meses – nós estamos a falar da vida de pessoas e eles têm de agir com seriedade em relação a isso”.

Numa entrevista ao jornal estatal The Herald, o director executivo da NAC, Tapuwa Magure, afirmou que a compra recente de ARVs garantiria o tratamento para pelo menos quatro mil pessoas durante um ano.

A maior parte dos ARVs disponíveis no sector público de saúde do Zimbabwe é comprada com recursos de dadores estrangeiros, incluindo o Fundo Global, o Fundo das Nações Unidas para a Infância (UNICEF) e a Fundação Clinton.

PlusNews – 12.10.2009