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Preston Bus Station - the long distance coach end which used to be a taxi pick and set down point. In later times it looked absolutely awful and the haunt of drunks and yobs
“Why didn’t your parents want you? How does that make you feel?” “Is your real family dead?” “Will you have to go back someday?”
It wasn’t easy being adopted — especially being a brown girl from Central America, with two white parents. Until seventh grade, it hadn’t been too much of an issue for me. I’d gone to a small church school with the same people I pretty much saw seven days a week. We all knew each other as well as if we were related, and we’d grown up together from babyhood. Everyone knew I was adopted, and it was no big deal.
But when I was twelve, I left my safe cocoon for a bigger, public middle school. Like my elementary school, the new school was mostly white. I was used to that. What I wasn’t used to were all the questions.
Now, I know — from the statistics — that there were probably as many as three or four other adopted kids in my class. But they were the same color as their parents, so nobody had to know their private business. I, on the other hand, couldn’t hide.
It wasn’t so bad when my mom came alone to help out at school or attend a meeting. When kids saw her, they just assumed I had a Latino dad. There were other mixed-race students in my class and, just like I’d grown up with the same group of kids at my elementary school, these kids had all grown up together, too. They were used to mixed marriages.
At first, I didn’t want anybody to know. I just hoped and prayed only one parent would show up to things. Then, for all anyone knew, I could just be another biracial kid. But, all too soon, people found out, and I had to start answering questions.
Of course, a lot of people didn’t care either way. But when you’re twelve and you feel very different, it really seems like everybody is staring and whispering — when in actuality, they aren’t even paying any attention to you at all.
Some kids were just innocently curious. Others were downright mean about it. They were the kind of kids that tell their younger brother or sister, “You’re adopted” — like it’s a bad thing — even when they aren’t.
At first, it felt as if I was defending myself. Maybe it was none of their business, but brushing them off would only have made things worse. I had to admit I was adopted. I had to explain why I was adopted, and what that meant.
It was frustrating a lot of the time. People just didn’t get it. They couldn’t understand why somebody wouldn’t be living with their “real” parents. They couldn’t imagine what it would be like, living with “strangers.”
It drove me crazy. What did “real” mean, anyway? My adoptive parents were as real as anybody else’s. I was their “real” kid. We sure weren’t artificial. And after twelve years together, we were anything but strangers.
As time went by, I made true friends. They came over to our house and hung out. My mom or dad drove us to the mall or the movies. My friends were soon as comfortable with my family as the kids I’d grown up with.
But some of the other kids still didn’t get it. It was as if they thought adoption was wrong or scary. I guess I could have kept trying to get through to them, but finally I realized they would probably never understand — and that was not my problem.
Adopted kids are just like any other kids. When we get in trouble, we get grounded. Our parents clean up our messes and stay with us when we’re sick. They yell at us when they get mad. They’re proud when we do well. Sometimes, they hurt our feelings or don’t understand us, or they let us down. And sometimes they stand up for us, or they sit and listen when we are sad or worried. Adoptive families are forever, and we are just like anyone else.
It wasn’t till I got a little older that I realized how lucky I really was, and that adoption was something that made our family even more special. I had friends with parents who were in jail or had just disappeared. One girl lived in a group foster home. Some kids were failing out or school or doing drugs, and their parents didn’t even seem to care.
I am blessed to have a home and a family that cares about me. I know, too, that I’m blessed to have a birth family that loved me enough to let me be adopted when they weren’t able to provide for me. A lot of people aren’t so lucky. I am where I belong.
M. D. F.
Yay! I finally got to play along with FGR again!
This is for Spot the Difference and Diptychs, for FGR today.
Okay...there are 6 differences (besides the slight tilt of my head - didn't mean to do that).
Can you figure them out? Leave notes! :)
I'm now subtracting 9 in the 9th position from the left. This is done in 2 steps: subtract 10, add 1. In this step I subtract 10 by subtracting 1 in the 8th position from the left.
This is a view shows the intricate workings of the backside of the famous Charles Babbage Difference engine. Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented the earliest of computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long. This example was seen in the Computer History Museum in San Jose. More information on this brilliant machine can be found here - www.computerhistory.org/babbage/ - It's certainly worth learning a bit more about!
Seen at Barkisland Stonlea is an Optare Solo M710SE for South Pennine Community Transport on the E4 service to Brighouse via Greetland and Elland. This makes quite a difference from the usual Fiat Ducado Mellor Orions and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinters/EVMs that dominate the route.
This vehicle is YJ12 GZH.
I'm now subtracting 8 in the 8th position from the left. This is done in 2 steps: subtract 10, add 2. In this step I add 2.
These are really amazing. I would love to see the machine that loads dirt into this baby. I would also love to hear this fired up!
The short version:
The further your subject from the background and the greater the difference in ratios from flash to subject and flash to background the darker your background will be.
The long version:
Following on from my Lighting 102 Unit 1.1 exercise this is for Lighting 102 : 1.2 - Position | Distance
In 102 1.2 David Hobby says:
"I would eat math flakes for breakfast if I could.
But the Inverse Square Law still makes my eyes glaze over. Not that it is necessarily so hard to understand. (Although it is for many.) But because it just sucks all of the life and soul out of lighting."
I completely get his point about it (maths) sucking the artistic nature out of lighting but as my wife will tell you I need something proved before I'll truly believe it! So I've been reading up on the inverse square law and set out to explain it to myself.
The basic idea is the further away from the flash you go the greater the area the flash has to illuminate. For example if your flash is 1m from your subject but 2m from you background, the background area will be 4 times that of the area around your subject. Meaning you will need 4 times as much light to illuminate the background with the same exposure as your subject. That fact on its own is all well and good but flash units let you adjust them by either doubling or halfing the light. So what is needed is how much you have to increase the distance from the flash in order to double the light needed. Basically it can be calculated that this value is the square root of 2, approx 1.4. Therefore if your flash is 1m from your subject but 1.4m from the background the background will need twice as much light to to illuminate it to the same exposure as your subject.
I knocked up an excel spreadsheet to tell me exactly where to move the flash to to keep the same exposure by halfing the light each time it was moved forward. These are the results.
All shots were taken at f5.0 1/250 iso100 in a room lit with a 10w energy saving light bulb. This ambient light was completely eliminated at this exposure so it is only the flash which is lighting bustr.
flash settings (top left to bottom right)
1 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16
1/32 1/64 1/32 1/32 1/32
The background in the last three shots was made darker by moving bustr away from the wall 1 stop at a time whilst keeping the flash to head distance the same.
Exact measurements to follow.
Mercedes-Benz Citaro (BJ12 YPW) www.flickr.com/photos/138705729@N04/33716083298/in/dateta...
Mercedes-Benz Citaro (BV58 MLN) www.flickr.com/photos/138705729@N04/40627050073/in/dateta...
Ships and railway locos have long since adopted designs to reduce glare from sunlight, how come road transport is lagging behind? Town Quay, Barrow.
I'm now subtracting 3 in the 3rd position from the left. This is done in 2 steps: subtract 5, add 2. In this step I add 2.
I'm now subtracting 8 in the 8th position from the left. This is done in 2 steps: subtract 10, add 2. In this step I subtract 10 by subtracting 1 in the 7th position from the left.
Sincronizada
Saturday 1 December 2012 was inauguration day for the newly elected President of United Mexican States (MEXICO). Photo taken at the intersection of Paseo de la Reforma and Avenida Juarez. In Mexican cuisine, the sincronizada (Spanish pronunciation: [siŋkɾoniˈsaða], "synchronized") is a tortilla-based sandwich made by placing a slice of ham and a portion of Oaxaca cheese (or any type of cheese) between two flour tortillas, then grilled until the cheese melts and the tortillas become crispy. Then cut into halves or wedges to serve. They are frequently confused with quesadillas, due to their resemblance to "quesadillas" sold in the United States. Note however, despite the fact it looks almost the same as a quesadilla, it is considered as a completely different dish. The main difference between the real quesadilla and the sincronizadas is the obligatory inclusion of ham in the dish and the main ingredient used to make the tortilla (wheat flour instead of corn flour, masa harina). Also note a quesadilla is made of a single folded and filled corn tortilla, while the sincronizada is prepared like a sandwich.