for that's my desk.

it's a bit embarrassing having your disorderly disarray all up for everyone to see :P

obviously i just need to go through and clean things up a bit. :|

update: ok, ok, i did tidy up a smidge.

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MINI-SERIES; Starring Modeling Troupe at Blythe Fifth Avenue

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BLYTHECON L.A. OR BUST: (wow, how original can I get!? sorry ;)

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CAST:

Starring OPHELIA O’HARA (California Sun Blonde VainillaDolly custom on right);

NENETL NENETL (redhead ADG on left; packing her bags);

VENUS de VIOLET (girl on sidelines; far left)

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OPENING SCENE: :

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Ophelia O'Hara finds Nenetl in the BFA Lounge, surrounded by a flurry of sundries, suitcases, purses and bags, all in different stages of disarray.)

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OPHELIA: "Here’s the backpack you wanted to borrow, sist- … WHAT —is all THIS ???"

NENETL: "I heard there is a Blythecon coming up, and I am sick of sitting on these shelves collecting dust … so I am packing … going to call Blythe-Uber for a ride to the airport …"

OPHELIA: "Good luck thinking you are going outside, Nenetl …

just so you know, I was promised a BEACH photoshoot … 3 years and 8 months ago!

AND … I have been dressed in this SAME OUTFIT since JANUARY … 2015 !!!!!

SO ... if ANY of us from Blythe Fifth Avenue Modeling Troupe (and Charm School!) get to go ANYWHERE,

she better chose ME!”

NENETL: “Well, look around ... we have ALL been "dressed and ready to go" for YEARS ... but no one ever seems to get off these shelves!! Besides ... I am her FIRST BLYTHE EVER, so of COURSE she WILL BE TAKING ME!"

VENUS: ::walking into the scene/ overhearing conversation:: “GIRLS … You both realize no airline flight is necessary, RIGHT? ... The BLYTHECON is IN LOS ANGELES ... right down the street!"

NENETL & OPHELIA: :: ?? !! ?? ::

VENUS: “Not only that, but I know we already GOT a ticket!"

GIRLS: “Woo hoo !!"

VENUS: “Don’t get too excited, sisters … you can put away all your suitcases and your dreams …

pretty sure I AM THE ONE GOING with Mom, ‘cause I have HOLLYWOOD HAIRS!!!”

::mild model-cat-fight ensues::

... to be continued ...

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GREETINGS flickr friends!!! Yes, we are still (barely) alive over here; LOTS of LIFE events have been transpiring …

... some good, some devastating; all happening one after another, some simultaneously — 2017 and 2018 have sort of blended into each other … but suffice it to say that all I seem to be doing is “put out fires”, before the next calamity presents itself. All these events are life-changing challenges, so can not be ignored … so much so that there is virtually no time to “play”… making it a necessity to put my poor little BFA Modeling Troupe on the back burner while I sort out some things that is now my life (ugh) …

Just know that I think of you all the time, and am continuing to work diligently to getting BACK to this beautiful BLYTHE WORLD that I love!!! (gosh, how many times have I come with THAT story? !! Only because, it now foolishly appears, I actually BELIEVE it, each time I say it! But the good ol’ Universe … just laughs!! :)

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I have a few photos to share for this current SEPTEMBER 2018 Blythe-A-Day Flickr Group

(and, honestly, believe it or not, I DO EVERY MONTH!; then ... “something happens” and my intentions fall by the wayside ... once again thwarted by forces beyond my control … so the end result from The Universe is: “You can plan, and you can plan your little Blythe photo shoots, but in the end, NO PLAYING FOR YOU! hhhaaaaahahaha!!!” … leaving me scratching my head and wondering what the H— I am doing WRONG, as I am faced with yet another “situation”, yet another “set-back”, yet another huge monumental “UGH”, I have no choice but to DEAL WITH IT … IMMEDIATELY.)

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I DID purchase a ticket to BLYTHE-CON LOS ANGELES (while I was employed!) (for September 30), as we do live right here in Los Angeles County. Of course we will attend, with the help from some of you <3 … but until some things are truly SETTLED, I must accept this life as it is presented to me … and work on changing those things that ARE in my power, before I can realistically make this gleeful announcement: “WE’RE BAAAAACK!”

I would love nothing more.

To start up our usual Blythe shenanigans right now in OUR usual BFA Style ...

(which is “ALL … or NOTHING” (!!) … is just not going to happen ... even after this September … mainly because I am unemployed … (YES!! at 61!) and I am finding myself faced with what is daunting at ANY age … much less 61 … looking for a job!

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(After years and years of faithful, dedicated, life-long service, I was dissed, dismissed, and told “you’re fired”. It hurts to the very core of my soul, I’m not gonna lie … but not being independently wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t even have the luxury of sitting around feeling sorry for myself … no! (ha!) Must go right back out there and face evil again, i.e., get another job. )

My “nearest and dearest” friends and family KNOW that “I am a survivor” … and this post is NOT meant to garner sympathy … heck, I know times are tough all over, worldwide ... and we ALL have life situations to deal with ... I get that ... but I did not want to just throw a Blythe photo out here on flickr and not say a word ... after being gone for soooo long.

Just wanted ya’ll to know how very much I MISS YOU … the entire Blythe Fifth Avenue Modeling Troupe misses working every day (!) ... and of course, we miss all YOUR great photo entries. NEXT JULY (2019), I WILL be turning 62 (the absolute minimum legal retirement age here) … at which time, maybe I CAN make that grand announcement … (sure hope The Universe is not reading this … ‘cause I NEED TO RETIRE!!! ... and I NEED TO GET BACK TO BLYTHE !!!)

Thank you for all who have reached out to me, and Thank you for your understanding ~

XXXOOOXOXOXOXOOO

Love,

Heidi and the entire troupe at

Blythe Fifth Avenue School of Modeling (and Charm!)

<3

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BLYTHE-A-DAY

SEPTEMBER 2018 flickr group

SEPTEMBER 30: BLYTHECON (!!!!!)

(Sorry, I HAD to post this one FIRST, for obvious reasons ... saga to be continued ...)

Where's Melvil Dewey when we need him?

Few estates of the American South typify the antebellum experience more than Monmouth. Its story is a tale of the Old South and of the New South, of transition and transformation, and of the many men, women, and children who called Monmouth their home from1818 to the present. Monmouth evolved from rough timber, mortar, nails, and brick to a stately antebellum, suburban villa built from the labor of human hands both free and enslaved. Over the span of more then 190 years of existence, Monmouth witnessed generations of births and deaths, as the home and workplace of slaves, tenant farmers, wet nurses, American statesmen and businessmen, plantation mistresses, and enterprising housewives—all contributing to its historic saga as one generation passed from view and the next took its place.

Antebellum Monmouth was a grand estate house embellished with the finest furnishings and landscaped gardens tended by enslaved servants, field hands, stock minders, and gardeners. All of this changed, however, with the coming of the Civil War to Natchez, and Monmouth thereafter experienced the plight of numerous southern estate villas when their once wealthy owners could no longer afford the trappings of the elite. For years after the Civil War, Monmouth survived as but a memory of its notable history, as its once impressive structure and gardens fell into ruin and disarray—overrun at times with vermin, vagrants, and weeds. In the 1980s, a new Monmouth emerged from the ruins to become a fully restored historic site and a small luxury hotel. This is the history of that journey.

Historical Text Developed by Cynthia J. Parker

monmouthplantation.com/index.html

"When you're a child, everything local is famous. On that principle, Hoyt-Schermerhorn was the most famous subway station in the world. It was the first subway station I knew, and it took years for me to disentangle my primal fascination with its status as a functional ruin, an indifferent home to clockwork chaos, from the fact that it was, in objective measure, an anomalous place. Personal impressions and neighborhood lore swirled in my exaggerated regard. In fact the place was cool and weird beyond my obsession's parameters, cooler and weirder than most subway stations anyway.

My Brooklyn neighborhood, as I knew it in the 1970s, was an awkwardly gentrifying residential zone. The Hoyt-Schermerhorn station stood at the border of the vibrant mercantile disarray of Fulton Street--once the borough's poshest shopping and theater boulevard. Fulton had suffered a steep decline, from Manhattanesque grandeur to ghetto pedestrian mall, through the Fifties and Sixties. Now, no less vital in its way, the place was full of chain outlets and sidewalk vendors, many selling African licorice-root chews and "Muslim" incense alongside discount socks and hats and mittens. The station itself gave testimony to the lost commercial greatness of the area. Like some Manhattan subway stops, though fewer and fewer every year, it licensed businesses on its mezzanine level: a magazine shop, a shoeshine stand, a bakery. Most telling and shrouded at once were the ruined shop-display windows that lined the long corridor from the Bond Street entrance. Elegant blue-and-yellow tile-work labeled them with an enormous L--standing for what exactly? The ruined dressmakers' dummies and empty display stands behind the cracked glass weren't saying.

The station was synonymous with crime. A neighborhood legend held that Hoyt-Schermerhorn consistently ranked highest in arrests in the whole transit system. Its two border streets, Hoyt and Bond, were vents from the Fulton mall area, where purse snatchers and street dealers were likely to flee and be cornered. The station also housed one of the borough's four Transit Police substations, a headquarters for subway cops that legislated over a quarter of Brooklyn's subway system, so perhaps it was merely that suspects nabbed elsewhere in the system were brought there to register their actual arrest? I've never been able to corroborate the legend. The presence of cops and robbers in the same place has a kind of chicken-and-egg quality. Or should it be considered as a Heisenbergian "observer" problem--do we arrest you because we see you? Would we arrest you as much elsewhere if we were there?

However ridiculous it may seem, it is true that within sight of that police substation my father, his arms laden with luggage for a flight out of JFK, had his pocket picked while waiting on line for a token. And the pay phone in the station was widely understood to have drug-dealers-only status. Maybe it does still. I myself was detained, not arrested, trying to breeze the wrong way through an exit gate, flashing an imaginary bus pass at the token agent, on my way to high school. A cop gave me a ticket and turned me around to go home and get money for a token. I tried to engage my cop in sophistry--how could I be ticketed for a crime that had been prevented? Shouldn't he let me through to ride the train if I were paying the price for my misdeed? No cigar.

Undercover transit policemen are trained to watch for "loopers"--that is, riders who switch from one train car to the next at each stop. Loopers are understood to be likely pickpockets, worthy of suspicion. Even before that, though, loopers are guilty of using the subway wrong. In truth, every subway rider is an undercover officer in a precinct house of the mind, noticing and cataloguing outre and dissident behavior in his fellow passengers even while cultivating the apparent indifference for which New Yorkers are famous, above and below ground. It may only be safe to play at not noticing others because our noticing senses are sharpened to trigger-readiness. Jittery subway-shooter Bernhard Goetz once ran for mayor. He may not have been electable, but he had a constituency.

As it happens, I'm also an inveterate looper, though I do it less these days. I'll still sometimes loop to place myself at the right exit stairwell, to save steps if I'm running late. I've looped on the 7 out to Shea Stadium, searching for a friend headed for the same ball game. More than anything, though, I looped as a teenager, on night trains, looping as prey would, to skirt trouble. I relate this form of looping to other subterranean habits I learned as a terrified child. For instance, a tic of boarding: I'll stand at one spot until a train stops, then abruptly veer left- or rightward, to enter a car other than the one for which I might have appeared to be waiting. This to shake pursuers, of course. Similarly, a nighttime trick of exiting at lonely subway stations: at arrival I'll stay in my seat until the doors have lain open for a few seconds, then dash from the train. In these tricks my teenager self learned to cash in a small portion of the invisibility that is not only each subway rider's presumed right but his duty to other passengers, whose irritation and panic rises at each sign of oddness, in exchange for tiny likelihoods of increased safety.

Other peculiarities helped Hoyt-Schermerhorn colonize my dreams."

goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3491594/Speak-Hoyt-Scher...

See What I am wearing...

The beautiful brick building on the right says "Est.1913" above the door. Maybe this was the former bank when the town was in its prime?

Here is some very interesting history courtesy of wikipediea about Hingham, MT:

"Hingham is a small agricultural community on the Hi-line of northern Montana. The town was founded on February 11, 1910 and developed as a grain storage and shipping center along the Great Northern Railway. In 1909 M.A. Johnson and P.A. Peterson came to the area to homestead, they purchased a relinquishment for the townsite. A year later they had the 22-block town platted with a central square as its dominant feature, hence the nickname "The Town on the Square". Hingham was incorporated in 1917 and has since been governed by a mayor and town council. Through local efforts Hingham has developed the square into one of the best parks on the Hi-line with lush grass, mature trees and a picnic shelter. A landmark of the town is the water tower built in 1958 it towers 100 feet tall and can be seen for miles. In its early years Hingham had several hotels, saloons, restaurants, two banks, lumber yards, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, barber shop, trading company, grocery store, opera house, three churches and more. Most of which surrounded the square. Hingham had a state of the art hospital in its early years know as the Hingham Sanitarium. Built in 1913 by Dr. A.A. Husser it later burned down in 1919 dealing a severe blow to the community. Plans were made to replace the hospital with a more substantial structure but never materialized. Hingham Union Cemetery is the second largest cemetery in Hill County with over 355 graves. During the flu epidemic, the local undertaker left town in the middle of the night taking the cemetery records with him and leaving the cemetery in disarray. Citizens later remember digging graves and hitting the wood of coffins buried in supposedly vacant plots. There are a number of graves that are unknown and unmarked. Hingham cemetery is unique in that it once had an area known as potters field where people that commited suicide or couldn't afford to buy a plot were placed. Hingham's cemetery was the unofficial catholic cemetery of the hi-line in its early years. Students in Hingham met in several buildings around town until a school was built in 1914. The building was known to sway in the bad wind storms. In 1930 a new school building was constructed with a gymnasium added in 1936 several additions were made in later years including a indoor swimming pool. The school mascot was the Hingham Rangers with red, black and white as their colors. Due to shrinking enrollment the schools have consolidated to maintain a school in the area. Hingham and Rudyard consolidated schools in 1981 creating Blue Sky schools with Eagles as their mascot and blue and white as their colors. Another consolidation occurred in 2005 creating North Star Schools which is a merger of Rudyard and Hingham(Blue Sky), Gildford and Kremlin(KG)schools. Their mascot is the Knights with blue and black as their colors. Hingham hosted an school reunion on July 9th, 2010. On July 10th, 2010 Hingham celebrated its Centennial with a fun run/walk, food and craft vendors, military displays, local history displays, live entertainment, kids and adult games, barbecue, dance and fireworks."

Here is a video of my husband and I driving through Hingham, it gives you a little perspective of this little hi-line town:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiB3eFcHwbo

For more information go to this link:

russell.visitmt.com/communities/Hingham.htm

Our rear living room window, now repainted, from the outside. The only true single-pane window left in the house; this one would be over $1000 to replace thanks to government building codes requiring much more expensive tempered glass to be used, because this window is over stairs and could hurt someone on the stairs when it breaks. So government safety regulations actually made it so expensive to replace that we changed our mind and didn't -- actually making things less safe and less energy efficient. This is how government regulation often has the opposite effect, and is not a magic answer to all societal problems.

Oops, painted this window shut too.

Sacrificial boards are used a lot in my house. I guess it's an "old wood window thing". I paid a good $5+ for another piece of crown moulding to put over the sill. The idea is that the sacrificial wood rots before the actual sill. In this window's case, the old sacrificial board was so rotten you could rip it off the nails and into pieces with your pinky finger. The sill itself was rotted out too. I spent a week or two building it up with successive layers of Elmer's wood filler. It kept raining on my wood filler and I'd have to start over! Eventually, though, it was built up enough to be flat enough to nail a NEW sacrificial board to. Hopefully this is the last paint job this sill will ever need. At some point in the future when we have more disposable income, we'll replace this window. (We need about $5,000 in new windows, so it's going to be awhile...)

You can also see the chimney to our old boiler. I actually had an ex-friend argue with me in the past about whether that that's what this was. Not sure why people think I don't know my own house. This chimney once tried to kill me by being blocked up and filling the house with diesel fumes. Fortunately the smoke was thick enough to break the laser on our cd player, turning the music off so that I was able to hear the carbon monoxide alarm. I was sleeping in the basement. Carolyn was upstairs. I probably would have left her a widow if that alarm hadn't gone off. We don't use a boiler or CD players anymore. Heat pumps are way safer in terms of CO2.

You can also see the soffit damage due to raccoons, as well as some leftover rope from the "roof tarp years". That rope came in handy when painting!

The gutters for this part of the house rotted off. Estimate for just that one ~6-foot section of gutter to be replaced? $500! Ouch! The parts are less than $100! I've seen gutter crimpers in use. It shouldn't cost THAT much. I think if I just had "a guy" come do it, instead of a licensed business -- that it would be way cheaper.

boiler chimney, house maintenance, living room window, raccoon damage, sacrificial board, soffit.

back yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.

October 14, 2011.

... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com

... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com

BACKSTORY: So our homeowners insurance (Farmers) got dropped due to having peeling paint on our window sills (among other things). Weak. It was a LOT of work AND money for us to repaint all our sills. Wood windows SUCK!! Modern vinyl windows are MAINTANENCE-FREE!! Wood windows... You gotta re-glaze the panes when they fall out, and then the wood itself is always going to slowly rot away. We already had our cats knock a pane out, so we already had glazing compound for pane repairs. This came in handy when we painted our various window sills, as some also needed glazing compound.

It was quite a pain because it cost so much money and had our living room in disarray for so many months, and the whole insurance basis for the situation was pretty bullshitty in the first place. We're not going to make a property damage claim due to moisture that occurs because our windows let in moisture because their paint was peeling! Ridiculous... Is paint really all that's holding us back from having property damage through our windows? I DON'T THINK SO, as no moisture was getting in prior to repainting. Just total hassling from Farmers *AND* Progressive Insurance. NationWide, however, appears to finally be on my side.

The Henry family cemetery on Henry Hill in the Manassas National Battlefield Park just north of Manassas, Virginia. According to the National Park Services web page, only one civilian was killed during the Battle of Bull Run. Judith Carter Henry, an 85 year old bed-ridden widow, was mortally wounded by Union artillery fire.

From the park's web page:

The Battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run)

Cheers rang out in the streets of Washington on July 16, 1861 as Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army, 35,000 strong, marched out to begin the long-awaited campaign to capture Richmond and end the war. It was an army of green recruits, few of whom had the faintest idea of the magnitude of the task facing them. But their swaggering gait showed that none doubted the outcome. As excitement spread, many citizens and congressman with wine and picnic baskets followed the army into the field to watch what all expected would be a colorful show.

These troops were 90-day volunteers summoned by President Abraham Lincoln after the startling news of Fort Sumter burst over the nation in April 1861. Called from shops and farms, they had little knowledge of what war would mean. The first day’s march covered only five miles, as many straggled to pick blackberries or fill canteens.

McDowell’s lumbering columns were headed for the vital railroad junction at Manassas. Here the Orange and Alexandria Railroad met the Manassas Gap Railroad, which led west to the Shenandoah Valley. If McDowell could seize this junction, he would stand astride the best overland approach to the Confederate capital.

On July 18 McDowell’s army reached Centreville. Five miles ahead a small meandering stream named Bull Run crossed the route of the Union advance, and there guarding the fords from Union Mills to the Stone Bridge waited 22,000 Southern troops under the command of Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard. McDowell first attempted to move toward the Confederate right flank, but his troops were checked at Blackburn’s Ford. He then spent the next two days scouting the Southern left flank. In the meantime, Beauregard asked the Confederate government at Richmond for help. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, stationed in the Shenandoah Valley with 10,000 Confederate troops, was ordered to support Beauregard if possible. Johnston gave an opposing Union army the slip and, employing the Manassas Gap Railroad, started his brigades toward Manassas Junction. Most of Johnston’s troops arrived at the junction on July 20 and 21, some marching directly into battle.

On the morning of July 21, McDowell sent his attack columns in a long march north towards Sudley Springs Ford. This route took the Federals around the Confederate left. To distract the Southerners, McDowell ordered a diversionary attack where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed Bull Run at the Stone Bridge. At 5:30a.m. the deep-throated roar of a 30-pounder Parrott rifle shattered the morning calm, and signaled the start of the battle.

McDowell’s new plan depended on speed and surprise, both difficult with inexperienced troops. Valuable time was lost as the men stumbled through the darkness along narrow roads. Confederate Col. Nathan Evans, commanding at the Stone Bridge, soon realized that the attack on his front was only a diversion. Leaving a small force to hold the bridge, Evans rushed the remainder of his command to Matthews Hill in time to check McDowell’s lead unit. But Evans’ force was too small to hold back the Federals for long.

Soon brigades under Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow marched to Evans’ assistance. But even with these reinforcements, the thin gray line collapsed and Southerners fled in disorder toward Henry Hill. Attempting to rally his men, Bee used Gen. Thomas J. Jackson’s newly arrived brigade as an anchor. Pointing to Jackson, Bee shouted, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Generals Johnston and Beauregard then arrived on Henry Hill, where they assisted in rallying shattered brigades and redeploying fresh units that were marching to the point of danger.

About noon, the Federals stopped their advance to reorganize for a new attack. The lull lasted for about an hour, giving the Confederates enough time to reform their lines. Then the fighting resumed, each side trying to force the other off Henry Hill. The battle continued until just after 4p.m., when fresh Southern units crashed into the Union right flank on Chinn Ridge, causing McDowell’s tired and discouraged soldiers to withdraw.

At first the withdrawal was orderly. Screened by the regulars, the three-month volunteers retired across Bull Run, where they found the road to Washington jammed with the carriages of congressmen and others who had driven out to Centreville to watch the fight. Panic now seized many of the soldiers and the retreat became a rout. The Confederates, though bolstered by the arrival of President Jefferson Davis on the field just as the battle was ending, were too disorganized to follow up on their success. Daybreak on July 22 found the defeated Union army back behind the bristling defenses of Washington.

Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run)

After the Union defeat at Manassas in July 1861, Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Federal forces in and around Washington and organized them into a formidable fighting machine- the Army of the Potomac. In March 1862, leaving a strong force to cover the capital, McClellan shifted his army by water to Fort Monroe on the tip of the York-James peninsular, only 100 miles southeast of Richmond. Early in April he advanced toward the Confederate capital.

Anticipating such a move, the Southerners abandoned the Manassas area and marched to meet the Federals. By the end of May, McClellan's troops were within sight of Richmond. Here Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army assailed the Federals in the bloody but inconclusive Battle of Seven Pines. Johnston was wounded, and President Davis placed Gen. Robert E. Lee in command. Seizing the offensive, Lee sent his force (now called the Army of Northern Virginia) across the Chickahominy River and, in a series of savage battles, pushed McClellan back from the edge of Richmond to a position on the James River.

At the same time, the scattered Federal forces in northern Virginia were organized into the Army of Virginia under the command of Gen. John Pope, who arrived with a reputation freshly won in the war's western theater. Gambling that McClellan would cause no further trouble around Richmond, Lee sent Stonewall Jackson's corps northward to "suppress" Pope. Jackson clashed indecisively with part of Pope's troops at Cedar Mountain on August 9. Meanwhile, learning that the Army of the Potomac was withdrawing by water to join Pope, Lee marched with Gen. James Longstreet's corps to bolster Jackson. On the Rapidan, Pope successfully blocked Lee's attempts to gain the tactical advantage, and then withdrew his men north of the Rappahannock River. Lee knew that if he was to defeat Pope he would have to strike before McClellan's army arrived in northern Virginia. On August 25 Lee boldly started Jackson's corps on a march of over 50 miles, around the Union right flank to strike at Pope's rear.

Two days later, Jackson's veterans seized Pope's supply depot at Manassas Junction. After a day of wild feasting, Jackson burned the Federal supplies and moved to a position in the woods at Groveton near the old Manassas battlefield.

Pope, stung by the attack on his supply base, abandoned the line of the Rappahannock and headed towards Manassas to "bag" Jackson. At the same time, Lee was moving northward with Longstreet's corps to reunite his army. On the afternoon of August 28, to prevent the Federal commander's efforts to concentrate at Centreville and bring Pope to battle, Jackson ordered his troops to attack a Union column as it marched past on the Warrenton Turnpike. This savage fight at Brawner's Farm lasted until dark.

Convinced that Jackson was isolated, Pope ordered his columns to converge on Groveton. He was sure that he could destroy Jackson before Lee and Longstreet could intervene. On the 29th Pope's army found Jackson's men posted along an unfinished railroad grade, north of the turnpike. All afternoon, in a series of uncoordinated attacks, Pope hurled his men against the Confederate position. In several places the northerners momentarily breached Jackson's line, but each time were forced back. During the afternoon, Longstreet's troops arrived on the battlefield and, unknown to Pope, deployed on Jackson's right, overlapping the exposed Union left. Lee urged Longstreet to attack, but "Old Pete" demurred. The time was just not right, he said.

The morning of August 30 passed quietly. Just before noon, erroneously concluding the Confederates were retreating, Pope ordered his army forward in "pursuit". The pursuit, however, was short-lived. Pope found that Lee had gone nowhere. Amazingly, Pope ordered yet another attack against Jackson's line. Fitz-John Porter's corps, along with part of McDowell's, struck Starke's division at the unfinished railroad's "Deep Cut." The southerners held firm, and Porter's column was hurled back in a bloody repulse.

Seeing the Union lines in disarray, Longstreet pushed his massive columns forward and staggered the Union left. Pope's army was faced with annihilation. Only a heroic stand by northern troops, first on Chinn Ridge and then once again on Henry Hill, bought time for Pope's hard-pressed Union forces. Finally, under cover of darkness the defeated Union army withdrew across Bull Run towards the defenses of Washington. Lee's bold and brilliant Second Manassas campaign opened the way for the south's first invasion of the north, and a bid for foreign intervention.

Disorder, disarray, disorganization, confusion, mayhem, bedlam, pandemonium, havoc, turmoil, tumult, commotion, disruption, upheaval, uproar, maelstrom.

The Texas School Book Depository (now the Dallas County Administration Building) is the former name of a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas (U.S.). Located on the northwest corner of Elm and North Houston Streets, at the western end of downtown Dallas, its address is 411 Elm Street. The building is notable for its connection to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. An employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot the president from a sixth floor window on the southeast corner. The structure is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

The site of the building was originally owned by John Neely Bryan. During the 1880s, Maxime Guillot operated a wagon shop on the property. In 1894, the Rock Island Plow Company bought the land, and four years later constructed a five story building for its Texas division, the Southern Rock Island Plow Company.[1] In 1901, the building was hit by lightning and nearly burned to the ground. It was rebuilt in 1903 in the Commercial Romanesque Revival style, and expanded to seven stories. In 1937 the property was acquired by the Carraway Byrd Corporation, and after the company defaulted on the loan, it was bought at public auction July 4, 1939 by D. Harold Byrd.

Under Byrd's ownership the building remained empty until 1940, when it was leased by a grocery wholesaler, the John Sexton & Co. Sexton Foods used this location as the branch office for sales, manufacturing and distribution warehouse for the south and southwest United States. In November 1961, Sexton Foods moved to a modern distribution facility located at 650 Regal Row Dallas; by then the building was known locally as the Sexton Building. Refurbishment after Sexton's departure saw the addition on the first four floors of partitions, carpeting, air conditioning and a new passenger elevator.

In 1963 the building was in use as a multi-floor warehouse for the storage of school textbooks and related materials and an order-fulfillment center by the Texas School Book Depository Company. Some time after the company moved in, it was found that the upper floors had sustained oil damage from items stored there by the previous tenant, a wholesaler grocer. To protect the company's books (stored in cardboard boxes) from oil seeping up from the floor, a process was begun to cover the floors with plywood. Immediately prior to the Presidential visit, work had begun on the west side of the sixth floor, "leaving the whole scene in disarray, with stock shifted as far as the east wall, and stacks in between piled unusually high."

On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old former U.S. Marine who was working as a temporary employee at the building, fired the shots from the sixth floor that killed the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Oswald was murdered in police custody before he could stand trial.

Prithvi Narayan Shah → Pratap Singh Shah → Rana Bahadur Shah → Girvan → Rajendra → Surendra → Prithvi → Tribhuhvan → Mahendra → Birendra → Dipendra → Gyanendra

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• Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723–1775)

was a Nepali nobleman who unified Nepal. He was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah (1559–1570), the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father King Nara Bhupal Shah to the throne of Gorkha in 1743.

• Pratap Singh Shah (1751–1777)

was the second Shah King of Modern Nepal. He was the eldest son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the king who first unified Nepal. Pratap Singh Shah ruled from 1775 to 1777 and died due to natural causes. He was succeeded by his two-year-old son Rana Bahadur Shah. As king he did not actively participate in the unification campaign led by his father, but the boundaries of Nepal kept extending as his uncle Prince Bahadur Shah continued the unification campaign during his reign.

• Rana Bahadur Shah (1775–1805)

was the third King of greater Nepal. He succeeded to the throne in 1777 on the death of his father, Pratap Singh Shah. He ruled under the regencies of his mother, Queen Rajendra Laxmi (died 1785) and then of his uncle, Bahadur Shah. During this time, the kingdom expanded by conquest to include the Garhwal and Kumaon regions, now in India.

In 1799, he abdicated in favor of his infant son Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva to become an ascetic. He was stabbed to death in 1805 by his stepbrother, Sher Bahadur Shah.

• Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva (19 October 1797 – 20 November 1816),

also called Girvanyuddha Bikrama Shah, was the King of Nepal from 1799 to 1816.

He was the son of King Rana Bahadur Shah, and ascended the throne at the age of 1½ years when his father abdicated to become an ascetic. He ruled under the regency of Queen Lalit Tripura Sundari and Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. He died at age 19 and was succeeded by his young son Rajendra Bikram Shah.

• Rajendra Bikram Shah (1813-1881)

was King of Nepal from 1816 to 1847. He became king at age three on the death of his father Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva. As had been the case with his father, most of Rajendra's rule was under the regency of Queen Lalit Tripura Sundari (died 1832) and Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa. As regent, Bhimsen Thapa kept the king in isolation—he did not even have the freedom to leave the palace without permission.

Rajendra came of age in 1832, and in 1837 announced his intention to rule independently of the Prime Minister. He stripped Bhimsen Thapa and Thapa's nephew, Mathbar Singh, of their military authority. Shortly afterward the youngest son of Rajendra's elder queen died, and Bhimsen Thapa was arrested on a trumped-up charge of poisoning the prince. All the property of the Thapas was confiscated. Bhimsen Thapa was acquitted after an eight-month trial, but the Thapas were in disarray. When Rana Jang Pande became prime minister, he reimprisoned Bhimsen Thapa, who committed suicide in prison in 1839.

In January 1843, Rajendra declared that he would rule the country only with advice and agreement of his junior queen, Lakshmidevi, and commanded his subjects to obey her even over his own son, Surendra Bikram Shah. Continued infighting among noble factions led eventually to the Kot Massacre in 1846. In the aftermath of the Kot Massacre, Jung Bahadur became prime minister and quickly seized power, sending King Rajendra and Queen Lakshmidevi into exile in Varanasi. From exile, Rajendra sought to regain power, but Jung Bahadur learned of Rajendra's plans and forced him to abdicate in favor of his son Surendra. Jung Bahadur's forces captured Rajendra in 1847 and brought him to Bhaktapur, where he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

• Surendra Bikram Shah (1829-1881)

was King of Nepal between 1847 and 1881. He became king after Prime Minister Jung Bahadur forced the abdication of Surendra's father, Rajendra Bikram Shah. Surendra wielded little real power, with Jung Bahadur effectively ruling the country during Surendra's reign. Surendra's son Trilokya Bir Bikram Shah married two of Jung Bahadur's daughters. Trilokya died in 1878, and Trilokya's son Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah became heir to the throne.

• Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah (August 18, 1875 - December 11, 1911)

was King of Nepal from 1881 until 1911. He was the grandson of his predecessor, King Surendra, and also the grandson of Prime Minister Jang Bahadur. Among the most notable events of his reign were the introduction of the first automobiles to Nepal, and the creation of strict water and sanitation systems for much of the country. King Prithvi's eldest child was HRH Princess Royal Laxmi Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah who was married to Field Marshall Kaiser SJB Rana. She was made the Crown Princess and heir to Nepal's thrown until her brother King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev was born when she was in her late teens. Until then King Prithvi only had four daughters.

• Tribhuhvan Bir Bikram Shah (June 30, 1906 – March 13, 1955)

was King of Nepal from 11 December 11th, 1911 until his death (excepting a period in 1950-51).

→ Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (11 June 1920 – 31 January 1972)

was King of Nepal from 1955 to 1972.

Mahendra was born 11 June 1920 to King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal. Although Tribhuvan was nominally king since 1911, he was only window-dressing for de-facto rule by the Rana dynasty of hereditary prime ministers, civil servants and army officers that had been in power since 1846. Mahendra was also captive in Narayanhiti Palace, virtually a gilded cage. In 1940 he married Indra Rajya Laxmi, daughter of General Hari Shamsher Rana. They had three sons, Birendra, Gyanendra, Dhirendra and three daughters Shanti, Sharada and Shobha. Queen Indra died in 1950. In 1952 Mahendra married Indra's sister Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi. This second marriage produced no children.

Meanwhile popular discontent and the British withdrawal from India in 1947 had made Rana rule increasingly untenable. In 1950 the political situation had deteriorated so far that the personal safety of the royals was in doubt. Tribhuvan and most of his family escaped to India. Open revolt ensued and by the end of the year the Ranas agreed to a coalition government under Tribhuvan in which they shared power equally with the Nepali Congress Party. By the end of the year the Ranas were maneuvered out and Nepal's first experiment with democratic government under constitutional monarchy was underway, however Tribhuvan's health was poor and he died in 1955 [thus bringing Mahendra to the throne].

• Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (28 December 1945 – 1 June 2001)

was King of Nepal. The son of King Mahendra, whom he succeeded in 1972, he reigned until his death in the 2001 Nepalese royal massacre.

• Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (27 June 1971 – 4 June 2001)

was a member of the Nepalese Royal Family, who briefly reigned in coma as King of Nepal from 1 June to 4 June 2001. The Official report submitted by the investigation team formed by the local government tells that, as the Crown Prince, he killed his family at a royal dinner on 1 June 2001, including Birendra of Nepal, the Nepali king and his own father. After the murder of his father, he officially became king for three days as he lingered in a coma.

• Gyanendra Shah (Jñānendra Vīra Bikrama Śāh) (born 7 July 1947)

was the last King of Nepal. During his life, he held the title of the King twice: first between 1950 and 1951 as a child when his grandfather Tribhuvan was forced into exile in India with the rest of his family; and from 2001 to 2008, following the Nepalese royal massacre. King Gyanendra's second reign ended in 2008, when the monarchy was abolished and the interim Federal Republic of Nepal formed in its place. Gyanendra became a private citizen and was stripped of his royal status.

[information taken from Wikipedia]

Tank Girl: All Stars # 1

An anthology of stories from creators old and new, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tank Girl!

A last it can be told! We finally reveal the biggest secret in comic history – how Tank Girl got her tank – the origin story to end all origin stories!

This, and a whole bunch of other tales, will be written by series co-creator Alan Martin, with artwork by a host of Tank Girl stalwarts, newbies and super-star guests, including current artists Brent Parson, and friends throughout Tank Girl’s checkered 30-year lifetime.

Infidel # 4

The death toll rises as the power of the mysterious creatures haunting Aisha’s home increases. As they test everyone close to her, setting friend against friend, one resident discovers the entities’ possible origin…and link to an ancient evil.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers # 28

The Mighty Morphin team splits into two strike forces—one with RPM and one with Time Force—to battle Drakkon across worlds...even as all hope seems lost!

Flavor # 2

The second chapter of Image's culinary-fantasy epic sees its head chef descending into the underworld for help when society fails her. PLUS!: Every issue includes exclusive bonus materials by the creative team and famed author of Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food, ALI BOUZARI!

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Red Hood vs. Anarky (2018-) # 1

Red Hood has always been the one standing slightly apart from the rest of the Bat crew. Some see him as the Robin gone bad-which is exactly the kind of thing someone like Anarky can exploit. Now Red Hood is running security at Catwoman’s bachelorette party-and if Anarky can crash it, that could be the final straw for Jason Todd!

Batman (2016-) # 49

“THE BEST MAN” part two! Now it’s up to Catwoman to rescue her one true love. It’s the Cat vs. the Clown in one exciting showdown that sets the stage for our giant anniversary issue-and the biggest union in comics!

Hunt For Wolverine: Claws Of A Killer (2018) # 2 (of 4)

ZOMBIES, ZOMBIES and EVEN MORE ZOMBIES! This is what DAKEN, SABRETOOTH AND LADY DEATHSTRIKE are up against int eh small town of Maybelle…But who is responsible for the grotesque transformation of this peaceful town? And what happens when one of our intrepid villains gets bitten?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Urban Legends # 2

This is it! The entire TMNT Volume 3, reproduced for the first time ever in full four-color glory! Join creators Gary Carlson and Frank Fosco as they take the Heroes in a Half-Shell on some of their most amazing and dangerous and bizarre adventures ever. In this issue, the TMNT find their family in disarray as Master Splinter is being held hostage, Donatello is missing, Raphael is badly wounded… and to top it all off, they’ve lost their home!

Gideon Falls # 4

The unlikely small-town detective duo of Father Fred and Sheriff Miller comes face to face with a terrifying killer deep in the back roads of Gideon Falls. Meanwhile, Xu hypnotizes Norton, and they begin to unlock the secrets of his childhood and his uncanny link to the horrifying Black Barn!

Earth Hour 2010 has passed by–has its message passed us by too? In this post, I express my personal experience of seeking to find the meaningfulness behind celebrating an occasion that I believe matters.

In the days following Earth Hour, news stories jostled between it having been the best Earth Hour yet, to claims of less lights off than previous Earth Hours (see, for example, Fewer lights off for Earth Hour). I saw a number of online discussions suggesting that people “waste their time” observing this occasion, and I was blown away when I learned that some people intended to turn on all of their lights to celebrate Edison Hour, thereby thumbing their nose at any initiative trying to raise awareness of our real and present energy and climate challenges! My disappointment deepened when I visited a regular forum, only to read uncivil language shouting at the “preachy people” to go and turn off their computer forever and to stop “sitting in the dark” when more practical things could be done.

It is a truism to say that the environment would benefit more from doing something practical like planting trees in the local reserve instead of turning off our lights for an hour. But that killjoy attitude totally misses the point of what this occasion represents: Earth Hour is an opportunity to learn from a purposeful interruption to our “energy-on-tap” lives. And ironically, did those wanting to celebrate an "Edison Hour" realize that Edison once said: "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run our before we tackle that." Indeed, their very "rebelliousness" of switching on all the lights acknowledged that energy is something we all have a choice about, either to switch on, or to switch off. I do hope those who vetoed Earth Hour in favor of "practical things" are actually out there planting the trees, untying plastic bottle rings from birds’ necks and participating in community restoration projects...

The Three Gifts of Earth Hour

Although saddened at seeing this symbolic event maligned and resented, it hasn't swayed my conviction in its importance. I’d like to share with you my own experience of Earth Hour 2010, spent with a bright young person born this millennium. A much anticipated occasion in our household, we reminded one another in the lead-up to Earth Hour to set aside Saturday night’s hour: no TV, no radio, no computer, no lights! Things were busy as usual and as the hour approached, we hadn’t managed to “plan” anything specific, although there were plenty of suggestions. Dinner over, with 10 minutes left, I realized we didn't have any candle holders, so we had to fish make-do's out of the recycling bin. Two nice clean jars and a saucer later, we placed our candles on the table, lit them in readiness, took the phone off the hook, shut down computers, and checked that all the lights were off. My son advised that we were not allowed to use “anything that is powered smartly”.

At 8:30pm, we switched off the last light and excitedly rushed to the window to see if others were doing the same across our lovely hillside view. At first it seemed that other houses weren’t participating; a house across the way had its large TV images flickering constantly, another house had many lights on, and the hillside seemed its usual brightness. My son quickly nicknamed the lit-up houses “the Wild West” because, he told me, “they face West and aren’t turning off their lights!”. Then, as we waited patiently, we started to see lights turning off. Bit by bit, there was a distinctive change and my son became more excited as he saw people taking part. All of a sudden he cried: “Look! The lights are out in that house and they’ve turned off their big TV! They’re doing Earth Hour too!” Eager to see that others were also participating in Earth Hour, the anticipation of waiting while it took up to five minutes past the starting time paid off–many others were participating too! My son’s excitement was infectious, and I realized then that the sense of “solidarity” with my many neighbors sharing and acknowledging the point of the event was the first gift of participating in Earth Hour.

We sat at the table in front of the glowing candles. At this point, I realized that there was a full hour ahead of sitting there and wondered if this was going to work. Would he get bored with "just talk"? Would we feel tempted to go and do something with a light on? Should we go for a walk like we did for last Earth Hour? I decided to ask him what he wanted to do. He laughed and said we could do shadow tricks on the wall with the flashlight, adding that “This feels just like when we go camping, only at home! I love this!” Suddenly he proclaimed: “I want to read!” He took his flashlight and went and found his current favorite library book, The Comic Strip History of the World. When it was my turn, my flashlight alighted on the disarray of books on my desk. Not having planned this, I hadn’t a clue what I felt like reading but the one that leaped out was Al Gore’s Our Choice. “Why not?”, I thought, “It’s apt!” We settled in to read around the candles. The glow was magical–and warm too–the peace entire, broken into only by the gentle, melancholic sound of the morepork owls (ruru) in the trees outside.

Caminito Del Rey

Malaga, Spain

Monmouth Plantation-3181 Circa 1818 Few estates of the American South typify the antebellum experience more than Monmouth. Its story is a tale of the Old South and of the New South, of transition and transformation, and of the many men, women, and children who called Monmouth their home from1818 to the present. Monmouth evolved from rough timber, mortar, nails, and brick to a stately antebellum, suburban villa built from the labor of human hands both free and enslaved. Over the span of more then 190 years of existence, Monmouth witnessed generations of births and deaths, as the home and workplace of slaves, tenant farmers, wet nurses, American statesmen and businessmen, plantation mistresses, and enterprising housewives—all contributing to its historic saga as one generation passed from view and the next took its place.

Antebellum Monmouth was a grand estate house embellished with the finest furnishings and landscaped gardens tended by enslaved servants, field hands, stock minders, and gardeners. All of this changed, however, with the coming of the Civil War to Natchez, and Monmouth thereafter experienced the plight of numerous southern estate villas when their once wealthy owners could no longer afford the trappings of the elite. For years after the Civil War, Monmouth survived as but a memory of its notable history, as its once impressive structure and gardens fell into ruin and disarray—overrun at times with vermin, vagrants, and weeds. In the 1980s, a new Monmouth emerged from the ruins to become a fully restored historic site and a small luxury hotel. This is the history of that journey.

Historical Text Developed by Cynthia J. Parker

monmouthplantation.com/index.html

"The Nihilist in Disarray"

Scott King

Herald St Gallery

2 Herald Street

London E2 6JT

hoping that i'm making a turn towards getting over the bronchitis. (it's been six weeks. don't you think that is long enough??)

got a roll of film back yesterday. annoyed by that crescent shaped mark that is on half of the roll, but overall happy to see the shots! i heart film. i need to shoot more of it.

also, picked up some books at the library. the library is the best.

started reorganizing some things around the apartment. of course, i didn't have enough time to finish, so now things are kind of in a disarray. i don't think chris was too thrilled when he opened the door and saw tons of crap from the bookshelves on the dining room table. hopefully i will be motivated to finish it up tomorrow evening.

My club wear!

Headband - Leviathan - Lovely Disarray

Dress - Nadeshiko Red - POISON ROUGE

Nails - Dolly Nails - toksik

Necklace - Ludwig Necklace - toksik

Shoes - Judith Boots - Limited Addiction

I discovered this location while driving to the franco-cypriot school in Nicosia, Cyprus. These are governmental buildings next to the police academy. The complex is to be destroyed in the near future. I was interested in catching the effects of time on official government owned buildings.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

(Arthur Schopenhauer)

When I first moved to Victoria, back in 1994, I immediately got involved in cycling advocacy. I'd been doing it for years in Vancouver, Marin County, and Edmonton; I'd always opposed the view of cycling as a spawn of demon destroying forests and obstructing motor vehicles; a dangerous activity that required heads to be covered in plastic covered compressed styrofoam cups.

My first cycling experience in Victoria was a (1995?) GVCC AGM held in James Bay, and it was bizarre. As soon as someone saw me speaking with John Luton I was inundated with repeated sales pitches from various cyclists in attendance. It seems the GVCC was in a state of disarray; opposing factions were fighting for control, and I was led to believe that Luton was some sorta defacto radical revolutionary, a seemingly clean-cut peaceful version of a Che' Guevara of the cycling community, at odds with the status quo. It turned me off from the GVCC, as did the divisiveness of compromise from the zealous status quo tweed-covered "cycling advocates".

When I volunteered with the Victoria Cycling Advisory Committee back in 2002(?) I saw this same dysfunctional safety-compromise status quo dogma dominate. I was considered radical for advocating for; LRT; giving the Galloping Goose right of way over vehicle traffic on side streets; cyclist and pedestrian right-of-way enforcement campaigns instead of helmet law compliance campaigns; a car-free Government Street; and bike lanes that meet and exceed industry standard safety guidelines. Can you imagine the uproar if the new Johnson Street Bridge was built below the weight-bearing requirements of safety guidelines?

I discovered the unsafe bike lanes in committee meetings when the narrow widths were talked about as okay; and when I queried, nobody knew how wide Victoria bike lanes were. So I went out and measured them. I know how a tape measure works, but most of the Victoria Cycling Advisory Committee insisted I was wrong, so I measured it again. I was right.

The committee opposed any efforts I made to make the city rectify this cyclist safety issue, so I did what I do 2nd best, I wrote about it and had it published in a local paper during the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Victoria 2004 Conference.

The article was called "Victoria, the Cycling Liability Capital of Canada" and I revealed how municipalities can be sued for failing to provide safe infrastructure. When the editor was fact checking my piece, he asked me why nobody else in town was complaining about the narrow bike lanes, and why nobody supported my efforts. I told him to ask them, but my facts were spot on; it was published verbatim with only a minor title change.

I even held a very public and promoted contest, with real prizes; the winners needed to identify a narrower more dangerous bike lane than the intersection I selected. 😎 I was trying to shame the city into doing the right thing; and it sorta worked but my dream of safe bike lanes for Victoria was still violently opposed.

At the "Pro Walk/Pro Bike Victoria 2004 Conference" MP Denise Savoie very loudly publicly reprimanded me over the article and the contest, while we were standing in front of the GVCC booth. I wasn't wrong, she just expected me to be happy with baby steps, even though we were both adults.

The Cycling Advisory Committee reaction was to hold a special meeting with guests, lawyers, and mystery committee members I'd never seen in attendance. They spoke with great dismay about my article, upset with what I said. The most beautiful part of the meeting was when level headed committee member Susanna Grimes spoke up, making my opponents admit that I had not said anything untrue in the article. 😎

I was not invited back on the Cycling Advisory Committee for the next term when it died ...BUT; the next two major cycle lane projects in Victoria (Fort Street, and the Government and Hillside intersection I used for the contest) were great improvements. I consider it a win for #way2narrow, even though they sorta screwed up those projects, too.

"The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." (George Orwell)

..through all of this I discovered what I believe to be the primary reason for the opposition to my crusade for safe bike lanes in Victoria; the cycling advocates, in their desperation to have the city install bicycle infrastructure protected by lines painted on the road; in consultations with the City of Victoria, the GVCC and other local cycling advocates like Luton agreed to a compromise; 1.2m bicycle lanes; and none of them like to admit it, or they rationalize it, ad nauseam.

"[Victoria] bike facilities are safe." (John Luton)

"I had a look at a copy of TAC's 2012 today: it clearly says you can go to 1.2m." (Corey Burger)

(NO, it doesn't, Corey.)

“I regularly almost get killed almost on a daily basis as cycling is my main way of getting around the city.” (Mayor Lisa Helps)

"Transportation Assoc. of Canada (TAC) Bike Lane Widths: 1.5m (MINIMUM) - 2.75m (recommended)"

The "minimum" does not allow for increased widths recommended by TAC when; traffic is high; curbs are tall; road has parallel seams in the bike lane: sewers grates and other obstructions in the lane; tall obstructions beside lane; road curves; intersections...

...now, I didn't make these numbers up. They are in print, published by the Transportation Assoc. of Canada (TAC), the city has at least one copy, yet I was vehemently opposed.

And so, when the City of Victoria announced their #biketoria intentions, I amped-up the volume on my #way2narrow campaign; and I remeasured the city and regions bike lanes. Instead of being buried in the city archives like the two previous surveys I conducted, this was photo-documented and published on line.

...and when I promoted this I was roundly dismissed, much like Pullman, a member of a newer generation of the Victoria cycling advocacy scene, said today;

"I just do more than rant about it on social media like Bruce does."

(Edward Pullman)

Yet, try to find anything significant from the GVCC or Pullman strongly opposing Victoria #way2narrow bicycle lanes, or promoting wider bike lanes than the dangerous status quo; or try to find a post of theirs linking to the #way2narrow bike lane survey; one of only three safety surveys of the Victoria bicycle lane infrastructure in existence.

What I did with the ignored survey was send it directly to the "Dream Team" of cycling experts and the local consulting firm, hired by Victoria to develop #biketoria, and I followed up to confirm they received the info. I sent it to all(?) of the Victoria Council. I also attended the #biketoria consultation process and spoke with all the key players I could. The info got to the people who mattered.

...and now, in 2017 and on, in-spite of the majority of the GVRD bike lanes remaining #way2narrow; we are getting safer cycling infrastructure in Victoria, BC, the city is no longer installing narrow bike lanes, and the need and priority for safe bicycle lanes is starting to be "accepted as being self-evident."

Finally! ...I was getting exhausted.

I discovered this location while driving to the franco-cypriot school in Nicosia, Cyprus. These are governmental buildings next to the police academy. The complex is to be destroyed in the near future. I was interested in catching the effects of time on official government owned buildings.

They broke my trim while installing the window. Given that I had waited an additional month past the original install date due to their mess-ups ... I was pretty insistent that they go down to Home Depot, buy replacement trim, and install it at no cost to me right that second. They sent a higher-level guy over -- he actually arrived within 2 minutes of me calling (!). I ultimately got my way. Even if, in theory, they weren't the ones to break it....The least they can do for keeping our living room in disarray for a whole month is to actually make the final product look right. After all the trouble we've had with contractors during EVERY possible home renovation, it's increasingly hard to get me to take no for an answer, and I've increasingly come to understand why "bitchy customers" are the way they are. Asking nice doesn't work.

The replacement trim wasn't an exact match, but nobody's checking that. I'm quite happy with the results, especially after Carolyn painted it.

Look outside the window. See the solar light sitting in the bricks? LIFE TETRIS.

bricks, house maintenance, kudzu, living room window, replacement trim, solar light.

side yard, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.

... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com

... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com

BACKSTORY: So our homeowners insurance (Farmers) got dropped due to having peeling paint on our window sills (among other things). Weak. It was a LOT of work AND money for us to repaint all our sills. Wood windows SUCK!! Modern vinyl windows are MAINTANENCE-FREE!! Wood windows... You gotta re-glaze the panes when they fall out, and then the wood itself is always going to slowly rot away. We already had our cats knock a pane out, so we already had glazing compound for pane repairs. This came in handy when we painted our various window sills, as some also needed glazing compound.

So the largest window in our house -- actually 3 windows -- was a major pain, and one of the few single-pane windows in the house. It would leak heat/cold in the summer/winter, and looked really bad compared to the new siding we had installed 6 or so years ago. So we decided to go ahead and replace just this window (actually 3 separate windows). Man was it expensive! $2,350! Thompson Creek had the best pitch and data, whereas Home Depot required $30 up front for an appointment they never showed up for and a list of 4 phone numbers to escalate (all 4 failed). So we had Thompson Creek do it of course! They did it, said they did it wrong, made us wait a month while making a new window (pro: they are all custom-made just for you; con: they are all custom-made, so a screw-up requires waiting for a new one to be made), then installed the new window, and finally everything was good and we were satisfied.

It was just kind of a pain because it cost so much money and had our living room in disarray for so many months, and the whole insurance basis for the situation was pretty bullshitty in the first place. We're not going to make a property damage claim due to moisture that occurs because our paint was peeling! Ridiculous...

The Henry Hill Monument was built by Union Soldiers to commemorate the dead from the First Battle of Bull Run just north of Manassas, Virginia.

From the park's web page:

The Battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run)

Cheers rang out in the streets of Washington on July 16, 1861 as Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army, 35,000 strong, marched out to begin the long-awaited campaign to capture Richmond and end the war. It was an army of green recruits, few of whom had the faintest idea of the magnitude of the task facing them. But their swaggering gait showed that none doubted the outcome. As excitement spread, many citizens and congressman with wine and picnic baskets followed the army into the field to watch what all expected would be a colorful show.

These troops were 90-day volunteers summoned by President Abraham Lincoln after the startling news of Fort Sumter burst over the nation in April 1861. Called from shops and farms, they had little knowledge of what war would mean. The first day’s march covered only five miles, as many straggled to pick blackberries or fill canteens.

McDowell’s lumbering columns were headed for the vital railroad junction at Manassas. Here the Orange and Alexandria Railroad met the Manassas Gap Railroad, which led west to the Shenandoah Valley. If McDowell could seize this junction, he would stand astride the best overland approach to the Confederate capital.

On July 18 McDowell’s army reached Centreville. Five miles ahead a small meandering stream named Bull Run crossed the route of the Union advance, and there guarding the fords from Union Mills to the Stone Bridge waited 22,000 Southern troops under the command of Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard. McDowell first attempted to move toward the Confederate right flank, but his troops were checked at Blackburn’s Ford. He then spent the next two days scouting the Southern left flank. In the meantime, Beauregard asked the Confederate government at Richmond for help. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, stationed in the Shenandoah Valley with 10,000 Confederate troops, was ordered to support Beauregard if possible. Johnston gave an opposing Union army the slip and, employing the Manassas Gap Railroad, started his brigades toward Manassas Junction. Most of Johnston’s troops arrived at the junction on July 20 and 21, some marching directly into battle.

On the morning of July 21, McDowell sent his attack columns in a long march north towards Sudley Springs Ford. This route took the Federals around the Confederate left. To distract the Southerners, McDowell ordered a diversionary attack where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed Bull Run at the Stone Bridge. At 5:30a.m. the deep-throated roar of a 30-pounder Parrott rifle shattered the morning calm, and signaled the start of the battle.

McDowell’s new plan depended on speed and surprise, both difficult with inexperienced troops. Valuable time was lost as the men stumbled through the darkness along narrow roads. Confederate Col. Nathan Evans, commanding at the Stone Bridge, soon realized that the attack on his front was only a diversion. Leaving a small force to hold the bridge, Evans rushed the remainder of his command to Matthews Hill in time to check McDowell’s lead unit. But Evans’ force was too small to hold back the Federals for long.

Soon brigades under Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow marched to Evans’ assistance. But even with these reinforcements, the thin gray line collapsed and Southerners fled in disorder toward Henry Hill. Attempting to rally his men, Bee used Gen. Thomas J. Jackson’s newly arrived brigade as an anchor. Pointing to Jackson, Bee shouted, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Generals Johnston and Beauregard then arrived on Henry Hill, where they assisted in rallying shattered brigades and redeploying fresh units that were marching to the point of danger.

About noon, the Federals stopped their advance to reorganize for a new attack. The lull lasted for about an hour, giving the Confederates enough time to reform their lines. Then the fighting resumed, each side trying to force the other off Henry Hill. The battle continued until just after 4p.m., when fresh Southern units crashed into the Union right flank on Chinn Ridge, causing McDowell’s tired and discouraged soldiers to withdraw.

At first the withdrawal was orderly. Screened by the regulars, the three-month volunteers retired across Bull Run, where they found the road to Washington jammed with the carriages of congressmen and others who had driven out to Centreville to watch the fight. Panic now seized many of the soldiers and the retreat became a rout. The Confederates, though bolstered by the arrival of President Jefferson Davis on the field just as the battle was ending, were too disorganized to follow up on their success. Daybreak on July 22 found the defeated Union army back behind the bristling defenses of Washington.

Battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run)

After the Union defeat at Manassas in July 1861, Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Federal forces in and around Washington and organized them into a formidable fighting machine- the Army of the Potomac. In March 1862, leaving a strong force to cover the capital, McClellan shifted his army by water to Fort Monroe on the tip of the York-James peninsular, only 100 miles southeast of Richmond. Early in April he advanced toward the Confederate capital.

Anticipating such a move, the Southerners abandoned the Manassas area and marched to meet the Federals. By the end of May, McClellan's troops were within sight of Richmond. Here Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army assailed the Federals in the bloody but inconclusive Battle of Seven Pines. Johnston was wounded, and President Davis placed Gen. Robert E. Lee in command. Seizing the offensive, Lee sent his force (now called the Army of Northern Virginia) across the Chickahominy River and, in a series of savage battles, pushed McClellan back from the edge of Richmond to a position on the James River.

At the same time, the scattered Federal forces in northern Virginia were organized into the Army of Virginia under the command of Gen. John Pope, who arrived with a reputation freshly won in the war's western theater. Gambling that McClellan would cause no further trouble around Richmond, Lee sent Stonewall Jackson's corps northward to "suppress" Pope. Jackson clashed indecisively with part of Pope's troops at Cedar Mountain on August 9. Meanwhile, learning that the Army of the Potomac was withdrawing by water to join Pope, Lee marched with Gen. James Longstreet's corps to bolster Jackson. On the Rapidan, Pope successfully blocked Lee's attempts to gain the tactical advantage, and then withdrew his men north of the Rappahannock River. Lee knew that if he was to defeat Pope he would have to strike before McClellan's army arrived in northern Virginia. On August 25 Lee boldly started Jackson's corps on a march of over 50 miles, around the Union right flank to strike at Pope's rear.

Two days later, Jackson's veterans seized Pope's supply depot at Manassas Junction. After a day of wild feasting, Jackson burned the Federal supplies and moved to a position in the woods at Groveton near the old Manassas battlefield.

Pope, stung by the attack on his supply base, abandoned the line of the Rappahannock and headed towards Manassas to "bag" Jackson. At the same time, Lee was moving northward with Longstreet's corps to reunite his army. On the afternoon of August 28, to prevent the Federal commander's efforts to concentrate at Centreville and bring Pope to battle, Jackson ordered his troops to attack a Union column as it marched past on the Warrenton Turnpike. This savage fight at Brawner's Farm lasted until dark.

Convinced that Jackson was isolated, Pope ordered his columns to converge on Groveton. He was sure that he could destroy Jackson before Lee and Longstreet could intervene. On the 29th Pope's army found Jackson's men posted along an unfinished railroad grade, north of the turnpike. All afternoon, in a series of uncoordinated attacks, Pope hurled his men against the Confederate position. In several places the northerners momentarily breached Jackson's line, but each time were forced back. During the afternoon, Longstreet's troops arrived on the battlefield and, unknown to Pope, deployed on Jackson's right, overlapping the exposed Union left. Lee urged Longstreet to attack, but "Old Pete" demurred. The time was just not right, he said.

The morning of August 30 passed quietly. Just before noon, erroneously concluding the Confederates were retreating, Pope ordered his army forward in "pursuit". The pursuit, however, was short-lived. Pope found that Lee had gone nowhere. Amazingly, Pope ordered yet another attack against Jackson's line. Fitz-John Porter's corps, along with part of McDowell's, struck Starke's division at the unfinished railroad's "Deep Cut." The southerners held firm, and Porter's column was hurled back in a bloody repulse.

Seeing the Union lines in disarray, Longstreet pushed his massive columns forward and staggered the Union left. Pope's army was faced with annihilation. Only a heroic stand by northern troops, first on Chinn Ridge and then once again on Henry Hill, bought time for Pope's hard-pressed Union forces. Finally, under cover of darkness the defeated Union army withdrew across Bull Run towards the defenses of Washington. Lee's bold and brilliant Second Manassas campaign opened the way for the south's first invasion of the north, and a bid for foreign intervention.

I discovered this location while driving to the franco-cypriot school in Nicosia, Cyprus. These are governmental buildings next to the police academy. The complex is to be destroyed in the near future. I was interested in catching the effects of time on official government owned buildings.

South Beach Orlando Luxury Suites was a small hotel complex located along Kissimmee's US HWY 192 several miles east of Disney World, a heavy tourist corridor. It featured a picturesque Florida lakefront, a colorful palette, and incredibly poor and scandalous business practices. The hotel closed down several years ago and the site has sat in various states of disarray ever since. Shown here several years after its closure, the buildings have are devoid of internal components but their colorful exteriors still shine through years of overgrowth.

I need to get the base and leg off the back of my monitor. The base with the V shape takes up far too much real estate on my desk and is fundamentally driving me up the wall.

I bought a 4-position Monitor Arm about a year ago and have just never got around to mounting it. Given my study is in total disarray atm, with the computer rebuild I figured, now is as good a time as any.

Huh.

It's nearly 6 pm and I have been trying to get the base and leg off since approximately midday (you need to take out a 2 hour nap in there as well - lets call it a frustrated snapping point).

The manual provided by Acer gives the most INANE description of how to remove it. It looks simple enough. Depress the button in the middle of the leg | stand and at same time, slide off in direction of the arrow. Needless to say....not helpful.

A google search comes up with a lot of frustrated people on forums with the very same issue. It seems to be rampant on Acer not just this model.

One dude rang Acer for assistance and got some information which he posted and others have since built on. Apparently the initial step is still difficult however......and all of them were blokes. I am thinking my difficulty is now laying in the fact I have quite small weedy, boney little hands and just not the same strength to prise the cap off to get at what I need to. GAHHHHHHH

At this stage - all suggestions very much welcome and appreciated!

Looks like a mess now, but will probably be done in a few days, possibly even by the time this uploads. They will at least have to install new flooring here out in the aisle! It did smell like some sort of floor adhesive had been recently used anyway, probably to put new tile in right up under the units themselves.

____________________________________

Kroger, 1983-84 built, Stateline Rd at Hamilton Dr., Southaven, MS

A direct gaze of a Tajik grey-beard elder. Tajikistan. This man lost his leg to the Tajikistan civil war 1992...by the end of the war Tajikistan was in a state of complete devastation. The estimated dead numbered from 50,000 to as many as 100,000. Around 1.2 million people were refugees inside and outside of the country. Tajikistan's physical infrastructure, government services, and economy were in disarray and much of the population was surviving on subsistence handouts from international aid organizations. The United Nations established a Mission of Observers in December 1994, maintaining peace negotiations until the warring sides signed a comprehensive peace agreement in 1997.

I've never seen these before. Speaking as an engineer, however, I guess that they are there to spread the sideways load of a train going around a curve (centripetal force) across two ties at the same time. Tangent (straight) tracks have no sideways force on them, and don't need these braces.

Neither do super-elevated curves. These are curves which redirect the centripetal force at a standard speed into the ground by banking the curve, elevating the outside rail. This makes the ride more comfortable for freight and passengers by translating the sideways force into a force straight down. This stops them from wobbling when they get to a curve.

These centripetal forces are absent on tangent track. What if a curve ran at a constant radius until it got to the tangent track? You would have two problems: if you super-elevated the track, you would have to instantly level it out again, causing the cars to violently bounce down. Not good. If you *didn't* super-elevate the track, the centripetal force would instantly disappear, and all your passengers and freight would feel a centrifugal force as the centripetal force disappeared. Passengers would fall over, tea and biscuits would be in disarray, and freight would shift.

Railroad curves always change gently from a curve to tangent track, to avoid these problems. The super-elevation is slowly removed, as the radius of curvature gets larger and larger.

Tomorrow, this noodle eating anti democracy protestor will be away from the Asoke intersection and troughing it up in a Lumphini Park camp site smelling of stale urine. He will be protected behind military sand bagged bunkers from a Thai majority who hate him and his right wing politics.

- - - - - -

Thai Protesters Retreat But Crisis 'Not Over'

by Daniel ROOK

March 1, 2014 (AFP)

Tensions eased in Thailand's strife-hit capital Saturday after protesters abandoned their attempted "shutdown" of Bangkok, but the move was seen as only a temporary reprieve for the kingdom's embattled premier.

"Any of the scenarios that remove the caretaker government will be opposed in principle by millions and actively by hundreds of thousands I think," Streckfuss said.

AFP News Sponsor

- - - - -

It is the "last gasp" of a political system that has traditionally favoured the country's privileged establishment, said Streckfuss.

Metrobus seemed to be in uncharacteristic disarray with some of its vehicle allocations today, though it was just typical that circumstances (usually being on another bus at the time) stopped me getting any other pictures.

I travelled from Caterham to Crawley on the 400 ; we started out with a 400 branded Scania, but outside the depot, where we were due a driver change, we were transferred to unbranded 558. The driver who had brought us from Caterham did not take the other vehicle to the garage - he just left it at the stop and travelled into Crawley with us.

Here is 558 loading at Crawley.

As we arrived at Crawley Bus Stn, a Fastway Scania arrived on, of all things, the 271 from Brighton, but the driver turned the LCDs off before I could get a picture. Although the next 271 to Brighton did have the usual Omnidekker, I did see the Fastway later in Brighton. Later in the day, travelling back on the 270 to East Grinstead. we passed another Fastway on the 270 in Chelwood Gate.

The ultimate substitution was the green Asda Dart seen in Forest Row on the 291 ! It had been on the Asda service in the morning so was probably snaffled at short notice. I was gutted not to get a shot of it.

A convenience store in extreme disarray after eleven years of exposure to animals and the elements.

"In these trials of life I find

Another voice inside my mind.

He comforts me and bids me live

Inside the love the Father gives.

In Your love I find relief,

A haven from my unbelief.

Take my life and let me be

A living prayer, my God, to Thee." -"Living Prayer" Alison Krauss

This tiny, abandoned church is on a lonely street corner in Hingham, Montana. I wish I could see the inside!

Here is some very interesting history courtesy of wikipediea about Hingham, MT:

"Hingham is a small agricultural community on the Hi-line of northern Montana. The town was founded on February 11, 1910 and developed as a grain storage and shipping center along the Great Northern Railway. In 1909 M.A. Johnson and P.A. Peterson came to the area to homestead, they purchased a relinquishment for the townsite. A year later they had the 22-block town platted with a central square as its dominant feature, hence the nickname "The Town on the Square". Hingham was incorporated in 1917 and has since been governed by a mayor and town council. Through local efforts Hingham has developed the square into one of the best parks on the Hi-line with lush grass, mature trees and a picnic shelter. A landmark of the town is the water tower built in 1958 it towers 100 feet tall and can be seen for miles. In its early years Hingham had several hotels, saloons, restaurants, two banks, lumber yards, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, barber shop, trading company, grocery store, opera house, three churches and more. Most of which surrounded the square. Hingham had a state of the art hospital in its early years know as the Hingham Sanitarium. Built in 1913 by Dr. A.A. Husser it later burned down in 1919 dealing a severe blow to the community. Plans were made to replace the hospital with a more substantial structure but never materialized. Hingham Union Cemetery is the second largest cemetery in Hill County with over 355 graves. During the flu epidemic, the local undertaker left town in the middle of the night taking the cemetery records with him and leaving the cemetery in disarray. Citizens later remember digging graves and hitting the wood of coffins buried in supposedly vacant plots. There are a number of graves that are unknown and unmarked. Hingham cemetery is unique in that it once had an area known as potters field where people that commited suicide or couldn't afford to buy a plot were placed. Hingham's cemetery was the unofficial catholic cemetery of the hi-line in its early years. Students in Hingham met in several buildings around town until a school was built in 1914. The building was known to sway in the bad wind storms. In 1930 a new school building was constructed with a gymnasium added in 1936 several additions were made in later years including a indoor swimming pool. The school mascot was the Hingham Rangers with red, black and white as their colors. Due to shrinking enrollment the schools have consolidated to maintain a school in the area. Hingham and Rudyard consolidated schools in 1981 creating Blue Sky schools with Eagles as their mascot and blue and white as their colors. Another consolidation occurred in 2005 creating North Star Schools which is a merger of Rudyard and Hingham(Blue Sky), Gildford and Kremlin(KG)schools. Their mascot is the Knights with blue and black as their colors. Hingham hosted an school reunion on July 9th, 2010. On July 10th, 2010 Hingham celebrated its Centennial with a fun run/walk, food and craft vendors, military displays, local history displays, live entertainment, kids and adult games, barbecue, dance and fireworks."

For more information go to this link:

russell.visitmt.com/communities/Hingham.htm

Here is a video of my husband and I driving through Hingham, it gives you a little perspective of this little hi-line town:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiB3eFcHwbo

So... I want to do some kind of project while I'm home. Since the house is kind of in disarray, there's a lot of blank wall space. Things are moving around and disappearing, and I feel like I'm watching the past 20 years of my life be physically packed away into memory. Which is fine, and inevitable.

But why not document those things?

Anyway, I guess I'm just going to be attempting to shoot some of my favorite things, or just things that have significance.

As far as this goes, I love old globes, and this is really just two things I'm looking forward to in the future - going to Chile next year, and the Art History class I'm taking next semester :)

The Boxtrolls: Dare to Be Square

A primary feature in the style of character design in “The Boxtrolls” is unrealistic proportions of the human form. They are heavily distorted into strange shapes, with torsos ranging from needle-thin to heavily rounded, heights from squat to medium to lanky, and face shapes and features as unique as the character itself. A common theme in the anatomy, however, is skinny, long arms on all characters, regardless of body type, with the exception of the character Winnie.

When it comes to the anatomy of the boxtrolls, they mirror certain traits of design in the humans, but not to the same extreme degree. Three of the main boxtroll characters, Fish, Oilcan, and Shoe, play on the spectrum of tall to short, portly to skinny. This spectrum is actually mirrored in the three henchmen of the antagonist, Snatcher. Both of these trios remind me of the hitchhiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion attraction at the Disneyland resort. It is my belief that these spooky spectres are in fact the inspiration for these two sets of characters.

An element I specifically noticed again and again in the course of the film is hair. The hair, although mostly static – as is the nature of the beast in stop motion animation – is purposefully designed to reflect individual personality. Eggs, the protagonist, has unkempt dusty hair, reflective of his life underground and not concerned with appearance. Winnie has a more pristine style with a touch of dirt and disarray, hinting at her proper upbringing clashing with her rebellious “unladylike” disposition. Snatcher, meanwhile, has almost nauseatingly greasy unhealthy locks. Beneath his red hat are stringy, dull strands that complement his ashy face. He is written to be a slimy, greasy character, and his design reflects those traits.

Just as important to the film’s design are the settings and backdrops. Set in a town, precariously and preposterously clinging to an almost Burton-looking hill (in fact, Tim Burton’s style screams through every aspect of this film, from storyline to aesthetics), the entire setting is inherently slanted. I took note of the fact that in the entirety of the film, I saw almost NO right angles. Although straight lines would seem to be the foundation of a town full of roads and buildings, almost every last line in this film is crooked or curved to some extent. The cobblestones on the road and the tiles on the roofs are individualized, never uniform. Each window pane is just slightly askew. Lampposts are crooked, walls are always leaning, and no table leg is ever even with another. Yes, in a film seemingly revolved around boxes, even the boxes themselves are never a perfect prism.

Additionally, the attention to detail in regards to texture is mind boggling. The fabrics of the characters’ clothing are so realistic. Of course, seeing as how this is stop motion, chances are the fabrics were real. But in the sculpting of textures such as unfinished wood signs and of course the cardboard boxes critical to the film’s themes, the design technique is admirable.

There was a lovely contrast between the “upper” and “lower” realms of this world. Above ground, in the world of humans (and order and rules), sunlight and artificial lighting was plentiful. Yet the artists’ choice in color and lighting made the upper world, almost paradoxically, darker than the world below. In the underground lair of the boxtrolls, in a land of freedom and fun, the design reflects the light feeling of the boxtroll society. Bare lightbulbs, with each light representing a member of the community, unite to illuminate a world without sun, but certainly not without light. This luminosity is mirrored by the eyes of the boxtrolls. Unlike humans, the costarring species in this film have eyes that glow at night. At first this is viewed in a perspective of “monster” or “animal”. But as the film progresses, you realize it refers to the light nature within these misunderstood creatures. The tunnel structure of the underground contributes to the free-flowing attitude of the design. Compared with the attempted (and failed) rigidity of the upper world, the underground is a land of curves and flow and freedom.

When the characters and settings are combined, they create a world so well-lived-in that the film really takes on a dimension of reality in its own way. Almost everything (and everyone) in this universe is designed to look aged, weathered, or dirty. Eggs is always seen with soot and dirt smudging his face. The wardrobes of most of the characters are tattered or stained. Even in scenes that suggest higher class living, such as the gala in Lord Portly Rind’s residence, the whites of the linens are dingy, and the metal fixtures of the candelabras all boast a patina. The boxes, a major focal point of the film, are all lived-in… literally. They are slightly sagging, faded, and stained with dirt and moisture. Nothing in this film looks fresh or new, and this is a major contributor to the overall context of this movie.

During my brief visit to capture the new Mercedes minibuses, the timetable did seem to be in disarray.

The pair were seen in convoy into Guildford on my way out to Bellfields, and I assumed (incorrectly) that one had been a relief to the other, as both were loaded.

It transpired that one was actually running really late, and I only saw UAO once, as it did not return from town.

Which left a group of 6 passengers waiting at Fir Tree Road to go to Guildford for a good 20 minutes.

Having seen the next bus (UAN) on its way up to the top of the estate, I sat in the car for few minutes before seeing how full it would be on its return.

Out of nowhere though, came 6402 to the rescue!

And I missed it. So here it is on the return back from Guildford to Bellfields, in Cypress Road.

It's a bit distant due to the terrible LED's on these, none of the closer shots showed the destination.

For information of what I'm wearing please visit my blog post @ The Spouge!.

<3

Astrexia

My studio has been in disarray for a few months now. I finally had time to redress most of my pullips and rearrange things so I could display the new additions I got over the holidays.

Ramshackle has nothing to do with rams, nor the act of being rammed, nor shackles. The word is an alteration of ransackled, an obsolete form of the verb ransack, meaning "to search through or plunder." (Ransack comes from Old Norse words meaning "house" and "seek.") A home that has been ransacked has had its contents thrown into disarray, and that image may be what inspired people to start using ramshackle in the first half of the 19th century to describe something that is poorly constructed or in a state of near collapse.

There's absolutely no good reason to view this picture large on black.

Abandoned gas station & gift shop on Route 66 in Mclean, Texas. Across the highway from this gas station. Interstate 40 flows in the background.

This was an outtake from my Route 66 trip (for obvious reasons), taken back in November of 2007. On top of the riduclously bad strobe job, this image was significantly underexposed (I amped it up in PS), but I've included it here to tell the story.

Now about that title...

As I mentioned, this was a gift shop of some sort. If you turn 90 degrees to the left from the camera position and start walking, you'll climb 3 or 4 steps just out of the cameras view, and wind up in the gift shop area, where there are still a lot of fixtures in place, some even with merchandise still laid about in disarray. The single most prevalent piece of merchandise left though were some cartoonish porcelain figurines, all of which has been crudely decapitated. Not terribly surprising; kids and vandals are always doing that sort of thing. No, the strange thing was, all I found were the bodies...the severed heads were nowhere to be seen.

Just another one of those freaky little oddities one finds when they explore places like this!

Night, full moon, ambient sodium & mercury vapor light, ill-advised red-gelled strobes, and natural flashlight (I don't recall what sort anymore).

My tactile production of Lilian Lee's epic, stately novel, Farewell My Concubine, is a detailed study in femme fatale disarray with lavish accents of theatrical pageantry thrown in for good measure.

This layered and tattered concoction features a most aesthetic sterling cast of Silk Chiffon, Luscious Lame, Snow White Lace, extensive Hand-Embroidery with, of course, an Antique Applique.

Shimmy into this Vintage Black Bustier and sculpt a sexy silhouette as one side features a profusion of pretty pleats in Red whilst to the other side, a spotlight shines onto a beautifully decrepit Victorian Beaded Flower Appliqué.

Further guaranteeing your 15 seconds of fame (or more) is a striking front centre panel which has been laboriously embroidered with Rouge Red. A single layer of froofy Lace adorning the bottom echoes the face powder used by Peking Opera performers.

And finally, a strip of Antique Silver Satin with Gold Lame Flowers has been oh so carefully box-pleated by hand all across the front, with edges intentionally left raw for a glorious look of dishevelled decadence.

Remember, the world is but your stage.

* VITAL STATS *

Bust - 32B

Waist - up to 26"

~ part of the *MATA HARI* 2009 Collection ~

All fabrics and findings used in Sheela Goh Couture designs (unless indicated otherwise) are antique and over 100 years old. In fact, some bits are authentic Edwardian and Victorian. Seriously. So please, do wear her with care and respect.

OOAK.

Dry Clean only please.

Stitched entirely by hand, with needle and thread.

©2009 Sheela Goh (that means absolutely NO copying of my work or my style of writing, thanks very much).

In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.

A Poem:

In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,

Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,

Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,

Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.

Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,

In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.

The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,

In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.

The world outside may churn and roar,

With climates wracked and the drums of war.

Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,

Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.

The local pub, our living room, our sphere,

A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.

We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,

In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.

For what are we, but passengers in time,

Through days mundane, through nights sublime?

The question lingers, in the air, it floats,

Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.

Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,

We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.

For in these moments, life's essence we distill,

In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.

A Haiku:

Rain veils the night's face,

Quiet pub bids farewell—

Life's quiet march on.

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, also known as Dinosaur Court, are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and extinct mammals located in Crystal Palace, London.

Commissioned in 1852 and unveiled in 1854, they were the first dinosaur sculptures in the world, pre-dating the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by six years. Designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins with the help of Richard Owen.

They were Grade II listed buildings from 1973, extensively restored in 2002 and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.

The models themselves are now considered out of date and to varying degrees inaccurate.

The models were displayed on three islands acting as a rough time-line, the first island representing roughly the Paleozoic era, a second representing the Mesozoic era, and a third representing the Cenozoic era. All of the mammals on the third island, however, were later moved to other locations on in the park (which in many ways directly led to them falling into ill-repair). The models' realism was aided by the lake at the time being 'tidal' and rising and falling, revealing different amounts of the dinosaurs. To mark the 'launch' of the models Hawkins held a dinner on New Year's Eve 1853 inside the mould of one of the Iguanodon.

As further and fuller discoveries of the species included in Crystal Palace were made, the reputation of the models declined. By as early as 1895 experts looked on them with scorn and ridicule.

The visibility of the models became obscured by overgrown foliage, but a full restoration of the animals was carried out in the 1950s by Victor H.C. Martin, this is when the animals were moved around.

Though general and often ad-hoc maintenance was carried up in the meantime (including the use of plasticine[1]) the dinosaurs did not undergo a full restoration until 2002; during that time the park had fallen into total disarray and at one point a guided tour of the dinosaurs was the only time the park was open to the public.

In 2002 the Institute of Historic Building Conservation totally renovated the models, including properly fixing and re-painting the existing models (in much lighter or at times totally different colors, for instance the Megatheirium was changed from blue to beige during the restoration). The institute also had fiberglass replacements created for the missing pterodactyls and their cliff, cutting away a lot of the foliage and restoring the original recreations of plant life that accompanied the models in the 1850s.

This photo, dating from the summer of 1995, shows the dinosaurs before restoration.

Series Title: The Polier Album

Display Artist: Muhammad Ali

Media & Support: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Creation Date: 1781

Creation Place/Subject: India

State-Province: Uttar Pradesh

Court: Mughal

School: Late Mughal

Display Dimensions: 17 13/32 in. x 24 3/32 in. (44.2 cm x 61.2 cm)

Credit Line: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection

Accession Number: 1990.414

Collection: The San Diego Museum of Art

Label Copy:

During the eighteenth century, the cultural center of the state of Awadh (Oudh) was Lucknow. This was where the capital was situated, except during the period 1765-75 when it was transferred to Faizabad. The Mughal empire was in steep decline, and when the governor of Awadh set himself up as an autonomous ruler, providing a relatively stable environment compared to the disarray in Delhi, much of the artistic community of Delhi migrated to Lucknow where the ruling aristocracy became their patrons. There was also a sizeable community of Europeans who became involved in the cultural life of the city, including a French-Swiss colonel Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier. The combination of the Delhi artists (musicians, architects, poets, as well as painters) trained in the classical Mughal traditions, the Awadhi aristocracy, itinerant European artists, and European patrons stimulated the evolution of a new culture. In painting, as in architecture, the focus was on the grand achievements of the Mughals of the preceding century, embellished with fashions and ideas from Europe.A French soldier, Louis Antoine Henri Polier, commissioned an album of calligraphies and paintings from a workshop in Delhi. The Europeanized style of the floral border shows either that the studio specialized in catering to foreigners or that Polier . Polier's album was later presented to Lady Eyre Coote, wife of the Commander of the British Army in India.Two of the verses are from the great mystical love poet Hafiz Nurallah, the author of the poetry in the center panel is unknown. The otherwise uncelebrated calligrapher, Muhammad 'Ali, signed and dated the central panel.This page is from an album of calligraphies and paintings commissioned by Colonel Polier, which was later presented to Lady Eyre Coote, wife of the Commander of the British Army in India. Two of the verses are from the great mystical love poet Hafiz Nurallah; the author of the poetry in the center panel is unknown. The otherwise uncelebrated calligrapher, Muhammad 'Ali, signed and dated the central panel.The verses have been translated He is the Glorifier! My spirit be thy sacrifice, O idol called Abtahi! Disruptive Turk, fervent Persian, seditious Arab, There is no one in the world who has not wondered at thy beauty. -- the sinner, Hafiz Nurallah, may Allah forgive him. He is the Glorifier! To thy threshold came The tip of our desire. If thou shouldst accept (it), Bravo to our good fortune! -- Muhammad 'Ali, 1195 He [is Allah!] If with musky wine my heart is taken, it is right, For from the hypocritical abstinence no sweet scent comes. Do not despair of the blessing of grace, for creation is generous. It forgives sins and grants absolution to lovers. -- the slave (of Allah) Hafiz Nurallah

Since the schools of the hi-line have started consolidating because of lack of students most of the hi-line schools are empty. I believe this is one of the empty schools, as I know Hingham did consolidate with two other hi-line schools.

Here is some very interesting history courtesy of wikipediea about Hingham, MT:

"Hingham is a small agricultural community on the Hi-line of northern Montana. The town was founded on February 11, 1910 and developed as a grain storage and shipping center along the Great Northern Railway. In 1909 M.A. Johnson and P.A. Peterson came to the area to homestead, they purchased a relinquishment for the townsite. A year later they had the 22-block town platted with a central square as its dominant feature, hence the nickname "The Town on the Square". Hingham was incorporated in 1917 and has since been governed by a mayor and town council. Through local efforts Hingham has developed the square into one of the best parks on the Hi-line with lush grass, mature trees and a picnic shelter. A landmark of the town is the water tower built in 1958 it towers 100 feet tall and can be seen for miles. In its early years Hingham had several hotels, saloons, restaurants, two banks, lumber yards, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, barber shop, trading company, grocery store, opera house, three churches and more. Most of which surrounded the square. Hingham had a state of the art hospital in its early years know as the Hingham Sanitarium. Built in 1913 by Dr. A.A. Husser it later burned down in 1919 dealing a severe blow to the community. Plans were made to replace the hospital with a more substantial structure but never materialized. Hingham Union Cemetery is the second largest cemetery in Hill County with over 355 graves. During the flu epidemic, the local undertaker left town in the middle of the night taking the cemetery records with him and leaving the cemetery in disarray. Citizens later remember digging graves and hitting the wood of coffins buried in supposedly vacant plots. There are a number of graves that are unknown and unmarked. Hingham cemetery is unique in that it once had an area known as potters field where people that commited suicide or couldn't afford to buy a plot were placed. Hingham's cemetery was the unofficial catholic cemetery of the hi-line in its early years. Students in Hingham met in several buildings around town until a school was built in 1914. The building was known to sway in the bad wind storms. In 1930 a new school building was constructed with a gymnasium added in 1936 several additions were made in later years including a indoor swimming pool. The school mascot was the Hingham Rangers with red, black and white as their colors. Due to shrinking enrollment the schools have consolidated to maintain a school in the area. Hingham and Rudyard consolidated schools in 1981 creating Blue Sky schools with Eagles as their mascot and blue and white as their colors. Another consolidation occurred in 2005 creating North Star Schools which is a merger of Rudyard and Hingham(Blue Sky), Gildford and Kremlin(KG)schools. Their mascot is the Knights with blue and black as their colors. Hingham hosted an school reunion on July 9th, 2010. On July 10th, 2010 Hingham celebrated its Centennial with a fun run/walk, food and craft vendors, military displays, local history displays, live entertainment, kids and adult games, barbecue, dance and fireworks."

Here is a video of my husband and I driving through Hingham, it gives you a little perspective of this little hi-line town:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiB3eFcHwbo

For more information go to this link:

russell.visitmt.com/communities/Hingham.htm