Nightingale

IMO, the big island has more eco related stuff than Oahu. Clownburner and I went horseback riding through a canyon (Waipio Valley) and snorkeling/scuba with manta rays at night. The manta ray experience was amazing! There's some awesome hiking at Volcanoes Nat'l Park, and Kona has a great nightlife (and I've heard the same about Hilo). Also, the Luau at the King Kamehameha Hotel in Kona is incredible (so incredible that most of the other hotels have stopped doing theirs, since everyone goes to King Kam anyway). On the main street in Kona, there's a kava kava bar (kava is 100% better than beer for relaxing.) and a ton of little bars and restaurants. Plus, of course, there's the Kona Brewing Company. Great beer!

The big island. Kona, if you can stay there, is fabulous. You've got all the island stuff that Maui and Oahu have, but on a bigger island (less crowded), plus you've got Volcanoes Nat'l Park. I've been to Maui, Oahu, Lanai and Kauai along with the big island, and the big island is the only one I'd go back to.

The S/N on my spectre was gone when I bought it, and it only had 400 jumps on it (the ZP was still very slippery!). When I sent it back to PD because of a line trim issue, they just replaced the label too.

Awesome! Thanks so much! Can you recommend a nursery, or should I just check around?

Growing blood oranges, in particular? I think I'm addicted to these things, if it's possible to be addicted to a fruit. The thing is, the closest market that sells them reliably is about 25 miles from my place (and yes, I've driven down there just for oranges). I guess my question is, is it possible to grow one of these trees in southern california, and if so, can I grow it in a pot on my balcony?

BA in Communications MA in Education JD (law) I'm actually using the communications degree at the moment (at least, it's a job requirement to have a degree, so I guess I'm kinda using it... they've got me doing data entry. I'm bored out of my mind. Anyone got any job leads for me? I gotta get out of here!).

They matched DNA on a condom to one of the perps... isn't that enough? Innocent until proven guilty to a jury of their peers. I don't think they should've released the names of the offenders at this point, at least until it was decided to try them as adults.

I think it's both, Quade. In an ideal world, everyone would mind their children, everyone would respect one another, and nobody would harm other people. But, we don't live in an idea world, so we not only need to teach children to be upstanding citizens, we need to protect ourselves from people who would want to hurt us, because we can't depend on other people to always come to our rescue. Personally, I own a handgun and a shotgun and am able to competently use both. I also have an alarm on every point of entrance to my home. In addition, I've got 18 years of self defense training. So far, I've never had to use the weapons to defend myself, and no stranger has ever set off my alarm. However, if it wasn't for my self-defense training, I might not be here today. I used it to defend myself when I was attacked by a stranger in the street. I've seen many people come to learn martial arts or buy a weapon after something has already happened to them or their loved ones. They didn't prepare before because they thought it was "paranoid", that something like that would never happen to their family. The world is not the nice, safe place that people want to believe it is, and sometimes it takes something terrible happening to us to make us understand that. I really, really wish that people would learn that the stuff they see on the TV news, the stories they hear from people like me, they're not just for entertainment. They're real, and they happen to real people. Take steps to protect yourself. Worst case, you've spent some time and money. Best case, you'll save your own life. I don't really see a down side to being prepared.

Rosa, School districts are used to requests like this. Just call the office of a school in your area that is open for summer sessions, and explain that you're in a master's program and need to observe some classes, and that you'll be happy to provide a letter from your school verifying the assignment. They'll probably just give you a day to come down and observe. Sometimes, they'll make you arrange it through the district, but usually that doesn't happen. I've got some contacts in orange county and temple city if you get really stuck.

It's creepy because they did it without telling people. Most people with "key man" insurance know about it and consent to it. Taking life insurance out on someone without their knowledge is scary.

In addition to the above post, the minimum wage doesn't actually help lower wage workers at all. It just causes inflation, making everyone's money worth less. Example with some rough estimates: All strawberry pickers must now be paid $7.00 per hour. Since one worker can pick one basket of strawberries per hour, including breaktimes, Strawberries now cost $10.00 per basket, once you include overhead. The strawberries are sold to a restaurant, and the restaurant must now pay more for the strawberries to bake pies and make fruit salads. The restaurant must also now pay all of its workers $7.00 per hour. Since the restaurant wants to stay in business, and the cost of labor and ingredients has now risen, the restaurant must raise its prices or go bankrupt. Your burger and fruit salad that was previously $6 now costs $10. The problem with minimum wage is that people who propose it forget that the money must come from somewhere. The money comes from businesses, who must then raise prices to stay in business. When businesses raise prices, our dollar buys less.

Have you had a tetanus shot?

If you can't do crunches without holding your head, you need to do a different exercise. Try leg lifts... lie on your back, pillow under your head, hands under your tailbone, and lift your legs six inches off the floor, and hold them there for ten seconds. repeat. You also might want to look into yoga. It builds strength, flexibility and stability, and is a really amazing work-out. It's also a great stress relief.

When doing crunches, don't put your hands anywhere near your head. Don't put your hands behind your neck. Cross your arms over your chest and look at the ceiling. I don't know about running... you might want to try an elliptical machine or a bike instead. It's much easier on your body, impact-wise. Try heat, not ice. Heat relaxes muscles, ice reduces swelling. One of those therma-care heat packs on your neck might help a lot.

While I wasn't specifically addressing skilled labor, I don't think it's unreasonable to require people who want to immigrate here to be either in school or employed once they get here. I'm all for keeping and even expanding the student visa program, and the other professional visa programs already in place, and permit the people who get those visas to begin the citizenship process once they're here. It seems like the biggest objection to immigration is that people come here with no work, and leech off of the system. I don't think that's a problem with skilled professionals, and I'd like to see more of them.

I think that in order to solve the problem, we need to address the reason people are immigrating to begin with. 1. Here's better than there (for whatever reason). 2. Here's better than there, and they can't get here legally. There's waiting lists that are decades long for people from some countries. 3. There's work here, and people willing to hire. So, here's Nightingale's immigration plan: 1. Eliminate the minimum wage. Allow employers the ability to pay what the job is actually worth, rather than what the state says it is worth. You remove the incentive to hire illegals here, and open up the below-minimum job market to legal people. 2. Place very high fines on anyone found to be hiring illegal immigrants without performing proper ID/SSN checks. If a few people get put out of business, then, we have now removed the incentive to hire illegals (step 1), and put in place a strong incentive not to hire them (step 2). 3. Allow business owners to go to another country to hire, provided they can show they did not have sufficient qualified applicants who are already here legally. Anyone hired in another country may come here for the duration of the job, and then has 90 days to find another job, or back they go. Their green-card is valid for only 90 days beyond the anticipated duration of the job, and may be renewed only with documentation of continued employment. If a worker is no longer employed for any reason, the employer who hired them must notify immigration. 4. Anyone convicted of a violent crime or a felony is deported with no opportunity for re-entry. 5. There is no "you're born here, so you're a citizen." You are a citizen if one of your parents was a citizen. Otherwise, you are a legal resident until age 18 (or as long as you're still in high school, top age of 20), if one of your parents is a legal resident. Citizenship is granted only if you obtain a high school diploma or equivalent. Otherwise, 90 days after leaving school without a high school diploma or equivalent, you must be employed, or you will be deported. Exceptions to deportation can be made if a child is disabled and living in the home of a parent. 6. If a parent becomes a citizen while his/her children are under age 18, the children are then also citizens. Children over 18 must attain citizenship on their own.

If you've had it for four years, I'd get a new one.

I'm so sorry. (((((HUGS)))))

I didn't have any "corporal punishment" experiences in catholic school, but I did have some pretty weird days... The first week of school, we were studying Genesis in religion class. The teacher, an ex nun (no idea why), was pretty strict. At the end of the lecture, she asks if we have any questions. I was a curious 13 year old, and looked at the story of Adam and Eve, and found some numbers that just didn't add up, at least the way our book explained it. So, I raise my hand and ask "If Adam and Eve had only two kids, Cain and Abel, then Cain kills Abel, and then gets married, who'd Cain marry? His mother or his sister?" The teacher got so mad she started jumping around screeching "BLASPHEMY!" and I was promptly sent to the principal's office. The principal and I had a good laugh over it, and I got sent on to my next class.

I could see Neville fighting Bellatrix LeStrange, killing her and avenging his parents in a last act of Gryffindor-esque bravery, and getting himself killed in the process. That'd be a very Gryffindor way to go out, pretty much bringing Neville full circle, since his last real act of bravery was back in book 1.

I don't think she's going to kill off Harry. Harry Potter is a story she made up to tell her children, and children, while they like action, adventure, gore, and death, they don't like seeing the hero die, children die, or the bad guys win. I never thought she'd kill off Dumbledore either, tho... but maybe she'll find a way to bring him back.

Yes, but nobody knows what the bounce-back magic actually did, beyond rob voldemort of his powers and half kill him. We don't know the effect that the magic had on harry beyond the scar, other than he's not dead.

It may be a horcrux, and voldie doesn't know it is... Nobody has any idea what happened to give harry the scar and make voldie lose his power that night. My predictions for the last book: (highlight) 1. Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him. Snape is really a good guy. 2. Harry's scar is a horcrux. so is Nagini 3. Hermione comes up with some kind of potion so they can avada kedavra the horcrux part of harry without killing him. 4. Final battle happens. Voldie casts avada at Harry and kills the horcrux, not harry. Harry avadas Voldie.

The British voice is usually named Emily in the text-to-speech models, where it actually reads the street names. The Aussie is Karen. The British voice is slightly harder to understand, IMO, so we went with Aussie. Jill, the American, sounds like a bitch, so we turned her off.

Sorry, just asking (there is virtually no tipping culture here), but isn't that whats generally called a job? I thought tipping was for something over and above?? Because the staff make less than minimum, here, you tip if service was satisfactory, and if you don't tip, it's the equivalent of giving them a pay-cut. It's just a little added incentive for the staff to do a good job, because most people will leave a little extra for phenomenal service. It's a direct, immediate system of act/reward. Without tipping, the restaurant would have to pay the staff more, and the extra cost of paying the servers would be rolled into your meal anyway, so you're really not having to pay "extra" on top.