Aluminum Foiled: Scrappin' it Up!

For some reason, I feel a lot of pressure to scrapbook our family life. I feel like it's one of the qualifications of motherhood. I know it's kind of crazy: it's just one of my things. Some people feel qualified as a mother/wife/woman via their apple pie recipe. Family scrapbooks are my apple pie. For me, failing at scrapbooks=failing at motherhood/wifery/womanhood. Weird. I know.

But it was getting sort of silly, because not only do I put together a family scrapbook, I also complete a scrapbook for each child to take with them when they leave the nest. So that was four nearly identical pages of Christmas 2005, you know? Crazy.

Once everything went digital it finally made sense to digitally create one page and print it four (now five) times. I found some templates I like (Kate Pertiet designed them) and I drag and resize all over Photoshop. They end up looking something like the image above. Then I print the whole page on photo paper at Costco. They are nice and sharp and I believe that the photo paper will lend itself to the longevity I'm after.

I've always used 8 1/2 x 11 size because I'm convinced that one day the 12 x 12 sheet protectors will disappear. (Probably not. I'm just crazy like that.) And I have a dozen of these cloth covered three-ring binders waiting to be filled. I bought them all when American Crafts was having a great sale. All black. I like them to match. Crazy. Yes. I know.

So that's what I've been up to these days. I'm catching up (just finished 2009!), and I'm feeling especially driven because I have a stack of gorgeous Jonah photos that I want to keep forever.

Since I thought I'd never do a "scrapbooking" post and here we are in the middle of it, I'll just throw in a couple of extra tips that I've found helpful. Stop reading now if you're exhausted already.

1) Don't scrapbook too quickly. It may seem counter-intuitive, but when I immediately scrapbook an event, I tend to include far too much detail. Stuff that no one will care to read in 20 years. I usually scrapbook about a year at a time, which helps give perspective and balance to the process. I have a box in the basement where I throw all the stuff I'm planning to keep or scrapbook. When the mood strikes, I organize it all, pair it with photos and slip it into the sheet protectors. This usually takes a couple of weeks, when I'm working on it as time permits.

2) If you don't print the photo, it doesn't exist. This whole digital photo revolution is outstanding. But if you don't have a hard copy of that great shot, it's going to disappear into the hard-drive/USB/compatability swamp. I have hopes that the cloud will solve this question, but really, what happens when the electricity goes out?

Even if you're not going to stick it in a scrapbook, print that photo one way or another. I have friends who keep their photos in photo boxes organized by year. I think that is a good enough system on it's own. But you must print it. Just ask all those grandma's converting family movies from VHS to CD so they can upload it to YouTube. Print the hard copy or it will disappear.

3) Do NOT, under any circumstances, keep all of the school work or artwork your children bring home. Even when it's "very special" to them. I like to hang everything on the back of our pantry door, then take a snapshot of the whole door when it's full. Then throw it all away. You can see an example of this non-sentimental documentation above: the bottom photo of Thanksgiving artwork. I didn't keep that stuff, for crying out loud, but we can still look at it and smile.

I do keep a few pieces of art, a few special items of clothing, and one or two tropies, all in a 55 L Rubbermaid box designated for each child. My goal is that each kid will have one box for birth through elementary school and one box for junior high/high school. Absolutely no science projects, large Reflections artwork, or 3D artwork is kept (I hate those cabins and castles we have to build: I take a photo and throw it in the trash). Don't even think about keeping all their uniforms or t-shirts. Stop yourself now.

Oh, and some good news. Your kid's output rate will slow considerably around 5th grade. They'll stop bringing home piles and piles of "art" every week. So don't worry so much if their box is almost full by 4th grade. The last few years of elementary school will be more about papers and photos anyway.

4) Every once in a while, print a set of iconic photos in black and white. Who knows how your photos will hold up for 50 or 100 years: have a version in black and white here and there to hedge your bet. Keep the black and white copies near your color copies. Which leads me to my final, most useful tip. Any extra prints of photos or programs or tickets that don't make it onto the scrapbook page can easily be slipped into the sheet protector, behind the page itself. It's a nice way to keep track of duplicate photos that you might want to use for another project. This has been a great way to keep organized over the years: I don't have extra keepsake items floating around. They are in the scrapbook or in the garbage.

One final thought. I've worried at times that the scrapbooking I do is completely insane. I imagine myself flipping through dozens and dozens of books as a senile old woman, wondering why I thought I cared about these photos, or those parties, or that family hike. But I have found that the most satisfying benefit of scrapbooking is taking place right now! My kids absolutely adore looking through our books. It has been a treasure to see photos of Lucas looking just like Jonah. They light up when we see old friends and cousins. These pictures lend heart to our family stories and myths. What could be more sane?

Source: http://aluminumfoiled.blogspot.com/2012/02/scrappin-it-up.html

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Activists: Syrian forces bombard restive city

Syrians stand near the body of a man local residents say was an activist who was tortured to death by the Syrian government and dumped by the side of the road in Idlib, northern Syria, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. The commander of rebel Syrian soldiers said Sunday there is no choice but to use military force to drive President Bashar Assad's regime from power as fears mounted that government troops will escalate their deadly crackdown on dissent after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis. (AP Photo)

Syrians stand near the body of a man local residents say was an activist who was tortured to death by the Syrian government and dumped by the side of the road in Idlib, northern Syria, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. The commander of rebel Syrian soldiers said Sunday there is no choice but to use military force to drive President Bashar Assad's regime from power as fears mounted that government troops will escalate their deadly crackdown on dissent after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis. (AP Photo)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad takes part of a religious ceremony marking the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, at al-Rawda mosque, in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday Feb. 5, 2012. The commander of a force of rebel Syrian soldiers says they have no choice now but to fight to free the country of President Bashar Assad's regime after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, prays next to the Syrian grand mufti Ahmad Hassoun, second left, during a ceremony marking the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, at al-Rawda mosque, in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday Feb. 5, 2012. The commander of a force of rebel Syrian soldiers says they have no choice now but to fight to free the country of President Bashar Assad's regime after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution aimed at resolving the crisis. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

BEIRUT (AP) ? Government forces shelled the central Syrian city of Homs on Monday, striking a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas and killing at least 17 people in the third day of a new assault on the epicenter of the country's uprising, activists said.

The government denied shelling the city, however, and said "armed terrorist groups" were attacking civilians and police in several neighborhoods. The state-run news agency also said Monday that gunmen killed three soldiers and captured others at a checkpoint in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region of Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

Syria has blocked access to trouble spots in the country and prevented independent reporting, making it nearly impossible to verify accounts from either side as the conflict spirals out of control and turns increasingly violent.

Homs, which many refer to as "the capital of the Syrian revolution," has become a flashpoint of the nearly 11-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad. Several neighborhoods in the city, such as Baba Amr, are under the control of rebels.

On Saturday, Syrian forces killed up to 200 people in Homs ? the highest death toll reported for a single day in the uprising ? according to several rights groups. There was no way to independently confirm the toll.

While government forces have in the past used tanks and other weapons, the increased number of victims appear to have resulted from the indiscriminate use of artillery, according to the activists' reports.

"As of 6:30 this morning the shelling intensified with a rate of one shell every two minutes," Baba Amr activist Omar Sheker said during Monday's bombardment.

The uprising began with mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad, but government forces responded with a fierce crackdown. Now, army defectors and others are taking up arms to fight back, raising fears of civil war.

The threat of both sides turning to greater force increased Saturday when Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at ending the bloodshed. Now regime opponents fear that Assad will be emboldened by the feeling he is protected by his top ally Moscow and unleash even greater violence to crush protesters.

China said Monday it was forced to veto a United Nations vote on Syria because it was called before differences in the proposal were bridged, but denied playing spoiler and said it wants to see an end to violence there.

China and Russia have drawn the wrath of the United States, Europe and much of the Arab world for the weekend veto. China says the resolution put undue emphasis on pressuring the Syrian government and prejudged the result of any dialogue between the parties in Syria.

"On the issue of Syria, China is not sheltering anyone nor do we intentionally oppose anyone. We uphold justice and take a responsible attitude," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Monday.

Also Monday, an explosion ripped through a gas pipeline in Homs, the state-run news agency, SANA, reported. SANA blamed terrorists. The regime says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy are behind the uprising, not protesters seeking change.

The Local Coordination Committees activist group said Monday's shelling in Homs hit a makeshift clinic in Baba Amr, causing casualties.

At least 17 people were killed across the city on Monday, according to the LCC and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Activist Shaker said a paramedic was wounded in the shelling of the clinic and two people who were standing outside died instantly. He added that many volunteers at the hospital were wounded as well as people receiving treatment.

Syria's state-run TV denied government forces were besieging the area, saying activists in the city were setting tires on fire to make it appear as if there was a bombardment.

Syrian security forces are "chasing the terrorists and clashing with them," it said.

On Sunday, the commander of rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown to bring back stability to the country.

"We did not sleep all night," Majd Amer, another activist in Homs, said by telephone. Explosions could be heard in the background. "The regime is committing organized crimes."

Amer said shelling of his neighborhood of Khaldiyeh started at 3 a.m., and most residents living on high floors either fled to shelters or to lower floors. He said electricity was also cut.

___

Bassem Mroue can be reached on twitter at http://twitter.com/bmroue

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-02-06-ML-Syria/id-b4f5910e7542427fa00ff9b29af90437

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Jaialdia ? Blog Archive ? Extramarital relationships in Wedding ...

Girls who suffer through relationships in union using a cheating husband or wife often acquire and have feelings of unworthiness and self deprecation. You will find a difference from your sense or express of self deprecation and feelings of unworthiness. Each feelings ought to be resolved, yet it is best of they are kept separate if you have to fix your very own dust from your thoughts after cheating has intruded into your union.

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You need to get ease management and readjustment of your feelings after enduring cheating or relationships in union. Seek out someone you?ll be able to go over how you feel within an in-level manner. Inner thoughts is often changed.

Source: http://www.jaialdia.de/extramarital-relationships-in-wedding-generally-induce-sensations-of-unworthiness-and-insecurity/

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Parasite Eve or original RP?

The Parasite Eve RP would take place approximately 5 years after the events of the first game, before MIST was set up. The RP would take place in between the events of the first and second game and would investigate the resurgence of Mitochondrion creatures and attempt to exterminate them and learn about why even after Eve was destroyed, the creatures (and people) are continuing to awaken and why their Mitochondria is being liberated. We'd play either as those whose Mitochondria has begun to awaken, but are still in control of their bodies or regular old humans.

Here's my idea for the original RP about Golems (think along the lines of Frankenstein's Monster:)

The Machinist: The Heart of Mankind.
Inventors put their all into the creation of their devices. A part of their soul goes into every piece, every gear and every spool wound tightly around countless coils.

In 1700s Transylvania, a new scientific journal outlining a contest to create a perpetual motion device where in the winner would be awarded 50 million rubles. Scientists from all over the world gathered in Vienna to participate in the contest. These men, most of whom were withered by age and defeat, decided to play this one last trump card and create the most difficult to understand thing ever known ? the human.
The competition set forth to create what would become known as the Golems: a fully automated-human, with a beating heart and a mind. That was the inventors? creation goal.

They were supreme deities for these automatons, these robotic, cybernetic, fully synthetic and surprisingly energetic.

These perpetual motion humans would operate like living batteries, donating the electric charge their brains give off into a device that can interpret those signals and reintegrate them into a machine which will spin a wheel which will poke a hamster that will start running and spinning another wheel and energy is created within an infinite loop. At least until the hamster dies anyway. Then you need to get another hamster.
But for all intents and purposes, the scientists were aiming to create an android capable of perpetual energy generation.

In the shadows of their laboratories, the scientists worked into the night, mixing beakers and tinkering with cogs to understand how to craft their Golems. With competitive malice and greed in human hearts, they created something far worse.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/NKZyu-tmteg/viewtopic.php

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Syria forces retake Damascus suburbs; showdown at U.N. (Reuters)

AMMAN/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) ? Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have taken the upper hand in escalating battles on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, while top Western and Arab diplomats are seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for him to go.

Rebels who seized suburbs of Damascus were driven out after three days of fighting that activists say killed at least 100 people.

Activist organizations said 25 people were killed on Monday in Damascus suburbs and dozens more died in other parts of the country, mostly in raids in Homs and the surrounding countryside.

Events on the ground are difficult to confirm, as the Syrian government restricts most access by journalists.

The Arab League wants the Security Council to pass a resolution backing an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to relinquish power to his deputy and prepare for elections.

Its Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and the prime minister of Qatar will make the case at the world body on Tuesday.

The Arab delegation will be supported in person by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe as the West presents a united front.

The resolution's fate depends on whether the Arabs and their Western backers can persuade Russia not to veto it.

NEW PHASE

A 10-month uprising against Assad - one of the most violent revolts of the "Arab Spring" - has entered a new phase in recent weeks, with an increasingly armed and organized opposition attempting to hold territory.

A last-ditch bid by Moscow to broker talks between Assad's government and rebels foundered when the opposition refused to attend, citing the continued killing, torture and imprisonment of the president's opponents.

Washington said countries needed to accept that Assad's rule was doomed and stop shielding him in the Security Council.

"It is important that the Security Council take action," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday. "We believe that the Security Council should not permit the Assad regime to assault the Syrian people while it rejects the Arab League's proposal for a political solution."

"As governments make decisions about where they stand on this issue and what further steps need to be taken with regards to the brutality of the Assad regime, it is important to calculate into your considerations the fact that he will go," Carney said. "The regime has lost control of the country and will eventually fall."

Syria was dismissive of the U.S. remarks.

"We are not surprised at the lack of wisdom or rationality of these statements and regret that they are still issued by countries that are used to making the Middle East an arena for their follies and failures," the state news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying late on Monday.

A draft of the U.N. Security Council resolution, obtained by Reuters, calls for a "political transition" in Syria, and says the Security Council could adopt unspecified "further measures" if Syria does not comply with its terms.

It endorses the Arab League power transfer plan. So far Moscow has shown little sign of being persuaded to let it pass.

"The current Western draft is only a step away from the October version and can by no means be supported by us," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Interfax. "This document is not balanced ... and above all leaves the door open for intervention in Syrian (internal) affairs."

Nevertheless, some Western diplomats said they hoped Russia and China could be persuaded not to block the draft.

An abstention by Russia and China last March paved the way for the Security Council to authorize force against Muammar Gaddafi's military in Libya with Arab League support.

Making the Arab League's case, Elaraby will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League's committee dealing with Syria.

ASSAULT ON DAMASCUS BEATEN BACK

Assad's forces appear to have decisively beaten back an attempt by the opposition to march on the outskirts of Damascus.

Activists and residents said Syrian troops now had control of Hamouriyeh, one of several districts where they have used armored vehicles and artillery to push back rebels who came as close as 8 km (5 miles) to Damascus.

An activist said the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - a force of military defectors with links to Syria's divided opposition - mounted scattered attacks on government troops who advanced through the district of Saqba, held by rebels just days ago.

Rebels are risking heavier clashes and speaking of creating "liberated" territories to force diplomatic action. In the past three weeks they have taken Zabadani - a town of 40,000 in mountainous near the border with Lebanon.

"God willing, we will liberate more territory, because the international community has only offered delayed action and empty threats," said a lieutenant colonel who had defected to the FSA and asked not to be identified.

Homs residents said fighting erupted on Monday in the al-Qusour neighborhood, and several armored vehicles belonging to loyalist forces where destroyed.

In the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, which had remained mostly on the sidelines in the uprising as an alliance between Assad and the city's Sunni Muslim merchant class held, demonstrations erupted for a fourth day in several districts.

Tension rose there after pro-Assad militiamen killed 10 people following a pro-democracy demonstration on Friday.

Security forces cut off electricity from Fardos neighborhood of Aleppo and arrested 100 youths on Monday after a demonstration demanding the removal of Assad, activists said.

Syria's state news agency said six soldiers died in an attack near Deraa in the south and a gas pipeline was blown up.

The state news agency SANA has reported funerals of more than 70 members of the security forces members since Friday.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Syria agreed to Russian-brokered negotiations over the crisis, but senior members of the council set up to speak for a fragmented Syria opposition said there was no point in talking to Assad, who must quit.

"We rejected the Russian proposal because they wanted us to talk with the regime while it continues the killings, the torture, the imprisonment," Walid al-Bunni, foreign affairs chief for the Syrian National Council, told Reuters.

The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday. Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, are due to discuss the crisis on February 5.

The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people had been killed in the protests and crackdown. Syria says more than 2,000 security force members have been killed by militants.

(Writing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/wl_nm/us_syria

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Pakistani PM's lawyer: No harm in graft case (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? A lawyer for Pakistan's prime minister said Wednesday there would be no harm in the government's asking Swiss authorities to reopen an old corruption case against the country's president, because he enjoys immunity from prosecution.

The comments by Aitzaz Ahsan might suggest a way out of a legal crisis that could force Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from office. The mounting political pressures threaten to bring down the country's beleaguered government, which is under a combined assault from the Supreme Court and the powerful army.

Gilani is scheduled to make a rare appearance Thursday before the Supreme Court, which has initiated contempt proceedings against him for failing to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to reopen the graft case against his ally, President Asif Ali Zardari.

The government has long refused to write the letter, arguing that Zardari enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. Ahsan's comments indicate Gilani may reverse that stance to avoid being held in contempt of court, while using the same legal argument to avoid prosecution. If he were held in contempt he could face a maximum of five years in prison and be disqualified from holding public office.

"There is no harm in writing a letter to the Swiss authorities," said Ahsan. "The president has complete immunity against criminal procedures in courts."

Reopening the case would expose Zardari to prosecution once he leaves office. It would also come at a serious political cost, since the president has said he would never send the letter to Swiss authorities because it would dishonor his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was also part of the case.

Zardari and Bhutto were found guilty in absentia in a Swiss court in 2003 of laundering millions of dollars in kickbacks from Swiss companies when they were in government.

They appealed, and Swiss authorities abandoned the case in 2008 at the request of the Pakistani government. The case was among thousands dropped as a result of an amnesty that allowed Bhutto to return from exile and run for election in 2008. She was assassinated in 2007 during the campaign.

The Supreme Court declared the amnesty unconstitutional in 2009, leaving those covered by it vulnerable to prosecution.

The government is also under pressure from the army over an unsigned memo sent last year to Washington asking for U.S. help in preventing a coup in the aftermath of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The army was outraged by the memo, which was allegedly sent by the government, and pushed the Supreme Court to set up a commission to investigate. The government has denied any connection to the memo and opposed the commission, saying the matter was already being probed by the parliament.

Some observers have speculated the army is working behind the scenes with the Supreme Court to oust the government. But the court could have its own reasons for stepping up pressure on the government. Supreme Court Justice Mohammad Iftikhar Chaudhry has clashed with Zardari in the past, and the judges could be fed up with the government's defying its order to reopen the corruption case against the president.

Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, no civilian government has ever completed a full five-year term before being toppled by a military coup, or forced to call early elections. There have been three coups over that period.

A fourth coup is considered unlikely, but the government may call early elections to counter the building political pressure.

Tension is also high between Pakistan and one of its most important allies, the United States, over American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two posts along the Afghan border on Nov. 26.

Pakistan recently asked the U.S. special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, to delay a trip to the country until the Pakistani parliament concluded a review of Pakistan-U.S. relations triggered by the airstrikes, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday in Washington.

Pakistan conveyed its request about a week ago, another U.S. official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The official would not say when Grossman planned to visit Pakistan.

The envoy is currently in the region meeting, with officials about peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.

___

Associated Press writer Sebastian Abbot contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

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Here's What a Year in Fatal Car Crashes Looks Like [Factoid]

The most dangerous day on the roads in 2010? Saturday October 16, when 204 vehicles were involved in 90 crashes. Compare that to a low of 41 crashes on Monday 22 March—and to the rest of that year, with this illuminating visualization. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/v2yJVkpRl8o/heres-what-a-year-in-fatal-car-crashes-looks-like

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