Elemental is a game from the BBC in which you play against another character by answering English questions. It is great way to revise language work and it is suitable for students in Years 9 and 10.

So far I have uploaded the elemental oils - Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, and also the astrological/Zodiac Oils.

I have always found that the zodiac oils have worked well, mine is taurus, I find it soothing and very earthy. So not only does it provide a calming influence, it assists in helping me to feel a little more grounded and centered.

My partners oil is Aquarius, and I have found that using this oil blend to massage really does offer him some relief from tension and stress, especially after a 'bad day', plus he actually liked the aroma, which being a 'bloke' struck me as being a huge success!

All of the ingredients for the oils have been ethically sourced, and none of them have been tested on animals - human experimentation only! (I wouldn't have it any other way).

I have just emailed the next batch of recipes through to Helen to work with and put into production, this time the more 'important' Ritual Oils. Helen is doing a really great Job, and we have found that we are thinking the same way about things that need to be adapted, for example when an ingredient is no longer available - due to the age of the recipe! great minds think alike eh?

Currenly undergoing development, are a range of Magickal Oils, taken from recepies in my own book of shadows, and adapted for use by everyone. I have been working closely with my friend Helen, who is a qualified aromatherapist, to ensure that all of the blends are safe for use by everyone, and the first part of the range is almost ready.

First to hit the shelves in the store will be the 'Elemental Oils' namely Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit. How you choose to use these oils is up to you, but they have been blended using pure essential oils that will align you with the element you wish to work with, helping you to harness the power it has and add it to your own. Alternatively, the earth oil could be used as part of a grounding ritual, or indeed you could use any of them in an oil burner or for ritual bathing.

I'm really excited about this, as I have been making salts and such for people using these blends for years and they have always been well received and their benefits more so! So you have had the 'heads up' as it were here first! The Elemental Oils will soon be followed by a range of Zodiac Oils, then eventually by request and spell oils etc.. So watch this space, and remember to check in at the store to see what else is new!

Estátua foi devolvida a casa de Gloucester com uma carta e álbum de fotos.
Situação já havia sido retratada em filme ‘O fabuloso destino de Amélie Poulain’.

Um anão de jardim reapareceu na casa de sua dona, na Inglaterra, depois de ter sumido por diversos meses. Murphy tinha com ele uma carta explicando que havia partido por causa de um “comichão no pé”, um pacote com 48 fotos dos lugares por onde passou e vistos de diversos países. A situação recria a história de um anão do filme “O fabuloso destino de Amélie Poulain”, de 2001.

Entre os lugares que teriam sido visitados, diz o jornal “Telegraph”, estão África do Sul, Moçambique, Nova Zelândia, Austrália, Singapura, Tailândia, Vietnã, China e Hong Kong. No álbum de fotos, Murphy (que pesa apenas 3,6 kg) aparece nadando no mar, pilotando uma moto, na boca de um tubarão e descendo uma montanha. Jornais britânicos publicaram diversas dessas fotos: veja aqui imagens do “Telegraph” e do “Sun”.

Eve Stuart-Kelso, a dona do anão, afirma ter sido um choque ver que Murphy retornou ao jardim de sua casa, em Gloucester. “Ele sumiu há muitos, muitos meses e havia me esquecido dele. Quando abri a porta na quinta-feira [7], vi que ele tinha voltado. Foi um choque”, disse ao “Telegraph”.

Ela contou que Murphy estava muito danificado, inclusive sem os pés, e tinha perto dele um pacote. “Foi o presente mais estranho que recebi e fico rindo. Me faz rir pensar quantas pessoas ele conheceu nessa viagem. Foi uma surpresa incrível”, continuou. A mulher disse que ficaria encantada em encontrar o “culpado” pela brincadeira.

Via: http://www.globo.com/

"When I say OO, you say Long!"

http://www.shadowfoxtarot.com/tarottutorial/sftvideos/2mt_tarotterminology.html

Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss and Anna Walton

Produced by Dark Horse Entertainment, Relativity Media and Universal Pictures

Written by Mike Mignola (graphic novel) and Guillermo del Toro

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

I am officially a Hellboy fangirl. I just got back from seeing this movie and I must say it's a million times better than the first one. I really liked the original, but this just was a major step up. I'm running out and buying the comics tomorrow, in fact.

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) along with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) must stop Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) from destroying humans after obtaining the pieces of the crowd which resurrects the golden army. Nuada's twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), goes behind her brothers back and teams up with the BPRD to stop him, only to result in much mayhem.

This movie was so sappy. There were all these love triangles and love complications and other issues (which I'm not telling you about) a couple goes through. Hellboy cries, Abe Sapien cries, I FRIGGIN CRIED! Ok, not really, but I wanted to. To balance out the sap, the movie really stepped up its game as far as humor goes. There are tons of great one-liners that aren't nearly as cheesy at the ones in the first film (which I loved).

The monsters in the sequel are far better than those in the first. It seems theres a plethora of supernatural creatures everywhere. Some are small, some tower over Hellboy himself. There's one creature in particular, The Angel of Death, that is so incredibly creepy and stunning at the same time it's hard to take your eyes off him.

Doug Jones played a much larger part in this film, having three separate roles. I absolutely prefer the character with his voice over David Hyde Pierce's. Also, for all you "Family Guy" superfreaks, Seth MacFarlane voices the character of Johann Krauss, so I'm sure all you goons will enjoy that. As usual Ron Perlman and Selma Blair give great performances. I officially worship Ron Perlman.

If you liked the first one, you'll love the new one even more. I know I do.

Now, if someone could help me not get pwned in battlegrounds or in world PvP, I'd really appreciate it. :P

For some reason my LCD just stopped turning on for no reason.  No relay click when plugging it in, and nothing powering on at all.  I had everything mounted except for the power supply board before things stopped working.  So, I assumed in the mounting of the power supply I had done something that damaged the board.  I bought a new power supply which I received today and plugged in.  No luck.  Still nothing.

So, now that I know that the display not working was not caused by something I did I'm just going to have to put it back together and send it back in.  Guess that's the chance you take by buying refurbished.

In any case, I thought I'd post some pictures of my progress.  Enjoy, and I'll report back soon!

Notching one of the aluminum pieces.  Couldn't get the snips in at the angle I needed so out comes the trusty Dremel!

Screwing the LCD frame into the aluminum to keep it from flexing when pressure is applied.

An earlier shot of the boards mounted on the back of the table (before the TV died)

Currently you can see through the sides of the table.  I'll be adding white reflective walls surrounding the backlight to fix this issue.

Closeup of the display.  LCD frame screwed into aluminum frame attached to the top of the table.  Tempered glass above for a nice rigid surface to touch without worrying about someone messing up the LCD.  The glass I'm using is temporary pulled from one of my desks.  It has a blue tint so I'm going to have to buy a new sheet for the final product.

The finalized rear of the table with the LCD circuit boards attached.

Voila ... the final product.  This is just the basic skeleton to which the exterior paneling will be attached.

The dream started with these giant creatures, elementals of Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Death (spirit?) that were ravaging everything around them. I lured them to my chosen battleground, a labyrinth of the modern world (a massive place with many rows of products, like a super store, but much larger). There they followed me, as I seemed to flee from them, drawing ever closer to the center of the labyrinth. At last I reached there, and Death confronted me. It realized my intentions, and attempted to destroy the entire area. Before it could do so, I sacrificed my physical form to create a contained, controlled, singularity. This vortex of... I don't know what, drew the elementals into it. They shrieked with fury as their bodies were torn apart, and then taken into the thing that had once been my body. The dream ended with the singularity still existing at the center of the devastated battlefield, but no longer pulling things in. It was a still pool that reflected the night sky, with an image of the stars, and the galaxies, clear within it. People came and looked at the pool, and moved on. But, I was no more.

I wonder what happened to that dream-world. Did my remains become the center of a cult, or was I transformed into a tourist attraction? Some day, I’ll have to have someone paint a picture of the final scene.

And so it came to pass that Girlpants made her way to that very same location, tail between her legs, and requested to unlearn all of her talents. "My child," gasped Farseer Umbrua (for it is she), "You were so happy with the elemental arts, why the change of mind?". Girlpants sank to the floor and sat with her head in her hands, "I'm just not getting the armour I need, Umbrua," she finally replied after a heavy sigh. "All of my spiritual sisters, the hunter, the druid, the rogue and even the warlock found it very easy to be clothed and fed purely on the quests available throughout the world. Even with little time available to band up with other adventurers and take a trip into the dungeons, they were never left wanting for decent clothes that enhanced their abilities and matched their level. I've just returned from a particularly messy encounter over in Tanaris, fighting pirates. Oy, you don't even want to hear that story...". Though it was being fought back with probably the same ferocity she had shown the pirates, Umbrua could see the mid-afternoon light hit the beginnings of a tear in the corner of her student's eye but she chose not to mention it.

The elemental spec is a much-maligned one for levelling, and it is true that of all the quests I've done, the majority of Teh Pants' gear was still leather, her spell crit chance was a little above 6% and her bonus spell damage was 6. She even had boots and a belt made of cloth! Feckin' cloth! You still can't move for mail rewards that suit the adventurer more interested in agility over spell-damage. I know from all the "Psh! Shaman mail!" comments I made with Anj working through Outland that there's decent gear to allow the growing shaman a few more options out there. But for now it's twin axes in people's faces. Boo!

Basically, all you have to do is LOG-IN, AND PLAY!

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Get into the action. Play RAKION!

Thanks for the great comments on my last post, everyone! I had been leaning towards resto anyway but you guys helped me feel more confident in the decision. I've already mapped out my talent tree and have been spying for new equipment. I feel like I'll miss my crits and my Elemental Mastery. It will be an interesting adjustment to no longer be the lightning bug. Still, I've had experience healing at lower levels and it was fun so I have more confidence in my ability there than to play Enhancement anyway. You can check out my gear on the Armory and if you have any recommendations, let me know. I tried Be.Imba but it keeps giving me an armory error message.) The tricky part is that I haven't done an instance since... wow, since Blackrock Depths (and I didn't even finish that one). So I have no idea how I'd get the drop-type gear. Actually, I have no idea how I'd get ANY gear that you can't purchase. Anyway, just keeping you up to date.

Updated: The Be.Imba report finally came through. It looks like at least I was right-on for leveling and grinding. It also looks like I do need some gear improvements. Okay, a LOT of gear improvements.

Microsoft's Surface has done some of this in a very neat way by interfacing with your Bluetooth enabled camera or cell phone and displaying the contents on the table.  However, what if you want to add other files beside pictures on your camera?  Time to pop open the CD tray or plug in a jump drive.

I was reading a bit about some new technology from Seagate coming out later this year that appears to be the perfect compliment to multi-touch.  D.A.V.E. is a small form factor hard drive that includes Bluetooth and WiFi built in.

I can't wait to get my hands on this when it's released.  I can imagine it would be pretty simple to check for a large blob from the hard drive (or a fiducial marker) and then interface with the Bluetooth to grab and transfer files to and from the drive.  Plop the hard drive on the table and interact with it's contents wirelessly without having to plug anything in!

If I'm able to get ahold of one of these I'll work on developing some kind of interface (Objective-C/Cocoa based) that I'll make public open-source via another part of this site that will hopefully be launched in the next few months at http://developme.ntal.ws/

over cocktails at licorous, we decided to endure the $25 cab ride and make our way to the condo complex that houses elemental at gasworks.  

the room is spare, and dark once the sun goes down, with only votives to guide you to your high-backed white chair (this is why i didn't take any photos).  there are five tables, no reservations are taken, no waiting list exists, and you won't be given any sympathy or if there is no table available.  

phred is an owner and the host/tyrant of the restaurant.  the impression he makes on diners can vary wildly from customer to customer.  some would describe his personality as dryly funny, others would tend towards cranky or unkind.  it simply depends on the way that both you and he are feeling that evening.  because his reputation so powerfully precedes him, some people enjoy his quirky rules (NO tipping!).  and many others leave infuriated, insulted, and unfed.

we arrived late enough that there was no wait (dinner is served until 12) and we were told to sit down.  two glasses of dry sherry made an appearance, and soon after phred came by to offer cocktails.  

"a negroni?  a manhattan?"

well, yes, actually, i did want a negroni.  and sure, why not a manhattan for my friend.  

we were halfway through our drinks before the subject of food came up, and phred wanted to know if we needed menus or if they should just take over.  

needless to say, we didn't want menus.  what a relief it is to have this option.  if only every restaurant would spare me the stress of having to pick and choose.  while at lampreia, this same fellow eater and i had requested that the kitchen just send us food; we liked to share, we ate anything.  our server had looked confused and we'd ended up with two identical tasting menus (for $400).  

phred didn't ask if we wanted to share.  we were going to share.  and we were going to drink what he poured us (i've never seen a physical wine list there).  which is exactly what we wanted (not that that mattered).  wine glasses came and went with ease.  we were never without wine, but we also never had more than one wine, which meant you have to hurry and finish each glass if you are as opposed to wasting wine as i am.  

i started off making guesses as to what we were drinking, but it just didn't seem to fit the mood.  the only important consideration was whether or not the wine worked with the food - and it always did.  details like varietal or origin were irrelevant.  

the food is as unpredictable as phred's demeanor.  we began with a cold beet and tomato soup with a scoop of some sort of cheese ice cream - like the wine, i was never sure of the ingredients of my food, and left it that way.  it was difficult to tell in the lack of light, but i have a feeling that the soup was beautiful.  i always think beets are beautiful.  

cured salmon was seasoned with sea salt and soy sauce, sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  along side was green papaya and cucumber (i believe), cut like spaghetti and dressed with sesame vinaigrette. 

blinis followed.  atop was a tartar with a hint of bacon, and a generous dollop of creme fraiche tied it all together in a most lovely way.  very mid-rare beef medallions were wrapped in what i'm guessing was phyllo dough.  white rice accompanied, speckled with bell pepper.  i can't say i'm sure why the two elements were chosen to be on the same plate.  

this particular meal was regrettably cut short when my friend became ill (something to note - don't have cocktails before arriving at elemental.  she was genuinely ill, though, and not yet drunk).  on other visits, however, the plate traffic is impressive.  courses and wine pairings continue to arrive far later into the night than you expect.  

it's difficult to categorize the food.  each dish seems to have a different worldly influence, and sometimes there are multiple influences.  i frequently have a difficult time imagining the reference point used for the creation of a dish.  quite often, the quirky combinations are successful.  not always.  

what i would like to be able to say is that the high quality of the food at elemental makes the risk of facing phred's wrath worthwhile.  i myself (and many others, elemental is usually busy), don't take it personally or manage to avoid it because i like to let phred run my meals.  for so many others, though, without outstanding food waiting for them, the whole event just isn't worth it.  

and yet, i can't help thinking that that's what phred's hoping for.  just as customers like to choose their restaurants, some restaurants like to choose their customers.  phred's just weeding the garden.