Rare Historical Photos
A young Bill and Hillary Clinton playing volleyball, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein just chillin’, Johnny Cash performing at Folsom Prison, Times Square circa 1911, and more.
Brain Gym
Amazing how much exercise my brain needs! (Or maybe it’s sleep that it needs, especially after seeing some of my answers!)
10 Animals You Probably Didn’t Know Existed (pics)
40 Free Online Human Anatomy Galleries
For those in the medical fields, or those who are just curious!
Plains and Forests Unite!, one of my decks on EssentialMagic
I built this deck a couple of years ago, after I had reevaluated a couple of my multicolor decks and realized they needed to be mono-color. Out came the White and hybrid spells from my Elvish Piper deck, which then became mono-Green; out came the Green and hybrid spells from my Windborn Muse deck, which then became mono-White.
These hybrid spells, combined with other Green and White bits of my collection, became the “Plains and Forests Unite!” deck. The main philosophy? White’s life-gain meets Green’s might–a common theme for the Selesnya guild and for Green/White in general.
Combos and Synergies
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| This combo is hilarious–Dawnglow Infusion allows me to gain double the life for the mana that was spent, and then Boon Reflection doubles that again! | |
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| With Safewright Quest for land fetch and Wheel of Sun and Moon helping to keep spells rotating through the deck, I’m just about guaranteed to stay up on land counts. | |
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| Bant Sureblade gets bonuses for other multicolored creatures being in play; Knight of New Alara gives Bant Sureblade an additional +3/+3 (because Blue is also in its casting cost)! | |
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| I love this little combo for being able to pull whatever creature I like to my hand, many times over! | |
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| Putting the Shield on Grizzled Leotau = indestructible flying blocker cat. (This is an LOLcat waiting to happen) | |
Other Cards I Love Using in This Deck
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Any Changes I’d Make?
Since I haven’t kept up with new developments in White/Green, I need to research to find out if there are any new creatures I’d swap into this deck.
…And that, my friends, is where we’ll pick up next week, with some epic new research into the Selesnya guild and White/Green in general. 😀 Stay tuned!
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In these verses, Jesus is most likely referencing the “burden” which the Pharisees placed on followers of Old Testament Law–their highly legalistic reading of Scripture led to a strict way of life, almost barren of faith but full of never-ending atonement rituals. Jesus is literally saying to His listeners, “Follow Me and you won’t need these rituals to keep you spiritually cleansed.”
But this is not Jesus’ only reference–He is also speaking of the spiritual burden of sin, which these traditions were originally meant to pay for. The Israelites and their descendants had long struggled to come closer to God through these traditions, and now Jesus would provide them “rest” through His coming sacrifice on the cross, lifting the burden of sin and removing the yoke of constantly atoning for it. Replacing that yoke and burden is the command to “learn from [Jesus],” following His way of life, placing more emphasis on expressed faith than on mere policy and tradition.
This passage is just as much for modern readers as it was for Jesus’ listeners–we also need to be reminded of the importance of faith in God, rather than just blindly following “God-ish” traditions. Today, we too can “come to [Jesus]” and take on His way of life, emulating Him as best we can in thoughts, words, and actions. When we do this, our burdens become lighter as we learn to depend on God, even if our faith is challenged sometimes–because we know that we have a Savior who gives us rest.
(Author’s Note: Sorry this second installment of the Wardrobe Purge series took so long–the Procrastinator Queen strikes again. :P)
Once you’ve determined which clothes you want to sell or donate, it’s time to get them clean and fix any small tears.
You might wonder why you should bother with this step, but if you take the time to clean and repair these clothes, you will be saving your thrift shop/consignment shop a lot of time and effort, and making the new owners happy, too. You may even get a better price for your garments if they are clean and in good repair!
Step 1: Mend Small Holes
Before you clean the garment or even try to remove any stains by hand, fix any small holes in the garment. (If you do not sew, look around in your area for a sewing center or fabric store which might be able to direct you to someone.) It’s important that you get holes repaired so that washing and stain removal do not tear them open further.
Step 2: Remove Stains
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Tackle any stain, major or minor, before you try washing the garment. (For instance, this shirt at left is one of the ones I’m getting rid of–the giant dark stain under the arm comes from wearing too much anti-perspirant. Regular washing DEFINITELY doesn’t get rid of this–trust me, I’ve been trying!!) |
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This stuff, called Shout Advanced Gel for Set-In Stains, is absolutely the best and easiest stuff I’ve ever used to get rid of stains. It has gotten out stuff that I thought the dryer had baked in long ago. If you have an especially tough stain, you can spray this in and wait up to a week to let it work its magic before you wash! (I don’t know how this behaves with dry-clean-only fabric–best to let the professionals handle those, I believe.) |
Step 3: Wash/Dry-Clean
Now that you’ve repaired the garment and treated any stains, it’s time to wash or dry-clean it (as appropriate). Just think, it’ll be the last time you have to deal with these clothes if they’re a pain to clean!
Final Notes
After the garment is clean and dry, examine it again to make sure you got all the stains and holes taken care of, and tackle those if necessary before trying to sell or donate it.
If the holes turn out to be too big to mend, or if the repair is too obvious or fragile, do not try to sell the clothing–perhaps donate it to a rag shop or to someone who needs fabric for craft purposes. And if a stain is too stubborn to remove, don’t sell or donate it; you wouldn’t want to buy or get stained clothing, so why try to sell or give a badly stained item away?
Summary
Getting your sellable/donatable clothes in shape is one more step to getting them out of your house. It takes a good bit of effort, admittedly but it’s worth it if it finally motivates you to sell or give away these old items!
As webdesigners, we have to make our sites both informative and beautiful to view. This takes a careful balance of design ideas, which need to be constantly upgraded and improved as users’ needs change.
Thus, the reason I came up with the following graphic depicting the considerations that go into making good webdesign decisions. I call this a “cycle” because we webdesigners never completely stop reevaluating our own decisions–we’re always coming up with ways to do it better, whatever “it” is!
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