Jessie

"If you crashed your expensive Lamborghini with no license plates and then abandoned it on a Texas highway this weekend, good news! The cops found it and they just have a couple questions, no big deal! Cops discovered the $200,000 vehicle, which I guess I would take, you know, if no one's going to claim it, on the side of the Dallas North Tollway early Sunday morning. There were no plates on the vehicle, but an "exotic rental company" called Exotic Skittles claims it's one of theirs. The mysterious driver reportedly smashed the car into a wall before abandoning it." - Jessie

So THATS where I left it. Huh. - Joe

I was going to claim, but the yellow one's not mine. - bentley

"As video released by Dallas police of the suspects confirms, the department has frustratingly little to go on in its search for the killers of Ahmed Al-Jumaili. Al-Jumaili, 36, had recently emigrated to Dallas from Iraq. Wednesday night, he saw snow for the first time; when he, his wife and his brother went outside Al-Jumaili's apartment to take some pictures and enjoy the weather, Al-Jumaili was shot. He staggered back into his apartment on Walnut Street in Far Northeast Dallas, before being taken to Texas Health Presbyterian. He died at the hospital." - Jessie

"Cotner went on to say that Dallas police still haven't received much information from potential witnesses or anyone else who might know something about what happened. Al-Jumaili was shot with a rifle, Cotner said, and, contrary to what was initially reported, the men who shot Al-Jumaili did not double back before killing him. The killers' motive is still unknown, but the department still hasn't ruled out the possibility that it was a hate crime. Crime Stoppers is offering $5,000 for any information that leads to an arrest and an indictment in the case." - Jessie

"You thought the dust had settled on #TheDress. But today, The Salvation Army in South Africa released what just might be the most harrowing take on the viral phenomenon—in the form of a domestic abuse PSA. "Why is it so hard to see black and blue?" reads the headline. Copy reads: "The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in 6 women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women."" - Jessie

"Details for new plans to rent out city-owned apartments next to MRT stations were announced by the Taipei City Government yesterday. “Even if there is still no way to make housing purchases affordable for young people in Taipei, at least we can make sure they have a place to live,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said. Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said there was no need to force young people to live far away, as the MRT system’s 103 stations all have accompanying housing developments. He dismissed concerns that renting out apartments within MRT developments would negatively affect surrounding real-estate prices, saying that the apartments were of higher quality than previously constructed public housing. According to the plans, 570 housing units next to the Longshan Temple, Gangqian, Taipei Bridge and Xindian Depot MRT stations would be opened for rental next month, with further properties to follow as other joint development projects are completed." - Jessie

"Under the new plan, housing units are to be available for rental at rates 15 percent to 30 percent less than market price for up to six years by individuals between 20 and 45 years of age, regardless of their city of household registration. Ten percent of the units would be reserved for people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. An interview with Lin published on Wednesday in Next Magazine outlined the considerations behind the city’s future public housing plans in more detail. In the interview, Lin said that with publicly rented housing units composing only 0.08 percent of housing units nationwide, Taiwan lagged far behind the 5 percent average for international cities. “This demonstrates that a government function is missing,” he said. “The government has failed to regulate housing prices and care for people who need a place to live.”" - Jessie

"In an industry with a famous lack of female creative directors, you'd have to expect some backlash against something like this. And indeed, a number of women have complained on Twitter that the campaign is disrespectful." - Jessie

"Copywriter Susan Morris wrote a scathing blog post about the campaign that's been circulating in the community. "The Chicago Advertising Federation is one of America's oldest and largest ad organizations," she writes. "On its Board of Directors, 12 men and 16 women. Apparently all of them think this ad is funny. I don't."" - Jessie

"The act of stealing between women can be physical or it can be emotional. What is physical is easily replaced. A barrette goes missing, and you buy another one. As we age, we graduate to emotional stealing. But what do we do when we're robbed of our self-esteem? I saw a girl crying in a bathroom once with her arms around her knees, indifferent to the fact that the door of her stall was open. I hesitated before asking if she was okay. She took one scrunched-up fist out of her eye, looked at me and said with drunken candor: "My friend told me my boyfriend was out of my league. She's always making me feel bad."" - Jessie

I'm only half way through reading the comments, but this one's my favorite so far http://gawker.com/once-in... "Once, in highschool, a girl who desperately wanted to become a mean girl but was just a little too insecure to pull it off, "complimented" me on my new bangs, saying something like "Heeey, you got bangs. Cut them yourself, eh?" Since I wasn't aware that she was trying to start shit and naively assumed that she was actually showing interest in my new hairstyle, I enthusiastically replied "Haha yeah, no I'd be too scared to fuck it up! I went to XY to have it cut! You're lucky, you got so much hair, mine is so thin and I always have split ends and [blah blah long monologue about my haircut history.]" She just stared at me blankly, mumbled something unintelligible and turned away, my friends started laughing hysterically and she turned bright red. When I realized what had happened, I almost felt bad for her. But ever since then, my strategy for shutting down bitchy and passive-aggressive behaviour is feigning ignorance and killing the bitches with kindness." - bentley

"Ahmed Al-Jumail was outside with his wife just after midnight Thursday taking pictures of the newly fallen snow when witnesses saw two men walk casually past the couple before turning around and shooting at them, police say. Al-Jumail was hit and transported to the hospital, where he died. He was 36 and had recently emigrated from Iraq. Alia Salem, executive director of the North Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has asked that police investigate whether the Al-Jumail and his wife's faith -- and maybe her hijab -- played a role in Al-Jumail's death. The shooting happened on the 9900 block of Walnut Street in Far northeast Dallas, an area that has a high population of Muslims, Salem says, along with many other refugees." - Jessie

:( - Soup in a TARDIS

Ughhhhhh. - Jennifer Dittrich

A while back, similar thing happened at work. Staff member gave the wrong ID back to someone. Both patrons were black men. If it makes any difference (not that it should), staff member was also black. So yeah, it happens. - bentley

"This isn't the first year SXSW has played host to a corporation you regularly see advertising during the Super Bowl. Last year, for example, there was a Doritos thing that featured Lady Gaga. However, Doritos paid Lady Gaga $2.5 million dollars for that thing. What of the future Lady Gagas (music industry compliment) McDonald's is courting to perform at their 2015 showcase? The $90 billion corporation, powered by poverty-stricken workers, does not—hmm, let's see, ahhh, maybe if we...ah nope, sorry—have a budget, unfortunately." - Jessie

I've heard variations on "Do you buy groceries/pay your rent with exposure?" but I like bentley's response better. - Jessie

"A Holly Hill man has been arrested after police say he shot his sister with a BB gun because she made him a phallic birthday cake. Christopher Taft, 21, has been charged with aggravated battery and battery in the Sunday incident. Police said Taft shot his sister in the buttocks with a BB gun in retaliation for his sister making him a birthday cake in the shape of a penis. Taft told police he thought it would be funny to shoot his sister with a BB gun as a joke and did not intend to hurt her, according to the report." - Jessie

She called the cops because she was butthurt. - Starmama

"A 21-year-old Lincoln man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana after deputies found a 16-ounce container labeled "Not Weed" under the front passenger's seat." - Jessie

Every single time I see this I laugh. What was he thinking?! - Soup in a TARDIS

"MARK RUFFALO: What are you going to do with your fox once you catch it? CHANNING TATUM: I’m not sure. I mean, cuddle the shit out of the little dude, for sure, at least at first. But I dunno what I’ll do, like, forever with him, fox-wise. Lemme think about it. [CHANNING removes his shirt and shoes.] MARK RUFFALO: What are you doing? CHANNING TATUM: This helps me think. Someone told me that taking your shirt and shoes off helps you think better." - Jessie

"CHANNING TATUM: You’re my best friend. MARK RUFFALO: I love catching foxes and not getting shot with you. CHANNING TATUM: And I love that you have a full, luxurious head of hair, and not a close-cropped balding wig. MARK RUFFALO: Huh. Me too, I guess." - Jessie

"Martha Furie stormed into the room and huffily sat down in a chair. “Well, you know, I’ve been working really hard, studying Lyme disease,” she said, her voice tinged with disdain, to the woman sitting in the next chair. “It’s been a long process. It’s hard to talk about it.” The other woman, Bernadette Holdener, was somewhat befuddled. ”How does it make you feel?” she asked. “Lyme disease?” Dr. Furie sneered. “It can have all sorts of bad things.” The two were participating in an improvisational acting exercise a couple of Fridays ago. But they are not aspiring actresses or comedians. Dr. Furie is a professor of pathology at Stony Brook University, Dr. Holdener a professor of biochemistry and cell biology. “Anyone have any inkling what is going on?” asked one of the instructors for the session — Alan Alda, the actor who played Hawkeye in the television series “M*A*S*H” more than three decades ago. The exercise, called “Who am I?,” challenges one of the participants — Dr. Furie, in this case — to convey an unstated relationship with another, and everyone else must try to deduce the relationship. “She sounded very angry,” Dr. Holdener said. People guessed variously that Dr. Furie was a Lyme researcher who had contracted the disease, that she just been denied tenure and was venting to the head of her department, that she was expressing passive-aggressive anger toward her spouse. “You’re so close,” Mr. Alda said. Dr. Furie explained that Dr. Holdener “was my long-lost sister who stole my husband away.” The other participants laughed at the convoluted, unlikely setup. Mr. Alda said that Dr. Furie, focusing on her role as a wronged sister, intently observed her audience — Dr. Holdener — and the effect of her words. “What I find interesting about this is you’re suddenly talking about your work in a way you’ve never talked about it before,” Mr. Alda said. The idea of teaching improv to scientists came from Mr. Alda, now a visiting professor. The objective is not to make them funny, but to help them talk about science to people who are not scientists. The exercises encourage them to pay attention to the audience’s reaction and adjust. “Not jokes, not cleverness,” Mr. Alda said. “It’s the contact with the other person.”" - Jessie

"Mr. Alda has long held a deep interest in science. In the 1990s, he collaborated on “QED,” a play about the physicist Richard Feynman, with Mr. Alda playing Dr. Feynman. He also hosted 11 seasons of the PBS program “Scientific American Frontiers.” In interviews with hundreds of scientists, he found that he could draw out engaging explanations. ”I didn’t go in with a list of questions,” Mr. Alda said during a public lecture at Stony Brook the night before the workshop. “I just listened to what they had to say and asked them questions that would help me understand what their work was.” But he recalled one scientist who would switch from conversing with Mr. Alda to lecturing to the camera. “And immediately, the tone of her voice changed,” Mr. Alda said. “Her vocabulary changed. I couldn’t understand what she was saying.” Mr. Alda started suggesting to university presidents that they teach scientists how to present their research to the public. No one expressed interest until 2007, when Mr. Alda visited Stony Brook and met Shirley Strum Kenny, then the university’s president. “I thought, here’s my chance, I’ll go into my pitch,” Mr. Alda said. “I said, ‘What do you think? Do you think both could be taught at the same time so you can graduate accomplished scientists who are also accomplished communicators?’ And she was interested.” The next year, he tested his improv idea at the University of Southern California on 20 graduate engineering students. The students first talked briefly about their work. “It was O.K.,” Mr. Alda said. Then came three hours of improvisational acting exercises. At the end, the students talked about their work again. “The difference was striking,” Mr. Alda said. “They came to life, and I thought, ‘This is going to work.’ ” Stony Brook established the Center for Communicating Science in 2009 as part of its journalism school. In addition to classes, the center started the Flame Challenge, a contest seeking compelling explanations of seemingly simple phenomena. The first year, the question was “What is a flame?” Mr. Alda asked his teacher this when he was 11, and the answer — “oxidation” — was his first experience with confusing scientific jargon. This year, the question is “What is sleep?” The winners will be named at the World Science Festival in New York in May." - Jessie

"In 2013, the Stony Brook program was officially named the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Howard Schneider, the dean of the journalism school, said science departments were initially skeptical, with many thinking improv would be a distraction. That has changed. Two graduate programs now require students to take the center’s classes. All medical school students receive 10 hours of training. “This is a big cultural shift,” Mr. Schneider said. In addition, four organizations — Dartmouth College, the University of Vermont, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and the American Chemical Society — have become affiliates of the center. Other universities, inspired by Stony Brook, are considering setting up similar programs. The ability to describe science effectively could prove key to winning research financing in the future. Last year, Stony Brook ran a competition among its younger scientists for a $200,000 prize. The four finalists, who were coached at the Alan Alda Center, pitched to a panel of distinguished scientists. The winner was Laurie T. Krug, a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, who proposed studying herpes viruses associated with cancer and using nanoparticles to deliver molecules that act as scissors to cut up viral DNA. The recent workshop was for about 40 members of the Stony Brook faculty. For the improv sessions, the group with Mr. Alda threw around imaginary balls of varying weights, mirrored one another’s movements, tried to explain a smartphone to a time traveler from the past, and talked of cherished photographs while holding up a blank white folder. In the afternoon, they broke into smaller groups to talk about how to distill and describe their own research. Dr. Furie, who directs the graduate program in genetics, said she had started the day unsure the center’s offerings were a good use of time for her graduate students. “Now, I’m convinced,” she said. And she got to play the role of the wronged sister. “That was crazy,” Dr. Furie said. “I’m actually not a person who puts myself out there. I can’t believe I did that.”" - Jessie

""I want back these comics, now!" demanded an impressively profane 8-year-old in a voicemail left for Herald-Times editor Bob Zaltsberg this Sunday after he replaced 13 different strips. Other highlights of the tape: The reader offering to give Zaltsberg all his money, chanting,"Ya jerks. Ya jerks, ya jerks, ya jerks," and a just-audible warning from the boy's mother, "Don't threaten." According to Zaltsberg, the replaced comics were the result of failed negotiations after the paper's publisher reduced their cartoon budget." - Jessie

""I thought it was a very funny thing," the editor told Jim Romensko, "but still an 8-year-old calling me a shithole isn't that pleasant."" - Jessie

"David Campbell should have thought this one through. When you and your buddies have, as DeSoto police believe Campbell did, stolen a monster truck and hidden it deep into the woods, it's not the best idea to try to claim a reward offered for the trucks safe return. People are going to wonder how you knew it was there." - Jessie

"Japanese and Mongolian archaeologists said Feb. 26 that they have discovered the remains of a 13th-century military outpost established for Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227) in southwestern Mongolia. The joint research team said the discovery could be useful in learning about the Mongol Empire’s strategy on western expansion and trade routes. “We hope the discovery will be useful in ascertaining the history of the Mongolian Plateau between the 13th and 14th centuries,” said team leader Koichi Matsuda, professor emeritus of Mongol Empire history at Osaka International University." - Jessie

"Last summer, the archaeologists used carbon dating to determine the age of unearthed wood chips and animal bones found at the site. The analysis showed the wood pieces were from the 12th to 13th century, while the bones were estimated to date to the 14th century. Based on the findings, the archaeologists concluded the items were from a castle that was used as a military base when Genghis Khan was leading the bloody invasion of countries in central Asia." - Jessie

"Soup dumplings are a food that are as impressive from a technical standpoint as they are from a taste one. Not only are they delicious, they also raise certain architectural questions: Particularly, just how did that soup get in there?" - Jessie

I AM EVERYWHERE - Soup in a TARDIS

"Starting this month, mourners using funeral parlors operated by the Taipei City Government will be required to use electronic elegiac scrolls in place of traditional paper ones, the Department of Civil Affairs announced on Friday. “Electronic funeral scrolls still allow the departed’s friends and family to express their grief, but in a more environmentally friendly format,” the department’s burial management division head Huang Wen-ting (黃雯婷) said. Under the new rules, families and friends of the deceased will use an online system to design their own elegiac scrolls, choosing from a selection of 37 backgrounds and 397 messages covering a wide array of different religions, which will run through electronic screens in the mourning hall. “Since ... all of our mourning halls are now equipped with the electronic broadcasting system, we feel it is important for the government to lead the way,” Huang said, adding that residents can still use traditional paper elegiac scrolls for rites in their homes or in private “grave towers.”" - Jessie

"Eighty percent of mourners have elected to use the electronic scroll service — which is provided free of charge — since the system was installed throughout city funeral parlors in January, she said. The department estimates that the new policy will cut about 27 tonnes from city carbon emissions." - Jessie

"Now, grit is fine when it’s fitting, but as far as concept goes it’s hardly enough to sell me on a project. So here’s what else we know about Robin Hood: Origins: It’s being written by Joby Harold, who wrote the Guy Ritchie King Arthur, and…well, that’s pretty much all we know, aside from its place among the other Robin Hood reboots currently floating around. Here’s a recap, from before we knew about Origins: A few months back Sony showed interest in HOOD, An Avengers-style film that would also follow in the footsteps of Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious, and that would kick off a shared movie universe for Robin and his Merry Men. Now Disney is stepping in, having reportedly optioned Nottingham & Hood, which seems to be more Pirates Of the Caribbean-y in nature." - Jessie

>.> - Soup in a TARDIS

Love it! - Soup in a TARDIS

I'm kind of mad the picture won't load into FF. It's pretty fabulous. - Jessie

"Fearing that his age and lack of students might cause the practice of fashioning the organs of sacrificial pigs into shapes during Pingtung’s Lantern Festival in the Liouduei region (六堆) to die out, 84 year-old Hsieh You-fa (謝有發) has commissioned the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology to document the practice. Hsieh, from Sinpi Township (新埤), said that during the ceremony the intestines and inner organs of a sacrificed pig are molded into the shapes of a man or other animals. The practice, called Kan Wan (看碗), is aimed at propitiating the heavens and asking for a prosperous and peaceful year. “I started learning the practice when I was 18,” Hsieh said, adding that he had been in charge of making Kan Wan for village ceremonies ever since." - Jessie

"Hsieh told them that he was worried the practice would be forgotten and he was willing to teach anyone who was willing to learn, the group said, adding that they also hoped that by filming the process of making Kan Wan they would help the spread the practice, currently only seen in Hakka villages." - Jessie

Smart man. I wish we had documentation for other traditional crafts and/or old tech that are waning. - Spidra Webster

"Chinese tourists flooded Japan last week, spending an estimated $959 million in Japan’s shopping malls and department stores, according to Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times. While many splurged on luxury goods, the hot item this season was Japanese toilet seats. The electric seats, known for being dizzyingly complicated, feature add-ons such as automatic disinfection, bidet services, warmers, perfumes and “masking noises” that can cover up any indiscreet sounds while one is using the loo. Some Chinese buyers didn’t even ask the price for the toilet seats when purchasing them, according to the Beijing Youth Daily. They sell for $300 and up." - Jessie

"The toilet seat affair comes amid chilly relations between the two East Asian countries, which have become colder since Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012. The two nations have been locked in a dispute over a set of barren islands near Taiwan, as well as how to acknowledge and commemorate World War II-era atrocities." - Jessie

"In one recent sign of the continued frostiness, the common name of the China-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing was changed this month to remove the word “friendship.”" - Jessie

"This makes three. Three Robin Hood movies. Unless he's a cartoon fox, I'm out. This time, Joby Harold, the same guy writing the giant multi-part King Arthur epic for Guy Ritchie, is writing a "gritty" version of Robin Hood called Robin Hood: Origins. Which is bound to give people X-Men: Origins flashbacks. His peers are Disney's Nottingham and Hood by Brandon Barker and the pitch by Cory Goodman and Jeremy Lott that Sony bought." - Jessie

:-) - Kirsten loves you

Zhongkui: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Jessie

"You've got a social media war room during the Super Bowl to generate that genius real-time tweet. But what about when llamas are suddenly, unexpectedly on the loose and the Internet is going insane? How do you respond?! As it happens, this exact thing happened today. And as office productivity turned to mush, the brands' mettle was tested as everyone gawked at the spectacle on the Internet." - Jessie

"An increasing number of foreign students who graduated from institutions of higher education in Taiwan have chosen to stay for employment as a result of reforms enacted half a year ago, the National Development Council said. The council on Tuesday said that 1,428 students — mostly ethnic Chinese students from Southeast Asian nations — successfully applied for work permits over the past six months. Although up to 5,000 foreign students obtain Taiwanese higher-education degrees each year, in the past, an average of only 850 foreign students per year stayed to work. The reforms have been enacted in a bid to revitalize the nation’s shrinking workforce and attract foreign talent, the council said. Recent statistics released by the Ministry of Labor show that the workforce is decreasing by 180,000 people per year, as the result of an aging society. The increase in employment among foreign students was largely a result of reforms that broaden the criteria for work permits among foreign students, the council said." - Jessie

"Instead of the previous fixed-wage requirement that meant foreign students had to earn a minimum of NT$37,619 a month, a new evaluation system enacted in July last year by the Ministry of Labor considers eight factors. The new measure benefits foreign students who earn less than the monthly minimum, but perform strongly in other criteria — including Chinese-language ability, foreign-language ability, education level, work experience, professional qualifications and experience living abroad — as well as additional bonuses for those who seek employment in select industries." - Jessie

"Lai Jia-jen (賴家仁), head of the labor ministry’s Foreign Labor Management Division, yesterday said that depending on the success of the reforms, the evaluation system for foreign students could act as a precursor to attract additional foreign talent. “We will take into consideration the results of these trial evaluations for foreign students, and consider formulating a similar mechanism for foreign professionals,” Lai said." - Jessie

If they're looking to attract foreign professionals, they may also want to consider reformulating the permanent residency requirements, so that said foreign professionals don't relocate to Taiwan and invest in a future there only to face the annual possibility of not getting a visa. - Jessie

"21. As in how old Sarah Ericsson was turning. But flip those around, and to people outside the house, it looked an awful lot like “IS,” or the initials for the Islamic State. According to The Local, three police officers came over to Ericsson’s house and explained why people were alarmed. Ericsson understood concerns and said, “Extremism should always be taken seriously, and we did take the balloons down immediately.”" - Jessie

Time to dig out my old pin: "Come to the Dark Side. We Have Cookies!" - bentley

"If, for example, Aragorn and Legolas are your fandom characters of choice (whether they’re your OTP or your BroTP), Howard Shore’s music in the scene in The Two Towers where they make up after their argument is the motif known as “The Fellowship Theme,” first played in the first film when the Fellowship each has their Adventurer’s Glamorshot walking through the mountains after the Council of Elrond. In this clip, you hear the Fellowship Theme being played softly. Here, played in this moment, it is a reaffirmation of the personal fellowship between Aragorn and Legolas. Their friendship (or whatever) is still intact, even after their disagreement." - Jessie

"The Pirates of the Caribbean movie scores provided a new playground for me to practice my movie and musical analysis skills. Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer collaborated on the scores for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, often working with each other’s themes and arranging them into the score. Captain Jack Sparrow is introduced to the tune of “The Medallion Calls” theme, first played when he has stolen the small boat and sails to Port Royal. It can be interpreted to be almost an internal soundtrack-ing — it sounds like what Jack Sparrow would want his soundtrack to sound like and further evidences that his character is dramatic, often a bit full of himself, but ultimately heroic. In fact, Jack Sparrow has at least two different theme songs; The Medallion Calls, and He’s a Pirate. One is the character’s idea of himself and the other represents how others see him. Jack’s theme(s) are used throughout the quadrilogy and are interwoven with other themes as Jack himself crosses paths with the characters those motifs represent. They also represent Jack’s warring nature — is he a hero or a pirate? The answer is provided both in the soundtrack as well as in the narrative of the movies. In the third film, both of Jack’s themes are woven together with other themes, including Tia Dalma’s, Davy Jones’s, and Will and Elizabeth’s themes." - Jessie

"In The Two Towers, the Rohan theme is one of the most recognizable and prevalent themes. One of my favorite uses of the theme is in the scene where Gandalf returns Theoden King to his right mind. The Rohan theme plays strongly, solidifying the connection between Theoden and his country. In many ways, Theoden is Rohan – both suffering under Saruman’s influence and returned to their previous greatness. The tie between the land and its people is also heard in the pieces of the Rohan Theme present in Eowyn’s Theme. Eowyn’s own ties to and desire to defend her home being no less than Theoden King’s. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the theme of the Shire, called “Concerning Hobbits,” is often used to evoke the safety and peacefulness of Shire life. By the end of the trilogy, the motif that symbolizes the innocence of the Hobbits and of the Shire has also come to represent Frodo’s knowledge that he does not belong in such a place any longer. The theme, like the Shire, is mostly unchanged; however, Frodo has changed, and this is why he must go." - Jessie

"The deputy said he woke her around 10:30 a.m. and asked about a bag he could see in her vehicle that looked like it contained marijuana. But instead of grabbing for that bag, the dazed dancer pulled out one that contained cocaine, the deputy said. A search of Gregg's purse yielded additional mind-benders, including oxycodone, morphine, Vynanse, tramadol, plus a pipe for smoking. "When he asked her why she had all the drugs, she said it was because her back hurts from being an adult dancer," according to the sheriff's report." - Jessie

Florida! - Jessie