 ornaments are a great way to commemorate the Super Bowl.
Advent: Spreading the Word
When they [the shepherds] had seen him [Jesus], they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke 2:17-18
Last Sunday night (3 December) the Kew Community Carols took place. Due to extraordinary weather, the event was moved from Petrie Square to our own church building. For many years carols has been a great opportunity for people who wouldn’t normally enter a church to hear about God’s great gift to us in Jesus Christ, and consider what this might mean for us today. On Sunday night, we again participated in fulfilling that mission of the shepherds who first encountered Jesus, spreading the word about this incredible child.
But does it stop with the carols? Is the carols the one occasion where the good news of Christmas can be proclaimed in a culturally-safe environment? Or could we continue, like the shepherds, to spread the word about Jesus during Christmas; at meals, in conversations, during road trips, or while washing Christmas lunch dishes? While sharing our faith is challenging, could there be someone we could share with this Christmas season about the gift that God has given us in Jesus Christ?
Paul PallotUM YES you should tell HR! This is workplace bullying. They could be in a lot of trouble for this. Do not let this go too long. Make sure you recall the date and details. Write it down like a timeline. Bullet points, time of day, who was there, and the comment. Include how you think your supervisors heard you were overwhelmed. Email it to HR. 

That is not allowed. Nor how any reputable company would allow supervisory staff to behave!

A supervisor’s job is to make sure that everyone that works under them has the tools to succeed and do their job. Not to terrify you into submission and threaten you. If their standards aren’t being met, you’re required fair warning and opportunity to prove yourself and improve. HR policy has tons of protocol for if you weren’t doing your job. And only after those chances are spent and no improvement has been made, can they let you go. So this threat is empty and highly *unprofessional*.

Beyond this there are other variables to how you’ll be able to defend yourself. If you’ve been performing poorly and waited too long to state you were overwhelmed: they could make a case using your work performance. 

Also, as much as HR is there to help and put out fires, they work for the employer. And their goal is usually to cover the company’s ass, at all costs. They’ll often pretend to be on your side, milk you for info, then pinpoint any loophole they can to place onus on you. So keep your composure. Don’t break in front of  them. And keep reiterating that you’re capable and willing to fulfil your role there, but just need the tools to do so. That the opportunity to focus and master your own work load could assist in you feeling less overwhelmed. Record details of *every* meeting with *anyone*. Don’t be embarrassed to show up with a pen and paper. It’s not a secret and it’s your right to document everything. 

You’ll have to really do research about the labor laws in your jurisdiction. And if HR starts acting weird, you’ll be prepared to defend yourself.Last week a group of nine students and two children went to Hopkins Wilderness Park in the City of Redondo Beach. Though in the middle of an urban area, this secluded park is surprisingly wild. The park has three overnight camping areas. We walked through the campsites, as no one was there, and hiked along the trails. At the pond, we watched turtles and koi. There was a scenic overlook where we took photos.
Many of the students said that they lived in the area but didn’t know of the park. In addition to the hike being a school activity in which they get class credit, I hope that the students will make Hopkins Wilderness Park a park of things they enjoy visiting while they live in South Bay.There has been an empty half pan in my palette for weeks and it's starting to bug me. The colour that was there before was Cadmium Yellow, an opaque colour that has very limited use for me. Before that, it was Phthalo Green. And now it's empty.
I've been thinking of what colour to add to my palette to make it more versatile. The colour that I have in this set has largely remained the same since I first got it in 2013. That was 5 years ago. I've been wanting swap out some colours but there's still a lot of paint in those 15ml tubes that I have. I reckon my supply of Quinacridone Red and Quinacridone Magenta can probably last another 5 years. Or maybe I haven't been painting enough.
What I mean by a versatile palette is, I want to have a palette that can mix any colour that I can think of.
There are different schools of thought when it comes to choosing colours.
One way is to choose colours around the colour wheel. That way, you'll have the primary as well as secondary colours.
The second way is to choose warm and cool versions of primary colours. This method is more common based on suggestions from watercolour forums online. This is also the method that I used when I picked colours for this palette.
The advantage of the warm/cool method is you get primary colours, and with them you can mix any secondary colours. Secondary colours can't be used to create primary colours or other secondary colours so their mixing potential is limited.
There's no such thing as perfect primary colours, which is what there are so many different yellow, reds and blues available from paint makers. Some don't even consider reds as primary colours, but I shall leave that to another discussion.
The thing is, even primary colours have their own characteristics and limitations.
If you use the wrong red and blue, you won't get a beautiful purple. Shown in the picture above on the left is a mix of Transparent Pyrrol Orange and Phthalo Blue. The result is a somewhat lackluster mix. When I switch to using Permanent Alizarin Crimson and French Ultramarine, the vibrant purple starts to show. Not satisfied, I switch to using Quinacridone Rose and French Ultramarine and manged to get a beautiful almost glowing purple.
Same thing when it comes to mixing orange. To get a vibrant orange, you have to start with warm yellows and warm reds. A cool yellow and cool red are not able to produce that bright warm fiery orange.
That's why it may be good to include several primary colours.
In theory, you're supposed to be able to mix any other colour from just three primary colours. But there's no such thing as a perfect primary colour. So each set of primary colour has its own limitation. So in order to create a more versatile palette, you just have to include more sets of primary colours. 2 sets of yellow, red and blues will be able to produce more colour mixes compared to 1 set. And 3 sets will produce more than 2 sets.
So in the current palette that I have right now, I've three yellows (Lemon Yellow, New Gamboge and Yellow Ochre), three blues (Phthalo Blue, French Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue Chromium) and two reds (Quinacridone Red and Quinacridone Magenta). So I'm seriously thinking of added another red to it. My choices are Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Quinacridone Rose or Quinacridone Liliac.
The non-primary colours that I have are Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Brown. I use a lot of greens so not having to mix greens saves me time. With the earth tones, I can add them to French Ultramarine for a beautiful gray. But having two earth tones seems redundant, so I'm likely to drop Permanent Brown.
If I drop Permanent Brown, I'll have another open slot. So perhaps I could add red, or maybe add another yellow, perhaps Hansa Yellow Medium.
If you have difficulty choosing colours. You can create a colour chart using your existing colours. With a colour chart, you can tell at a glance what colours you're missing. For example with the Kremer Pigments colour charge above, I could tell that I'm missing vibrant purples. So to make a more versatile palette, I would need to add a cool red and a warm blue. In this case maybe a cool red since I don't see how a French Ultramarine can be warmer than the Cobalt Blue Dark.
Or maybe I should just leave that half pan empty. Maybe I don't need so many colours.
Effectively exchanging information with the peripheral nervous system is important for many advanced therapeutic and prosthetic applications of neurotechnology. Activating fascicles within or detecting the natural activity of sensory or motor nerves requires intimate contact between recording or stimulating electrodes and the target neural structure.
Peripheral nerve cuff electrodes should achieve this while being as small and flexible as possible to match the compliance of the nerve and minimize the potential of neural injury or tissue damage. APT Center Investigators have developed and tested a new electrode with regionally patterned stiffness to direct the reshaping the nerve’s cross section for improved selectivity. It is compatible with microfabrication techniques, and is significantly smaller and more flexible than prior designs to allow it to bend and move with the nerve.
The nerve