Joyous Year

[Thomasina Norse]

Thesetwo both refer to how something makes us happy or how someone is cheerful. However, 'joyful' is more about people, whereas, 'joyous' is more about a pleasant event, thing, etc. Additionally, they are both adjectives from a grammatical point of view.

As an international student from China, I was initially worried about how I would celebrate such an important cultural holiday while studying abroad in the UK. But I was blown away by the exciting festivities Manchester put on to welcome the Year of the Dragon! The traditions, cuisine, performances and spirit of Chinese New Year came alive in this multicultural city.

Our little community came together to prepare a feast. We turned on some festive background music and got busy chopping, frying, and steaming up a storm. The sizzling pots and wafting aromas transported me back to childhood meals. After hours of cooking and bantering, our table was overflowing with fish for prosperity, longevity noodles, steamboat, dumplings, stir-fried veggies, roast meats, hotpot and more. We dressed up in new red outfits and sat down to enjoy our meal while watching the Spring Festival Gala. Hearing the exuberant chatter mixed with firecrackers outside filled me with joy. This taste of home meant so much.

After dinner, we handwrote Spring Festival couplets to put up around our doors. We wrote our hopes and wishes for the new year on red paper to hang up for good fortune. Although far from family, gathering with friends to uphold these traditions filled me with comfort and optimism.

The first day of the new year arrived clear and bright. My friends and I started it auspiciously by visiting the Manchester Fo Guang Shan. The temple was packed with people lighting incense, praying, and donating. We received red envelopes with lucky money and prayed for good grades, health, and happiness. We learned how to stamp our wishes on red paper for blessings in the new year. Trying calligraphy dip pens also reminded me of childhood lessons.

I moved to GA in 2011 to work for CCLC, a division of Knowledge Universe. I had already worked almost 3 years for KU when I moved there. Then in 2015, it became apparent I was going to leave the company for a variety of reasons. Not wanting to speak ill, I will simply say there were a lot of changes at the company and the company had been bought out. It was evident the company was changing and not in a way in which I was comfortable.

I left the company in September, 2015 and did so without other employment in place. It was a big step, but it paid off. I was already looking for jobs before I left KU, but it became my full time job once I left. It was not particularly productive. I had several other friends from KU who also left or were in the process of leaving and we worked together to help each other stay in tune with good opportunities.

I was blessed that one of my good friends, Lori Walker, let me know about a possible opportunity with the school she where she was now working, Stratford School in Saratoga, CA. It turns out that a former co-worker was the head of HR for them. I had two strong leads into the company.

I went through a lengthy interview process that took me up to the point of meeting all the C-level execs and even having calls with some of the board members. I did really well with it all except for the calls with the board members. I am usually a very good interviewee, however, for some reason, I stunk on these two calls. Also, it turns out that the qualifications that the board members were wanting for this position were not necessarily aligned with those of the execs. Needless to say, I did not get THAT job.

However, I did strike a chord with the COO and we explored the possibility of me doing business development work on a contract basis. By the end of November, we came to terms on objectives and conditions and I began the planning phase of work for them in December. I was to develop a plan and then, if approved, I would begin work for them in January 2016.

Below are the stops I made on my over 4,200-mile journey. I could write pages on each stop along the way, as well as the drives in between locations. Since this post is already going to be too long, I am including links below to previous posts that will help fill in those gaps.

My entire trip from GA to San Jose was perhaps in the Top 3 of all time. It was truly life changing and I think it set the stage for the rest of the year. It opened my heart, mind and soul and rekindled my love of nature and its immensity and grandeur. I now simply cannot get enough.

The coolest thing about having a contract work gig in San Jose was that I was only 800 miles from UT. I was able to make frequent trips either by driving or by plane to spend time with my kiddos. A few of the posts from those trips are found below.

In addition to spending fun time with my friends, I also fell in love with hiking. I have always loved the outdoors but I never really connected with hiking until my time in CA. Some of my favorite outdoor adventures are listed below.

One of the natural consequences of living with my children is that I get to be integrated into their daily lives once again, which I totally cherish. While I feel like a taxi on most days, I enjoy the daily cadence of our lives. Mariana with cheer, tumbling, friends, and friends and friends. Juju and Riri with singing lessons and friends. There is nothing more on earth that I love than being dad.

Speaking of love, I have totally fallen in love with Utah. It is an amazing state with so much to do. While I was lamenting leaving the beauty of CA, I found another source of tons of activities right here in UT.

One of the key highlights of the year was the graduation of my son Stensen and my daughter Yana. One graduated in GA and the other in UT and they were a day apart. They both also started college. Stensen is at Georgia Southern and Yana is at Utah Valley.

As I finish writing this, I am fortunate to have my mother with us visiting for Christmas. She spent a portion of the day taking the girls shopping. You know they loved that! We are cooking 2 huge standing rib roasts and are getting ready to devour them. Our Christmas tree is overflowing with gifts.

Hello BIH Family! As we end this year, we want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to the growth and continued prosperity of the Black Infant Health Program. That includes all our lovely participants and your network of support, our community partners, community members, and our wonderful staff. This has been a very eventful year for the Black Infant Health Program! In January we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the annual sportsfest and community celebration, in February BIH staff had the opportunity to travel up to Oakland to attend the Black Joy Parade, and in April we hosted our first-ever Infant Safety Luncheon in partnership with Falck Emergency Services. The ball kept rolling into the summer as we joined forces with the San Diego Association of Black Social Workers (SDABSW) to host both our 10th Annual Old School Fun in the Sun Celebration and the Mothers TEA (Teach, Empower, Educate). As September came along the program continued to expand. This fall we have welcomed nearly 50 families into the program! Going into the new year we will continue to offer 1:1 support, prenatal and postpartum groups, the Mocha Milk Breastfeeding Class, access to our Public Health Nurse, transportation assistance, and much more!

The NHA portfolio of programs is as wide and varied as the communities we serve. Current NHA programs range from early childhood development in Head Start to an innovative nutrition program, to health programs like HIV/AIDS case management, mental health services, Adult Day Health Care services, youth services and Senior Services.

I've been working as a freelance for a few years now. I tend to prefer missions in small companies or teams with a lot of autonomy. Nowadays I only work for companies with positive social impact - a subjective measure that generally means active in climate, health, education or similar sectors.

Figure 1: Hans Nissen and Peter Damerow arrive in Berlin with the Christie's tablets of the Erlenmeyer Collection (above); the exhibition Frhe Schrift in the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, in the summer of 1990 (below; photos courtesy of Margret Nissen).

3. We may imagine the composition of this account in the following way. At the end of Šu-Sin 2 or the beginning of Šu-Sin 3, a bookkeeper from the accounting bureau within the temple household of Šara gathers in his office

The accountant must proceed to order these perhaps dozens of tablets, presumably in the same sequence as that found in the account Erlenmeyer 152, with those primary records and the previous account of a-c) strictly distinguished from those primary records of d), for the most part sealed receipts probably gathered by the foreman in the course of the year, that represent the real and documented production of his workmen.

14. A wide variety of officials from within the household economy of the province of Umma act as receiving agents of the labor performed by the workmen of Lu-Šara. Upon the completion of tasks assigned the work crews, a sealed tablet confirming the work was issued, of which twelve have been located in the published record of Ur III texts (those reference texts below in parentheses are merely close parallels to the account passage cited; see figure 4):

15. These primary documents follow a strictly standardized format: so-and-so many work days; description of the task completed; foreman of the crew involved; notice of the seal of the receiving agent (kišib PN); the physical impression of the cylinder seal; date formula.[20]

16. The very common practice in neo-Sumerian account-writing of combining the associated information of two or more receipts into one entry is evident also in our text with its two explicit and several implied references to multiple sealed tablets (kišib 2+ PN), and the nature of this combination made clear in the two passages obv. v 21-23 and rev. i 9-11. In the former case, we have the correspondence (one of two sealed tablets):

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