text: Schlüter® DITRA Matting is a polyethylene membrane with a grid structure of square cavities. Each cavity is cut back in a dovetail configuration and there is an anchoring fleece laminated to the underside of the membrane for enhanced adhesion.
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  The room is filled with the scratches of pens and pencils on paper. The atmosphere is charged with words being painted into a picture that people read. Students all around are frantically scribbling out words a mile a minute, in an effort to keep up with the story their brains are creating.
  It takes an extraordinary person to master the art of words. Most anyone can string together a sentence, but it takes a special touch to make that sentence into music. When you think of the fine arts, music, theatre, and dance are the usual ones to appear in your mind, but what about writing? What else conjures up a beautiful scenery in your mind without you directly seeing it? What else sounds like music when you read it but doesn’t require instruments? What else fills you with such strong emotion and creates such an impact that it elicits a reaction? Words have an underestimated power and students are learning to harness it through Creative Writing.
  Taught by Nona Kummell and offered to sophomores, juniors, seniors and the occasional freshman, creative writing is a class that helps Timber Creek students find their ‘voice’ and learn how to express themselves through words.
  “The power of the pen can be used in almost anything you do and the only limitation to the power of the pen is the one behind it,” said Mrs. Kummel
  Creative Writing is essentially a free therapy class, opening up the soul and releasing pent up emotion onto a page. It allows students to write what they are feeling without judgement.
  “I think writing is a great way to express yourself. Write things that you wouldn’t normally say or share with people,” junior Tabitha Tomlinson said.
  Filled with all writing genres and forms, and visits from authors and publishers, students have the whole writing world at the tip of their fingers to help them discover their personal style and ‘voice’.
  Sophomore Madison Wooten describes a writer’s ‘voice’ like a person’s thought process or style of speaking as its “very unique from person to person.”
  “You can give so many emotions to the reader and create really beautiful pieces through your own writing,” she further explains.
  A class for current and future authors, students have the opportunity to discover all aspects of writing from all time periods and people. A given prompt ranging from logical to outlandish gives students a wide spectrum in what they write while using parchment paper and a quill for daily journal entries gives a feel for the writing of authors centuries ago.
  “Some good memories from creative writing are when we share our journals with each other, everybody is just so supportive and constructive, the energy is very positive,” Wooten commented.
  The magic begins with new writers taking the regular creative writing class to learn the basics of what to do and how they want to write. Once they complete it, they can then take the advanced class where their skills are further honed to perfection. The advanced students all have a personal project they work on for the year.
  “Right now I’m working on a novella or a novelette. It was originally a short story but it’s going to be longer than that now,” said Tomlinson who is in the advanced class.
  Her novella is centering around a high school misfit who has had visions for so long that he now believes them to be true. He starts thinking that his visions are of the real world and the one he’s in currently is a dream or some figment.
  The creativity doesn’t stop in the classroom. Junior Raegan White has dreams of becoming an author and is writing a young adult dystopian novel.
  “I’ve had the idea for it for about three years now but am just now getting the time to write it,” she said.
  The advanced students all must have their own project but students from all the classes can choose to have a project they focus on.
  “A piece that I’m most proud of is a screenplay that I’ve been writing for almost two years now,” Wooten said. “It’s about a girl’s harrowing journey across the United States to finally go home.”
  At the beginning of each new story or project, Mrs. Kummell makes all her classes write their first couple of drafts by hand, believing that something significant occurs from handwriting when the ideas first come.
  “There is something that happens from the brain when your thinking and you are writing and it carries down through to your arm but it has to go through your heart first. Down through your arm to your hand and then your actual movement of the hand creates an emotion, a feeling,” Kummel explained.
  A forgotten art, writing is not the first thing to pop into people’s minds when thinking of the fine arts.
  “Writing is an art form like any other art form,” said Kummell. “Writing is something that does not ever go away.”
  While certain books or stories create a deep impact, not everything you read must be life changing one way or another. Fiction provides an escape from the real world and children’s books provide a good laugh. There is a unit all about children’s books in creative writing and over the years, students have written many creative children’s books such as “Baby Hitler Goes to Daycare”. However, no matter which genre, writing is meant to be something that brings emotion out of people, whether it be joy, sadness or anger, it elicits some reaction.
  “If there are no tears in the author, there are no tears in [the] readers,” Kummell said. “To make that book memorable, to make it something that you can connect with, that’s what makes a good author.”
  A beautiful story about a wonderful class. Your writing is simply stunning and I am so glad you’re shining a light on Creative Writing!
  I remember it was only 2 years ago that I was heading into my first summer at Timber Lake Camp. Even though everyone in the winter office kept telling me I was going to love the summer, I was feeling a little uncertain of what to expect because I had never been to camp before.
  As I think about my last couple of summers at Timber Lake, I’m still amazed that camp was more fun than I ever could have imagined. I was surprised that in just 54 days everyone was able to make such strong bonds. This summer I’m really looking forward to meeting all of the new campers who will be entering their first summer at Timber Lake, just like I was a couple of years ago. I can relate well to their feelings of being a little nervous and uncertain about what their first summer will be like, but I am confident they will walk away from the summer saying it was an amazing experience, and they’ll be counting down the days until 2011!
  Acquisition will provide growth opportunities and extensive customs clearance and handling expertise
  Both CB Customs Broker and Customs Broker Cargo Handling will remain neutral partners to forwarders, integrators and courier companies
  time:matters will expand its range of services in the logistics chain for the development of tailored transport solutions through this acquisition
  time:matters, the expert in high performance and global special speed logistics, has fully acquired CB Customs Broker GmbH and Customs Broker Cargo Handling GmbH as of today, 13 September 2018. Both companies will continue to act as neutral partners and offer their existing services, including customs clearance and air cargo handling, to forwarders, integrators and courier companies in the future. Founder and Managing Director Stelios Ntounakis will remain in his roles and manage the businesses together with time:matters. The companies’ more than 70 employees will also be kept on.
  Customs Broker and time:matters have enjoyed a strong and successful cooperation at Frankfurt Airport since 2006.
  “CB Customs Broker and Customs Broker Cargo Handling will continue to go from strength to strength under the time:matters umbrella. As Managing Director of the Customs Broker companies, I will work closely with time:matters. This will ensure the continuity of the business model and maintenance of existing customer relationships into the future as well,” said Ntounakis.
  “This acquisition represents a continuation of our growth strategy and means we can incorporate decades of customs clearance and cargo handling expertise into time:matters services. We will be able to respond even more flexibly to customer requests, reinforcing our claim to be the premium provider of special speed logistics,” said Alexander Kohnen, Managing Director of time:matters Holding GmbH.
  Pop quiz! How well do you know your teen movie talk? We whipped up a little something to help test your knowledge. You may feel cocky now, but let's just see how you do, shall we? No cheating! And no pizza!
  Home to some of the best LA showrooms, expect to find trendsetters walking the halls during the last Friday of the month sample sales as well as high profile buyers meeting at the various showrooms in the heart of Downtown's Fashion District. The building also hosts fashion events such as A Current Affair, vintage pop-up marketplace.
  Calling all vintage lovers! Shop more than 70 of the top vintage retailers (local and national) and private dealers at this vintage market. A Current Affair is a major source for stylists, designers and anyone in search of one of a kind vintage ranging...
  Forget clinging to your couch in suspense, roll out a blanket and gasp through the season finale of Breaking Bad with the rest of LA at Hollywood Forever. Don't worry about spoilers; Cinespia will screen the series' conclusion live during the show's normal West Coast time slot. Relive the pilot before launching straight into the final episode, and stick around for a Q&A session from the cast and crew immediately afterwards. Ticket prices are steep ($45), but consider yourself fortunate if you're able to snag one—plus, proceeds benefit the Kind Campaign.
  In partnership with the Bronx Council on the Arts, Huntington Free Library hosts a series of craft workshops for the whole family. In March, go green with your brood! With help from photographer Star Nigro, kids will construct a fabulous work of eco-friendly art using new and old materials. In april, kids will use watercolor, block print, acrylics and ink to create their own original print. Reservations recommended. All ages.
  At present we have two relatively strong forces at play within the European credit markets. On one end, we’ve got the Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (CSPP), which is merely a form of Quantitative Easing (QE) by the European Central Bank (ECB) in the shape of the purchases of European Fixed Income Instruments on the Secondary Market.
  That’s the demand part of the equation. To a lesser extent, we’ve also got the global search for yield (another contributor to demand formula) which is keeping bond prices supported and spreads anchored at low levels.
  On the other hand, we have the issue of supply to contend with. Let’s face it, supply levels on the primary market has been relatively thin following the infamous Brexit vote just over 4 weeks ago, which in part has contributed, in part, to the spread tightening and rally in credit of late.
  Over the past few summers, bond supply has been quite volatile, with muted volumes the past couple of years coming back from a flurry of supply in the previous two years, whereby almost €8bn of new bonds were issued. The Brexit was sure to bring with it a sharp drop in supply, but with the multi-tranche Teva bond issue last week and the multi-tranche Ineos bond issues today, we can safely say that demand for credit remains robust.
  It is interesting to note however what bond issuers will be doing this summer. Earnings season appears to be in full swing, and after this week, the majority of issuers across both sides of the Atlantic would have announced their Q2 earnings, so in terms of momentum and sentiment, markets would have already grappled, picked up the pieces and started position themselves for the summer lull in trading activity.
  With the ECB on track with its €8bn monthly bond purchases, and most likely having anticipated its August purchases, spreads have continued to tighten, and market conditions hence appear ideal for supply to be in abundance.
  If the few primary issues are snapped up and the ECB is drying up liquidity, it may be difficult to source paper from secondary markets. If supply does not pick up this summer, this could ultimately squeeze spreads and yields even tighter.
  We’ve got a number of economic data releases both in the Eurozone and the US to contend with this week, most notably inflation data and GDP numbers. The pinnacle of this week is expected to be on tomorrow’s FOMC meeting, with all eyes on forecasts and accompanying statements by the Fed on the next rate hike.
  Analysts have reduced their forecasts for a rate hike this year; whilst we concur that the pace of rate hike is expected to slow, we do not rule out a rate hike in Q416. Investors will be closely monitoring Yellen’s speech tomorrow evening for additional clues on the trajectory of interest rates in the US.
  The past couple of weeks was benign to the term structure of European credit with the long-term flattening trend at the longer end of the curve persisting, as the global search for yield continues. With spreads having rallied significantly of late, no one would be at fault for expecting some bouts of profit taking, however credit remains in good shape.
  This week, we have the outcome of the bank stress tests to look out for, but the main event which could be a game changer for credit this summer is the Italian bank recapitalisation saga.
  A 41-year-old from Dingli has been arraigned in court and charged with having killed protected storks.
  James Magri allegedly shot down three protected white storks on Friday, just a few hours after the birds had flown to Malta.
  He pleaded not guilty to the charges but will remain in police custody after a magistrate's court denied him bail on Monday afternoon.
  Birdlife said the shot birds formed part of a flock of 18 that were spotted in Gozo and later in Rabat and Mdina.
  A member of the public said the shooter collected two birds but left the third behind when he realised that he was being watched.
  Appearing in court on Monday, Mr Magri's lawyer Edward Gatt accused police of having rushed to arraign his client without the necessary evidence, and suggested the "media frenzy" surrounding the case was to blame.
  He said that while the killing of storks was disgraceful, Mr Magri stood accused of a hunting crime, which was unlikely to carry a prison sentence, and it therefore made no sense to keep him in police custody.
  Prosecutors opposed the bail application, saying a number of witnesses had yet to be presented. Magistrate Audrey Demicoli agreed, and turned down the bail application.
  The 11 surviving White Storks have been seen roosting on a crane at the Gozo General Hospital site. It is not normal for Malta to have storks at this time of the year, BirdLife said.
  BirdLife Malta said that the original flock of 18 storks, now numbering 11 after various shooting incidents, is still around and the birds are now roosting in Gozo on a crane near the Gozo General Hospital for the fourth consecutive night on the Maltese Islands. Police protection has been requested.
  "It is unusual for storks to migrate this early in August in Malta. Over the past few years White Storks originating from as far as Italy to Sweden have normally appeared in September. The origin of these birds remains unknown as none of them appear to be ringed," the NGO said.
  The independent radio station 102.7 WEQX lost signal after an ice storm Tuesday snapped its tower and transmitter in half. (Photo: WEQX)
  Listeners of the independent radio station 102.7 WEQX could only hear static over their car radios after an ice storm Tuesday snapped its tower and transmitter in half.
  The station, which reaches the Capital Region, continues to stream music online at weqx.com and plans to install a temporary transmitter Thursday, Jeff Morad, programming director at the Manchester, Vt,-based WEQX said.
  "We hope to be able to piece it together and put it back on full power in the next week," Morad said.
  The temporary transmitter will not have the range of the previous tower, but Morad said they are unsure exactly how powerful it will be.
  The 75-foot tower crested the peak of the 3,855-foot Mount Equinox, allowing the station to broadcast from Kingston in Ulster County to Pittsfield, Mass., and Keene, N.H.
  The only road to the peak is closed for the winter, Morad said, and the station is considering using snowmobiles, a helicopter or other means to carry equipment up the mountain.
  Tuesday was the first serious weather-related mishap in the tower's 31-year history, Morad said. He said a deer broke into a generator shaft last winter and chewed through some wires.
  "It's the love-hate of where it's at," Morad said. "It's great for good coverage but it's an inhospitable location."
  The station has spoken to advertisers and has said it will make up ad time once the station comes back online.
  "Things like this happen, but they'll get back up," Dustin Sawyer said. "It's not like they are going lose any listeners being they are the best. In the meantime I'll be driving around in silence."
  "I was listening when the signal went down and the static began," Justin Cestra said on a fan page. "I shed a tear as I knew this had something to do with the tower."
  "The static on your station is still better than most of the music on the other local stations," Andrew Dunn said on the fan page.
  As the station continues to stream, Morad said employees considered for a moment being freer on-air.
  "We were joking about it internally," Morad said. "Now that we're not regulated by the FCC, we can be as foul-mouthed as possible. But we realized that's not really our style.