Rocky Start

Think of the movies Grosse Pointe Blank or RED. Retired covert operatives living in a small town in the Smoky Mountains. What could go wrong? Available for a limited time on Google until 1 August 2024. Rose Malone’s landlord and employer, Ozzie Oswald, just died and now she has no idea if she has a job or if she and her daughter, Poppy, have a place to live, and that’s on top of the arrest warrant that’s been out for her for nineteen years. Then a stranger shows up claiming to be Ozzie’s son and tries to throw her out, so she swings a reproduction of the Maltese Falcon at him, and just as she’s about to finish him off in a rage, somebody grabs him and throws him into the street. Max Reddy just wants his boots. He’s walking the Appalachian trail with his dog Maggs and stopping for them in Rocky Start, when he sees a feisty middle-aged woman swinging a Maltese Falcon at a guy who backhands her. Max throws the guy into the street and continues on his way, determined to get his boots and get out of town, even if Feisty is pretty cute. He’s been alone on the Trail a long time. Some trees are looking good to him. All Rose wants to know is what’s going on, so she follows Max to the post office, no ulterior motive, honest. Except to pick his pocket to find out who he is, then he can go. But by nightfall, she’s invited him under her roof for her own protection since they're dealing with a town full of retired spies, including a sly-eyed moocher, a suspicious sheriff, a knife-wielding bakery owner, a strange woman who looks like a vampire, a conniving teenager, and a dog who's decided she's done with the Appalachian Trail. And Max is starting to think his dog is right. Rocky Start: This could be the start of something dangerous.

'"A Rocky Start" gives you a brief glimpse into the life of a boy and how he decided to become the educator he is today. My hope is that this simple story will have a profound impact on the lives of many children.

A Robertson family love story of brokenness and redemption.

Based on the principle that your daily disciplines and your little, everyday nourishing choices have the power to bring you the life and success you desire. The Daily Apple offers 366 days of ideas and insights rooted in personal development, philosophy and timeless wisdom. Each day of the year is dedicated to learning a new insight, idea or invaluable teaching. Like an apple a day that helps you become healthier and vital, each meditation has been designed to offer you positive information and inspiration to nudge you a little towards your better, wiser and more well-rounded self every single day. You’ll come across key lessons and exercises with regard to mindfulness, spirituality, lifestyle and self-development featuring insights based on minimalism, Stoicism and ancient scriptures both from the East and the West. As you follow and implement these learnings over the course of a year, each day will become an opportunity for you to become better, and you’ll cultivate the virtues of inner strength, grit, resilience and tranquility to live an exceptional life.

This Chicago born beauty gives a chilling outlook on life as her story unfolds to reveal the trials and tribulations she had to endure throughtout her life that brings to light the positive and negative consequences of having friends stab you in the back and family stab you in the front. This gut wrenching memoir details how overcoming sex, drugs, and violence all before the age of sixteen is possible. ANYTHING is possible. Follow her story as she enters womanhood and attempts to beat the odds by becoming one of the most book smart women with street smart tactics. Out of the Rain is proof that you can never stop fighting for what you want in life because when you stop fighting for what you want, want you dont want will automatically take over.

The Color of Desire tells the story of how, in the aftermath of gay liberation, race played a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of queer, German politics. Focusing on the Federal Republic of Germany, Christopher Ewing charts both the entrenchment of racisms within white, queer scenes and the formation of new, antiracist movements that contested overlapping marginalizations. Far from being discrete political trajectories, racist and antiracist politics were closely connected, as activists worked across groups to develop their visions for queer politics. Ewing describes not only how AIDS workers, gay tourists, white lesbians, queer immigrants, and Black feminists were connected in unexpected ways but also how they developed contradictory concerns that comprised the full landscape of queer politics. Out of these connections, which often exceeded the bounds of the Federal Republic, arose new forms of queer fascism as well as their multiple, antiracist contestations. Both unsettled the appeals to national belonging, or "homonationalism," on which many white queer activists based their claims. Thus, the story of the making of homonationalism is also the story of its unmaking. The Color of Desire explains how the importance of racism to queer politics cannot—and should not—be understood without also attending to antiracism. Actors worked across different groups, making it difficult to chart separable political trajectories. At the same time, antiracist activists also used the fractures and openings in groups that were heavily invested in the logics of whiteness to formulate new, antiracist organizations and, albeit in constrained ways, shifted queer politics more generally.

This update of a lively, first-of-its-kind study of polling misfires and fiascoes in U.S. presidential campaigns takes up pollsters’ failure over the decades to offer accurate assessments of the most important of American elections. Lost in a Gallup tells the story of polling flops and failures in presidential elections since 1936. Polls do go bad, as outcomes in 2020, 2016, 2012, 2004, and 2000 all remind us. This updated edition includes a new chapter and conclusion that address the 2020 polling surprise and considers whether polls will get it right in 2024. As author W. Joseph Campbell discusses, polling misfires in presidential elections are not all alike. Pollsters have anticipated tight elections when landslides have occurred. They have pointed to the wrong winner in closer elections. Misleading state polls have thrown off expected national outcomes. Polling failure also can lead to media error. Journalists covering presidential races invariably take their lead from polls. When polls go bad, media narratives can be off-target as well. Lost in a Gallup encourages readers to treat election polls with healthy skepticism, recognizing that they could be wrong.

Cloud computing has become integrated into all sectors, from business to quotidian life. Since it has revolutionized modern computing, there is a need for updated research related to the architecture and frameworks necessary to maintain its efficiency. The Handbook of Research on End-to-End Cloud Computing Architecture Design provides architectural design and implementation studies on cloud computing from an end-to-end approach, including the latest industrial works and extensive research studies of cloud computing. This handbook enumerates deep dive and systemic studies of cloud computing from architecture to implementation. This book is a comprehensive publication ideal for programmers, IT professionals, students, researchers, and engineers.

Parkhurst's challenge -- The buttons -- Democratic city, Republican nation -- Anarchy vs. corruption -- A rocky start -- Managing vice, extorting business -- "Reform never suffers from frankness" -- "A landslide, a tidal wave, a cyclone" -- Endgames -- Epilogue: the Lexow effect

Qatar’s sizable oil and natural gas reserves have underpinned its rapid economic growth over the past two decades. Home to the world’s largest non-associated gas field, the country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of dry natural gas and the largest producer of liquefied natural gas, with hydrocarbons revenues forming the bulk of national income as a result. Although the drop in global energy prices has impacted export revenues, rigorous economic diversification drives in recent years have paid dividends, and in 2015 non-hydrocarbons growth reached 7.7%, compared to a 0.1% contraction for hydrocarbons growth during the same period. The country’s financial sector has continued to evolve; Islamic banking in particular has witnessed significant progress. Meanwhile, as the country gears up to host several important sporting events in the coming years, most notably the 2022 FIFA World Cup, numerous big-ticket infrastructure builds continue to expand the construction sector.