A wonderful musician and friend of mine has recently departed from our world and is now starting his new life under God's great care and guidance. Nikos will do very well in Heaven and will even delight the angels with his goodwill and music. "I am reaching out to you now from this world Nikos to present you with my gift of this song for you. The melody came to me immediate in my grief. Now with great joy, I embrace you as my eternal friend. There is no end for you now my friend Nikos. Only eternal bliss and fulfillment..... I suppose that I will have to behave myself a little bit more if we are to meet again and go fishing as I have promised.
PS my friend. I do not own a flute, nor did I have any simulated flute sounds that I could use for this song and so I came up with the idea of recording the sound of the timer from my microwave and by stretching it out, I believe that I now have a most beautiful flute sound. You always did call me your crazy artist friend. I suppose that this proves it. Take good care of yourself Nikos. Eternally your crazy artist friend.. Steve.
I was inspired to write this song shortly after I had first watched a video by Danai Moraiti which was her performing a Greek song "i garsona (Panos Tountas)" on her electric piano. What really captured my heart was her most beautiful smile at the end of her performance. I have never seen such a smile in all of this world. From that moment on, I ordained her to be my QUEEN OF SMILES !!!! .... That was well over a year ago as I had encountered a problem after I had already sang the lyrics that I had written for this song. I didn't know then as I do not know now, how to pronounce her name in English .... A most embarrassing dilemma .... In English, the combination of "ai" creates a long vowel "A"sound but her name is in Greek. I spent over a month researching her name on Google and I asked people who were European but nobody knew for sure and so I abandoned this song. I didn't know Danai as well back then and I did not wish to mispronounce her name but we are such good friends now that I feel more comfortable in taking this risk. If I am wrong on the pronunciation of her name, I will then wear a tutu and dance the Nutcracker for DANAI as we go fishing.
You can see and hear more of Danai here https://www.youtube.com/user/danai2014
LYRICS
Queen of smiles. My Queen of Smiles. Danai is my Queen of smiles.
Queen of smiles. My Queen of smiles. Danai is my Queen of smiles.
Danai and me go fishing by the sea ... She and me ... "She and me."
We shall catch a fish or maybe 2 or 3 ... We'll see ... "We shall see."
I'll bring the poles and she'll bring the worms.
I'll bait the hooks and then we'll take turns
casting our lines out into the bay
where we shall fish onto the break of day.
Queen of smiles. My Queen of Smiles. Danai is my Queen of smiles.
Queen of smiles. My Queen of smiles. Danai is my Queen of smiles.
Ten years after her Blind Date With God began, Joycee is at peace with her past. She has forgiven the unfathomable and wants to share her story. Her book tells the good, bad and ugly truth of the healing process she walked through – bringing with it a strong message that anything is possible to overcome if we are willing to be honest with ourselves. It’s a riveting journey of forgiving herself and those who have harmed her. In the midst of her painful journey is where 414 Ministry was birthed. A nonprofit that empowers and equips victims to become thriving survivors for such a time as this. Find out more and get to know Joycee here- https://www.facebook.com/joyceereynolds/
Email her here – 414ministry@gmail.com
Find out more about 414 Ministry here- http://414ministry.wixsite.com/414ministry Non-Fiction/Christian
A good video that you guys might have missed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVeNfzormu8 Please leave some feedback and drop a like! Add me: Ps3 - MVPxFLiGHT Xbox - MVPxTruth Follow me! Twitter: https://twitter.com/xFLiGHT23 TwitchTV: http://www.twitch.tv/xflight23
Think “muscle car” performance, and images of speed and power are more likely to come to mind than crash tests and safety ratings. Because no one buys a sports car to drive in the slow lane, the best all-¬ around occupant crash protection is crucial. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently put a trio of iconic sports coupes through their paces, and unlike more sedate sedans, none earns the scores needed to clinch a TOP SAFETY PICK award.
IIHS evaluated 2016 models of the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Ford Mustang in the full battery of crashworthiness evaluations. The Mustang comes closest to earning TOP SAFETY PICK, while the Camaro falls shortin one category and lacks an available front crash prevention system. The Challenger is most in need of improvement.
To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK, vehicles must earn good ratings in the small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint evaluations and have a basic-¬rated front crash prevention system. To qualify for the Institute’s highest award, TOP SAFETY PICK+, vehicles must earn good ratings in the five crashworthiness tests and an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.
A fresh, funny debut novel with prep school appeal! It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight A’s, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie. Learn more about this book and author: http://leilasales.com YA
Not a single small SUV out of 21 tested earns a good rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s headlight evaluations, and only four are available with acceptable-rated headlights.
Among the 21 vehicles, there are 47 different headlight combinations available. More than two-thirds of them are rated poor, making this group of vehicles even more deficient when it comes to lighting than the midsize cars that were the first to be rated earlier this year.
Headlight performance in today’s vehicles varies widely. Government standards are based on laboratory tests, which don’t accurately gauge performance in real-world driving. The issue merits attention because about half of traffic deaths occur either in the dark or around dawn or dusk.
As with midsize cars, the IIHS evaluations of small SUVs showed that a vehicle’s price tag doesn’t correspond to the quality of headlights. More modern lighting types, including high-intensity discharge (HID) and LED lamps, and curve-adaptive systems, which swivel in the direction of steering, also are no guarantee of good performance.
Drivers of late-model pickup trucks are likely to find themselves squinting into the darkness or temporarily blinding other drivers, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's latest headlight ratings show.
All four small pickups evaluated are available only with headlights that earn a poor rating. The same goes for 3 out of 7 large pickups. Only one large pickup, the Honda Ridgeline, is available with good-rated headlights, though all but the most expensive trim levels come with poor ones.
Pickups are the third vehicle category to be put through the IIHS headlight evaluations. Midsize cars were the first in March, followed by small SUVs in July.
IIHS launched its headlight ratings after finding that government standards based on laboratory tests allow for huge variation in the amount of illumination headlights provide in on-road driving. In the Institute's evaluations, engineers measure how far light is projected from a vehicle's low beams and high beams as the vehicle travels straight and on curves. Glare from low beams for oncoming drivers also is measured.
A group of four minivans recently tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for protection in small overlap front crashes shows some of the worst possible outcomes for this type of crash, with only one vehicle performing acceptably.
The Nissan Quest, the Chrysler Town & Country and its twin, the Dodge Grand Caravan, all earn poor ratings. The exception to the disappointing pattern is the 2015 Toyota Sienna, which earns an acceptable rating. It joins the Honda Odyssey, which last year earned a good rating in the test, in the ranks of TOP SAFETY PICK+ winners.
