Being a Magical Engineer is easy. You know what's not easy? Trying to help stop a coup against one of the Arcane families. Or fighting against a bloodthirsty rebellion. As if that wasn't bad enough, I'm kind of juggling five men who are too good looking for their own good, And who hate each other. The only thing they have in common? They want me. Bast might be okay with the harem life, But what about the rest of them? Can I make this work, Or am I going to just fall flat on my face causing an even bigger mess? Yeah, welcome to my crazyville. At least I have my magic back. Now I just need to hold on to the family I've created for myself And find the strength to deal with this Frenetic life. No pressure, right? Author note: Frenetic is book four of the Arcane Mage series. This book is a reverse harem romance intended for adult audiences. It contains adult language, lots of cursing, and sexual themes that are not suitable for anyone under the age of eighteen. No opossums were hurt in the makings of this book, but please read with caution because excessive heat levels might be in the near futu

This book examines a corpus of frenetic novels - by Balzac, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Zola, Huysmans, Bloy and Bernanos - that foreground the motif of fever within a recurring master plot: a pious young woman, just discovering her sexuality, finds herself torn between two father-figures, a doctor (typically a blood-relative, often the biological father) and a priest (the spiritual father). She contracts a disease of uncertain origin, made manifest by a series of fevers that require interpretation in the light of contemporary religious, medical and literary discourses. Manzini traces the motifs of fever and frenzy back to Rousseau, the Gothic novel and Frenetic Romanticism, as well as forward to their recuperation within Surrealism, in order to produce an original history of Frenetic Catholicism in the age of realism. Francesco Manzini is a Stipendiary Lecturer in French at Christ Church, Oxford, and is the author of Stendhal's Parallel Lives (2004). He has also published numerous articles on nineteenth-century French literature.

Contemporary life is leaving us frazzled, overwhelmed, and out of sorts. Our life's rhythm is often borrowed from the pace of life around us. Humans have created such a loud, fast tempo of perfection and production that we often forget--if we ever knew it at all--the rhythms designed for our well-being. In The Sacred Pulse, pastor and author April Fiet invites us to examine the frantic patterns of our lives to reclaim the deeper, sacred pulses that pattern our days. Through stories, scripture, and practical guidance for daily living, she lays out twelve rhythms--including gardening, handcrafts, friendship, and holidays--that are both sustainable and sustaining. Everyday acts like mealtime and shopping, and sporadic rhythms like the occasional snow day: reclaiming these patterns can remind us of the holy movement of God in the world. In a world of hustle and bravado, silencing the noise takes practice. The Sacred Pulse shows us how to strip away all of the competing beats we have settled for so we can tap into the joyful, holy rhythms of life.

“This book gets to the heart of the matter.” --Ryan Holiday, New York Times bestselling author of Stillness Is the Key and Ego Is the Enemy “This book taps into something that so many of us feel but can’t articulate.” --Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global “Ambitious, far-reaching, and impactful." --David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene From the bestselling author of Peak Performance comes a powerful antidote to heroic individualism and the ensuing epidemic of burnout. Achievement often comes at a cost. Angst, restlessness, frayed relationships, exhaustion, and even substance abuse can be the unwanted side effects of an obsession with outward performance. While the high of occasional wins can keep you going for a while, playing into the always-on, never enough hustle culture ultimately takes a serious toll. In The Practice of Groundedness, bestselling author Brad Stulberg shares a healthier, more sustainable model for success. At the heart of this model is groundedness--a practice that values presence over rote productivity, accepts that progress is nonlinear, and prioritizes long-term values and fulfillment over short-term gain. To be grounded is to possess a firm and unwavering foundation, a resolute sense of self from which deep and enduring, not shallow and superficial, success can be found. Groundedness does not eliminate ambition and striving; rather, it situates these qualities and channels them in more meaningful ways. Interweaving case studies, modern science, and time-honored lessons from ancient wisdom traditions such as Buddhism, Stoicism, and Taoism, Stulberg teaches readers how to cultivate the habits and practices of a more grounded life. Readers will learn: • Why patience is the key to getting where you want to go faster--in work and life--and how to develop it, pushing back against the culture’s misguided obsession with speed and “hacks.” • How to utilize the lens of the wise observer in order to overcome delusion and resistance to clearly see and accept where you are—which is the key to more effectively getting where you want to go • Why embracing vulnerability is the key to genuine strength and confidence • The critical importance of “deep community,” or cultivating a sense of belonging and connection to people, places, and causes. Provocative and practical, The Practice of Groundedness is the necessary corrective to the frenetic pace and endemic burnout resulting from contemporary definitions of success. It offers a new—and better—way.

Master OpenFlow concepts to improve and make your projects efficient with the help of Software-Defined Networking. About This Book Master the required platforms and tools to build network applications with OpenFlow Get to grips with the updated OpenFlow and build robust SDN-based solutions An end-to-end thorough overview of open-source switches, controllers, and tools Who This Book Is For If you are a network/system administrator or a system engineer and would like to implement OpenFlow concepts and take Software-Defined Networking on your projects to the next level, then this book is for you. If you are aware of broad networking concepts, and are familiar with the day-to-day operation of computer networks, you will find this book very beneficial. What You Will Learn Explore Software-Defined Networking and activities around SDN/OpenFlow including OpenFlow messages Hardware and software implementations of OpenFlow switches and experiment with Mininet GUI Learn about the role of OpenFlow in cloud computing by configuring and setting up the Neutron and Floodlight OpenFlow controller plugins Simulate and test utilities, and familiarize yourself with OpenFlow soft switches, controllers, virtualization, and orchestration tools Enhance and build environments for Net App development by installing VM's and tools such as Mininet and Wireshark Learn about hardware and software switches and get a feel for active open-source projects around SDN and OpenFlow In Detail OpenFlow paves the way for an open, centrally programmable structure, thereby accelerating the effectiveness of Software-Defined Networking. Software-Defined Networking with OpenFlow, Second Edition takes you through the product cycle and gives you an in-depth description of the components and options that are available at each stage. The aim of this book is to help you implement OpenFlow concepts and improve Software-Defined Networking on your projects. You will begin by learning about building blocks and OpenFlow messages such as controller-to-switch and symmetric and asynchronous messages. Next, this book will take you through OpenFlow controllers and their existing implementations followed by network application development. Key topics include the basic environment setup, the Neutron and Floodlight OpenFlow controller, XORPlus OF13SoftSwitch, enterprise and affordable switches such as the Zodiac FX and HP2920. By the end of this book, you will be able to implement OpenFlow concepts and improve Software-Defined Networking in your projects. Style and approach This book is an easy-to-follow and pragmatic guide networking. Each topic adopts a logical approach and provides hints to help you build and deliver SDN Solutions efficiently.

Hartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies in particular three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time. According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match future results and events. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slipping slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.

Provides more than one thousand math and verbal questions from the GMAT along with test-taking tips and a full-length assessment exam.

Discover simple habits and easy-to-implement daily rhythms that will help you find meaning beyond the chaos of family life as you create a home where kids and parents alike practice how to love God and each other. You long for tender moments with your children--but do you ever find yourself too busy to stop, make eye contact, and say something you really mean? Daily habits are powerful ways to shape the heart--but do you find yourself giving in to screen time just to get through the day? You want to parent with purpose--but do you know how to start? Award-winning author and father of four Justin Whitmel Earley understands the tension between how you long to parent and what your daily life actually looks like. In Habits of the Household, Earley gives you the tools you need to create structure--from mealtimes to bedtimes--that free you to parent toddlers, kids, and teens with purpose. Learn how to: Develop a bedtime liturgy to settle your little ones and ground them in God's love Discover a new framework for discipline as discipleship Acquire simple practices for more regular and meaningful family mealtimes Open your eyes to the spirituality of parenting, seeing small moments as big opportunities for spiritual formation Develop a custom age chart for your family to more intentionally plan your shared years under the same roof Each chapter in Habits of the Household ends with practical patterns, prayers, or liturgies that your family can put into practice right away. As you create liberating rhythms around your everyday routines, you will find your family has a greater sense of peace and purpose as your home becomes a place where, above all, you learn how to love.

A fiercely vivid collection of stories about troubled California adolescents and misfits.