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For professional chocolatiers, tempering is an important aspect of their chocolate candy making business. This is because chocolate only become lustrous, creamy, and all-around delectable through tempering, a phased process of heating and cooling done to make chocolate pliant to shaping and molding.

Chocolates by nature are prone to blooming, that phenomenon which causes the crystals found in cocoa butter to escape the refinement of conching and therefore rise to the surface to mar your chocolate presentation. Blotchiness and a flaky consistency also result from blooming, all of which are signs of an inferior-quality chocolate confection.

There is a rationale behind chocolate’s predisposition to bloom. To begin with, the cocoa butter in chocolate–if tempering is slapdash–can produce six different types of crystals. Be aware that what you want during tempering is the proliferation of Type V crystal, the one that imparts a lustrous shine, a velvety richness, and a crisp snap to chocolate candy bars. To obtain only the Type Vs during crystallization, temperatures must be controlled.

Dark, semi-sweet and white chocolates have different tempering temperatures. When you dictate and sustain temperature levels, then you’ll be more successful in producing Type V crystals. Get distracted by the fun of innovating on chocolate shapes while working and temperatures may change. Be advised that any shift in thermometer readings on your chocolate will result in distempered chocolates. That means you’ll have to redo tempering; something which you’ll do frequently if you get distracted often.

Chocolate tempering machines, as opposed to tempering by hand, will automate the tempering process for you. A computer chip within its system has been so-designed as to turn a painstaking process for you as simple as setting dials and pushing buttons. Once you’ve loaded the chocolate onto the tempering machine, you can forget it–even all night–so you can take the time to perfect your chocolate design.

Manual tempering, as you’ve probably found out by now, isn’t only a matter of perfecting techniques but also reigning in such other factors as moisture, equipment reliability, worker skill, and focus–elements that are too often way beyond your control.

If you’re really bent on making a success out of your chocolate candy making enterprise, you’ll fare well to prioritize a chocolate tempering machine in your capital outlay. This compact gadget will not only ensure that you produce consistent-quality products all the time in a timely manner, it’ll also liberate your time to focusing on such business essentials as innovation, profits, productivity, and sales strategies. Essential aspects to business success, all of them, should you ask.

She probably can’t remember
and I know I can never forget…
the first time I saw her like that
I was only nine years-old
not naive by any stretch
having seen my share of tragedy-
my parent’s bitter battles in my first five years of life
then the inevitable end of their marriage
but not before 700 days of devastation called divorce
that destroyed dreams and deeply damaged hearts
I had no idea life could get worse…

But it did -

The day I found her passed out cold on the living room floor
I thought she was sleeping at first
In fact I swore she was just sound asleep
to my petrified little sister
whose big brown eyes screamed with fear
at the site of the lifeless body of our mommy
slobber dribbling out of the corner of her mouth
soaking her cheek below the dirt of her eye makeup
that trickled down her sallow skin on a face
devoid of any expression…

Is mommy dead?
a little voice whimpered
my sister weeped

My gut said Yeah she’s dead as a doornail

Thankfully my words said No No she’s not dead
as I carried my trembling, tiny sibling upstairs
and tucked her in bed with my promise
that Mommy would wake up in the morning…
as I wondered What if she didn’t?

Little did I know I would wonder again and again
for the next 20 years
who I would see when I came home from school…
my real mom - you know her - the sober, sophisticated lady -
or would I find that ugly, evil spirit
lurking within my mommy’s body again?

I loathed that demon who called me nasty names
and didn’t cook dinner or do laundry
I wanted to murder the monster that growled at me
slurring words, throwing things and
staggering through our house…

So confused, embarassed, shocked, and dazed
by how my mommy would really be two people

But I learned early -

Never ask questions…
about anything at all
Never tell…
anyone - not a soul
Never complain about the awful monster
for fear that it would take my real mommy away forever
Never trust anyone or even my tomorrows…
since nobody ever knew if the evil demon would be back
Never feel anything…
because it was easier to become completely numb
than to endure the endless pain and loss day after day…

When I got older, I thought I could deal better
but looking back now I know I was wrong…
It didn’t get easier, I just became paralyzed
behind the protective wall I built to be safe from her…

Nobody ever met the first boy I went on a date with
neither parent even knew his name
much less what kind of car I hopped into
or where we were supposed to be going…
Because my dad wasn’t around and she was drunk
and I was ashamed, so I stood by the front door
waiting for Tommy’s car to come down my street
and as soon as I saw it, I barged out the door
raced across the front porch, skipped the steps,
barely letting my feet touch the curb before
I bounced into his Chevy with my gleaming smile
that everyone knew me for -

The radiant face with the perpetually beaming smile
that I faked so often, it almost felt real…
My cheerful facade created to disguise
my actual agony and untold twisted torture

Today at 30 years-old, I have perfected my mysterious mask
as I cower behind my forced, dazzling smile
and feigned nature of blissful peace and normalcy

Nobody ever gets even a glimpse
of the real me - tormented by childhood memories
tossing and turning in my bed every night,
haunted by frantic flashes of bad dreams,
reeling in faithless feelings, lingering self-doubt, desolate disbelief, hopelessly

searching…
for explanations, answers
to my questions that haven’t changed in 20 years…

But anything close to understanding
seems to escape my emotional grasp
eternally eluding my ravished, raging mind
and sense of reason and logic…

I surrended myself to a continual, compulsive scramble
through a menacing maze of misconceptions
that I perpetuate with my naive expectations
for a miracle to magically reveal a meaningful response
to my endlessly, impossible questions…

If I could just find…
A solitary reason why
my mother has continued to choose alcohol over me
for more than 25 years…
Or a single clue to explain how
I can compete for her love when
my opponent is a lifeless, speechless, emotionless
loyal bottle of vodka…

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

Graffiti has received a mixed press in the last 5 years or so. On the one hand, artists like Banksy have made graffiti an aesthetic pleasure, using stencils to create technically difficult graphics loaded with political points attached. This type of graffiti was likely to get trendy with both the public and the likes of The Guardian pressroom : attention-getting to both eye and intellect. This type of graffiti is even acquired as graffiti printed onto canvas, and hung on the walls of middle class homes and corporate meeting rooms.

All the same, what of the usual kind - the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger variety - this is just seen as antisocial, an offence perpetrated by the untalented. But is graffiti simply an artform? To many people, it’s not just an artform, but a way to mark a neighbourhood, or even two fingers up at society : anti-establishment, anti-social, even anti-art.

Spraying has always been an undercover pursuit, although the effects are very much public facing. The targeted audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival gang? A communication to a single person? To the public? Maybe it’s merely uncalled-for and out of boredom.

Whatever the reasons, there seems to be a ceaseless demand to spray on walls. Some town councils have acknowledged that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated areas where graffiti is allowed - usually unoccupied areas, but now and then busier areas like temporary boarding that surrounds inner city construction sites.

Here at the wedding wish lantern head office, we have long adhered to the assumption that wedding lanterns should be white. Not only are they delicate and graceful with a swan-like grace in their white dress, they are also more homogenised and- more often than not- blend in nicely with the creams of the bridal decor. When lantern enthusiasts have required wedding lanterns for their special day, inthe majority of cases they would never even consider having anything other than a glorious white lantern at their wedding. As of last month that has all changed We are now pleased to say, that as well as our standard white lanterns, we offer coloured lanterns to potential brides and grooms. Though many people might still prefer to stay with the plainer white variety, there is a growing call for for diversity in a wedding lantern, and it is only fair that our company should meet this growing need for options by adding a splash of colour to our special merchandise.Weddings are, after all, a merry affair, as well as a essential gesture of dedication and devotion to a mate. There are a growing number of couples that like toplace some fun into their special day by having a themed wedding - just think of the Jordan and Peter Andre extravaganza a few years back. For this reason, a colourful lantern may be just perfect for the occasion.