Emergency Broadcast System

A new year and new missions. Where do we go from here?

2012-01-20T19:40:00.002-05:00

verb (used with object)

to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's name; to change one's opinion; to change the course of history.
to transform or convert (usually followed by into ): The witch changed the prince into a toad.
to substitute another or others for; exchange for something else, usually of the same kind: She changed her shoes when she got home from the office.
to give and take reciprocally; interchange: to change places with someone.
to transfer from one (conveyance) to another: You'll have to change planes in Chicago.

I have always marveled at the beginning of a new year and why people wait until such times to engage in resolutions and promises to themselves only to see them shimmer and shake a few months later and finally dissolve as old habits return. Attempts made to change; reverting to a previous state. This was for me a reason never to promise myself at any time to make such ambitious approaches in the hope that it would catch.

This is not to say that all resolve is lost. Their are those that stick to a plan long enough to see that change is possible. This aspect of human nature has always been something that I never attached to calendar though. Rather an innate motivation from the mind that continuing on the same course would end up unmeritorious in the end and the individual human progress would be stymied or revert to its previous state.

This is the sort of process every individual faces in due course. Anyone thinking their life will be all sunshine and roses frankly, to me, seems to suffer from delusions. Just look around. Everyone has something they can change if they aspire to be better and more sound. No one is perfect. It begins with a general sensation that change requires a shift in the life compass that is taking one in a negative direction. Like a ship sailing into dangerous waters.

Sounds all well and good provided the person admits and realizes the gravity of what is to come if change does not take place. This is the point where sometimes folks have to endure hard times to realize that the only constant in the Universe is change. Change of self. Change of environment. Change of friends, and the list goes on; constantly.

Often people try to control events around them. Control, however, is an illusion. In the final analysis no one is really in control of anything. At any moment anything can happen. Still, many people try desperate to hang on to a sense that they can control events and life around them. Ask a Heart Attack victim if he could have controlled the moment it struck, or a victim of a car accident what control they had over the event. Simply put, it was cause and effect that dictated the moment. Not any rambling of control. Yet still a person seeks change through control. Wrong.

To me, self realization is the beginning of change. One must first be motivated by an external sense of something they dislike of themselves to begin the process. From there they can attempt the end result on their own or engage family, friends, or professional help to make them see the way to a better life. After all, isn't that the real reason for change? To make a better future and a better life for oneself.

Amidst self change there are always factors of influence from naysayers and encourager's to get to the finish line. Time is also a factor. Often, depending on what one seeks to change or remedy, some things must reside in proper perspective. To think in hours or days seems foolish to me. Generally a singular habit is said to take at least 30 days to feel a effective change. To change a habit or something about personality can take much much longer. Perhaps years even.

So if you are serious of mind to change yourself and/or some other life aspect. Be of great resolve.
Know that you cannot change overnight.
Be ready for tough times.
Always wake up reminding yourself of this goal and never, NEVER give up.
If you feel like giving in, engage assistance. Whatever the goal you seek, no one has ever gone wrong by engaging help.
Take Baby Steps and you will be surprised at the new person you can become.

I write this, because I have and am still engaged in a life change process. These are the things I have learned that have helped. I should also say that the reality of my change has been hard and yet not completely realized. Only my will power and the help of others is guiding me and keeping me on course as I work on myself to right my compass and make steady the waves in my own waters.

Life was not meant to be easy. We all make errors in judgment. We all have something we aspire to. Once one sees what need doing is the moment to strike. That is the tacit admission to oneself that a new direction is needed.

After all, if a person does not admit they need to change. They never will begin to.

I realize this entry is vague to an great extent. That is intentional for what I would change of myself is not what another would be facing. Only that if a time strikes and a promise to oneself is made; then it is time to act.

Removing Stickers

2011-10-24T20:38:00.000-04:00

Like a dick I have always struggle with those hard to manage product stickers. You know; the ones that refuse to come off no matter what you do unless you choose a fingernail approach.

Bless the INTERNET. I bought what is called a Bokken blade. Its essentially a wooden Samurai sword for practicing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokken

The one I ordered, which is not the first, had this damned manufacturer sticker. Try as I might I gave up because I was not going to do the finger nail thing. I have a few other Bokken's and a host of authentic swords ( real ones, about 25...yeah yeah, call me crazy ). I like to practice with them and I have one that is a Tai Chi sword. If you are unaware of this type, it has a "tassel" on the base. Once you perfect the regular Tai Chi, you are suppose to move to the use of the sword. The trick being the tassel cannot hit the ground. Very hard stuff.

Anyway, enough of swords. Here is the video this woman helped me get the sticker that plagued me off my lovely piece.

http://www.ehow.com/video_13445_remove-stickers.html

How to Remove Stickers -- powered by ehow.

Bye Bye Dick ( oops sorry Dictator)

2011-10-24T02:17:00.001-04:00

This one I get a kick out of.

A vicious animal we affectionately call a dictator kills innocents up innocents and finally when the battle catches up to him he apparentlly show contrition.

This is a interesting set of circumstances. From the conquered to the conquered. Absolute power corrupting absolutely. However, now some human rights folks are asking for a investigation on HOW he died?

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/235973/20111023/moammar-gadhafi-dead-clues-to-the-mad-dog-s-death-hidden-from-public-view-libya-libyan-leader-muamma.htm

The link above shows some lovely photos...lol

I believe in human right for virtually all people. But not the sort who first on the their own people just to hold onto power. Frankly and I will leave this entry with this thought...

In my world, my mind....I would have attached a chain, rope or whatever to his legs. Attached it to my pickup and drag that son of a bitch across Tripoli.

Good riddance.

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

2011-10-12T11:20:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

For Steve...Mr. American Pie...October 5, 2011

2011-10-06T13:36:00.000-04:00

1955 -2011

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But this October made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

So bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock ’n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you’re in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.

I started singin’,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,

Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.

We were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

We started singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

He was singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.

And they were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die.
"this’ll be the day that I die."

They were singing,
"bye-bye, miss american pie."
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day that I die."

For my American Friends - What I sense about the US today.

2011-08-30T18:34:00.003-04:00

Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on July 15, 1979. It is often called the "Crisis of Confidence" speech. When you read it I am sure much of what he said applies to America today. Where I live in Canada and most of our provinces are not sensing many of the great problems facing American's today. I believe in America and what it stands for. Perhaps for those having hard time or those having it good, America is a troubled nation. I would like to see it powerful again...

READ ON.

Good evening. This is a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for president of the United States.

I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

During the past three years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.

Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.

I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.

It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a southern governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you're just managing the government."

"You don't see the people enough any more."

"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."

"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."

"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."

"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."

Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.

This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power."

And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives."

"Some people have wasted energy, but others haven't had anything to waste."

And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another."

And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: "The big-shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can't sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first."

This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."

Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I'll read just a few.

"We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment."

"We've got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent."

And this is one of the most vivid statements: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife."

"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."

This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment."

And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: "The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."

And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."

These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my long-standing concerns about our nation's underlying problems.

I know, of course, being president, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law -- and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.

It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.

We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation's resources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Cameron Sinclair on open-source architecture | Video on TED.com

2011-04-28T12:28:00.000-04:00

Cameron Sinclair on open-source architecture | Video on TED.com

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com

2011-04-27T14:00:00.000-04:00

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed | Video on TED.com

2011-04-27T13:57:00.000-04:00

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed | Video on TED.com

The Times they are a Changin'

2011-04-27T13:44:00.002-04:00

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Two roads

2011-04-20T10:13:00.001-04:00

Because this is my favorite and it says a lot about me as a person...

By Robert Frost 1915

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

2011-04-20T10:11:00.001-04:00

This one is for you Steve...

The Cremation of Sam McGee

By Robert W. Service

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.

Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;

It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,

He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;

And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:

"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.

Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.

He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,

With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;

It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,

But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.

In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;

And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;

The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;

And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;

It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."

And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;

Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;

Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;

The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;

And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;

And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.

It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;

And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;

But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;

I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.

I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.

It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

The Origin of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Poem XANADU

2011-04-20T09:55:00.002-04:00

The Origin of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Poem XANADU

Xanadu, or more accurately Shàngdū (Chinese: 上都; pinyin: Shàngdū), was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China, before he decided to move the seat of his dynasty to the Jin Dynasty capital of Zhōngdū (Chinese: 中都; pinyin: Zhōngdū), which he renamed Dàdū, the present-day Beijing. The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 275 kilometres (171 mi) north of Beijing, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of the modern town of Duolun. The layout of the capital is roughly square shaped with sides of about 2,200m; it consists of an "Outer City", and an "Inner City" in the southeast of the capital which has also roughly a square layout with sides about 1,400m, and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace has sides of roughly 550m, covering an area of around 40% the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most visible modern-day remnants are the earthen walls though there is also a ground-level, circular brick platform in the centre of the inner enclosure.

It was designed by Chinese architect Liu Bingzhong and built in the town of Kāipíng from 1252 to 1256 during the Mongol invasion.^[1] In 1264 it was renamed Shàngdū, the "Supreme Capital".^[2] At its zenith, over 100,000 people lived within its walls. In 1369 Shàngdū was occupied by the Ming army and put to the torch. The last reigning Khan, Toghun Temür, fled the city.

Today, only ruins remain, surrounded by a grassy mound that was once the city walls. Since 2002 a reconstruction effort has been undertaken. In March 2008, China submitted a proposal to UNESCO to make the ruin a World Heritage Site under the title "Sites of the Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital (Xanadu) and Middle Capital"

The poem begins with a description of Khan's Xanadu, near the river Alph which passes through caverns before reaching a dark or dead sea. Although the land is one of man-made "pleasure", there is a natural, "sacred" river that runs past it. The lines describing the river have a markedly different rhythm from the rest of the passage:^[28]

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea. (lines 1-5)

The land is constructed as a paradisical garden, but like Eden after Man's fall, Xanadu is isolated by walls. The finite property of the constructed walls of Xanadu are contrasted with the infinite properties of the natural caves through which the river runs.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. (lines 6-11)

The poem expands on the gothic hints of the first stanza as the narrator explores the dark chasm in the midst of Xanadu's gardens, and describes the surrounding area as both "savage" and "holy". Yarlott interprets this chasm as symbolic of the poet struggling with decadence that ignores nature.^[51] It may also represent the dark side of the soul, the dehumanizing effect of power and dominion.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover! (lines 12-16)

From the dark chasm a fountain violently erupts, then forms the meandering river Alph, which runs to the sea described in the first stanza. Fountains are often symbolic of the inception of life, and in this case may represent forceful creativity.^[52] Since this fountain ends in death, it may also simply represent the life span of a human, from violent birth to a sinking end.

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: (lines 17-28)

Kubla Khan hears voices of the dead, and refers to a vague "war" that appears to be unreferenced elsewhere in the poem. Yarlott argues that the war represents the penalty for seeking pleasure, or simply the confrontation of the present by the past:^[53]

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war! (lines 29-30)

Though the exterior of Xanadu is presented in images of darkness, and in context of the dead sea, we are reminded of the "miracle" and "pleasure" of Kubla Khan's creation. The vision of the sites, including the dome, the cavern, and the fountain, are similar to an apocalyptic vision. Together, the natural and man-made structures form a miracle of nature as they represent the mixing of opposites together, the essence of creativity:^[54]

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! (lines 31-36)

The narrator turns prophetic, referring to a vision of an unidentified "Abyssinian maid" who sings of "Mount Abora". Harold Bloom suggests that this passage reveals the narrator's desire to rival Khan's ability to create with his own.^[55] The woman may also refer to Mnemosyne, the Greek personification of memory and mother of the muses, referring directly to Coleridge's claimed struggle to compose this poem from memory of a dream.

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice! (lines 37-47)

The subsequent passage refers to unnamed witnesses who may also hear this, and thereby share in the narrator's vision of a replicated, ethereal, Xanadu. Harold Bloom suggests that the power of the poetic imagination, stronger than nature or art, fills the narrator and grants him the ability to share this vision with others through his poetry. The narrator would thereby be elevated to an awesome, almost mythical status, as one who has experienced an Edenic paradise available only to those who have similarly mastered these creative powers:^[56]

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise. (lines 48-54)

The Man and I

2011-03-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

I first posted this in 2006. I was asked to repost it.

The Man and I
I met a man the other day who asked me what I thought.
Of all the things that I had, of all the things I bought.
He wondered this because I had a look of such disgust.
At how my life was shaping up and turning into dust.
His puzzled look I'd seen before, almost every day,
Of how we think that happiness is a path on which we pay.
With this in mind I looked away, a sadness to conceal.
The concern was not what I had, but rather, how I feel.
A painful moment that had passed--not so long gone by--
A moment that repeats itself, and I can't answer why.
People enter, than they leave, often by my means,
Driving a wedge between new worlds that I have never seen.
To him I said, "My things you're free to have, I do not care.
Take it all away from me, my life is not in there.
Every day that ticks on by reminds me what I've lost.
The people that I've driven out I can't assign a cost.
"There is no doubt that love is bought in many different ways.
However, when it's purchased--it only lasts for days.
Finally, to this man, I said, "This much is true.
"You'll only ever know the cost when the fool with cash is you.

Thomas Daniel Herrington

I Wrote your Name

2011-03-01T10:45:00.002-05:00

The following is not mine.

Jean Alcanices by way of a person I know on Facebook

I WROTE YOUR NAME ON A PIECE OF PAPER BUT I ACCIDENTALLY THREW IT AWAY,

I WROTE YOUR NAME ON MY HAND BUT IT WASHED AWAY,

I WROTE YOUR NAME IN THE SAND BUT THE WAVES WHISPERED IT AWAY,

I WROTE YOUR NAME IN MY HEART AND FOREVER IT STAYED

Assorted - Friends, Opinions etc.

2011-02-16T11:55:00.002-05:00

What is a friend?

The dictionary defines as such...

1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
2. A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.
5. Friend A member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.

Accurate by some standards, but perhaps missing a number 6. Interaction in real life. Of all that the dictionary defines, albeit extremely vague, only the first list (number 1) would I consider a friend. The rest ( numbers 2 to 5) have the opportunity to become friends but are not in my opinion really even close to what a true friend is.

Surely and to great credit for many we live in a world of Social Networking via Technology. Events in the present, as occurred in Egypt, may not have reached full potential without it. I don't have any friends in Egypt. In this case Social Networking became a tool of support for a movement, not necessarily Social Networking as it was intended. The result, however, was astonishing.

Social networking has also brought us advertising. Accounts on these sites created for the sole purpose of promoting businesses and their products. Effective, but not exactly social so far as reconnecting with old friends. That said, one cannot deny that it works all the same for the benefit of those using these sites in that manner. I have no problem there either.

Oh, and let us dare not forget the bid daddy on the block. The applications and and gaming element. Very effective for those who connect and equally for the profit of the companies engaged.

To all this I have no problem.

Where my problem lies is in the area of FRIENDS? To call something a "Social network" is a huge distinction from a Business network ( eg. LinkedIn.com). It was always my thought that friends, as the definition states, are the true intention of Social Networking. Sure, people meet, some fall in love and some are deluded all by way of these sites. Its a good and a bad, but no harm no foul. Let each do as they please.

I was always one to believe the a friend was someone with whom interaction was the key. Sure friends drift apart and perhaps reconnect on these sites which is amazing. Others just add one to a list, without discussion of any kind, and claim they are your friend. The old saying "friends come and go" is true in my opinion. In the definition above I take one exception. A friend is not an "acquaintance". That is someone you may have contact with online or off, but is not a friend in my personal experience.

A friend is someone we share our lives, for good and ill. We rely on them and they in turn rely on us. We share things no one else knows. They are close and sometimes closer than even our family. They know things about us no one else would. I doubt that would apply to an acquaintance.

Then there is the factor of time. Here comes my cynicism...

To honestly thing that a person you once new in the way I just described as a "friend" after many years to me is ludicrous. People change, life changes. We grow, marry, divorce, have kids and so on. If we were in touch during these phases and shared these moments then friendships would be valid. But when enough time ticks on by and we honestly think our former "friends" are the same people after time passes is delusional to me. If you are not witness to events in their lives they slide into the acquaintanceship category. I have not trouble with acquaintances, but they are not friends.

There is no point to this post other than to say that if you haven't been my definition of a friend. You don't belong on my list on a Social Network. At least in as a friend. High School was a long time ago. Everyone has moved on. Thankfully the sites are now putting up lists you can add people too. How ingenious. Obviously they recognize that just having a list of "Friends" no longer applies.

So to my friends, you remain. I have not yet, at least on Facebook created an acquaintance list. So I guess that will the next thing I do. I suspect most of those on my "friend" list will end up there.

Funny how things change. I remember when social networking began it had but one purpose. No longer. Frankly its a good thing. However, it does force us to identify where those we let into our lives must belong.

Kind of like real life in a odd sort of way. There is humour in that.

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome | Video on TED.com

2011-01-07T14:36:00.000-05:00

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome | Video on TED.com

Auld Lang Syne - The Origin and the Song

2010-12-31T10:07:00.003-05:00

The song itself has often been a bit of a debate as to authorship. Although credited to Robert Burns, it has been suggested the song itself was written by another. No real proof ever established this, and thus the author is considered to be Burns.

The song originated in Scotland and is considered to be one of the most popular songs worldwide. So here are the full lyrics in the original Robert Burns version as written in Scotland in 1788 and the more popular English version which we most sing on New Year's eve.

Robert Burns Original

Auld Lang Syne

Chorus.

And for auld lang syne, my jo,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne,

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days o' auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!

And surely I'll be mine!

And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes

And pu'd the gowans fine;

But we've wander'd mony a weary foot

Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,

Frae mornin' sun till dine;

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!

And gie's a hand o' thine!

And we'll tak a right guid willy waught,

For auld lang syne.

Standard English Translation

Old Long Past ( The actual English Title for the Song)

Chorus.

And for old long past, my joy (sweetheart),

For old long past,

We will take a cup of kindness yet,

For old long past,

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

And days of old long past.

And surely you will pay for your pint-vessel!

And surely I will pay for mine!

And we will take a cup of kindness yet,

For old long past.

We two have run about the hillsides

And pulled the wild daisies fine;

But we have wandered many a weary foot

Since old long past.

We two have paddled in the stream,

From morning sun till noon;

But seas between us broad have roared

Since old long past.

And there is a hand, my trusty friend!

And give me a hand of yours!

And we will take a right good-will drink,

For old long past.

Micro Finance and the changing of lives

2010-12-02T10:05:00.002-05:00

What is Micro Finance. To start, its a growing concept as a product of globalization. I will grab a quote from Wikipedia to explain.

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.

More broadly, it is a movement whose object is "a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers." Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance

If you visit the link above you can get a sense of what it is about.

Personally I believe the unchartered part of world which is often ignored is the Continent of Africa. From a western belief we see Warlords and corruption. This is not the majority of the countries in that vast land. It is a minority. Most are just normal people trying to get by in third world conditions. Enter Micro Finance.

Further to this there is a site and I will include the video for you of the founder. It is called KIVA.org and is listed on my Facebook profile.

Micro Finance loans are not what we would associate with in the west. They are so small. A couple of hundred dollars here and a few thousand there.

Kiva Microfunds (commonly known by its domain name, Kiva.org) is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries around the world and in the United States, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students. It is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, supported by loans and donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions. Kiva itself does not charge any interest; the loans made by Kiva members are passed interest-free to the independent field partner indicated for each loan. The field partners charge interest to the ultimate borrower—often at rates that seem very high to people in the developed world, who are used to having cheap credit on demand; these interest rates are disclosed and are discussed in the relevant section on the Kiva website.

Since its beginning some 5 years ago. Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley have built a virtual empire of Micro loans for the underprivileged. They are also a NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION.

As of September 19, 2010, Kiva has distributed $160,822,200 in loans from 757,183 lenders. A total of 220,977 loans have been funded. The average loan size is $382.77. Its current repayment rate is allegedly 98.90%. According to Alexa, Kiva's website ranks in the top 15,000 websites on the Internet.

The total costs of running Kiva in 2008 totaled $4.7M. During 2008, the user base released about $37M to low-income entrepreneurs listed on the Kiva website. So, for every dollar spent on operations, Kiva lenders sent about $8 for loans

However Micro Finance is not a easy subject and depending where the money goes, the rate of return my adjust accordingly to keep KIVA running.

But lets here from Jessica Jackley. She can tell you what they started with and where they are now.

Disclosure: I am a member of KIVA and loan money as I see fit. But keep in mind that you do not get interest repayed to you. This is Non profit and assistance for the 2/3rd's of the world living in poverty. If you loan, you are not subject to interest on that loan. Only your original contribution back.

The Story of my Name

2010-12-01T21:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry I don't have any wise commentary. I often get that way. One day I am spouting volumes and the next explaining some things.

So will take this short time to explain a simple thing.

As one notice's I got by the name "T.Daniel Herrington".

I wish it was just because I someone liked "Daniel" better. However the choice was not mine. My Grand Father, of whom I will speak little, immigrated from Ireland. His life was difficult in many ways. An orphan left to fend for himself.

He made it. He made it to one, if not the greatest country on Earth. Canada. He raised a family who in turn raised theirs. I was the last born. Youngest of my immediate family. He never left Ireland behind though.

Now to my birth.......

It was intended that I should be called "Thomas" after him. This is where it gets sad.

Six days after my birth he passed away. As a result it was too difficult on my Mother to call me Thomas and so Daniel became my right of passage in this world. Only until I got older did I realize that my Grandfather, even with his Oliver Twist start did some amazing things in Ireland. Waterford to be exact.

When he came to Canada he was not of great means, but held a great respect. As such I have come full circle in my life to embrace his name in my own way.

I get called "T" and "Daniel" and "T. Daniel" . The greatest of these is "T". Just "T". Not Mr. T or the like.

I can't change my name to Thomas. Daniel I what I am called. Though in my way "T" sums up what I carry of the man I never met, and I carry that simple letter with pride.

So to those who read this. You know the tale. Call me what you will but if you call me "T", you honour far more than me even if it just seems a letter or abbreviation or ultimately a name.

For that much I thank you though I will not openly. You just have to believe that I do.

Regards for a day of memory.

A bit of world history and a test for your history and understanding of the world today..

2010-11-30T15:53:00.003-05:00

Unless you live in a hole, everyone is aware of the most recent attack from North Korea on South Korean. Likewise, a while back the sinking by North Korea of a South Korea naval vessel.

Sorry American's, you may wonder a bit about this. Not to hurt your feelings but when 70% of your country (according to your own statistics and a Yale University study) can't find Afghanistan on a map you might wonder what I am talking about. If so, then just read it and go back to Oprah.

------------------------------------------------------------------

What is it that you really think is happening over there?

Do you think it just these two countries one against the other?

If so, look to history a bit and even to modern times. This is nothing other than the U.S. vs China.

Friday of all days is interesting when it comes to news, because as any media person will tell you; information on a Friday often goes unnoticed publicly because people are beginning their weekends.

So lets see what really is being said. The U.S. has formerly acknowledged it will support S. Korea in retaliation. Which if you don't think is coming, put you head back in the sand.

China has said they would assist N. Korea should this happen.

For those who read Military History, and I am proud to say it is my favorite reading material, this is the beginning of a showdown. Aside from the Kashmir valley dividing Russia, China, India and Pakistan; The Korea's have always been considered one of the greatest flash points for a large scale war.

As countries begin their withdrawal from places like Afghanistan is comes at an interesting time that this showdown should begin. But this won't be boots on the ground. If this happens, and it most likely will, and should, given N. Korea's actions. This may very well be the start of the first large scale war of the new century. Iraq and Afghanistan as a ratio of our soldiers lost to the soldiers lost on the other side actually means we are succeeding if you do that math. Tradgedy yes, but when you kill more on the other side than on yours and protect your country from bombs exploding on North American soil, from a military perspective you are not doing too bad.

Although it is ugly to watch the events that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Korea's would be like both those conflicts on steroids.

The Korean war never has really ended. There is DMZ point ( De-militarized ) area where the two have open ground between them considered an area of separation. This is just a buffer that both agreed on in place of a peace negotiation. They never really formally ended this war.

That area will rapidly close, large scale weapons and battleships will be drawn into the waters and in the end it won't be the Korean's providing the hardware behind the scene's. This will be a war U.S against China. After all, most S.Korean weapons are already American and likewise N.Korean are mostly Chinese and maybe Russian ( just a bit ).

It will be interesting to watch. It will also be interesting to watch the economic consequences given the import of Chinese goods to the west.

Personally I hope S. Korea and the U.S. send Kim Jong-Il, his son and any of his supporters back to hell and if the Chinese should get in the way with their weapons, well we should take care of them as well.

I don't say this to bash the Chinese. I respect the people immensely. But it's government is still a communist state supporting one of the nations with the worst record of secrecy and brutality against it's people. That country N.Korea tossed the first punch on a naval ship and now a second. For my money we should show them the size of the fist we have and maybe give the people of that country some freedom from tyranny.

Subsequently if any other nation like China or Russia or whomever should try to intervene we should deal with them also.

One thing, and its never pleasant, that buffers economies and can actually help America back on her feet is a large scale war. It has in the past and it can if a war starts over there. The larger the war the great the economic potential. Sad but true. Look at the boom after WW2.

But make no mistake, in the final analysis, this is really the U.S. against China. And we know who would come out on top. China is a landlocked nation without a navy and stands no chance against the U.S. and Japan is to the South and can easily control the waters there anyway.

The Chinese may hurt Americans economically for a while, but they will learn a hard lesson if they support this crazy man in North Korea. A lesson they would learn with bitter tears. China is a growing power. America is still the only reigning Superpower when it comes to this subject.

Naturally no one likes war, but let's be realistic. War has been around since recorded history began.

Do I hope it happens...NO! But to let North Korea off twice attacking South Korea warrants a response the likes of which will persuade them never to attempt such a thing again. A great deal of American and other nations soldiers died for the freedom of South Korea. We owe them and their memory to protect that which they fought for and ultimately created. An ally of ours, and we always look out for out friends. Otherwise we are just simple cowards.

Its a bad analogy, but if someone hits you first, be sure to hit them so hard they don't get up or at the very least need help to.

Quote on Family

2010-11-26T13:43:00.003-05:00

Personally I am big on family. In mine we have had and have presently many challenges to fight, fix, and push forward to preserve our collective togetherness. So here are some quotes...

"Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them."
Richard L. Evans

"Man is the head of the family, woman the neck that turns the head."
Chinese Proverbs

"May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness, let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot or should not have."
Richard L. Evans

"Cruel is the strife of brothers."
Aristotle

"It is not possible for one to teach others who cannot teach his own family."
Confucius

"Govern a family as you would cook a small fish -- very gently."
Chinese Proverbs

"The parents age must be remembered, both for joy and anxiety."
Confucius

"I can get up in the morning and look myself in the mirror and my family can look at me too and that's all that matters"
Lance Armstrong

"A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it. They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone."
Aesop

"In a broken nest there are few whole eggs."
Chinese Proverbs

"The roaring of the wind is my wife and the stars through the window pane are my children. The mighty abstract idea I have of beauty in all things stifles the more divided and minute domestic happiness."
John Keats

"The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family."
Paul Johnson

"The family is an early expedient and in many ways irrational. If the race had developed a special sexless class to be nurses, pedagogues, and slaves, like the workers among ants and bees, then the family would have been unnecessary. Such a division of labor would doubtless have involved evils of its own, but it would have obviated some drags and vexations proper to the family."
George Santayana

"One of life's greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn't good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world."
Jewish Proverbs

"Love, by reason of its passion, destroys the in-between which relates us to and separates us from others. As long as its spell lasts, the only in-between which can insert itself between two lovers is the child, love's own product. The child, this in-between to which the lovers now are related and which they hold in common, is representative of the world in that it also separates them; it is an indication that they will insert a new world into the existing world. Through the child, it is as though the lovers return to the world from which their love had expelled them. But this new worldliness, the possible result and the only possibly happy ending of a love affair, is, in a sense, the end of love, which must either overcome the partners anew or be transformed into another mode of belonging together."
Hannah Arendt

"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material"
F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish ."
Pope John Paul II

"There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child."
Henry Ward Beecher

"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others."
Pope John Paul II

"The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we'd all pile into the car---I forget what kind it was---and drive and drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called 'Dad.' We'd eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you."
Jack Handey

Quotes on the EGO

2010-11-24T13:46:00.006-05:00

I am unsure these quotes will convey my sensation of the human Ego. It is one of our greatest assests and our greatest problem as human beings. In our conscious existance the Ego is always present. It overlays the surface of all we do and it underlays all that resides in the sub-conscious ming. Together with its Sister "Super Ego" and what is termed the "Id" (as in identification), it is a part of everyone. But many believe that a release of our Ego may benefit humankind more. If is challenged, it is a source of pain, and it generates a great deal of untold mis-understand of others. Often it can even lead to conflict and war. After all, Hitler's greatest strength (as an example) was his oratory skills and his Ego. Likewise as an opposite John F Kennedy's greatest strength was his oratory skills and his Ego. As such the sword cuts both ways.
Wikipedia as always has a definition, but being this is a part of the mind only their definition would scratch the surface of the power of this component we each possess. This link will give you their version of the items mentioned. Now onto the quotes....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego#Ego

I should note I removed the name of the quote authors so as not to taint their origin.

___________________________________________

~ The world is burning in the fire of desire, in greed, arrogance and excessive ego.

~ With the disappearance of God the Ego moves forward to become the sole divinity.

~ Intolerance itself is a form of egoism, and to condemn egoism intolerantly is to share it.

~ Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

~ Ego has a voracious appetite, the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets.

~ Ego is simply an idea of who you are that you carry around with you.

~ The ego is willing but the machine cannot go on. It's the last thing a man will admit, that his mind ages.

~ Through loving devotion, their ego evaporates.

~ Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?

~ Look for intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego and the drive to get things done.

~ Ego is the biggest enemy of humans.

~ The ego is not master in its own house.

~ Confronted by outstanding merit, there is no way of saving one's ego except by love

~ Egotism, n: Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen.

~ Egotist: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

~ As William Penn put it: "Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." Remember... that those tyrants are often self-imposed roadblocks of your lower self at work.

~ The Universe knows what it's doing. So don't develop a big ego, and don't be afraid.

~ In their dreams at night, people wander around as long as they sleep; just so, they are under the power of the snake Maya, as long as their hearts are filled with ego and duality.

~ The sickness of my ego has been dispelled, and my pain is over and done.

~ Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.

~ When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But, if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish.

~ All works are being done by the energy and power of nature, but due to delusion of ego people assume themselves to be the doer.

~ The great corrupter of public man is the ego....Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.

~ When the body is filled with ego and selfishness, the cycle of birth and death does not end.

~ The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.

~ It is the nature of the ego to take, and the nature of the spirit to share.

~ Proverb

~ An actress must never lose her ego - without it she has no talent.

~ Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient's ego freedom to decide one way or another.

~ The minimum qualifications for Grace are surrender of ego.

~ Campaign against the temptations of the senses; Conquer inner foes; Triumph over your ego.

~ There's only one thing that can keep growing without nourishment: the human ego

~ About the Ego. There are two fields in which it operates and so, it has two meanings,

~ About eighty to ninety per cent of the population must be rated about as high in ego-security as the most secure individuals in our society, who comprise perhaps five or ten per cent at most.

~ To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation.

~ The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

~ Modern man believes he is fruitful and productive when his ego is aggressively affirmed, when he is visibly active, and when his action produces obvious results.

Quotes on Attitude

2010-11-23T16:20:00.002-05:00

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
Herm Albright

"Those who wish to sing, always find a song."
Swedish proverb

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."
Chinese Proverbs

"I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet."
Ancient Persian Saying

"To everyone is given the key to heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell."
Ancient Proverb

"The art of being yourself at your best is the art of unfolding your personality into the person you want to be. . . . Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others."
Wilfred Peterson

"In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill."
Winston Churchill

"Our loyalties must transend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."
Martin Luther King

"Some days there won't be a song in your heart. Sing anyway."
Emory Austin

"Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply To the day to day obstacles of life - Facing new challenges, seizing new opportunities, Testing our resources against the unknown and in the process, Discovering our own unique potentional."
John Amatt

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind."
James Truslow Adams

"The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."
William M. Thackeray

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it."
James Truslow Adams

"Let me enjoy the earth no less Because the all-enacting Might Which fashioned forth its loveliness Had other aims than my delight."
Thomas Hardy

"Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves."
Italian proverb

"A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition."
William Arthur Ward

"I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right -- shame on you!"
Louis Armstrong

"So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity."
Henry David Thoreau

"Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty."
Joseph Addison

Quotes on Ability

2010-11-22T15:01:00.003-05:00

"To know how to hide one's ability is great skill."
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, leaves before she is left and forgets before she is forgotten."
Marilyn Monroe

"As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at the peril of being not to have lived."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability."
Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Life is a marshmallow, easy to chew but hard to swallow"
Alberto Nikas

"The really unhappy person is the one who leaves undone what they can do, and starts doing what they don't understand; no wonder they come to grief."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Ability without honor is useless."
Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study."
Francis Bacon

"People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one...characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers."
Source Unknown

"Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones."
Oliver Goldsmith

"The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary."
Thomas A. Edison

"Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work."
John G. Pollard

"The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do."
Orison Swett Marden

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right!"
Henry Ford

"You are the only person on earth who can use your ability."
Zig Ziglar

"Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing."
John Andrew Holmes

"I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability."
Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good."
Marquis De Vauvenargues

"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts."
Booker T. Washington

"The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered."
Sir William Temple

"The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill."
Charles Caleb Colton

"The king is the man who can."
Thomas Carlyle

"The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all."
Desiderius Erasmus

"Ability is sexless."
Christabel Pankhurst

"The question ''Who ought to be boss?'' is like as ''Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?'' Obviously, the man who can sing tenor."
Henry Ford

"The boy was as useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker."
Earl Pitts

Remembering

2010-11-09T13:52:00.003-05:00

In two days I turn 42 years old. That day just happens to be, to me, one of the most important and least celebrated days of the year. Not because it is my birth date. Because it is the day we are supposed to remember all those lost in wars mankind has fought. Primarily we think of WW2 or WW1 when it comes to November 11th. We should be thinking of all the conflicts though, past and present. The impact of war, the causes, and the ultimately, and most importantly, those who suffered and perished during such times. I believe that in all countries, including my home country of Canada, this is day that should not be forgotten. By that I don't just mean a day of ceremonies.

I hesitate to wish it a holiday since that word seems to invoke a day that should be used for good times. I would wish, though, that we take that day off from our daily toils for what it stands for. If it suits the mind, and makes more sense as you read this, then I wish it to be a holiday. Like so many useless holidays throughout the year, this day goes unanswered and yet it carries such significance. Why?

Humankind has been plagued by war for all of recorded time. There will never be ultimate peace in any time. Not as long a we are biologically predisposed to such actions. Perhaps evolution will solve that problem in the long run, provided humanity survives to see that day. Einstein said that he knew how WW3 would be fought. With sticks and stones. He was correct in his day; but we have evolved far beyond the idea of an entire world at war. Now we must pick and choose enemies. Find them in the shadows and draw them out. Small conflicts spread over the entire world. In a fashion one could almost say that a third world war is underway now.

No matter what conflicts are happening external to our nations or within them. Even collectively fought side by side as allies to other countries, we must never lose sight of what the result of war really is. The answer ultimately is easy.

Death.

For to me, peace is an illusion. Shattered every day even in the simple act of an argument by two people.

On that note, and perhaps a couple of days early, I thought it wise to think on this. Enough has been said and so I leave the rest to a Lieutenant from my home country of Canada who wrote one of the most memorable poems known...

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

2010-10-12T12:51:00.001-04:00

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/ ]

(a guide for Global Leadership)

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/ ]

If I had a Rocket Launcher

2010-09-28T14:28:00.001-04:00

Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die

Rock me Gently

2010-09-28T13:33:00.001-04:00

From Yeats to his Love. Feeling he did not have the material means to earn her.

2010-09-24T15:45:00.002-04:00

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

W.B. Yeats

Two in one...because I couldn't resist you have something to read.

2010-09-22T15:25:00.001-04:00

Will Rogers:

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back in.

If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

There's two theories to arguin' with a woman. Neither one works.

When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Lazarus Long (From the author Robert Heinlein):

Never appeal to a man's better nature - he might not have one. Invoking his self interest gives you more leverage.

Natural laws have no pity.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then go do it.

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.

Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo Sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself.

Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keeps her from drowning them at birth.

A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers.

An elephant: A mouse built to government specifications.

Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain.

"I came, I saw, SHE conquered." (The original Latin seems to have been garbled.)

In handling a stinging insect, move slowly.

A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being "frank."

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Rub her feet.

Everybody lies about sex.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors - and miss.

When the need arises - and it does - you must be able to shoot your own dog.

Don't try to have the last word. You might get it.

Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry.

Do not handicap your children by making their lives too easy.

21 Lesson's I try to live by...

2010-09-21T09:47:00.001-04:00

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills w ill be as important as any other.
THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
FOUR. When you say, "I love you," mean it.
FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.
SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
TEN.. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.
TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"
FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and responsibility for all your actions.
EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

What does it really mean to defend freedom? Simply this...

2010-09-20T13:15:00.001-04:00

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.

Just a few things someone a little older than I am had to pass along to us.....

2010-09-20T12:54:00.002-04:00

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular .

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned .... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom and Dad that I loved them one more time before they passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

JFK, his quotes and how far we have come since this was said. Yet still, the message has yet to be served.

2010-09-14T13:27:00.002-04:00

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

A Bridge over Troubled Water

2010-09-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

Lest we forget

2010-09-11T21:07:00.000-04:00

Soon...

For the victims of the World Trade Center Attack

I'll see you when the summers here and winters left behind
When the world becomes a better place, and people become kind
I'll see you when the winds of war have blown and times have turned
When you and I can be as one after "loss of life" was learned
I'll see you when the sun comes up and dries away the tears
When my smile begins to surface again after all the years
I'll see you when we made the change of attitude on Earth
When people live without fear and people know their worth
I'll see you when my life is done, when I will rise above
When separation is put aside so we can get on with our Love.

A message from Daniel Herrington

Ontario elections. Halton region. As message of support

2010-09-11T20:47:00.001-04:00

Halton Ontario. Vote JAN MOWBRAY come October for Wards 2,3,4, and 5 She is worth it. http://www.janmobray.ca

Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Video on TED.com

2010-09-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Video on TED.com

Rachel Sussman: The world's oldest living things | Video on TED.com

2010-09-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

Rachel Sussman: The world's oldest living things | Video on TED.com

New York Mining Disaster - 1941

2010-09-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew.

Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.

I keep straining my ears to hear a sound.
Maybe someone is digging underground,
or have they given up and all gone home to bed,
thinking those who once existed must be dead.

Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.

In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew.

Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.

I chose to look the other way

2010-08-27T18:39:00.003-04:00

A poem on safety and what can happen if we neglect the basics in watching out for one another.

I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way.

It wasn't that I didn't care, I had the time, and it was there.

But I didn't want to seem a fool, or argue over safety rules.

I knew they had done the job before, if I called it wrong, they might get sore.

The changes didn't seem that bad, I've done the same, the knew I had.

So I shook my head and walked on by, they knew the risks as well as I.

I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way.

Now ever time I see his wife, I'll know I should have saved his life.

That guilt is something I must bear, but it isn't something you need to share.

If you see a risk that others take, the puts their health or life at stake.

The question asked, or thing you say, could help them live another day.

If you a risk and walk away, the hope you never have to say,

I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way.

~ T. Daniel Herrington by way of anonymous donation ~

Our Deepest Fear

2010-08-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

My dear American friends. Yes you do have a military with more than one General in it

2010-06-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

My dear American friends. Yes you do have a military with more than one General in it.

General David Petraeus. Obviously a great leader and commander.

However it occurs he is the only General left worthy of command in the U.S. military? This man is central to almost every conflict the U.S. is currently involved in to the point that he even fainted in June from exhaustion. Oh, and this is a man making command decisions by the way. FAINTING?

Truly, is this the best the American Military can churn out? Surely his colleges and other politic opponents are going to become increasingly upset and jealous with these appointments. It belittles the other command elements of the military and makes it look like only one guy can solve the problems.

In 10 years, this man will either be dead or the next President of the United States. I just hope he does not die of exhaustion first. What is your Government thinking?

Frankly it seems absurd to have one man with this much command power. The Joint Chiefs, the OAS, and surely the intelligence community must have concerns. There really are more than just one General in the U.S. military in case anyone was wondering.

I can only thank my lucky stars I am not an American. And, no, its not Obama's fault. Its the structure and chain of deciding. Affectionately known by the CIA and NSA as "Zero Sum Math". But I will leave the to you to figure out.

I wish him luck. But if he fails. He will fail very badly.

A fond Farewell to a Family Member

2010-06-06T18:20:00.001-04:00

This weekend I have been thinking with a heavy heart of Joan Dobson 1936-2010 who on June 4th finally lost her 4 year battle with Cancer. A Mother, a teacher, a community figure and part of my extended family. I can only take comfort knowing her pain is over, and although I am not overtly religious I do hope she finds peace over the rainbow...

Push, Dust off, and Eliminate some.

2010-05-29T17:07:00.002-04:00

Keep pushing. You just keep pushing.

I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing. I have always rejected secrets. They are a crushing element that leads to complete misunderstanding and misfortune when if revealed might lead to the opposite. Acceptance and understanding. Or, if revealed will shine a light on that and those who don't belong.

I have discovered though, that a great many are raised with such a simple minded singularity of thought that they are incapable of identifying with certain situations.

If you fear the absence of others in your choices, a voluntary self centered exit on their part. A dispassionate disagreement with your path. Then they were not there for you. Bid them a polite farewell and let them go. Regardless of the length of time or quality of relationship you may once have had. Change is a universal constant. Especially in people.

As such,over time, they don't belong in your world and are not of your caliber. If you are pushing, and they pushed at your side, it would make things easier. But seldom in the moments of such need, does another step up and say "let me share with you that burden if only to get to the end quicker". It seems easier to write off another these days, than to be accepting, tolerant and helpful to their situation.

For my part, I am happy for it. If only to know who belongs at my side and who doesn't. Selectiveness without viciousness is not wrong. It takes only one negative, cynical, judgemental person in your circle to infect yourself and those who are more upstanding.

Erase them from your life like you would chalk from a blackboard. Forget them, place them in the past and move on. Leave them and their weakness to others.

You will be better for it.

Prayer of Saint Francis

2010-05-23T07:14:00.000-04:00

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

AFTER ALL, 2012 is coming...LOL

Sympathy for me.

2010-05-08T14:02:00.004-04:00

Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've been around for a long, long year. Stole many a man's soul and faith.

I was 'round when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain. Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate.

I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change. Killed the Czar and his ministers. Anastasia screamed in vain.

I rode a tank. Held a general's rank. When the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank.

I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made.

I shouted out, "Who killed the Kennedys?".When after all it was you and me

Let me please introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste and I laid traps for troubadours who get killed before they reached Bombay .

Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints. As heads is tails just call me Lucifer 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint.

So if you meet me have some courtesy. Have some sympathy, have some taste. Use all your well-learned politesse or I'll lay your soul to waste.

Pleased to meet you. I hope you guess my name. But what puzzling you is the nature of my game.

Well good luck World.