April 26th 2009

Quotes of the week

Progression of philosophical thought

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. ~John Henry Newman

Never insult an alligator until after you've crossed the river. ~Oriental Proverb

Meditation of the week

Separateness

... put our efforts where we can succeed.

The appeal of a "fix" tempts us. One day we dream, "If only I had a different job my life would be happy, or if only I had a different house." Perhaps we even dream of having a different partner. When we waste so much precious energy on trying to change something or someone outside ourselves, we usually end up alone, unhappy, or exhausted. It takes great effort and a long time to develop what we truly seek: love, self-acceptance, honesty, and peace of mind.

Fixing or changing our partner might appeal on the surface, but why not put our efforts where we can succeed? What can we change? Ourselves - by becoming less critical we build our honesty and self-worth. Do I block my own growth when I focus on someone else's action?

Poem of the Week

Autopsy in the Form of an Elegy

by John Stone

In the chest
in the heart
was the vessel

was the pulse
was the art
was the love

was the clot
small and slow
and the scar
that could not know

the rest of you
was very nearly perfect.

 

Puppy of the week

From 8-28-08

Good Idea of the week

Law enforcement against prohibition

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-stamper/420-thoughts-on-pot-vs-al_b_188627.html

Video of the week

There is an Iphone app for anything!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1905898

Websites of the week

Great photo surfing site http://vi.sualize.us/

Youtube has full length movies

Get estimates and repair shop recommendations for car repairs

http://www.americorps.gov/

Good blog entry about racist emails (thanks AlaskaRob!)

Your weekly address and much more is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The funniest truth on TV is www.thedailyshow.com

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

I did NOT spend an hour on Sunday clicking this

http://clickypic.com/

April 19th, 2009

Quotes of the week

The more one belabors a point, the more skeptical I become; the louder one talks, the further I back off. Repetition raises doubts in the minds of those to whom you wish to make your point. ~Robert J. Ringer

I don’t think things can turn out. That’s all, and I’ve accepted it. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s not pessimism, just a sort of sadness, sort of like not having any hopes. ~Bob Dylan

Meditation of the week

The Warrior of the Light sometimes behaves like water,

flowing around the obstacles he encounters.

Occasionally, resistance might mean destruction, and so

he adapts to the circumstances. He accepts, without complaint

that the stones in his path hinder his way through the

mountains.

Therein lies the strength of water: It cannot be touched

by a hammer or ripped to shreds by a knife. The strongest

sword in the world cannot scar its surface.

The river adapts itself to whatever route proves possible,

but the river never forgets its one objective: the sea. So

fragile at its source, it gradually gathers the strength of

the other rivers it encounters.

And, after a certain point, its power is absolute.

-Paulo Coelho

from Warrior of the Light

More

Poem of the Week

Treason

by James Tate

        The man that was following me looked like a government
agent, so I turned around and walked up to him and said, "Why
are you following me?" He said, "I'm not following you. I'm
an insurance agent walking to work." "Well, pardon me, my
mistake," I said. "Have you done something wrong, unpatriotic,
or are you just paranoid?" he said. "I've done nothing wrong,
certainly not unpatriotic, and I'm not paranoid," I said.
"Well, nobody's ever mistaken me for a government agent before,"
he said. "I'm sorry," I said. "You have something weighing
down on your conscience, don't you?" he said. "No, I don't.
I'm just vigilant," I said. "Like a good criminal," he said.
"Would you stop talking to me like that," I said. "I don't want
to have anything to do with you." "You've committed some kind of
treason and they're going to get you," he said. "You're out
of your mind," I said. "Benedict Arnold, that's who you are,"
he said. "I'm going to a peace rally if that's okay with you,"
I said. "Oh, a peacenik. That's the same as treason," he said.
"No, it isn't," I said. "Yes it is," he said. "No." "Yes."
"No." "Yes." We reached his office door. "I really hate to
say good-bye to you. Would you like to have lunch tomorrow?"
he said. "I'd be delighted," I said. "Good. Then Sadie's
Café at noon," he said. "Noon at Sadie's," I said.

Good Idea of the week

Deconstruction Building

The Building Materials Reuse Association is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to facilitate building deconstruction and the reuse/recycling of recovered building materials.

Video of the week

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

Websites of the week

Or you could put a lawn chair in the dern shower!

Or you could leave the dern cell phone at home!

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britain’s Got Talent 2009

Scenes from Afghanistan

The future of games-tomorrow’s new ways to play (click next)

Your weekly address and much more is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The funniest truth on TV is www.thedailyshow.com

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=224275&title=nationwide-tax-protests

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

I apologize in advance for posting this link

http://failblog.org/

April 12

Quotes of the week

·         Many experts lose the creativity and imagination of the less informed. They are so intimately familiar with known patterns that they fail to recognize or respect the importance of the new wrinkle.~ Gavin de Becker

·         I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who

~Rudyard Kipling

Meditation of the week

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. [1953] Dwight D. Eisenhower:

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war. Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes. General Douglas MacArthur:

I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war. George W. Bush:

Poem of the Week

“the unbearable lightness of brushing teeth that aren't all there”

Before the Trip

by Jim Harrison

When old people travel, it's for relief
from a life that they know too well,
not routine but the very long slope
of disbelief in routine, the unbearable
lightness of brushing teeth that aren't all
there, the weakened voice calling out
for the waiter who doesn't turn;
the drink that once was neither here
nor there is now a singular act of worship.
The sun that rises every day says
I don't care to the torments of love
and hate that once pushed one back
and forth on the blood's red wagon.
All dogs have become beautiful
in the way they look at cats and wonder
what to do. Breakfast is an event
and bird flu only a joke of fear the world
keeps playing. On the morning walk
the horizon is ours when we wish.
We know that death is a miracle for everyone
or so the gods say in a whisper of rain
in the immense garden we couldn't quite trace.

Author of the week

It was on this day in 1945 that American troops entered the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. About 56,000 prisoners died there. Even though many of the American soldiers had fought in the worst battles of WWII, they were unprepared for the horrors they saw there. Edward R. Murrow was one of the reporters covering the event, and he was so disturbed that he couldn't even talk about it for days. One of the inmates in the camp that day was a teenager named Elie Wiesel, (books by this author) who went on to write more than 50 books, including his memoir, Night (1958). In 1986, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He said: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

Good Idea of the week

Earth Day — April 22

Earth Day is a great opportunity to celebrate environmental progress and cultivate new strategies to continue protecting the Earth. On Earth Day and the other 364 days of the year, we can all help to foster a healthier environment through our actions, including:

• Saving energy
• Reducing, reusing, and recycling
• Conserving water
• Planting trees
• Teaching kids to respect the environment

Video of the week

Are you lonesome tonight

Websites of the week

This I believe-Mohammad Ali

100 meters of existence

Stranger Photos Have Happened

Advertised Food vs Real Food

Your weekly address and much more is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The funniest truth on TV is www.thedailyshow.com

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

A million free books http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

And free audio books http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1#a2747

April 5th, 2009

Quotes of the week

·        It is no advantage for a man in fever to change his bed. ~Proverb, (Latin)

·        In most cases, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. A strength in one situation is a weakness in another, yet often the person can't switch gears. It's a very subtle thing to talk about strengths and weaknesses because almost always they're the same thing. ~Steve Jobs

·        The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right. ~Hannah Whitall Smith

 

Meditation of the week

Great ideals are the glory of man alone. No other creature can have them. Only man can get a vision and an inspiration that will lift him above the level of himself and send him forth against all opposition or any discouragement to do and to dare and to accomplish wonderful and great things for humanity...There can be no conquest to the man who dwells in the narrow and small environment of a groveling life, and there can be no vision to the man the horizon of whose vision is limited by the bounds of self. But the great things of the world, the great accomplishments of the world, have been achieved by men who had high ideals and who have received great visions. The path is not easy, the climbing is rugged and hard, but the glory at the end is worthwhile.

Matthew Henson

Poem of the Week

Lies My Mother Told Me

by Elizabeth Thomas

If you keep eating raw spaghetti
        you'll get pinworms,
        then I'll have to make
        a necklace of garlic for you to wear
        each night while you sleep,
        until they go away.
If you're mean to your younger brother, I'll know
        because I have a special eye
        that spies on you when I'm not home.
        You cannot hide from it,
        so don't try.
If you touch your "down there"
        any time other than when using the toilet,
        your hand will turn green and fall off.
If you keep crossing your eyes
        they will stay that way
        until the wind
        changes direction.
It is bad luck to kill a moth. Moths are
        the souls of our ancestors and it just
        might be Papa paying a visit.
If you kiss a boy on the mouth
        your lips will stick together
        and he'll use the opportunity
        to suck out your brains.
If you ever lie to me
        God will know
        and rat you out.
        And sometimes
        God exaggerates.
        Trust me —
        you don't want that
        to happen.

Good Idea of the week

You young whippersnappers better shape up

A new study shows that younger adults who negatively stereotype older people may become at–risk for certain health conditions later in life. Find out why, and change your views…

Video of the week

Websites of the week

"I think of you as a goon," Letterman point-blank told Bill O'Reilly.

WTF is this page?

There comes a time in life…

A whole bunch of interesting photographs

Your weekly address and much more is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The funniest show on TV is www.thedailyshow.com

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

Foolproof Boiled Eggs
Boiling an egg seems easy. Just drop the egg into a pot of water and wait, right? Unfortunately that's not the case. More often than not the egg comes out overcooked, with a green ring around the yolk and an unpleasant sulfurous smell. After countless tests, we found it best to cover the eggs with an inch of cold water, bring to a boil, cover, and then remove the pot from the heat. After 10 minutes, drain the eggs and cool in ice water. The gentle heat perfectly cooks the eggs, leaving not a hint of a green tinge or unpleasant odor.

Peeling Hard-Cooked Eggs
If you plan on peeling your eggs immediately after cooking, drain the hot water from the pot used to cook the eggs and shake the pot back and forth to crack the shells. Then plunge them in enough ice water to cover the eggs until they cool down. The water seeps under the broken shells, allowing them to be slipped off without a struggle. If you want to leave the shells intact (perhaps for decorating), and wish to peel them later, the best way is to start to peel from the large end of the egg, which has an air pocket. This lets you get under the membrane without digging into the white.

Easy Classic Deviled Eggs

6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut lengthwise
¼ cup Light Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing
½ teaspoon dry ground mustard
½ teaspoon white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Paprika for garnish
Pop out (remove) the egg yolks to a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add mayonnaise, mustard powder, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Fill the empty egg white shells with the mixture and sprinkle lightly with paprika.
Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to one day before serving.