Sunday, December 27, 2009

December 27th 2009

Quotes of the week

“May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart!”
Eskimo proverb

To be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible. --Plato (c. 428-348 BC)

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.--Plato

First secure an independent income, then practice virtue. --Greek Proverb

Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any. --Plato

We often despise what is most useful to us. --Aesop

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties. --Aesop

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher. --Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's hard to get it back in! ~H.R.Haldeman

Meditation of the week

6 Questions That Can Help You to Make 2010 a Simpler and Lighter Year

1. Who cares?
2. What is the most important thing I can do right now?
3. Would I rather be right or be happy?
4. Am I in the present moment right now?
5. Am I detached from the results?
6. Is there anyone on the planet having it worse than me right now?

Poem of the Week

Fear No More

I will not fear those who have hurt me,
For You have given me power.
I shall sleep without nightmares;
You have given me peace.
I shall awaken with a clear and rested mind;
You have given me clarity.
I shall start my day happy, joyous, and free;
You have given me my recovery;
You have given me a new life.
For Your grace,
I will demonstrate my gratitude
In useful and positive action
Throughout this day.

The 12 Step Prayer Book Volume 2 by Bill P. and Lisa D.

Author of the week

It's the birthday of David Sedaris, (books by this author) born near Binghamton, New York (1956). He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He moved to Chicago, and he made a living painting apartments, squirrel-proofing houses, and working as a house cleaner. Then, in 1992, he read his essay "The SantaLand Diaries" on NPR's Morning Edition. It was extremely popular. He signed a contract with a publisher, and his books of essays were huge best-sellers — Barrel Fever (1994), Naked (1997), and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). But even after he became a successful writer, Sedaris kept his job cleaning apartments for a long time. He said: "I can only write when it's dark, so basically, my whole day is spent waiting for it to get dark. Cleaning apartments gives me something to do when I get up. Otherwise, I'd feel like a bum." His most recent book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, came out in 2008.

Best of Craig’s List of the week

Don't Work? Won't Call? I might be the girl for you

Factoid of the week

In the northern hemisphere, December 21^st is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It's officially the first day of winter. It's officially the first day of winter and one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans even began farming on a large scale. Many of the most ancient stone structures made by human beings were designed to pinpoint the precise date of the solstice. The stone circles of Stonehenge were arranged to receive the first rays of midwinter sun.

Websites of the week

http://www.positivityblog.com/

Microsoft has issued a new security program that is free but probably insidious in some way http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

This will break your heart (and you might find yourself here) http://www.mybiggestregretever.com/

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

Six

Truths of

Life

1. You cannot touch all your teeth with your tongue.

2. All idiots, after reading the first truth, will try it.

3. And discover that The first truth is a lie.

4. You’re smiling now because you’re an idiot.

5. You soon will forward this to another idiot.

6. There’s still a stupid smile on your face.

I apologize about this.

I’m an idiot and I needed company …

Sunday, December 20, 2009

December 20, 2009

Quotes of the week

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards. ~Vernon Sanders Law

The boss must first distinguish between action information and status information. He must discipline himself not to act on problems his managers can solve, and never to act on problems when he is explicitly reviewing status. I once knew a boss who invariably picked up the phone to give orders before the end of the first paragraph in a status report. That response is guaranteed to squelch full disclosure. ~Frederick P. Brooks

Meditation of the week

How we treat other people comes back to us – always.

Offering others understanding and compassion changes how we perceive the world around us on a daily basis. Our acts of love inspire love from others. What we send out to the people who share our path changes, ever so subtly, the complexion of each life we touch. In fact, the whole world is changed by even the tiniest of acts.

The simple truth is, our own attitudes often determine what kind of experiences we'll have. Anger and resentment won't bring us peace. Suspicion and accusation will backfire. Most of us have tried to control all the people and all the experiences in our lives. And we have failed. Now we are realizing that the love that comes back to us is the love that we express.

I will feel love today from at least one person if I offer it to many.

Poem of the Week

"He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" ~W.B. Yeats, (books by this author)

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.

Author of the week

It was on December 16th in 1944 that the Battle of the Bulge began. It took place in the Ardennes forest, a snowy mountainous region of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg and lasted for more than a month. It was the last major German offensive, and it was the bloodiest battle of World War II for Americans troops. While estimates about the number of American casualties differ, the U.S. Defense Department lists 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, and 23,000 missing.

Among those taken as prisoner of war by the Germans was a young infantry scout named Kurt Vonnegut. (books by this author) He'd only been in the front lines for five days when he got trapped behind enemy lines and taken prisoner. Within a month, he was sent over to Dresden and put to work in a factory producing vitamin-enriched malt syrup for pregnant women. He and his fellow American prisoners were detained in and slept at an underground warehouse in Dresden that had been a meat-packing facility and storage locker before the war. The building was marked "Schlachthof-fünf": "Slaughterhouse-Five."

Then, in February 1945, about two months after the Battle of the Bulge began, British and American forces started firebombing Dresden. The firestorm created by the massive Allied bombings killed nearly all of Dresden's residents, but Vonnegut and other POWs survived because they were three stories underground, in that meat-storage locker.

Vonnegut published his novel Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969, a quarter century after he was captured at the Battle of the Bulge and a witness to the Dresden firebombing. In it, he wrote:

"It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?"

The Battle of the Bulge ended on January 25, 1945, after Hitler agreed to withdraw German troops from the Ardennes forest. Less than two weeks later, Allied leaders met at Yalta to discuss occupying post-war Germany.

Video of the week

Nota performs "I'm Yours" (originally by Jason Mraz) from Jenny Sextons facebook

Websites of the week

Walk back in time

Cable Freedom is here (thanks brother Rob!) and here http://boxee.tv/ and here www.hulu.com

$600 car that gets 258 miles per gallon goes 400 miles on 1.7 gallons of gas (thanks David even though you love Glen Beck)

The Interview PRoject of the Week

(Hey, if you haven’t yet, watch these interviews, they are really neat!)

http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/www/#/all-episodes/062-cynthia_truesdell

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

www.Elfyourself.com

Sunday, December 13, 2009

December 13, 2009

Quotes of the week

“The closest thing to a cure for most forms of serious psychological suffering is a permanent change in the way one conducts one’s life–and the changes in feeling and self-concept that occur as part of that process.” Tom Rusk

“People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.” Ramona Anderson

“For many, negative thinking is a habit, which over time, becomes an addiction… A lot of people suffer from this disease because negative thinking is addictive to each of the Big Three — the mind, the body, and the emotions. If one doesn’t get you, the others are waiting in the wings.” Peter McWilliams

More like this: http://kathyberman.com/2009/12/quotations-for-addiction-recovery/

Is there anything, apart from a really good chocolate cream pie and receiving a large unexpected check in the post, to beat finding yourself at large in a foreign city on a fair spring evening, loafing along unfamiliar streets in the long shadows of a lazy sunset, pausing to gaze in shop windows or at some church or lovely square or tranquil stretch of quayside, hesitating at street corners to decide whether that cheerful and homey restaurant you will remember fondly for years is likely to lie down this street or that one? I just love it. I could spend my life arriving each evening in a new city. ~ Bill Bryson

Meditation of the week

“It is the courage to be open and loving which is the manifestation of underlying strength and power. And it is only in embracing the possibility that you have a Higher Self that knows how to love, that knows truth within, that is truly powerful, that you can begin to face and dismantle the false beliefs of the protected self, the ego. You can’t begin to look at these and deal with them if you don’t believe there’s anything else. You can never move into the feeling of personal power until you recognize truly that there’s a peaceful place within you that is already there, that doesn’t have to be fixed.”
Jordan and Margaret Paul

Poem of the Week

Quarantine

by Eavan Boland

In the worst hour of the worst season
   of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking-they were both walking-north.

She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
   He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.

In the morning they were both found dead.
   Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.

Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
   There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:

Their death together in the winter of 1847.
   Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and a woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.

OMG of the week

Krampus is a mythical creature who accompanies Saint Nicholas in various regions of the world during the Christmas season. The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, Krampus is represented by an incubus-like creature. While Saint Nicholas gives gifts to good children, the Krampus warns and punishes bad children. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching by Krampus, especially of young girls.
Modern Krampus costumes consist of Larve (wooden masks), sheep's skin, and horns. Considerable effort goes into the manufacture of the hand-crafted masks, and many younger adults in rural communities compete in the Krampus events.
In Oberstdorf, in the southwestern alpine part of Bavaria, the tradition of der Wilde Mann ("the wild man") is kept alive. He is like Krampus (except the horns), is dressed in fur, and frightens children (and adults) with rusty chains and bells, but is not an assistant of Saint Nicholas.

Best of Craig’s List of the week

Don’t read this unless you want to be depressed:

After 45, Whats the Point? - m4m

Cause of the week

Are you tired of clipping coupons to feed your family while Wall Street employees make an average of $740,000 and year? OF bailing out banks and then watching them foreclose on your neighbor? Are you mad as hell and you’re not going to take it anymore? Here is what to do:

http://www.showdowninamerica.org/ and http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/

As usual, Bill Moyers is right on top of this story

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

Great Christmas decorations (thanks Rob)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

December 6, 2009

Quotes of the week

Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence — that which makes its truth, its meaning — its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream — alone." That's the Polish writer Joseph Conrad,

Great discomfort arises from too hearty a supper: if you would enjoy a tranquil sleep let your supper be a light one.

~Proverb, (Latin)~

Meditation of the week

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Today I will practice detachment by letting go of things I can't control.

Detachment means standing back and looking at a situation without having a hand in it. Watching fireworks is practicing detachment. Flying a kite is not. Allowing friends the freedom to have their own opinions is practicing detachment. Feeling compelled to change their minds is not. Watching a child create her own drawing is practicing detachment. Holding her hand while she draws is not.

I can't control other people, their actions, or their beliefs by forcing them to act or believe as I do. Detachment helps me see the big picture, since I can see things more clearly from a distance.

Today, and from now on, I will practice taking care of myself by detaching from people or situations that aren't good for me. Today I will pay close attention to when I am trying to force the issue, and I'll remember that my time would be better spent leaving it alone.

Poem of the Week

A Marriage

by Barry Spacks

Clear now
of our long struggle
I can hear your voice, its strength
the sweet coldness
of river water.

And I can see you
as in the photograph
with your father and sister,
tall pretty girl,
pigtailed and freckled,

led, misled,
until you doubted
your beauty, body,
that you were one among us,
a person, like any other.

And, given distance,
I think of you
becoming smaller,
but cheerful, the way
the old are

with short white hair
and an easiness
you'd never know before,
and me, incredibly,
not there.

Author of the week

It's the birthday of nonfiction writer John Berendt, (books by this author) born in Syracuse, New York (1939). He went to Harvard, wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, and after college he got a job at Esquire. He worked on and off at the magazine for more than 30 years. One day in 1982, he was feeling overwhelmed by life in the big city and he found cheap a weekend flight to Savannah, Georgia, so he went on a vacation. And he loved it. He especially liked the people who lived there and the stories they told. So he started listening to stories, taking notes, and he finally decided to just go ahead and move to Savannah. He lived there for five years, and then he went back to New York and he wrote a book. That book was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994), and it was a huge best-seller, on the New York Times best-seller list for more than four years, something that Berendt was not expecting. He said, "First, I wanted people to say —or critics to say, 'Yeah, it's a book. This man, who writes columns and magazine articles, has written a book.' Then I hoped they would say, 'It's a good book,' and possibly, 'It's a very good book.' But I wasn't really thinking of sales. ... It didn't occur to me to even hope for that."