My Aunt Laura sent this to my Dad, who forwarded it to me, so by now it’s probably traveling around Cyberspace at the speed of light, but I found it so fascinating that I just had to copy and paste it.

Here are some statistics for the Year 1908: *********************************** Read the rest of this entry »

Last week i was standing in line at the coffee shop, waiting for the woman in front of me to pay. She signed her credit card slip, slid it across the counter to the cashier, and turned to walk away. The surly young cashier called after her: “Thanks for taking care of us.”

Astonished, the woman turned back to the cashier. “What do you mean? I always take care of you guys.”

The cashier became defensive. “I didn’t mean it that way. I always say that to everybody.” She glanced at me and added, “I’ve said the same thing to her twice today, haven’t I?”

This young woman has never even bothered to smile at me and almost always makes me feel Read the rest of this entry »

Master Taisen Deshimaru said:

“To think is to choose to observe and comprehend, even if one is disturbed by oneself or others. Ultimately, to think means to understand, to understand primordial matter, the first thing in history.“

Master Ok-Sung An-Baron said:

“Between he who has conquered a hundred thousand men in battle and he who has conquered himself, it is the latter who is the greater victor.”

I originally read these quotes on two consecutive days. On its own, the first quote was thought provoking, but when I read the second quote Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe it’s my imagination, but I swear that the volume of TV commercials is louder than the programs. Each time a commercial comes on, I scramble for the remote and turn the volume down. When the program comes back on I have to pump it up again or I can’t hear what is being said. This is really beginning to aggravate me. I wondered if it might have something to do with the settings on the cable box and indeed, when I scrolled through the settings I discovered an option for the audio volume control that let me set it to ‘fixed’ or ‘variable.’ I tried both settings but there was no appreciable difference; later I learned (on Google) that this setting is only used to keep the volume constant on any auxiliary equipment hooked up to the TV, such as a DVD player. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.

Next I Googled “TV commercial volume” and got another education. The Federal Communications Commission does not regulate the volume of TV programs or commercials, however broadcasters must limit the peak power they can use to send out their audio signals. That means the loudest TV commercial can never be louder than the highest volume of any TV program. With programs, the volume varies between soft and loud, depending upon Read the rest of this entry »

With Halloween fast approaching, I decided to search the Internet for pumpkin carving ideas. I discovered some really spectacular designs, which I’ve shown below. If you click on the individual photos, you will be taken to the website of the photographers who took the shots, which in many cases, contain additional pumpkin caving designs. Either there are a lot of very creative people out there, or people have way too much time on their hands, but in any event these radical pumpkins are fun to look at.

Jolly Fellow: Read the rest of this entry »

So.

I feel vindicated.

I thought it was me.

Or – perish the thought – my age.

It is true that I find it virtually impossible to open a child-proof cap these days. Fortunately, I take no medicines. As for the aspirin bottle, which I must access once in a blue moon, well I cheat; I leave the lid ajar.

But when it comes to opening those onerous, razor-edged, hard plastic packages that enclose most electronic equipment these days…..let’s just say it is an exercise in futility. I always have to resort to the scissors and even then I end up with sliced fingers. I am absolutely convinced that the packaging is designed this way so that you cannot return the item, since there is no way to open it without destroying the package.

But I digress. Back to the point of being vindicated. Read the rest of this entry »

This may be the most important post I have ever written. Even though I was a real estate agent during the times when lenders were making sub-prime loans and the real estate market was out of control, I readily admit that I do not fully understand what is causing our nation’s financial crisis. And until now I thought one had to be an economist to form an opinion as to the actions that should be taken to resolve the situation. I hear amounts like $700 billion bandied about and I simply cannot relate. I mean, $700 billion! I can’t even conceive of that much money.

Fortunately my friend, G.W. Meadows, took the time to research this issue and summarize his conclusions in an email. His thoughts are worth passing along. PLEASE take the time to read his email (below) and listen to the brief talk show audio clip, which features an interview with financial guru Dave Ramsey, whose syndicated radio program is heard by more than three million listeners each week:

To my friends, Please take the two minutes needed to finish my email. It’s not a forwarded ‘copy and pasted’ email. These are my own written words – some are gathered from media sources, but I put this email together myself. I am not one to ask other people to get involved with things that I believe are important politically – because I know that I certainly don’t have the answers to much. This is not a political message. It’s an American citizen message.

I have to tell you that I think that it’s important for us to let our opinions be known to the people who are about to make the decisions on bailing out these financial institutions by loaning OUR money to the tune of 700 billion dollars. When all of this financial ‘crisis’ info got intense in the national news, I decided it was time for me to find out for myself (not just get my info from the big news channels) what was going on.

I turned to my financial guru, Dave Ramsey. I listened to his quick simple rundown and his opinion of what to do about it. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been writing a lot lately about how we seem to have lost our way in this country; about how we value material possessions over family, friends, and belief in a higher power of our choosing. Today I was reminded that there are people who have never lost sight of what is most important in this life.

Dick Hoyt is one of these people. Soon after the birth of his son, Rick, he learned that the child had Cerebral Palsy. Doctors counseled the parents to put the child in an institution, since they were certain he would never walk or talk and would spend his days in a vegetative state. Fortunately, Dick did not listen to their advice. Instead, he raised Rick alongside the other children. When the other kids swam in the lake, Rick was supported in the water. When they traveled, Rick went too. And he responded – in a way that the doctors would have deemed impossible. Watch the inspirational story of “Team Hoyt” in the video, below.

Read the rest of this entry »

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-

Thus begins what is my all-time favorite book, A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel about the French Revolution written by Charles Dickens in 1859. Dickens described in detail the savage brutality of the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats. Yet in the midst of this horror, Dickens finds redemption, resurrection. He illustrates a great paradox: evil generates good. The novel ends as it begins, with regeneration.

I am currently re-reading A Tale of Two Cities and I am struck by the comparison between our current times in the U.S. and the time of the French Revolution. Our government has repeated many of the mistakes of Read the rest of this entry »