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Monday, January 31, 2011
Arquette is Out
The good news for David Arquette is that he has just been released from rehab. The better news is that he's likely to stay clean now that Charlie Sheen has used up all the available hookers and cocaine in the state of California.
Snowmageddon
Yet another massive snowstorm is slamming much of the country just as road clearings supplies have run out. But most states plan on digging out by forcing all the global warming alarmists to shovel in the cold until they all drop dead.
Cairo Protests
The pro-Democracy protests in Cairo are expected to draw one million people today. Usually to get that many Arabs to show up anywhere you have to promise to stone some women to death.
Wisconsin Deal
Under a new deal, companies that relocate to Wisconsin won't have to pay income taxes for two years... and they won't be able to take off their winter coats for three years.
SF Yellow Page Ban
San Francisco may start banning the unrequested delivery of the Yellow Pages. It turns out too many people were using them to bash annoying enviromentalists over the head.
February 1st
1968: Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Labatt’s brewery.
1968: The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form the world’s largest urinal.
1978: After pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl, director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France… where he has a hot lead on foxy 12-year-old girl.
TV2-serie about Organ Transplantation
Norwegian TV2 has started a new Fakta-serie about Organ transplantation.
In the first program we met Rune and Sigrid who had their life on wait until a donor could help Rune with a kidney and Sigrid with new lungs. In the program this week (Wednesday 9:40 pm) we will according to rumors at Rikshospitalet, experience a heart transplantation.
The tx-cor-nurses Ingelin and Eva Kristine in their office today may be part of the program. All of us heart transplantees have a relation to these professional nurses, and for me in particular Ingelin was my most important support during my 12 months on the waiting list. She has also been there if I have needed any help, during the almost 13 years since my combined Heart and Kidney transplantation in 1998.
If possible try to follow the interesting programs, and download the donorcard as an app asap.Read also about Troels who received new Heart, Lungs and Liver, and became a donor himself when donating his own old and well funtion heart to another sick person.
More Organdonation YouTube Videos can be found here.
In the first program we met Rune and Sigrid who had their life on wait until a donor could help Rune with a kidney and Sigrid with new lungs. In the program this week (Wednesday 9:40 pm) we will according to rumors at Rikshospitalet, experience a heart transplantation.
The tx-cor-nurses Ingelin and Eva Kristine in their office today may be part of the program. All of us heart transplantees have a relation to these professional nurses, and for me in particular Ingelin was my most important support during my 12 months on the waiting list. She has also been there if I have needed any help, during the almost 13 years since my combined Heart and Kidney transplantation in 1998.
If possible try to follow the interesting programs, and download the donorcard as an app asap.Read also about Troels who received new Heart, Lungs and Liver, and became a donor himself when donating his own old and well funtion heart to another sick person.
More Organdonation YouTube Videos can be found here.
House of the Week
A beautiful 20 year old William Baker house.
Mr Baker received the Arthur Ross Award in New York for this house in 1993. It sits amid many houses built in the 1920's and 30's - and is completely at home. To see detailed images of the house from Bill Baker's website - click here.
image from Harry Norman realtors
this image and one below via Harry Norman realtors
The house is currently for sale. Listing here.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday's Psalm--Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Blessed the poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
Blessed the poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!
The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
Blessed the poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!
The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
Blessed the poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!
from Psalm 146, response from Matthew 5:3
Photos:
Grand Canyon; Glacier Lily; Bridalveil Falls at Yousemite
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A growing group of bloggers have also begun to post an illustrated psalm or verse each weekend. You can find the others linked at Athens Daily. Thank you, ρομπερτ, for providing support for this endeavor.
Egypt Debt
Moody's has just downgraded Egypt's debt rating to "B-". Meanwhile, S&P has downgraded the country's debt rating to "Get the Hell Out!"
Rioting in Egypt is getting so bad, UN peacekeeping troops may have to be diverted to Cairo from their current mission inside Charlie Sheen's house.
Escape from Egypt
Things are getting so bad in Cairo, thousands of Egyptians are trying to get to America by disguising themselves as overpriced King Tut museum souveniers.
Mets for Sale
The financially strapped owners of the New York Mets are trying to sell off 25% of the team. They'll hold on to the other 75% that can't hit or catch the ball.
The Gov's Speech
California Governor Jerry Brown makes his "State of the State" address is today. He's going to ask Californians to support tax hikes, which isn't expected to cause much of a reaction because that part of the speech will not be broadcast in Spanish.
January 31st
1876: The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations… or the nearest casino, whichever’s easiest.
1929: The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky. He immediately comes to America to become a Harvard economist.
1990: The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow… meaning the Cold War was definitively won by obesity and hypertension.
January 30th
1649: King Charles I of England is beheaded. The rest of his body rules England for another 15 years.
1913: The United Kingdom's House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill. But since U2 doesn’t exist yet, no one outside of Ireland gives a damn.
1989: The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes… to make way for a Starbucks.
January 29th
1834: President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute… otherwise known as “the good old days.”
1996: President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing. From then on, all French nukes are “pass/fail.”
2001: Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign. They back down after they are granted a free period and no homework on weekends.
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Glass Half Full
I started writing a post the other day about the angst I sense in some of my fellow writers. Then I deleted it, feeling sure that what I wanted to say would offend. But the thing is I keep reading angsty stuff – and it bothers me that people would waste so much energy in being counter-productive. There, I’ve said it.
Now I realise this anxiety is not the preserve of only writers (everyone is affected by the same sorts of emotions) but the writerly space is the one I hang out in. And what I see is anxiety which goes around getting published, not getting published, staying published, marketing oneself, finding an agent, not finding an agent, losing an agent, the state of the economy, the effect of the economy on publishing, the effect of digital publishing on the future of writers and gatekeepers. If you worry about it all, I’d guess there’s enough there for a nervous breakdown or spontaneous self-combustion!
I accept it takes all sorts to make a world. I also realise that for the most part, I’m one of those irritatingly glass half-full people. This is the result of life experiences, parents who insisted I look for the positive, my spiritual beliefs and goodness knows what else. I fully accept that life does not always appear to be fair, but I firmly believe that life is what you make of it. You can be a victim or a victor. It’s entirely up to you. No one else, just you.
I, like everyone else, have my baggage – you don’t need to know about it, you just need to know that if you have baggage, I get it – I know what it’s like, and never mind the half empty glass, I know what it’s like to be at the very bottom of the glass. But what I’ve come to understand is that while life throws curved balls and it can deal a shitty hand – it’s ultimately it’s up to the individual to decide how to play the game. You can curl up and die or you can find solutions.
I was watching Kung Fu Panda the other day, for the umpteenth time...
“There are no accidents,” said Master Oogway
“There is just news,” he said, “There is no good or bad.”
“My friend the panda will never fulfill his destiny, nor you yours until you let go of the illusion of control,” he told Shi Fu.
And when Po was angsting over being the Dragon Warrior or quitting and going back to making noodles, Master Oogway said to him: “Quit, don't quit? Noodles, don't noodles? You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present." “.
“You just need to believe,” said Master Oogway.
I love that Turtle, really I do.
We spend so much time worrying about tomorrow, fretting about yesterday, troubling ourselves about things over which we have no control. We forget to live, to be. We chase dreams and rainbows and are in turn chased by nightmares and demons. We forget how to believe. We forget that we bring the good or the bad into our lives through our own attitudes and thoughts.
I write because I love to write. I’ve written since I could first string two sentences together. I love to craft a good story, I love to try and make that story the best I can – I enjoy the challenge, I thrive on using my intellect and exercising my creativity. I’ve realized that while it would be deeply cool to be published, and that it would bring a whole lot of new experiences and new learnings (and what is life without new learnings – it’s how we grow), I also know it won’t kill me if I’m not published. Sure, I would love my stories to go into the world – and I believe if they are meant to, they will. I accept that if my getting published is meant to be, it will be. If it doesn’t happen, it wasn’t meant to, and while I am trying, it’s a helluva ride and I love it. As Master Oogway says, there are no accidents; in other words, everything is as it should be in this moment – even if it doesn’t seem to make much sense.
Do you know how much easier that makes life? I don’t sweat the small stuff because there’s no point. I change the things I can change, I influence that which I can. Yeah, I chuck the odd hissy fit, get down and have periodic rants –but none of it lasts long. I do it to acknowledge what I feel or let off steam but I don’t stay in that space because, honestly, I don’t like being negative. Negativity mires us and traps us in sludgy fear. Who’d want to be there? I mean, really? So I accept that there is much I cannot control, and I work within those parameters.
I work hard and I enjoy it. Sure, rejections aren’t fun, but they don’t kill me and they never will. I accept it when someone says, “It’s not right for our list” - it probably isn’t. I accept that perhaps I sent it to the wrong publisher or that the manuscript needs more work – and that gives me something concrete – I can focus on making the manuscript better, that’s in my control. I accept it if an editor says, “The market is saturated” – it means I got my timing wrong – I may have written a great story and that in itself is the victory. Being rejected may suck, but lots of things in life suck – but it doesn’t mean the end of the world. It means it’s time to move on and write something else.
In the same sort of way, I don’t believe in writer’s block, just like I don’t believe in a whole lot of other man-made concepts. Man-made concepts are seldom about the truth. I do, however, believe writing has a rhythm, just like the seasons do. If the words aren’t there today, or I don’t feel like writing, I honour and respect that – and do something else. If, however, I have a deadline to meet, I meet it – that’s about discipline, that’s something I can control because it’s about me and not some funky concept with which too many people to beat themselves up.
You see, we choose how we respond to situations – if we are angry, happy, sad or anxious – that is our choice – no one else is making us feel a particular way – we’re choosing to feel that way. We can just as easily choose to feel differently. It’s like the person who constantly complains about an ache or a pain and you say, “Go and see So-and-So, she’s a brilliant doctor.” And the other says, “Yes, sure, I will…” and they don’t. You know what that tells me? It tells me the person enjoys hanging onto their pain – they’re getting something out of it, they’re getting off on being in that space. If they weren’t, they’d do something about it, even if that means conquering a great fear.
Like I said, don’t think that I write this from a position of having lived the fairytale/dream life. I don’t. I write from this position because I know how tough life can be. But here’s the thing – your glass can be half full, or your glass can be half empty – that’s something you can control – because you choose how you want to be.
So, here’s my wish for all those, writers or others, who’re feeling anxious or gloomy – live in the moment, remember the now – today is a gift, respect and appreciate that. With just a little help from you, tomorrow will actually take care of itself – and it will be what it will be – and whatever that is, it will be the right thing for you.
Believe.
Videos courtesy of YouTube, images nicked from the internet.
The old shed by the seaside
This is my contribution to Dragonstar's The weekend in Black and White.
Polarized reflection
This is my contribution to James at Newtown Area Photo's meme called Weekend Reflections. Post a reflection during the week-end, log on to MckLinky via his site - and you're on.
Beautiful Bedrooms
interior design by Barry Dixon
Beginning to work on a couple of bedrooms. Some inspiration photos...
interior design by Barry Dixon
interior design by Bunny Williams
Colefax Fowler wallpaper, image via finders keepers market
image via decorpad
interior design by Celerie Kemble
image via house beautiful, lynn morgan interiors
interior design by Miles Redd
interior design by Hal Williamson
Phoebe Howard
Phoebe Howard
Image via Southern Accents
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Paulson's Big Haul
Hedge fund investor John Paulson made $5 billion last year. That's enough money to pay the pensions of three retired members of Congress!
Egyptian Crackdown
The Egyptian government has shut down Internet service in the face of violent protests across the country. There goes all the profits Amazon was hoping to make from selling flammable tires online.
GM Says "No Thanks"
GM says it no longer needs the $14.4 billion loan it had applied for from the government to become more energy efficient... but it will still need another $200 billion bailout from the government when no one buys the Chevy Volt.
NFL Lockout Warning
The NFL says a labor lockout or strike would cost the league $400 million per week. That's $100 million for the teams, and $300 million in lost retainers for all the players' domestic violence defense attorneys.
Carney Gets the Job
Former Time magazine reporter Jay Carney will become the new White House spokesman. Carney will continue to act as a mouthpiece for the Obama administration, now he'll just get paid by the government to do it.
January 28th
1547: Henry VIII dies, allowing hundreds of Englishmen the chance to finish eating the rest of the enormous turkey leg he choked on.
1935: Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize abortions, making the procedure the second most popular Icelandic pastime after suicide.
1965: The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament. Shockingly, no beer or hockey pucks are represented.
It is soooooooo COLD and gray right now....
I want to go back to the mountains.
If it were a SkyWatch picture from today it would just look gray and COLD!
Working humor
Nothing much out of the ordinary about this shot that admittedly I snapped while following this work van from an electrical company in our area. Distracted driving? Well, I was already distracted.
I tried to catch him at the next light, but had to settle for zooming this one in so you could see what it says on the back.Funny signs are fair game for Odd Shots. Join us coming up each Monday starting February 7.
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