Bob's Journal

2012-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

Jan 22, 2012.

Thinking of how I want to end this blog with one final summary of Life, People and Thoughts. Having trouble finding the rights words. Perhaps it is because I feel I have done too much thinking and not enough doing during my waking hours? Or that I discovered although by nature I am a person who likes to listen and talk, I am not, for the most part a vessel people chose to use. Therefor, my experience and thoughts are my own to sail with and others will have to find their own answers.

I did discover Emory University, a college dedicated to the studies of Happiness, Religion and Laws. They have a great audio on Itunes about, 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness'. You can also find web video on Youtube and other web sources on this topic.

This is not my last entry...just whats on my mind at the moment.

Status Anxiety - treatment, attention - self respect

2008-12-27T06:56:00.000-08:00

In the past I used the words "Social Injustice" to describe the way people or a culture treat one another depending on who they are, what they have and their appearance. Yesterday I was watching a program that used the words "Status Anxiety". How an individual feels about themselves in their culture based on its concepts:

What is a great life?
Who is important?
How should we treat these varying individuals of money, power and looks?

The answers to these questions have changed throughout history. Today we worship entertainers and those of likeness who have popularity, wealth and beauty. In the past it was royalty and combat warriors. All of these ideals spring up from a person who takes power or control and presents these concepts to the people in way where they begin to believe that this is the way to live.

I watched a History show on Mao Tse-tung. Mao Tse-tung was the son of a prosperous peasant worker who rose to power in China and was the mastermind behind the "great leap forward". A propaganda transition to change the way the Chinese think about their country and the new form of government. If you did not follow this idea, you became an outcast and were ridiculed by the rest of the populace. Why I do find this too similar to a company's employee handbook or an American hierarchy? When these citizens of China were interviewed, they felt completely different about how they thought then compared to now. What they were taught to believe and how to treat others.

In another television broadcast that aired last night, the subject was about religion and philosophies and how they are used; or i should say misused, to get people to act a certain way. The producers spoke to various cultural spokesmen, one of which was the Dalai Lama whom I felt said it the best. The Lama said something close to this, "even though you have all these different religions and theologies, they all have the same goal - to create a better human being."

In the show where the subject was "status anxiety" - Adam Smith asked, "What is the Rat Race all about?" And this was a man who was a moral philosopher, a writer, and the guy behind shaping America's free markets and economy. That all this material gathering and social status is about treatment - attention and respect. Self esteem through the view of others versus how we see ourselves.

Low paying job people often find themselves being mistreated and ignored. High profile people are treated with kindness and respect and catered to.

This has always been a social struggle of men and women. People more famous and greater than I have talked and written about this subject.

John Ruskin
Adam Smith
William James
Marcus Aurellius

And there are more philosophers and I imagine this subject will always be written and talked about. So what is a good life? In my opinion? It all depends on when and where you are living and what is being mentally conditioned into the minds of the people through: media, government, religion, parents and peers. But the individual must eventually decide how they will be happy and see themselves through their own eyes. In the end, death wins - and in the pages of time, those who were of importance will be forgotten just like those who were not considered important or note worthy. So enjoy life and those people who treat you with respect no matter what your status is.

*this blog opinion comes from watching several shows on MPTV World

The Hadron Collider

2008-09-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

The world's largest particle accelerator was successfully fired up today for an experiment many predict will fundamentally alter man's understanding of the cosmos. When it reaches full power later this year, the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory in Geneva will send beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile underground track at a rate of 11,245 circuits a second — a miniscule fraction less than the speed of light — smash them together and then sift through the debris of explosions that replicate the conditions of the Big Bang. The experiment, which has been beset by delays, has taken 25 years to plan, $6 billion to build and involved over 9000 scientists from around the globe.
Scientists hope to unlock some of nature's most enduring mysteries: why is the universe expanding at an accelerating rate? What stops our own spiral galaxy, the Milky Way, from unraveling and spilling its contents across the universe? How does gravity work?

A prize discovery will be a particle, the Higgs Boson, which scientists believe gives everything in the universe its mass (some physicists call it the God Particle). Previous detectors at CERN and Fermilab near Chicago have failed to find the elusive Higgs, and a planned supercollider in Texas designed to confirm its existence was never finished after Congress cancelled funding in 1993. Now that the LHC is on the quest, some observers herald Europe as the new center of pure scientific research.

"The LHC is a discovery machine," said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. "Its research program has the potential to change our view of the universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that's as old as mankind itself."

The driving principle behind the CERN experiment — and indeed physics itself — is that despite its vast and complex appearance, the universe is actually ordered, rational and elegant. Every major breakthrough in physics has shown the cosmos to conform to mathematical equations so symmetrical and satisfying they can only be described as beautiful. (Physics have christened two of the particles they will study at CERN as "truth" and "beauty," after a Keats poem that suggests the two are interchangeable.)

What drives modern physicists forward is a quest for purer beauty. The Standard Model, the theoretical framework that incorporates all current knowledge about the interaction of subatomic particles, is the closest physicists currently have to a theory of everything. But it is becoming increasingly awkward and messy, and it has holes in it. For example, despite all the gravitational forces that should be reining the universe in and slowing it down, it is expanding at a quickening rate. No one knows why. And something seems to cocoon the universe's spiral galaxies, keeping them from spinning out of control. No one knows what.

For the moment, scientists call these unknowns "dark energy" and "dark matter," respectively. The LHC, by examining the subatomic building blocks of the universe, might explain these mysteries and many others, much as a doctor diagnoses a patient by studying blood work. But according to Tejinder Virdee, a particle physicist from Imperial College London, the best-case scenario will be if the machine uncovers something completely unexpected. "Nature can surprise us... we have to be ready to detect anything it throws at us," he said. "You can make conjectures, but unless you verify the conjectures, they are metaphysics. That's why many of us haven't minded spending our entire working lives building this experiment." Searching for truth and beauty, in other words, is good work if you can get it.

This article is from TIME magazine online. You can find more information on the Collider at Newsweek, CNN, 60 minutes and several other online sources.

It takes People with Brains and Willpower to change the Universe

2008-09-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I discovered two interesting women in history who changed the course of the Universe despite being born in a time where women were not considered equals. Humanity being what it is, if you were not born beautiful, the best chance to have a comfortable lifestyle is to develop the brain. In modern times humor can also get you far. According to what is written, Emilie was not born beautiful, so the people around her tried to develop her body and intellect.

"Her father was Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil, the Principal Secretary and Introducer of Ambassadors to Louis XIV, whose position placed him at the center of social activity in the court, and thus gave the family great status. Among their acquaintances was Fontenelle, the perpetual secretary of the French Académie des Sciences. Her mother, Gabrielle Anne de Froulay, was brought up in a convent.

Émilie de Breteuil was a rather awkward child who showed no signs of growing up to be beautiful, so she was given lessons in fencing, riding, and gymnastics in an attempt to improve her coordination. She was remarkably well educated for the time, and by the age of twelve she was fluent in Latin, Italian, Greek and German; she was later to publish translations into French of Greek and Latin plays and philosophy. She received education in mathematics, literature and science. She also liked to dance, was a passable performer on the harpsichord, sang opera, and was an amateur actress. She was at times a high-stakes gambler, using her mathematical skills to lay out strategy. She lost 84,000 francs (the equivalent of a million dollars today)—some of it borrowed—in one evening at the table at Fontainebleau, probably to card cheats."

She was an extraordinary woman in her day and her efforts to pursue enlightenment with a passion despite the pressures of the World is extremely admirable. Thanks to her pursuits, Einstein was able to make the connection to E=MC squared.

Einstein and Lise Meitner also faced a world which didnt want to hear what they had to say because it either went against what was believed or because of their gender or ethnic origin. Where would the universe be if these people didnt have drive, ambition, and tenacity.

What if Einstein had a low self esteem and wanted to fit into society and did as he was told in order to be promoted rather than cling to his passion and ideals?

1.618 is the key number to beauty

2008-09-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was watching this PBS program this weekend which was done in British humor starring John Cleese and Elizabeth Hurley.

This is a link to the DvD you can get at Amazon or you can catch it on PBS
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Face-John-Cleese/dp/B00005LC1B

If you want to read about how this mathematical equation was discovered by a Greek philosopher and how some people in modern times use this equation you can find several sources on the Internet.

http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm

Thought of the Day from the Hagakure

2008-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

A book of writings from Yamamoto Tsunetomo, "The Hagakure"

pg 16. If you are the type of person who always sees the negative side of things, you will be useless. You should accept from the beginning that Life is full of unpleasant things and accept them all in stride. In this way you will remain strong and of solid character.

Black Smokers and Energy Potential

2008-08-22T16:49:00.001-07:00

America is more than ever looking for alternate fuel sources and energy solutions. A science channel was doing a show on Black Smokers in the ocean depths. Would it be possible to harness this energy output and convert it to the World's needs without destroying the Ocean floors and ecosystem?

Wikipedia

A black smoker or sea vent, is a type of hydrothermal vent found on the ocean floor. They are formed in fields hundreds of meters wide when superheated water from below Earth's crust comes through the ocean floor. This water is rich in dissolved minerals from the crust, most notably sulfides. When it comes in contact with cold ocean water, many minerals precipitate, forming a black chimney-like structure around each vent. The metal sulfides that are deposited can become massive sulfide ore deposits in time.

Black smokers were discovered in 1977 on the East Pacific Rise by scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They were observed using a small submersible vehicle called Alvin. Now black smokers are known to exist in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, at an average depth of 2100 meters. The most northerly black smokers are a cluster of five named Loki's Castle,[1] discovered in 2008 by scientists from the University of Bergen at 73 degrees north, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway. These black smokers are of interest as they are in a more stable area of the earth's crust, where tectonic forces are less and consequently fields of hydrothermal vents are relatively less common.[2]

The water at a vent can reach 400 °C, but does not usually boil at the seafloor because the water pressure at that depth exceeds the vapor pressure of the aqueous solution. The water is also extremely acidic, often having a pH value as low as 2.8 — approximately that of vinegar. Each year 1.4 × 1014 kg (370 trillion gallons) of water is passed through black smokers.

Although life is very sparse at these depths, black smokers are the center of entire ecosystems. Sunlight is nonexistent, so many organisms — such as archaea and extremophiles — convert the heat, methane, and sulfur compounds provided by black smokers into energy through a process called chemosynthesis. More complex life forms like clams and tubeworms feed on these organisms. The organisms at the base of the food chain also deposit minerals into the base of the black smoker, therefore completing the life cycle.

A species of phototrophic bacterium has been found living near a black smoker off the coast of Mexico at a depth of 2500 m. No sunlight penetrates that far into the waters. Instead, the bacteria, part of the Chlorobiaceae family, use the faint glow from the black smoker for photosynthesis. This is the first organism discovered in nature to use a light other than sunlight for photosynthesis (Beatty, et al., 2005).

New and unusual species are constantly being discovered in the neighborhood of black smokers: for instance, the Pompeii worm in the 1980s, and a scaly-foot gastropod in 2001 during an expedition to Indian Ocean's Kairei hydrothermal vent field. The latter uses iron sulfides (pyrite and greigite) for the structure of its dermal sclerites (hardened body parts), instead of calcium carbonate. The extreme pressure of 2500 m of water (approximately 25 megapascals or 246.73 atmosphere) is thought to play a role in stabilizing iron sulfide for biological purposes. This armor plating probably serves as a defense against the venomous radula (teeth) of predatory snails in that community. This snail, which is unique in its kind, has not yet been named.

Links
AMNH
PBS

America's Downfall (part 3)

2008-08-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people is eagerly anticipated as a barometer of wealth and power. And each year the mighty U.S., whose economy is often described as the envy of the world, has dominated the rankings.

Until now, that is.

In its most recent survey, the Forbes billionaire list changed dramatically: The United States made only four appearances in the top 20, compared with 10 names two years ago. India, by contrast, posted an astonishing four in the top 10, twice as many as the U.S. While America still leads the overall list, Russia, the new nation of raging capitalism, ranked second. Its 87 billionaires pushed aside Germany, the former runner-up. Is Wall Street's dominance over?

Many Americans are still rich, of course; many more are comfortably middle class. And the economy, though weak, is nowhere near collapse. But the shift in the billionaire allotment reflects broader trends. While globalization is indeed producing fabulous wealth in countries that were once considered basket cases, many are asking whether the U.S. is losing its competitive edge and surrendering its long-held leadership positions in business, finance and innovation to foreign competitors.

"The U.S. was always No. 1 and assumed it would be No. 1 and acted accordingly," says Doug Rediker, a former investment banker and a co-director of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "Now other nations are catching up. There are competitors fighting for market share in every industry. The U.S. is under pressure."

Consider the sinking value of the dollar: The greenback is still the world's reserve currency, but its continuing erosion carries a symbolic value, telling the world that the U.S. doesn't have its financial house in order. At home, that means higher prices for food and fuel; it also means more-expensive vacations for Americans traveling abroad.

Talk Back: Do you think America is locked into decline?

The incredible shrinking dollar has also made America a great place for Europeans -- wielding their strong euros and pounds -- to go on cheap shopping sprees, swamping our department stores and designer boutiques to pick up bargains. The U.S., once an elite shopping destination, is becoming their giant outlet mall. Foreign tourists on shopping sprees

And what about Detroit's once-vaunted role as an auto industry leader? That has been diminished by more-nimble global competitors. Companies such as Japan's Toyota are threatening the once-indomitable General Motors with more-stylish design and advanced engineering. While GM was turning out gas-guzzling

the full story

America's Downfall (part 2)

2008-08-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

By Ernest Beck, MSN Money

From his 34th-floor office in London's Docklands, the city's bustling new financial center, Michael Charlton has sweeping views of the glass-and-steel towers housing international banks and finance companies. In the distance, he can see the designated site of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

"We are an ideal location," says Charlton, the chief executive of Think London, the city's official agency promoting direct foreign investment. "We have high-tech infrastructure, an abundant pool of talent and easy access to the rest of Europe," he adds, ticking off London's many attributes as a world financial center. Is London the next global capital?

Charlton is biased, of course, but he isn't the only one singing London's praises. Over the past few years, growing numbers of U.S. companies, most notably banks and other financial-services institutions, have been moving some strategic operations to London. Why US bankers like London

General Electric recently announced that it was moving its consumer-finance unit, GE Money, to London -- the second GE division to cross the pond. (A health care unit is already there.) Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros., Citigroup and other major banks have been sending senior executives to head up operations in London, which is now a center for foreign exchange and derivatives trading.

International banks, many from Asia and the Middle East, have also established a presence in the city. Hedge funds are showing up, too, with an estimated 21% of global funds now located there. Smaller companies, many from emerging markets, are listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, or AIM. London has also become home to a new and lucrative financial-services industry: carbon trading. What is carbon trading?

As a result, many claim that London is giving New York a run for its money as the leading global financial capital. Moreover, some believe London's rise and rivalry with Wall Street reflect a wider trend in which many sectors of the U.S. economy are facing direct challenges from foreign competitors. Map: Global markets on the rise

Several factors have influenced London's ascendancy. Location is, of course, everything, especially in a globalized economy, and London is not only close to continental Europe but also in a time zone midway between North America and Asia.

That's one reason behind GE's decision this year to move the Money unit to London from company headquarters in Fairfield, Conn. "We feel we need to be closer to our customers, and the largest part of our business is in Europe," says GE Money spokesman Robert Rendine, who also notes that 80% of the unit's business is outside the United States.

the full article

America's downfall (part 1)

2008-08-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

By Jim Jubak from MSN

If the economy is so great, why do things feel so bad? If you've even asked yourself that question, read the following book.

Peter Gosselin's just-published "High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families" is the best explanation that I've read of why a substantial majority of us feel less secure, more anxious and increasingly worried about the future even though the national economy has done so well over the past 10 to 20 years.

I've wrestled with this question repeatedly in my column during the past few years, well before $4-a-gallon gas, falling home prices and rising unemployment provided a short-term focus for our anxieties. After the current economic slowdown is over and we've returned to "normal" good times, I think we're likely to be left puzzling over this question again. In e-mails that you've sent to me over the past few years, you've phrased the worry like this:

* The average Joe and Jane are getting a raw deal.

* Our kids won't live as well as we do.

* Government and business are ruled by greed.

* The American way of life is over.

* It's all about to come crashing down on us.

* Nobody cares about hard work and thrift anymore.

However it's phrased, though, the message is the same: People are worried, really worried, about the future for themselves and their families.

The big surveys confirm that anecdotal anxiety. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, for instance, dropped to 50.4 in June. That's the fifth-lowest reading ever. Ask about the direction of the economy in coming months, and the index drops even lower: a record low of 41.0 in June, down from 47.3 in May. The index uses confidence in 1985 as its base of 100.

So right now, we're only about half as confident about the future as we were in 1985.

Per capita income is up
What's so extraordinary is that this tide of anxiety has risen during a period of extraordinary national economic growth.

In the past 10 years, from 1997 through the end of 2007, the U.S. economy has grown to $11.6 trillion from just $8.7 trillion, adjusted for inflation. That's real economic growth of about 2.9% a year. The picture looks much the same when you adjust for a growing population. Real per capita gross domestic product, which equates pretty well with per capita income, has climbed 2% a year, on average, from 1997 to 2007.

In other words, if you look at the national averages, we're somewhere between 20% and 33% better off than we were 10 years ago. So why aren't we dancing in the streets?

The pundits, yours truly included, have offered a variety of reasons:

* Incomes are a lot less equal than they used to be. In 1979, for example, the top 1% of earners had an income 9.4 times that of the average person in the bottom 90%, according to the Economic Policy Institute. By 2006, that ratio had climbed to almost 20-to-1.

* The economy has become more uncertain, with give-backs, outsourcing, off-shoring and downsizing of jobs. And that's been especially true for the relatively well-paid workers in the manufacturing economy.

* Growth in national income in the past decade went disproportionately to corporate profits and not to worker incomes. Even though nonfarm productivity rose at an average rate of 2.63% from 1997 to 2007, the average hourly wage for production workers climbed just 0.79% annually. Corporate profits captured more of the national income in 2006, the peak of the recent economic cycle, than in any other year on record.

the full article on MSN

Androids, Genetics, Lab created Organs

2008-08-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few videos of Japanese Engineers/Scientists working on perfecting the robotic android.

I have seen shows with talking about the advancement in genetics and scientists being able to manufacture or rejuvenating donated human body parts. If they ever perfect brain transplants and keeping the brain from malfunctioning - humans could live a long time. Science Fiction isnt all that far away from science fact. A man in Europe was working on creating cyborgs. A combination of human body and computer software. What is it about ourselves we are trying to perfect? How will these androids be used in the future?

One show quoted a scientist saying that in about 20 years, there should be a computer chip capable of processing as much knowledge as a human brain per second. I should say functions. Our brains operate much more than just our thinking. One positive future I dreamed about would be where androids tended the fields, the factories, the labor market; and humans - just lived. Attending to family and the earth and the passions in their minds.

The BBC World Wide Video - Love Earth

2008-08-12T06:10:00.001-07:00

Myspace BBC

The Lyrebird

Myspace video code must not be recognized by blogger? I am having trouble posting the code. Google the Lyrebird on Youtube or another video source, you wont be disappointed.

Person or the Persona?

2008-08-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

I came across this article today and the catch phrase of the "person or persona" was interesting and this would be a good read from Glamour Magazine of why men crave real women over surgical or media driven.

I met Tessa* at a premiere party in Hollywood several summers ago. It was held in a decked-out airline hangar, and everything, from the stunning cocktail waitresses to the champagne fountain, was over-the-top. But even in the midst of all that glitz, Tessa was the main attraction. She was a slender, vibrant redhead in a bright orange dress—you couldn’t miss her. After a few minutes of sneaking nervous glances in her direction, I got up the guts to approach. “You’re wearing my favorite color,” I said. “I like orange because it rhymes with—”

“Nothing,” she finished. The spark was undeniable. Tessa was smart—an investment banker—and had a great laugh. Somehow, she was still single. When she casually slipped me her card at the end of the night, I was ecstatic.
On our date the following week, things got even better. Tessa wore a clingy black dress, and over dinner she lit up with stories of four-million-a-minute losses in the futures market. Sexy. When she asked me back to her place after the check came, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Soon, as we stood in her hallway, groping each other like teenagers, my hand fumbled to her chest, anticipating the plush, nurturing flesh of her…

Wait a minute. Was her breast rippled? As I felt the telltale implant bag under her skin, I thought, Damn it—fake boobs. My mind overflowed with images of hospitals and scalpels. I froze up, and Tessa noticed.

“You’re acting weird,” she said.

“I am not. I mean, maybe I am. It’s just, um, are these, uh,” I stammered, still sheepishly groping at her chest.

“Are you frisking me?” she asked.

I stammered on.

“Get out,” she said.

Before I knew what had hit me, I was

read more

A Passion for Knowledge

2008-08-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading up on a story on the Internet about kid geniuses. All of these kids had something in common, a passion or a desire in their interest. If you were to go way back into the early writings of this blog page, you would read a little bit about Rudy Rudiger or Homer Hickam and Chris Gardner - stories of people who had a desire or passion to do something or improve their lives.

I also want to write about:
Nikola Tesla
or PBS version
Pardis Sabeti A Genetic Scientist by day, Rock Band musician at night. Just two quick examples of people who have a passion for knowledge and life

Since my previous blog was my commentary on how I dont find the state of America's Education shocking. I believe it is because of what is being promoted and perceived as the good life, successful, prestigious, valued (to being a person of worth). What answers would you expect to get if you asked young adults the questions:

What do you want to be when you grow up
What 3 things are the important things to have (among skills, possessions and/or abilities).

For me, there are now many questions I wish to have answered.
Where do we come from? There still is no definitive answer, only theories.
We know little about our oceans and what is under the surface.
We could explore much more in our universe and beyond. It has only been in the past century where we have learned much about space and some much earlier beliefs were incorrect.
Robotics, Computers, Genetics, the Chen Chen Mummy, Medicine, Species, Chemicals, Dark Energy.....

So many things yet to learn, explore, redefine and breakthroughs to be made. But our minds are elsewhere I believe.

If I had wealth, would I spend it on inventions and science? Like Tesla or Edison. Would something inside drive me to keep pushing the limits even to bankruptcy? If I were Bill Gates, would I dilute my billions over the globe? Hoping that these pocket places of hope would grow across the Earth and have humans thinking differently?

If I had Bill's cash flow, I wouldn't spend it on charities. I dont feel that works. It makes great public relations, people love you for it and it will get you documented in some book(s). But I dont think you can save humanity. People dont unite or work for the greater good. Only when they have a common struggle or life threat will people drop their differences and pettiness. Folks around the globe we brought up very different with huge differences in believes and they are not going to get along and more likely to work against each other. So what I would do is start my own little country - maybe even just a city. Focusing on a new mindset and goals for humanity. Using the money to educate and work on space exploration and colonization. Start a new culture on another planet, where the greatest minds and largest hearts from various cultures would set out to make a place truly where "All People are created equal". No Celebrities, No Money system for starters ideas....

The logic being creating a new world if you cant change the one you're in, unless you get drastic and wipe it clean and start fresh. But I do recall a great story called the Robot Boys in a Readers Digest.

Not Your Average Creators
Lorenzo Santillan, 16, sat in the front seat of the school van, looking out at the migrant workers in the fields along the interstate in Southern California. Lorenzo's face still had its baby fat, but he'd recently sprouted a mustache and had taken to wearing gold -- a fistful of rings, a chain and a medallion of the Virgin Mary.

The bling wasn't fooling anyone. His mother had lost her job as a hotel maid, and his father, a gardener, was having trouble paying the rent. He could see himself having to quit school to work in those fields.

"What's a PWM cable?" The sharp question from the van's driver, Allan Cameron, snapped Lorenzo out of his reverie. Cameron was a computer science teacher at Carl Hayden Community High School in west Phoenix, and a sponsor of the robotics club there, along with science teacher Fredi Lajvardi. They had put up fliers offering to sponsor anyone looking to compete in the annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Center's Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition.

Cameron hadn't expected many students to sign up, particularly not a kid like Lorenzo, who was failing most of his classes. But Lorenzo was one of the first to show an interest. He'd been associated with WBP 8th Street, a west-side gang. When his friends started to get arrested for theft, he left. He didn't want to go to jail.

"PWM," Lorenzo replied automatically. "Pulse width modulation."

Over the past four months, Lorenzo had flourished, learning a new set of acronyms and raising his math grade from an F to an A. He had grown up rebuilding car engines with his brother and cousin. Now he was ready to build something of his own. The team had found its mechanics man.

Cristian Arcega, 16, had been living in a 30-square-foot plywood shed attached to his parents' trailer ever since his younger sister demanded her own room. He liked it there. It was his own space. He was free to contemplate the acceleration of a raindrop as it left the clouds above him, hit the roof and slid toward the puddles outside. He imagined that the puddles were oceans and that the underwater robot he was building at school could explore them.

You could read the entire if you become a member at RD, fortunately I had this issue and can recap to avoid signing up and email spam (guessing) as RD does send junk to my spam email account. Its why I have 3: 1 for spam, signups and contests, 1 for just my friends, and one for business correspondence. But back to the story. The robot boys where much like the Rocket Boys in the movie October Sky. Troubled, misguided, uninspired and something click in them as team or to do this science project. IN the end, they beat all the competition, including student from MIT.

American Schools, Am I shocked? Nope

2008-08-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

Just 20 years ago, American students were among the best in the world, routinely coming in first in test results. Now, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, students in the richest country on earth are in 24th place in math. That's behind Canada, Germany, France, Korea…but also smaller, poorer countries like Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

With a net worth of about $51 billion, Microsoft founder and world's richest man, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda (two of Time magazine's "Persons of the Year" in 2005), are determined to use their fortune to change the crisis in American schools. Through their influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they are trying to revolutionize an education system that, if it were a business, Bill says, "would be bankrupt."

Melinda adds that this is not an isolated problem of poverty. "This is affecting all schools," she says. "Kids are falling through the cracks and nobody notices it. That to me is what's wrong with the school system."

I think people notice, the question is, do they care? We all went to school and had an opinion or the question, "Why the hell do I need to know this?" If you have a friend or relative who has been a teacher in the system for the past 20 years, all you ever hear are stories of when they (the teacher) tries to bring order to their class by disciplining a student - the parent of that child will come in and scream at the teacher about how dare they try and tell their child what to do. That the teacher has no right to do so, and the system will back the parent because they dont want to be sued because our legal system is whacked. The legal system doesnt back the "right" thing to do. It finds a way to make money on the issue. So as a teacher, do you care what happens to those you teach? Maybe the few who show signs of being a credit to humanity, but after a while it is more like a job to go in and collect your paycheck because of the BS bureaucracy. Each year I will hear news reports of 40,000 plus kids being truant (in Milwaukee), and spending their days being hooligans in society. Okay, gee thanks for thee "more" awareness. The media thinks we dont know this and need to report issues like this to us more. We are already over aware of these things in my opinion. What we need are leaders, people who will have the nerve to take on the issue and make them right. What can the average citizen do but picket or riot? Form some kind of coalition or mob and demand change? So when a media mega-giant partners with a financial mega-giant to report a crisis to us, I wonder if they think we will now jump? Where does the money and power lie? Who has the ability to make change? Take on the powers that be (legal, Ceo's, Government, Supreme COurts, etc).

My grudge being - "yay more reporting, more talking about it" - but like global warming and all other American problems, they are only their to make money off of (news) - and the problems will continue as they say (silently unaware) but it is more because we chose to ignore issues and focus on celebrities and their lifestyles and how we all can get our hands on cash and buy our way out of situations. Yes America is failing, has been for decades, thanks for noticing after it has become a "crisis" and it is now failing the important people as well.

Links to where I was reading
Oprah
TIME

Maybe I can make a better point than just a rant. You see, when I was young there was this man who whose physique was incredible. He became a Mr Olympian Champion several times over. You may have heard of him, Arnold Schwarzenneger? His fame and achievements had presidents inviting him to the White House to try and influence the Health issues in schools and change America's mindeset about being healthy. Yet where is the health situation with America's youth and their health programs? What percentage of children are obese and have diabetes?

What has health to do with education? I see it as a relative topic. Think of how bombarded we are with health: pills, exercise equipment, diet programs, workout videos, eating habits - and yet where is obesity going in this country and its overall health? We all had school house rock on Saturday cartoons and we all know the 4 basic food groups and we have heard the words "Diet and Exercise" how many times? Drink X amount of water daily..and yet....

America is awake, we just aren't motivated or inspired.

Question: Have you ever heard how many engineers attend and graduate in America compared to China and other countries? Check out the ratio.

Question: How many News reporters and magazines are there in America? Oprah, Barabra Walters, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, 60 minutes, 20/20, Regis and Kelly, Good Morning America, Today and this could continue forever. What does an educated person get paid? A stripper? A Pro Athlete? A celebrity? What pays the most in America? Beauty
Ability (i.e. throw a ball, hot a ball, catch a ball)
Talent (singing, acting)
Stupidity (Reality TV)
Intelligence
Family Business (inheritance
Organized Crime (Drug Sales)
Good Honest Hard Work with mandatory overtime day in and day out

I apologize to the reader as my mind is entering a stream of thoughts, for not putting them all together in one structured paragraph. Things coming to mind:

Stay in School might be a great slogan, and your graduation speech ceremony cheerful - but then you hit the real world (hard if unaware), start job hunting and find out how it real works.

Daily Bombardment of commercials - Are you in debt? Are you tired of dead end job? Need more money, opportunity and better life? Than you have to watch/buy my system/program.

Can Bill Gates with all his money change the World and the way humans think? Or can merely just one up Andrew Carnegy on building schools and charities?

Redefining the American Dream (Hannah Salwen)

2008-07-07T21:21:00.001-07:00

From CNN.COM and featured on NBC Today

Sale of 1 house will help 30 villages

* Story Highlights
* Family tries to sell $1.8 million mansion and give half the proceeds to charity

* Decision comes after discussions about how much wealth is needed
* Family voluntarily downsizes to more ordinary house
* After sale, money will go to villages in Ghana via the Hunger Project

By Rusty Dornin
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- One day while driving with her father, Hannah Salwen noticed a Mercedes stopped next to a homeless man sitting on the curb.

*for full article of the story written by Rusty Dornin, click on the link above or follow below for Hannah's words.

"We as Americans have so much," said Salwen, a former Wall Street Journal writer. "We love the concept of half. We are going from a house that's 6,000 square feet to a house that's half the size, and we're giving away half the money.

"And we do think everyone can do something if they think through half."

All AboutAtlanta • Ghana

Links referenced within this article

Watch why family wants to give away $800K »
#cnnSTCVideo
Atlanta
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/atlanta
See the new and old houses, side by side »
#cnnSTCOther1
Ghana
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/ghana
Watch Joseph's video
http://hannahslunchbox.com/HL_Site/Welcome.html
See the house's real estate listing
http://www.beacham.com/propertyfinder/propertyDetails.php?Type=RES&prop_type=&id=3738609
Atlanta
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Atlanta
Ghana
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Ghana

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/07/02/hunger.house

Visit Hannah's Lunchbox to see how you can help

Now if Hannah Salwen and Muhammad Yunus got together on ideas ~ what could happen?

What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that.

In Your America

2008-07-07T07:32:00.001-07:00

Source of Article from NBC.com

TODAY
updated 11:44 a.m. CT, Thurs., July. 3, 2008

In their new book “Your America,” “NOW on PBS” executive producer John Siceloff and writer Jason Maloney chronicle the stories of 12 ordinary citizens who fought for change and successfully made a difference. An excerpt.

Chapter one: The politics of empowerment
How do you get started if you want to make a difference in America?

That’s the question we asked each of the people profiled in "Your America."

What’s fascinating is what we didn’t hear. These folks didn’t get their start working for political parties. Their credentials weren’t burnished in think tanks — progressive, conservative or libertarian. They weren’t on the payroll of advocacy groups. They didn’t become grassroots activists because somebody paid them or trained them to do it.

Read More of the article and video.

Culturally Acceptable Behavior ~ Studying to be Samurai

2008-07-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

This was a title on a recent National Geographic show of what kind of behavior is acceptable. A few weeks back I watched a show on PBS about the Samurai whom I have always had a fascination and admiration for. There is a man and people in Japan who still study the Art form as they feel building the quality of a man, is better than building and collecting material quality.

Samurai PBS

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri
This is a book I bought on Amazon.com to read and study. If I could, I wouldn't mind going to Japan and meet the modern Samurai in the PBS featured show and study among them.

Bill Gates

2008-07-01T10:43:00.001-07:00

Mr Gates was in the news this past weekend for announcing his retirement and take up humanitarian and charity work. On the positive note, I think it is great that Mr Gates is doing so. But in my mind I cant help remember tales of Andrew Carnegie and a man named Rockefeller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

Like Mr Gates, Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in the World at one point. I find it puzzling the things men do to get the top of World and then in the end do just the opposite. The stories of these men are interesting. I am not sure what ethics and morals are in Bill's heart and soul these days, but his intentions are good, so I wish him all the best with his new endeavors.

"Don't value a man for the Quality he is of, but for the Qualities he possesses." ~ Ben Franklin

Arnold Schwarzenegger

2008-07-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

Mr Schwarzenegger is man who has me turning my head and raising an eyebrow in wonder this past year. I still have yet to decide whether his actions are just a great public relations, career move, or genuine humanitarian acts.

1) Taking in homeless victims for the California Burning fires this past year.
2) And the more recent act of going to the funeral of the young pregnant girl who died from exhaustion in the work fields.

Whatever the reasons are behind these acts, they were the right ones to make. A show of example. A man of "ACTION" not just press release statements. These are the kind of people I like in America and I feel so rarely see. So Mr Schwarzenegger, I liked to shake your hand and thank you for that.

Obama/Clinton the Enemy of my enemy is my friend

2008-06-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

Eating breakfast before work on this mandatory overtime Saturday, I was watching a bit of Good Morning America and some footage on Obama and Hillary being all nice, warm and fuzzy to each other. Now dont even go and start thinking I am a Republican or some other faction - all I want to say is that this is why I cant get into Politics or care for any politician or get excited about America's future. It is all about brokering a deal isn't it? About voting for the "D" or the "R" and not about the integrity of the person running. Mr Obama, can I have my $25 back I donated to your campaign last year? Why is that 80s song "promises promises - I knew you'd never keep" running through my head?

For over a year in the news and in the papers was nothing but comments from each other on how poor the other person would be as a leader. Now the race for that side is over and now its time to kiss and make up. I would of lost all respect for Obama if he would/will chose 'Hoodwink' Hillary as Vice President running mate. He doesnt need a strong woman, he has one, her name is Michelle. Wishful thinkning - I see this Husband and wife team like FDR and Eleanor, or maybe a Jack and Jackie (possibilities). But still, in general, do I care who isi n the White HOuse? Politics is just all Bull isnt it? And we (Americans) accept that I think. Just tell us what we want to hear, that it will be okay and when things go wrong or went unfulfilled we just say, well that's politics.

In the news is more facts (fiction?) on Global Warming. Some reports say it is very real and the Earth has maybe 37 years before meltdown. Others say its all just a natural cycle that comes around every thousand years and so and it is all to get us to vote certain ways or for corporations to make money in other markets.

Some say Wall Street is responsible for gas prices and oil still being so high. Would it be such a shock to find people manipulating the system for oodles of cash?

Congress is having special sessions on the housing crisis. How and Why and it got their in the first place? People making stupid decisions and its their own fault? Or were they "talked" into getting a dream (like all marketing schemes) and were conned by savvy and sophisticated sales professionals who need to earn commissions or lose their job by their money grubber CEOs? And now the status quo will be flipping that expense to.

Yes I an ranting again. Cause I see few making a commitment to finding out the truth or "leading" the cause for community or humanity - Arnold Schwazzenegger being an exception it seems; and I am not sure what is Bill Gates heart these days (trying to get into heaven with his acts of charity?), but more blogging on that later. Yes I would actually be talking good about people and some issues as of late. But works calls and I must return to my station.

India, the New Land of Opportunity!

2008-06-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

India, like China, is a country in transition. A vast population and a growing economy. A city has been developed to accommodate this change called Cyber-city. Just think of how the lives of Americans could be transformed if we took some of those billions we send overseas and the government wastes on other items if they took that money and restructured transit and housing and commerce in America!

A man who makes $20,000 a year here in the United States is chop liver. On the low end of social status, lifestyle, and desire among my peers. Probably lives in a one room efficiency, drives a used vehicle, and lives meegerly. In India, that person would be upper middle class, living in a condo, be able to afford a nice car and enjoying the latest technology has to offer. Interesting how that works isnt it? How much a person is worth on one spot of the planet compared to how they would be viewed on another.

On the Milwaukee Public Television program, they related India and its people to be coming like America. I hope not. I hope they go on to become something better.

The Proles

2008-06-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation with a coworker the other and it lead to me saying that I feel there is basically two kinds of people - "those who provide and those who use". The providers are the status quo, or those not in power. The users are those with the control. She than pulled out a book from her purse called '1984'. by George Orwell. She asked if I had ever read the book to which I replied, "No I have not." She felt the book was eerily scary because the author wrote the book in the 1940's and talked about how he saw the World to be in 40 years. This book is where a few cultural phrases developed, such as: Big Brother.

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/

Proles

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This article deals with Proles as appeared in 1984. The term is also used in Tom Wolfe's novel Bonfire of the Vanities, Jack London's novel Iron Heel, Harry Harrison's trilogy To the Stars, and the game Dark Conspiracy by GDW.
Proles is a term used in Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to refer to the working class of Oceania (i.e. the proletariat).

According to 1984, the society of Oceania was divided into 3 distinct classes: Inner Party, Outer Party, and proles (upper, middle and lower classes, respectively). In the novel, 85% of the population of Oceania (former Britain, Ireland, Australia, the Americas, New Zealand and a large part of southern Africa) are proles. They were given little education, worked at jobs in which tough physical labor was the norm, lived in poverty (but qualitatively richer than the Outer Party members with regard to certain freedoms inherent to their relative anonymity), had plenty of children, and usually died by the age of sixty. They are represented allegorically in Animal Farm by Boxer, Benjamin and all the working animals.

Contents [hide]
1 Control by The Party
2 Proles as the only hope
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Control by The Party
The Party's slogan in regard to proles is "Proles and animals are free." This is a sharp contrast to the control of the members of Inner and Outer Parties. The Party members were constantly monitored by telescreens - a Television that could receive and send information simultaneously. These telescreens were placed everywhere, in both private and public places. However, prole quarters were more or less free of telescreens. That is mostly due to a fact that proles were not considered to be human beings. They did not have the intellectual power to understand that they are exploited by the Party (as a source of cheap labor) and were unable and/or unwilling to organize resistance. Their functions were simple: work and breed. They did not care much about anything else than taking care of home and family, quarreling with neighbors, watching films and football, drinking beer, and buying lottery tickets. They were not required to express their support to the Party. The Party created meaningless songs, novels, even pornography for the proles (all written by machines, except pornography, which was compiled by humans in the Outer Party and only ever readable by party members who worked in Pornosec.) Proles did not have to wear a uniform; they could use cosmetics; they had a free market where Outer Party members could get some deficit product (including shoelaces and razor blades); they were free because they posed no danger to the Party.

“ To keep them in control was not difficult. A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumours and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous; but no attempt was made to indoctrinate them with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice. Even the civil police interfered with them very little. There was a vast amount of criminality in London, a whole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug-peddlers and racketeers of every description; but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowed to follow their ancestral code. The sexual Puritanism of the Party was not imposed upon them. Promiscuity went unpunished, divorce was permitted. For that matter, even religious worship was permitted (and many of London's historic Churches, which were in Prole areas, were still standing) They were beneath suspicion. ”

[edit] Proles as the only hope
“ If there is hope, it lies in the proles. ”
— Winston Smith

One of the recurring themes in the novel is if proles revolted they could establish a better world. It's a struggle between a wild hope carried by Winston Smith, the main character, and his realization that proles were incapable of such an act. Winston admired proles because as he said, “Proles remained human.” That means that they preserved emotions which Party members had to avoid because they were in constant surveillance of telescreens. Any “non-patriotic” emotion expressed, even involuntarily, by a Party member resulted in “vaporisation” (i.e., total deletion from all the records – such people, for all intents and purposes, never existed). Thus Winston believed that if there were any hope, it lay with proles. Proles preserved the essence of life, human emotions, and even the English language (Oldspeak) and the Party could not control it. However, Winston's hope clashes with O'Brien’s view that the proles would never revolt because they would never have the need to do so. Winston also recognized that proles were not capable and/or willing of organizing a revolution. It is also important to note, that nobody (even Winston) had any thoughts that Party could collapse by itself. It had too tight control over the Party members who had already lost their human feelings (Winston himself recognized that he no longer felt compassion; children reported their parents to the Thoughtpolice on a daily basis; sex became a “duty to the Party” with the only purpose to produce children). The younger generation (represented by Winston’s love of Julia) showed a rapid degradation of humanity.

“ Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.

Man of Ideas

2008-05-26T11:15:00.001-07:00

There was this good PBS show on today about a man who has dedicated his life towards the study of Social Biology. His findings were met early with skepticism and sometimes anger. But now years later with new technology and the study of genes, his vision and original ideas are really beginning to take off.

How do you take the measure of a man who has achieved as much as E.O. Wilson has in his 50-year-plus career? A man who has distinguished himself as scientist, conservationist, writer, artist, teacher, and speaker? A thinker who has launched not just careers but entire scientific disciplines? Like the biodiversity he champions, the depth and breadth of Wilson's accomplishments stagger the mind. One way to sum up his achievements is through his books (two of which have won Pulitzer Prizes). Here, briefly learn about some of the Harvard emeritus professor's most significant contributions, as documented in a dozen of his books.—Peter Tyson

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/eowilson/ideas.html

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

And one of his greatest works

http://www.eol.org/

What is EOL?

Welcome to the first release of the Encyclopedia of Life portal. This is the very beginning of our exciting journey to document all species of life on Earth.

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goals are to:

* Create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike.
* Transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating virtually all known data about every living species.
* Engage a wide audience of schoolchildren, educators, citizen scientists, academics and those who are just curious about Earth's species.
* Increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

The Decline of America

2008-05-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

I as on Amazon.com looking for an item I wanted to buy when a list of Best Sellers were displayed on the screen. One of the books is one man's predictions for the future of America. I am not sure if it is a marketing tool or a politically correct way to describe the book, but the description says this book is not about the "fall" of America, but the "rise" of other countries. This author feels that other Nations will surpass the United States in many ways, and I think it too is quite possible.

"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/books/review/Joffe-t.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Lately I am finding a lot of books and studies on How to be Happy

2008-05-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

I have read many articles on happiness and self help by now that I no longer desire to pick up a book or interested in reading "another" guide to living. Yesterday the TV was on in the lunch room during my break in which the Oprah Winfrey show was being broadcast. She had on another guru who wrote a book about cleansing yourself and starting to feel good from the inside and working you way to the outer self. Each time I start to investigate this new book or philosophy, I find it not to be new. That all these principles lead back hundreds to if not thousands of years but now they are just reworded or being adapted for modern times or situations.

David Lettermen on his show was speaking to a Democrat Senator about the times and how he (Dave) cant help but feel a bit in despair with all that has happen in America the last few years. And I think that is why a lot of magazines, books, and television is now pushing ideas so people will be more optimistic and feel good. Which is a good message, but it also sells so that is good for them as well.

A few weeks back I began to work on my appearance, my fitness and getting that spiritual engine running down the track. Not for society, not for an event, not for a woman - but for myself, because I want to. I have read enough articles to know where I create my own hurdles. It is easy to get caught up in the have and the have nots, how does one get the what is perceived as the good life, status, respect, admiration - but Life offers more than what we humans can offer. There is more to the World than our cultural conditioning and others reasons be happy than by peer standards. At least for me anyways.

Iceblink, A story about Freedom

2008-05-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was watching a PBS show last night after work before going to bed. Her is a family that captures my heart and spirit. They are unconventional, which makes me like them right away - hopefully unconventional (not saying this family's way) but but that unconventional starts to become conventional. Out of the box thinking is what the World and Life needs to keep it on its toes and spirit alive.

There is a popular movie in which the main character is a Pirate Captain who describes what a ship is, what a ship truly is ~ Freedom, Life and Spirit.

http://www.thesailingchannel.tv/iceblink/
http://www.iceblinksail.com/

How many of us will ever see more than the surrounding area we were born in? No one telling you what to do - seeing the World on your terms, going wherever your heart desires.

People sometimes wish they were a dog when they see what kind of life a well treated dog gets and has. I sometimes fantasize about just giving up all possessions, getting a horse and adventuring out into the World. The hell will civilian life and letting someone be my master. Except I am probably too conditioned to sanitation and plumbing to make it work.

Another movie quote, though from a fiction fantasy movie, there is still merit in it.
"There comes a time thief, when the gold loses its luster, the gems cease to sparkle, and the thrown room becomes a prison. And all that a father has left is the the love for his daughter."

I wonder sometimes if the Native American Indians didn't have it better.

China is the Nation to Watch this Century

2008-05-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

When I was in high school over 20 years ago in the early to mid 1980's, we studied China in history class. There was a quote by one of the writers in the book that went something like, "China is a sleeping Giant, and when it awakes, the World should beware."

Beware? Maybe, but China is definitely a country to watch with her massive population, rich culture, roaring economy and taking her super power to new heights. The people of China could do whatever their hearts desire.

Will the women of China find new freedoms and rights? I base my question not on experience but by media information.
How about the status quo workers?
What will happen to the character of those who bask in their new found power?

http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/

This is a book I should really set out to read: Romance of the Three Kingdoms
One of the 4 greatest novels ever written in Chinese literature according to some.

from Wikipedia
Myths from the Three Kingdoms period existed as oral traditions before any written compilations. In these popular stories, the characters typically took on exaggerated characteristics, often becoming immortals or supernatural beings with magical powers. With their focus on the history of Han Chinese, the stories grew in popularity during the reign of the foreign Mongol emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. During the succeeding Míng Dynasty, an interest in plays and novels resulted in further expansions and retelling of the stories.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as we know it today is attributed to Luo Guanzhong, written between 1330 and 1400 (late Yuan to early Ming period). It was written in partly vernacular and partly Classical Chinese and was considered the standard text for 300 years. Luo made use of available historical records, including the Records of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Chen Shou, which covered events from the Yellow Turban Rebellion in AD 184 up to the unification of the three kingdoms under the Jin Dynasty in AD 280. Luo Guanzhong also included material from Tang Dynasty poetic works, Yuan Dynasty operas and his own personal interpretation of elements such as virtue and legitimacy. Luo combined this historical knowledge with a gift for storytelling to create a rich tapestry of personalities, and initially published it in 24 volumes. During Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Mao Zonggang significantly edited the text, fitting it into 120 chapters. Nowadays, Mao's version is the most common.

The Professor of Desire

2008-05-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

~ The Professor of Desire ~

Its joy, its misery, its an ache that you miss when its gone - what is it about desire that has such a hold on us? Patricia Stacey takes a tutorial on the subject as old, knotty, delicious, and confusing as love itself - though love has nothing to do with it - and discovers the real laws of attraction.

From a Health magazine March 2008

Late Spring. I was in my first year of college. Big Sur and Monterey Bay shimmered through the ferny redwood foreground as my boyfriend and I sat in my college library social room watching a play. Daniel, my tall and beautiful admirer, leaned in close beside me, laughing and waiting for me laugh with him. I lifted Daniel's long, expressive fingers off my leg, tilted my head away slightly, and crossed my legs into the aisle. I wish we could be like other couples in the room, fingers entwined, occasionally looking at each other with shared mirth and recognition, but I couldnt do it. Especially not with a professor sitting behind us - watching our every move. And especially not this particular professor.

Bald, intense, white-mustached, and as old as my grandfather, the man I'll call Professor Bellagio taught psychology. He was known for his research on the subject of desire. Charles Bellagio was a legend, a hero. I often saw him strolling with his wife, a retired physicist, a silver-haired beauty. One day I mustered the confidence to visit Bellagio in his office and asked him if he would sponsor me in an independent study.

"What do you want to research?" he asked. I suggested something rather dull. "I have a better idea," Bellagio said. "How about desire? You know its my field. Are you interestedin the topic?"

Interested? The truth was I'd been fascinated by the subject for years. I nodded dumbly.

"We'll meet next quarter, once a week," he said. "Keep a journal until then and bring it the first day. I want you to define desire to me."

Bellagio was sitting in the corner of his large office in an overstuffed chair, smoking a pipe, when I found him that first official day of our independent study. He motioned for me to sit down directly in front of him. He crossed his arms and sat there staring at me. "What is desire?" he finally asked. Shy and panicked, I didnt answer right away. He pulled my journal from my lap and read the only sentence I had written there: "Desire is a joke created by a willful and perverse minor deity with a chip on his shoulder."

Bellagio flattened out the hairs on his snowy mustache and studied me. Then he said, "Where you afraid to be serious?"

"Its not that - its just that I am not sure I'm going to be very good at figuring out what desire is. My relationships always end disastrously."

""We'll just have to go to the experts," said Bellagio quickly. His speech was like lightning, his mind firing fast; his body was slower, an echo of that light. There were rumors he had a stroke. He stood and, walking with a slight limp, made his way to a book-lined wall of his office and plucked out a volume.

"The Golden Bowl?" I asked. "This is fiction. I was expecting something by a psychologist." Bellagio shook his head, "Compared with this writer, most psychologists know nothing about love." He sent me home with a stack of fiction and a philosophy book: 'Lolita - Remembrance of Things Past. Of Human Bondage. Being and Nothingness.'

Each week Bellagio assailed me with questions inspired by the reading. At first I struggled. "When we desire someone, what exactly are we desiring?"

"Someone else who desires us?"

"Yes...that is part of it. So what then are you desiring?"

Under his intimidating gaze, I tended to look away to the sea outside his window. In the foreground stood an elegant arbor. Round about it wound a gnarled a flagrantly full wisteria. That day, searching for the answer to Bellagio’s question, my mind followed the branches that twisted so tightly around each other they seemed almost choked. In those gnarled branches I thought there might be a way of thinking about his query, an image. The branches wrapped around each other, twisted, misshapen, but ending in such exquisite lilac-colored exuberance. Was this desire? A twisted, ugly distortion ending in fruition?

“So what do we desire when we desire a person?” Bellagio repeated. I thought about the book I’d finished two nights earlier, about the sensitive little boy living in the 19th century Paris in ‘Remembrance of Things Past’. Young Marcel lies in bed, awash in delicious anticipation of his mother coming to kiss him goodnight. Yet in a stroke of irony, the moment he hears the rustle of her dress in the corridor near his door, he trades joy for sorrow. Her coming reminds him that she will soon leave, and he knows he will be longing once more. My eye fell again on the gnarled branches. “Pain.” I said finally. Bellagio leaned his head sideways and lit up his pipe as if to say, Think again. “Well okay”, I said, considering the little boy aching for the rustle of the dress that might signal his mother’s arrival. “Are we desiring the person’s desire…I mean desiring the person to want us?” Bellagio’s wrinkled brow unfurled, “So we don’t necessarily desire a person when we desire?” he asked, intrigued.

I was confused then. I remembered that later in the book the aristocrat Swann, pursued by a woman not of his class, is indifferent to her until one day he realizes she is with someone else, and a panic jealousy engulfs him. “When Odette was after Swann, he didn’t notice her. And when he grew interested, she stopped caring about him,” I said.
Bellagio looked up at me, his face shining, eyes flickering with fire. Emboldened I went on. “It seems that another person’s interest in us can often make our desire flee.” Bellagio leaned way back in his chair, kicked his foot up onto his desk, and smiled .

I don’t know what gave me the courage to tell him what was on my mind, but I did. I was standing at the door, and instead of leaving I risked a confession. “Not wanting someone who wants you. It feels kind of…familiar right now.”

“What? Are you living out your own Swann in Love?” he asked. I knew he wasn’t going to let it go. “Actually, its my boyfriend. You met him two weeks ago at the play.” I blushed fiercely. I knew I want being clear. “Its just that he keep leaning against me…he’s..”

“Always around? Too attentive?” said Bellagio . He’d nailed it. “How did you guess”

“Law of Nature, of desire, if you will.” said Bellagio. “He wants you, so you don’t want him.”

“But why?!” I protested. “It seems like such a cynical interpretation of human nature – that we can only feel desire when we’re with someone who doesn’t reciprocate! Are you saying its always going to be this way?”

Bellagio sighed, looked off into the distance, then at me with something like compassion and sadness. I imagined I could see a thousand failed love affairs pass before his old eyes. “Maybe with this young man, it will always be this way,” he said, “but at sometime in life we all play our parts in love. Its inevitable.” He flashed me an impish smile and lifted his two index fingers, parallel, not touching.

“Lets say that when you sat at the play with your young man, you were leaning this way”. Slowly he tilted his right finger to the left. “He was leaning this way”. Bellagios left finger followed the other, tilting so that the fingers were once again parallel. “Maybe someday, if he leans this way, Bellagio pulled the original finger back, “Then you can begin to lean towards him.” The other finger rushed to rejoin its partner.

“I don’t like being the one running away, “ I said. I felt regret, especially remembering my first month with Daniel” perfect. But I confess to feeling along with guilt, a perverse pride in my growing indifference. Bellagio quickly put me in my place. “One day you will play the other role. You will be the one wanting more from someone and he will be the one leaning away.”

Dread rushed into replace my egotism. As much as I hated being responsible for Daniels anxiety that he wasn’t getting enough from me, I felt a sense of relief that I wasn’t the one lacking, out of control. “But real love isn’t like that. It should be fair! It should be balanced!”

Bellagio smiled, “Love? Were we talking about love?”

Bellagios words consumed me over the next few days. That weekend, my roommate and some friends from the dorm planned a trip to the Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco. Daniel wanted us to drive separately. On the way home, his car broke down on the coast route north of Half Moon Bay. We spent the ride home in the open bed of a truck, huddled against the dampest cold I have ever known. Daniel, sensitive, generous, aware of what I’d given up by not being with my friends, wrapped his fingers in mine, and kissed my knuckles in apology. There was nothing wrong with what he was doing, nothing at all, I told myself.. But the more insecure he grew about our relationship, the less I could reassure him. I felt like heel – numb and powerless, longing for the old ardor to come back.

After that night, thinking about Bellagio’s theory, I began fantasizing about leaving secret notes under Daniel’s door. Hold back. Don’t give so much. I had a gnawing sense that all Daniel needed to do was pull a stunt or two, something calculated to make me jealous, and feelings for him would awaken. At our next meeting, I told Bellagio my idea.

“There is one problem with that scheme,” he said. “Another law of nature. We love what is scarce, but you can’t make yourself scarce when you don’t want to be. It’s a psychological contortion. Like trying not to blush, or suppressing a sneeze. Desire, like truth, wills itself out.”

Two weeks later, Bellagio dropped a book in my lap. “We’re going to be looking at the greatest psychologists of all.” I looked down at the title. “Economists?” I was perplexed.

“Of course, economists. They study what people value. So tell me what people value. What do we value?”

“Gold.”

Bellagio lit up his pipe. “Why do we value gold?”
“It’s beautiful? Useful?”
“What else? Why is so gold expensive?”

I said the first obvious thing that came to mind: ”Because there isn’t much of it?” Bellagio brought his hands to his lips as if in a prayer. “Exactly.”

“So what you’re saying is that it is those things that are scarce in this world that are most valuable.”

“Yes!” he said, his calm, equanimous smile crackling into a childlike grin. “That’s what makes the stock market go up and down. The stock market, like the market of love, is driven by an illusion.”

I was only 20, still believing that money, symbolic as it may be, was inextricably attached to the real – labor, sweat, goods. I said something embarrassingly naïve like :Aren’t stock market figures due to how a company is doing? Quarterly reports and such?” “No,” said Bellagio. “Not really. The stock market is more about what’s on our minds, what we think. Like the market of love, its driven by beliefs.”

Another day not long before the end of the quarter, sitting in Bellagio’s office, I found I had lost my concentration. We were talking about supply and demand, but I stopped and looked pensively out the window at the wisteria. Eventually I said, “You know, I cant help but thinking that desire has something to do with how we feel about ourselves. Have you ever heard the saying, ‘I love you not for who you are but for who I am when I am with you’? Doesn’t desire have something to do with wanting to be acknowledged?”

“Then you’re saying that desire is a form of self-love?” He nodded, intrigued. “But, tell me, why not look in the mirror to find it?”

“We’re all vampires?” I ventured. Perhaps I was thinking of Daniel and me. We had finally broken up two days before the meeting with Bellagio. Daniel had come to my dorm and wanted to spend the night. Some people came by with blankets, flashlights, and guitars, on their way to the caves in the mountains. I wanted to go; he wanted to stay back, together. We fought. IN the end, we agreed it would be best to break up. Outside Bellagio’s office that day, the surf was choppy and white-capped. The clouds were closing in. I worried about my own failure – failure to make someone happy, to make things right, to attach.

I asked Bellagio if the dynamics of scarcity and value still worked when you got older, married. He suddenly looked preoccupied and admitted something unexpected when you get old” “You begin to desire desire itself”. I looked at him for a long time. Then he opened his arms, and I moved toward him. It was the kind of act that, today, might invite censure, but I took it for what it was – a moment of tenderness from a man lamenting. There was something protective about his gesture, as if he wanted to keep me safe from all that might be lost to time.

The course ended. Bellagio asked me to write a paper on any aspect of desire. I chose the idea that in desiring we are in some ways loving ourselves, trying to find ourselves. What I discovered is that this idea – that self-awareness comes into being when we see ourselves reflected in another person’s eyes – is a fundamental idea in much of Western philosophy. We are born, in a sense, in a process that involves other people’s awareness of us.

I continued to take many courses in psychology, but none again with Bellagio. Yet his theory of desire – that desire is about what we cant have – consumed me as I began to have a spate of crushes. My teaching assistant in philosophy was a graduate student from Vienna I’ll call him Fabian. Of course I realize now that he was a guy on the make, but to me he seemed a romantic hero. Fabian had full, sensual lips set against skin so pale it seemed bloodless as paper, which lent him slightly macabre cast (think Edward Scissorhands). With his greasy black hair falling into his eyes, his heavy brooding over tomes of philosophy, and a thick accent – which to my sophomore ears made the most banal of utterances sound as if he were reciting Goethe – he might as well have been Lord Byron himself.

One day at philosophy class party, Fabian approached me as I sat in a wing chair. He leaned against it. In the background someone exclaimed, “This California beach town is haven!” “What is this haven? What does this mean, haven?’ Fabian turned and bent toward me.

“Its kind of..well…shelter, but paradise too.”

Fabian squatted, moved in close, and said, “Oh, I see. It is like…” He searched my face, staring intently, meaningfully, as if to imply “like love.” It was a cheap and easy move, and I am embarrassed that I fell for it. The truth is that it took me wholly off guard. I’d never met a man whose manner was so forward and suggestive. I was thrilled.

It wasn’t long before Fabian and I were spending romantic evenings together – first we went to a movie, where he began kissing me during the opening credit. He kissed me throughout the entire movie, for that matter.

Then I took him to the boardwalk and introduced him to the roller coaster. When I think back on those dates, they seem like an interlude in my corny movie - music plays, swells with emotion, the couple walk along the beach and kiss and kiss and smile into each other's eyes. They ride a roller coaster and laugh with abandon as they try to kiss and hold onto each other even as they are being rocked about.

That night changed the way I experience the sea, the night air. It was as if someone had lifted a film from my eyes, my skin, my senses. I saw the realness of things, the very magic of existence.

I can see why you like the roller coaster," Fabian said, as we sat on the sand. His cheeks still flushed. He smiled into my face and studied me as if he had a new respect for me. I felt wholly other - seen anew. I felt admired, and that is what being with him was all about, a longing to discover who I could be when I was with him (older, philosophical, European, cosmopolitan). It was as if, with him, I could walk into someone else's skin, or walk out of my own. I was leaving behind the college sophomore, leaving behind my hometown suburbs, leaving behind the depression and failure of those last months with Daniel. Oddly, the more I felt myself the new person with Fabian, the more differently I acted, as if his imagination was bringing me alive. I found myself saying clever things, teasing him, taking risks, and acting in a way I have never had.

After our first date, I remembered Bellagio's theory about romance and the market, that we chase an idea. But this no illusion. What I felt now seemed an attraction to a something so outside of myself. Fabian was no illusion. He was a current running through me, a force, a power, a necessity, like electricity. On our next date, he brought me a thermos of martinis to Seacliff, where we sat on craggy rocks watching a swollen sun drop into the ocean. Afterward we made out in his car. He let me off at my apartment.

I wanted to call him to thank him that night, but I waited, hoping he'd call me; no call came. I determined to wait until the next morning. Well aware of Bellagio's theory about scarcity and love, I knew that I had to appear to be scarce - like gold.

My plan was to lie low for a few days, not answer the phone. The first time it rang the morning after our date, I nearly ripped it out of my roommate's hand. It wasn't Fabian. I sat in my room trying to read. The words skimmed the surface, wouldn't soak in. Thoughts of Fabian and his luscious lips (and what I imagined was "continental kissing") saturated my consciousness. I read page after page of homework without comprehension. I moved the phone into my room (back then, a complex negotiation). Unfortunately, the plan of appearing scarce grew intolerable by lunch; I was nearly shaking with anxiety. I checked the phone to make sure it wasn't accidently off the hook. It wasn't. That's when I had an inspiration. Instead of waiting for Fabian to call me, I would call Fabian. Brilliant.

"But wont that make you look eager?' asked Roberta, my roommate. I explained that I would figure out a way to make myself seem scarce, but actually get to talk to him. (Never mind that I was selectively forgetting the rest of what Bellagio had told me). Here was my plan: I would make contact, but hang up quickly, thereby making myself look aloof, look scarce. In fact, I reasoned, I'd better call soon since acting nonchalant might make me so very desirable to Fabian.

After a brief greeting, I told him I'd had a nice night last night. "Yes," he said, "Look," he added, "I'm grading papers, can I call you back?"

"Sure."

I hung up in humiliation. Not only had I not been able to prove myself scarce, but now I was on the opposite end of scarce. He could smell my desire. Desire, I thought. The bad breath of dating.

Day two: I abstain from calling Fabian. This was my diet.
Day Three: I abstained again. A fast.
On day four, I saw him coming out of the library. A sheer coincidence for which I'd spent several hours calculating. I had donned a stunning white sundress especially planned for this coincidence.

He approached, then spoke. "You look lovely - like a lovely white bird." He eyed me carefully, searching my face for something.

I stood there. I tried to force myself to look away, tried to force my body to walk away, to turn, but all I could do is look back into Fabian's eyes like a simpering, longing kid...waiting...waiting...and wanting.

Bellagio was right about hiding it. Desire is an opened-mouth fool. As much as forcing me to cry out: I am a smoldering cigarette butt. Walk on me. When you feel desire, you can't fake it.

Against all will, all intention, I looked up at Fabian with innocent, hungry eyes, I am air. Cheap as air. Free. Inhale me. Fabian took a big breath. Was he nervous? Was he going to ask me out? He stared off into the redwood forest that surrounded our library. "Yes, you are beautiful in that dress. A beautiful bird. Go ahead bird," he said, "fly away."

Over my dating years I found that Bellagio's prophesy about playing both roles would be true. Sometimes I played the more uncomfortable part in that game of tag in the dark, being the seeker; and other times I had had the twisted privilege of wanting more freedom. But Bellagio had made me aware that desire sets up a dynamic, a game with rules that seemed to be invented in some torture chamber of the heart - all devised to make seeking real love, real connection, quite simply painful. We want what we cannot have - that is the strange irony of desire, of passion. And when we have it, often we lose the wanting.

And then I was married. I had always feared marriage as the end of those electric moments of discovery, of passion, the exquisite exuberance that comes with desire. If passion required scarcity, how can someone seem scarce if they use you're bathroom every day? How can someone seem scarce if they become so common as to almost be invisible?

Yet marriage, paradoxically, set me free. It was the great equalizer. In marriage, it didnt quite matter who was leaning in which direction. Sometimes I was running away, looking for time to myself; and sometimes my husband was the one who ran. The power struggle of desire versus freedom faded into the background as we got on with the business of making a family.

The Buddhists say that all desire leads only to suffering. Perhaps this is what Bellagio meant when he spoke of desire as an illusion. But what replaces that erotic feeling of aliveness that characterized my first dates with Fabian?

What we lived in marriage, of course, is what countless people have lived: the realization that in giving, in truly loving, we actually stop wanting. In desire, we go from place to place of need and try to satisfy ourselves; in loving we leave our own needs behind and paradoxically find them met.

Still, there has been a way of capturing some moments of passion. I confess that my husband and I have stumbled onto a trick whereby each one of us is, "the one who wants more," each one of us is the slave to love. The answer comes in having children (and, in our case, one with special needs).

The secret is in being so busy, so distracted, that we inadvertently make ourselves "scarce". Between balancing four separate schedules, driving to doctors' appointments, shuttling kids to lessons and playdates, and frantically making money to pay for them all, we rarely, if ever, have time for each other. We are usually too exhausted to think about desire. We no longer desire desire; what we desire too often is solitude.

Still, if some evening (or even some month or year) we find ourselves awake at the same time, and strong enough to hold our eyes open in dim light, we may look up suddenly and see each other, almost as if we had just met, and I feel again what I felt when we were first dating. Then intimacy becomes as illicit, as surprising, as fantastical - and even as surreal - as if we were making out on top of a rollercoaster. Probably because we are.

"If only there was a way to tinker with man," by Ben Franklin

2008-04-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

In a PBS video I watched on the profile of Ben Franklin, there is a quote he makes after they talk about his ideas on invention. He says, "Now if there was only a way to tinker with man, so that people wouldn't treat each other like wolves." I was having another email conversation with a person where I commented that you can't get people to do the right thing unless you took away there free will (choice).

Perhaps it might comes to this in the future with cybernetics, who knows. Lets take Global Warming for example. FOR YEARS scientists have talked about this. Decades on conservation and pollution. Why now the big mindset push? Its becoming a "crisis". Wasn't it a crisis before? Yes, but now some real serious stuff could start happening destroying lives and billions in development.

So how do you get people to do the right thing? For years we were suppose to carpool or use mass transit. We don't. The freedom of a car and being able to go where you want, when you want and not argue about what station to be playing music during that time is too convenient, less of a burden. But what if you double the price of gas? What if you jack prices so high people cant afford to drive separately? That will work, or have an effect. Same goes for smoking. You cant get smokers to quit no matter how many facts you give them about health and reasons not to. They will until they get cancer or the health seriously fails. Like my father who quit but far too late and died of a heart attack 6 months later.

Drug users, alcoholics, or whatever the case may be. You cant get people to do the wise choice.

What gets me is when celebrities, rich people, beautiful people ~ you know, those folks who don't have anytime or never say Hi to the little people all of the sudden start talking about togetherness and how we have to rally to the cause because its "our" cause too and that it takes a massive response to solve issues. But where are these people "most" of the time? Getting their hands dirty or taking a physically active part in solving issues? No, they make statements or throw a "percentage" of their money at the problem thinking that will help or work.

Some coworkers and I had a short discussion about the Presidency in 2008 and who was I going to vote for and if I had ever voted. I said that I did donate to a campaign this year but regret it. The way they tear at each other, the way the media rips them- who cares.

Then I told them how I wrote a letter to a National TV talk show about the presidents since I was born. LBJ preached about a "Great Society" plan where he was going to end poverty and make several other national improvements. Nixon then took over, nixed LBJs programs and started his plan. Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton...all had plans. There have been about the same amount of Republicans and Democrats in the White House as I have been alive and I failed to see where any of them make a difference for my life? After all, everyone tells me Life is Do it Yourself. Only I am responsible for my life. Only I can save me. I am the one who has to get an education or figure out how to get one. Only I can get myself a good job. Only I can and must find a way to provide for the care and services that I need. The Nation aint going to do shit for me. My State, My city, the people in my apartment building. The president can only make promises, he then has to get the house to approve and they play each other. It is not a "united" nation. In a Capitalist society, its all about the individual, how to use and manipulate the system to advance over others.

If it were up to me, I would figure out a way to get rid of Congress. Turn the system back into a direct democracy where the people make the decisions. You cant corrupt 250 million Americans like you can Government officials and court judges.

At one time I use to care. Cared for everyone, became sad when children die of starvation, catastrophes happen, shuttles blew up, and all I was ever doing was beating myself up and dragging myself down over things I have no control over. They say if you want to help, donate money. Nah, that dont work. There a hundreds of charities, millions upon millions raised, yet still 40 years laters the same problems are still here.

Even the issues that existed since I was born are still here: Poverty, Earth Pollution, Costly Health Care, Energy Crisis, Gay Rights, Bigotry, Peace in the Middle East, Tension with Russia, Poor School systems....ALL STILL HERE. So unfortunately in my life time I have decided there is nothing I can do. I have written the powerful, the rich and the beautiful - people that could do something, people that have charisma and could maybe get a movement going. I waste my time no more. I dont think the Earth can be saved, or humanity. I know you hate to hear that sounds terrible doenst it? I should be more energetic, smiley and positive about the human race - I am for my own self, my own life and those rare few humans who show great quality. There is where I can make a difference. I leave saving the World up to the high society shmucks who, for the most part, fail the test.

In the movie 'Tombstone' starring Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer. There is a scene where the mayor of Tombstone seeks out Wyatt Earp and his brothers to help establish law, order and justice in town. Wyatt wants no part of it because he knows their is a price to pay mixing up in the troubles and him and his brothers are making a good living in Tombstone by milking it for all its worth. The mayor leaves in disgust saying, "You know you men are making a lot of money in this town. Good, good for you. But in the mean time, a lot of innocent people are getting hurt or killed. So please - dont let me take up any more of your precious time!"

Now expand that quote but instead insert Nation for town. There are a lot of people making good money off this nation. Good, good for them. But in the mean time....
So dont let anyone or anything take up your precious time.

Some of my Favorite movies

2008-04-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

The list is longer but today I thought I would put a clip of two of them here as I was walking through a best movie section today.

Brubaker:

By IMBD
http://imdb.com/title/tt0080474/
Robert Redford plays another dignified character, this time as new warden Henry Brubaker posing as an inmate in a corrupt prison to understand the deplorable conditions there. As is the case with any prison-related film, we get to see some really ugly things here. Maybe "Brubaker" goes a little overboard in portraying its main character as a saint, but considering that the main point is to show the inhumanity of this country's penal system (which apparently hasn't changed much since this movie came out), they do a good job. I'd say that it's another movie that, if nothing else, deserves kudos for disproving the "Disney-ized" version of the world that we often get shown. A very good movie.

My favorite quote is near the end of the movie where the woman who put him in charge asked if why wont he change his convictions. Brubaker responds he would discuss strategy perhaps but not his principles.

Papillon
http://imdb.com/title/tt0070511/

The true story of Henri Charriere (nicknamed "Papillon" because of his butterfly tattooed chest), a Frenchman falsely accused of murder and sent to French Guiana's inescapable penal colony. Charriere spent years trying to escape from this mosquito-ridden, malaria-prone hellhole, but every attempt somehow went awry. On many occasions, the recaptured Charriere was sent into solitary confinement and only survived thanks to his incredible mental strength. Ultimately, the authorities lost hope of taming his urge to break out, so they abandoned him on Devil's Island, a tiny land mass where guards were not needed since the constantly ferocious surrounding sea was ample deterent for any would-be escapees.

Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Why do I like this movie? Its about a man's will to live and not be broken by his surroundings or other people. He needs to find a place where he can enjoy life and not be bound by his means to a place where he will die spiritually and mentally. Some good quotes in this movie but I like, "Hey you bastards, I'm still here!"

I like movies in other categories as well but in the human spirit kind: Rudy Rudiger, Seabiscuit, October Sky ~ these movies are based on people who lived. Other movies would be fictional characters but also take from humanity like the movie Rocky. Not just movies about Americans but any man or woman who lived on Earth and who had the spirit to fight for the vale of their lives and well being.

WebMD

2008-04-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

A good source for theories and articles
http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/find-happiness-on-the-job?page=2

Find Happiness on the Job
Hate your job? You can find a way to match your personality with employment -- or happily adapt to the situation you're in.
By Dulce Zamora
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson Mathis, MD

You hate your job. OK, maybe "hate" is too strong a word. At the very least, you're not happy and wish for a change.

Yet transformation doesn't come easy, because, like many others, you might get mired in the obstacles. There are bills to pay so you can't just quit, there aren't enough jobs available, or you simply don't know what to do next.

The quandary is enough to make the best of us snooze the alarm eight times before dragging ourselves to work, or impatiently watch the clock crawl toward the end of the day.

There is hope. According to mental health professionals, people can improve their occupational situations, either by switching employers, vocations, or attitudes.
The Right Job for You

The first step to loving your labor appears to be figuring out who you are, and what you want and need in a job.

"Different people have different needs, and different things that motivate them," says Roni Reiter-Palmon, PhD, director of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

"For some people, the whole notion of having a secure job is more important than pay; for others, having prestige is more important. For a third group, they don't really care what job they have, as long as they're making a lot of money. You have those people who would take a low-paying job just to be satisfied; and then you have people who don't want responsibility."

In addition, Reiter-Palmon says people's needs change over time. At some point in their lives, some folks desire a flexible schedule because they need to take care of kids. At another time, they may want more hours because they're saving up for a car, house, or a higher degree.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey P. Kahn, MD, agrees that everyone wants something different in a job, but also points out a recent survey of American workers showing that most people want to feel like they're part of a big happy family, and that they are treated with respect and integrity at work.

Yet the occupational perks may have their limits in delivering inner bliss. Kahn, who is a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Business Relations, says people's personalities play a role in how they perceive the atmosphere and relationships at work. "Some people will think they're underpaid or mistreated almost anywhere they are," he explains. "Others will feel the opposite. They'll feel content no matter where they are."

An employee's personality is, indeed, a big factor in job satisfaction, says Frank Schmidt, PhD, professor of human resources at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business. He says personality traits can be traced to the tendency for some to be emotionally stable and for others to be neurotic.

These traits have a genetic component, notes Schmidt, but past and present experiences in and out of work also affect perception of a job.

Making a Change

By day, Dan is a trader in a New York brokerage firm. At night, he dreams of someday becoming a doctor, a physical therapist, or a high school teacher. One thing's for sure, though. He's not happy with his current work situation, but sticks with it because it pays the bills.

The Los Angeles native is not just dealing with an unsatisfactory job, however. He's also trying to cope with a disappointing social life, uncertainty over whether he wants to stay in Manhattan or go back to L.A., and lots of sleepless nights.

"When I'm depressed, I hate my job even more," says the 32-year-old, who, despite his distress, remains optimistic that he will someday be able to change his work and life situation, and be happy.

In one sense, Dan has already taken one step toward his goal to find happiness: He realizes the scope of his misery -- a feat that isn't as easy as it seems, says Kahn.

"Unhappy people often don't know just how unhappy they are," he says, noting that people tend to focus their displeasure on things that are easier to think about. Instead of identifying a problem in a marriage, for example, they shift their attention on a boss who's mean, or on an inadequate salary.

After recognizing the extent of the problem, Kahn says it might help some people to discuss their dilemma with family, friends, and others who might be able to offer solutions. Next, he says it's important to find activities that will make them happy, such as exercising, praying, or listening to music. If these steps do not ease some of the misery, he recommends seeing an occupational therapist.

For those who suffer with problems such as clinical depression, panic/anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, visiting a mental health professional and getting proper treatment is also important. It may be beneficial to seek jobs that might be more comfortable for them. For example, people with panic disorders, may not want a job that requires a lot of plane travel. People with chronic depression may want to limit social contact at work.

This does not mean that people with ailments or problematic tendencies cannot pursue certain careers. With self-awareness, hard work, and the proper treatment, it is possible to make a change. Kahn says he once had a patient with social anxiety disorder who recognized that he needed better public speaking skills to move up in his company. After drug treatment and psychotherapy, the businessman was not only able to move into the inner circle at work, he also improved his personal life by finding a girlfriend and eventually marrying her.
If All Else Fails ...

Changing jobs or careers may not be a viable option for everyone, either because they live in a small town where there are not very many opportunities, or because of inadequate openings in the current job market, or because they need the money offered by their current occupation.

In such cases, people try to seek contentment in other aspects of life such as family or hobbies. That is possible, says Reiter-Palmon, but she recommends altering one's approach to a job. "Ask why you're not happy, and what you can do to find happiness," she says.

For some, this may mean looking into how they can reframe their jobs, either by talking to a boss and asking for more responsibility or for fewer hours. Or it may mean changing one's attitude about the job. A person who decides he needs more education and training to obtain a higher position or salary, for instance, could learn to stick with a current job because he knows it will support him while he's in school. "You may not be happy per se in that job, but you're working toward a goal so that provides a meaning to that job that you're holding right now," says Reiter-Palmon.

ABC News: Happiness Jan 8th 2007

2008-04-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

'20/20' Friday: What Makes People Happy?
'20/20' Explores the Myths and Misconceptions About This Essential Emotion
By SHANNON COSTELLO and BILL WEIR

Jan. 8, 2007—

The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human endeavor it seems as if human beings are hardwired to contemplate, chase and cherish this complex and often elusive emotion. Americans place tremendous value on this pursuit; after all, it's a primary feature of the U.S. Constitution.

America is the land of the happy hour, the Happy Meal, and the smiley face. Happiness committees are popping up across corporate America while positive psychology has become the most popular course on campus and a best-selling topic in bookstores.

But while the universal search is indisputable, actually defining the what, where, when and how of happiness is a far more complicated quest one that has produced conflicting answers.

Can happiness be measured, studied and nurtured? After a decade of brain scans and global surveys, new science says yes, and shows that there are six fundamental theories about this important emotion.

Future Happiness Is Unpredictable

According to Harvard professor and author of "Stumbling on Happiness," Daniel Gilbert, most of our attempts to predict future happiness are erroneous.

"There are two fundamental problems with predicting how you're going to feel in the future," Gilbert said. "First, imagination can fail you. It can play tricks. The future you imagine is not always the future in which you're going to find yourself. Second, society gives us some myths about sources of happiness. Everyone from our grandmother to our bartender to the taxi driver to Dear Abby has some prescription for the happy life. Turns out that if you submit these to scientific analysis, some of these prescriptions are right, but some of them are dead wrong."

Society Often Tricks Us

Not only do society and our imagination confuse our pursuit, our genes also play a heavy role. Gilbert claims genes are particularly influential in proving the phrase "bundles of joy" to be a bit of a misnomer.

"Our genes tell us that if we procreate we'll be happy, and one of the ways they perpetuate themselves is by getting us to do their bidding. Now usually people won't do things unless they think those things are gonna make them somewhat happy, and so we had developed in our culture, like all cultures, a strong belief that children are a strong source of happiness," said Gilbert. "The data suggests otherwise. The data don't suggest that children make you miserable, but they suggest that, by in large, it's a wash. Children have very little effect, it appears, on their parents' day-to-day happiness."

Several studies also suggest marriages are happier without kids. Additionally, despite the high divorce rate in the United States, married people remain happier than single people, which explains why so many divorcees get remarried.

The Money Mirage and Living Purposefully

Theyer Willis, the author of "Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth" and heir to the enormous Georgia-Pacific Timber fortune, will testify to that fact. Raised in a life of leisure and privilege, Willis by her mid-30s found herself isolated and miserable with no sense of purpose.

"Having a fulfilling, meaningful life and being happy doesn't have to do with what we have," she said. "It has to do with how we live our lives."

Willis now counsels families that are very rich and very sad. One of the strongest messages she imparts to her clients: find meaningful work.

Though he is far from a millionaire, Sean Aiken can relate to that advice. He is on his way toward working 52 jobs in 52 weeks as part of a yearlong quest to find his bliss. On his Web site Aiken chronicles his rapidly growing resume, which includes everything from brew master, dairy farmer, and bungee-jumping instructor to exterminator, stock trader, and veterinarian.

Not What You Do, but Who You Do It With

Aiken's breadth of experience has instilled in him the third fundamental -- it's not what you do, it's who you do it with. "I have realized that you could have the best or worst job in the world, it is the people you work with that are going to make it a positive or negative work environment," he said.

Positive psychologists break down the work force into those with jobs, those with careers and those with callings. Those who follow their calling are happiest, but right behind them are those who use sheer will to turn a job into a calling.

"Positive Paul" Hintersteiner is a perfect example; he's happy, which is amazing when you consider he is a New York City cab driver. For 12 hours a day he fights some of the world's worst traffic with deals with some of the world's most stressed-out people. And yet he takes it upon himself to brighten the day of everyone he meets; he tells corny jokes and hands out thank-you cards asking passengers to remember his optimism when their days get rough.

Finding 'Flow'

If a positive outlook provides one level of happiness, the fifth fundamental takes you even higher. If you can find an activity you love, you can find "flow." Conceptualized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1970s and commonly referred to with terms such as "in the zone," or "in the groove," flow is that transcendent state when a person becomes so engaged and focused in their passion, they lose all sense of themselves. It could come from a million different activities -- knitting, teaching, surfing, singing, speed chess, speed walking, playing an instrument, or playing solitaire.

For Jonas Gerard, an abstract painter and sculptor based in Asheville, North Carolina, it comes with a brush, paint and canvas. "When I am experiencing flow, I am really not in charge, I am allowing the flow to come through me and I am allowing the energy to direct my life & all flow is about allowing this energy and right here in the studio it's creative energy. I call it Creative Energy with a capital C and capital E. Because it's a very spiritual experience. When that flows, when that is flowing I can't stop it."

Asheville was recently named the happiest place in America by journalist Eric Weiner in his novel "The Geography of Bliss." That may help Gerard attain a constant level of happiness, but he insists flow has nothing to do with external circumstances.

"I have had horrible tooth aches recently, I am redoing my whole mouth with all kinds of artificial teeth and the pain is horrible, and I come to my studio and the pain goes away, I forget about eating, I forget about sleeping, I forget about all things when I am in this, like you call, a flow," he said. Researchers have learned that flow can also be destructive; many chess masters have spiraled into despair after beating all challengers. But the most satisfying endeavors are those that benefit others.

Charlie Todd understands that kind of satisfaction. He finds flow and spreads joy by shocking complete strangers. "I try to do things that are pranks, but while often pranks are about humiliating someone, I try to do things that are about making people happy, making someone's day, giving someone an awesome story to tell."

Todd is the founder of a group called Improv Everywhere whose Mission Statement is to "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places." They are a New York based comedy troupe devoted to staging elaborate stunts, or what Todd likes to call "missions." An annual Improv Everywhere Mission is their "No Pants Subway Ride" where every January several "agents" ride their subway in their underwear. They pretend not to know each other, and a few stops later, a man boards -- selling pants. Other subway missions included a fake marriage proposal, where Todd and his co-conspirators recruited random strangers on the subway to help pop the question, a surprise birthday party, and an annual haunted Halloween train.

Socializing = Joy

Improv Everywhere doesn't limit themselves to underground transit -- they use all of New York City as their stage; from taking over the window space in a large commercial building on Union Square Park to organizing a giant game of twister with 800 strangers on the lower Manhattan waterfront, Todd's troupe forces strangers to interact with themselves and their city in unexpected and comical ways.

"I just love that moment because something that is unusual might scare an individual, but when you commiserate with other people around and realize there are other people who are also experiencing this it becomes fun and funny." It may seem silly or frivolous, but it represents the sixth and final fundamental, as summed up by Gilbert; "If you could only know one thing to understand human beings it would be this; human beings are social animals. Almost every one of our greatest sources of joy is a social source of joy, something about our interaction with or relationship with another person."

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Willpower might not come from an Energy Drink

2008-04-08T09:19:00.001-07:00

I came across this article by a mutual acquaintance and found the source here at the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02aamodt.html

It seems despite advertising and myth, willpower and rive doesn't come from Energy Drinks....

Op-Ed Contributors
Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind

By SANDRA AAMODT and SAM WANG
Published: April 2, 2008

DECLINING house prices, rising job layoffs, skyrocketing oil costs and a major credit crunch have brought consumer confidence to its lowest point in five years. With a relatively long recession looking increasingly likely, many American families may be planning to tighten their belts.

Interestingly, restraining our consumer spending, in the short term, may cause us to actually loosen the belts around our waists. What’s the connection? The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. The good news, however, is that practice increases willpower capacity, so that in the long run, buying less now may improve our ability to achieve future goals — like losing those 10 pounds we gained when we weren’t out shopping.

The brain’s store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task.

In one pioneering study, some people were asked to eat radishes while others received freshly baked chocolate chip cookies before trying to solve an impossible puzzle. The radish-eaters abandoned the puzzle in eight minutes on average, working less than half as long as people who got cookies or those who were excused from eating radishes. Similarly, people who were asked to circle every “e” on a page of text then showed less persistence in watching a video of an unchanging table and wall.

Other activities that deplete willpower include resisting food or drink, suppressing emotional responses, restraining aggressive or sexual impulses, taking exams and trying to impress someone. Task persistence is also reduced when people are stressed or tired from exertion or lack of sleep.

What limits willpower? Some have suggested that it is blood sugar, which brain cells use as their main energy source and cannot do without for even a few minutes. Most cognitive functions are unaffected by minor blood sugar fluctuations over the course of a day, but planning and self-control are sensitive to such small changes. Exerting self-control lowers blood sugar, which reduces the capacity for further self-control. People who drink a glass of lemonade between completing one task requiring self-control and beginning a second one perform equally well on both tasks, while people who drink sugarless diet lemonade make more errors on the second task than on the first. Foods that persistently elevate blood sugar, like those containing protein or complex carbohydrates, might enhance willpower for longer periods.

In the short term, you should spend your limited willpower budget wisely. For example, if you do not want to drink too much at a party, then on the way to the festivities, you should not deplete your willpower by window shopping for items you cannot afford. Taking an alternative route to avoid passing the store would be a better strategy.

On the other hand, if you need to study for a big exam, it might be smart to let the housecleaning slide to conserve your willpower for the more important job. Similarly, it can be counterproductive to work toward multiple goals at the same time if your willpower cannot cover all the efforts that are required. Concentrating your effort on one or at most a few goals at a time increases the odds of success.

Focusing on success is important because willpower can grow in the long term. Like a muscle, willpower seems to become stronger with use. The idea of exercising willpower is seen in military boot camp, where recruits are trained to overcome one challenge after another.

In psychological studies, even something as simple as using your nondominant hand to brush your teeth for two weeks can increase willpower capacity. People who stick to an exercise program for two months report reducing their impulsive spending, junk food intake, alcohol use and smoking. They also study more, watch less television and do more housework. Other forms of willpower training, like money-management classes, work as well.

No one knows why willpower can grow with practice but it must reflect some biological change in the brain. Perhaps neurons in the frontal cortex, which is responsible for planning behavior, or in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with cognitive control, use blood sugar more efficiently after repeated challenges. Or maybe one of the chemical messengers that neurons use to communicate with one another is produced in larger quantities after it has been used up repeatedly, thereby improving the brain’s willpower capacity.

Whatever the explanation, consistently doing any activity that requires self-control seems to increase willpower — and the ability to resist impulses and delay gratification is highly associated with success in life.

Sandra Aamodt, the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, and Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton, are the authors of “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

A Global Community and Nationality School

2008-04-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, I wrote an article to a high profile person in our country. Of course I never heard anything but the letter was about building a school and university that brought people from around the World together to discuss ideas and learn. How they Internet has advanced so much in the past decade, why not use it to bring people in other Nations closer together? Learning directly from each other not by what media tells them. One group of people decided to use a free social network software and formed a Internet society that brings Jew, Muslims and Americans together to discuss matters at hand. There was a book that was published some years ago called "Mavericks at Work". This book discussed open source brain power. Where people in other fields use similar products or chemicals and have found way to use them that could be the answer over at the leading research facility in the country but are stumped on their problem. It's all about Brain Power.

I wonder how much knowledge or insight to the past was lost when the Great Library of Egypt was burned to ground to keep an invading force at bay? The collective brain power of the planet would be extraordinary. But only if people would use this to advance humanity and the Earth's problems. Not so a few can gain all the money, power or control the populace.

I wonder what would happen if you took small groups of people in equal numbers and placed them into a school where they studied ALL religions, ALL governments, ALL things possible and they learned from each other about humanity. Would these people go back and try to change their countries? The World? Or just start all over, forming a new society here on Earth, on land, under the ocean, or in space perhaps?

World at War

2008-04-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

I was recently involved in a discussion about the War in Iraq, and as usual, there were more emotional decisions being made than rational. The Middle East is a Rich culture full of History all the way back to Ancient and Biblical. What does history have to do with modern events? Everything in my opinion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Middle_East
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iraq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran

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

America only a a few hundred years of History and there are still culture clashes with Native American Indians and rights to the North and South Civil War to the rights of African Americans and now Mexican Immigrants. But for 9/11/2001, I will only go back as far as World War II. You have to research whom those the leaders of those countries supported during World War II and why.

The State of Israel was established in 1948, only 60 years ago. You also need to research who voted which way on the UN Council and why. Why are these regions important to foreign countries?

These Wars also had an impact as to what is going on today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan

Than you need to research How Saddam came to power and again look at who America funded and backed during those wars and decide for yourself why. Why did the US government and military back our enemies then (I use the word enemies as a figurative speech as tomorrow they may be our friends and allies against a greater evil yet to be determined.) Did Bin Laden fight in the Afghan War? Did the US supply and train this side to fight off Russia?

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

Who is the Ayatollah and what hostage crises was there for 444 days in the Jimmy Carter era? Why does former President Jimmy Carter feel there could never be peace in the Middle East as Israel and surrounding countries squabble for real estate and resources. Are the powerful Jewish organizations here in the US that fund political campaigns? How much money does the United States give Isael to build, expand and improve their cities?

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/hostages.phtmliki

There is so much more to the events happening in Iraq and the surrounding countries. A lot more than just what we are told about a Radical Nut out to destroy and kill all Americans for hate sake.

Did Geroge Bush Jr go back into Iraq because George Bush Sr left things unfinished? Or Americans were not not full of enough ire then to allow a politician to do his bidding back then?

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Hermann Goering, German World War II commander

Some other things you may want to consider whether if there is any truth behind them or that you should just dismiss is for you to decide.

Secret Society List
http://www.directoryupdate.net/societies.html

And I think it would be good for you to familiarize yourself with another man in US History ~ Robert McNamara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara
His thoughts on World War II, JFK, Vietnam, the Cold War, Politics and Humanity

If it were up to me how Wars should be fought, I would say to rebuild the Roman Coliseum. You than take the two opposing Commander and Chiefs (leaders), his staf and their wives and children in the arena with and to hand combat weapons and let them go at it. I guarantee they would find some other way to decide their differences than combat, suffering and death.

A shared Letter

2008-04-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Harpo Producers / Oprah / O Magazine

At first I was going to write a letter about several articles from the “O” magazine of March 2008. But after reading this issue I was on a Oprah kick and decided to take my work breaks earlier and watch 15 minutes of the television show all week (2/25 to 2/29), and after each show there was something more I wanted to say as I could connect with all of these shows. So that left me wondering how do I now want to write this letter? Since Oprah’s mission is to put people on the path of their ‘Best Life Yet’, I will just write about my life and how it was, is, and hopefully changing.

Several years ago I started to keep a journal, but I don’t write in it every day or very often. I do now keep on online Blog where I will write my beliefs, open thinking, and analogies, hoping that the reader can decipher what each is and hopefully help them with their thinking and life.
http://booksofbob.blogspot.com/

If you were to go examine my writings, you will see that the first three posts have to deal with motivation, confidence and success; all of which is what Oprah is about. You will notice that there is a quote I picked out from an online source from Sally Field whom Oprah interviewed lately.

“It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes”. ~ Sally Field

The first blog is about Clint Eastwood where I comment on an interview about him from a Readers Digest Issue that resonated with me. How he struggled early on to where he found success. And that relates to an earlier guest in the show you had this week, Henry Winkler. Henry also struggled in school, as did I, he had some learning disability but never knew it. They didn’t have testing forty or more years ago. You were just an achiever or a lazy slacker or just dumb. “Why can’t you do better?! Why cant you be more like your brother or sister?!” Screaming and punishment were the methods to try and get results. My grades were horrible. I should have been held back twice in grade school, my English and Reading were Abysmal and my SAT score was probably a joke. A score of 2000 is needed to get into Harvard. I think I was 800 or something like that.

Besides writing, I also started to shoot and record video of life. Along with this letter you will find some short video clips, my first ones ever, so they are amateur and unpolished but they start to paint a picture.

I went to a Catholic school as a child in a very small village. Across the street was a Lutheran church and school. We rode the bus with these kids whose student body was even smaller than ours. Where ours was roughly 100 first through eighth grade, they were probably half that. In the summer all kids played baseball. And whether it was on the bus or at the park, we had questions about the various religious traditions. Where it was a sin for us if we didn’t do these acts, the Lutherans didn’t believe in this. So of course we would ask about sin and religious practice, burning in hell for the lack there of. So I will be saved through the sacraments and my Lutheran friends will perish? Well of course the policy became “don’t ask don’t tell” because it will confuse you and cause arguments. So it is not until years later to where I would discover Martin Luther and the story of his life and how the Lutheran came to be. Not that I converted or anything, just was amazed by this man, his thoughts, what happened and how he stood for his beliefs even though he could of easily been tortured or executed for them.

Now, Forty years later in my life, where is religion in this world? How is scripture used to control people and abuse the writings to conquer, hate, and destroy? I lost my Faith a long time ago. I am not sure I even believe there is a God. When I had a TV, the only two channels I really cared for was the History Channel and Discovery. I was watching episodes of Science vs. God. The discoveries Einstein made, and the scientists who followed in his footsteps on the Big Bang theory. How the universe is expanding and not contracting. How Einstein himself had a hard time believing his own discovery because it is so very hard to conceive that all the things that are, there HAS to be a God.

I know several people of different Faiths who are really into the writings of their scripture and leave everything up to God and whatever happens it must be His will. I now think more like Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. “God helps those who help themselves”. I look into history at some of the most devout religious people and how they died horrible deaths. Why would God allow this? His will, we cannot possibly understand His wisdom and plan. Okay, but if God is willing to allow those religious people to die or lives be full of suffering, whose to say he wont allow mine to be that way or yours? Ah, the old, ‘You got to have Faith’. I would rather have determination and fighting spirit thank you.

Where do people get their ideas, beliefs and spirit? Childhood conditioning, Culture, Religion, Philosophical writings, other books, other media…

As I continued to age, I started to understand why literature was taken away in years past and present. Why groups of people chose to seclude themselves from others. Why cultures seek to destroy those writings and those people. Why Elders seek to plant their seeds of knowledge into the youth who are still pliable. The old saying, “It’s all in your head.” That is where our sane or insane Worlds are. What do you let seep in? Where do you throw up your invisible force field to block out the incoming so as to not disrupt your path?

Examples: An Oprah magazine or show vs. Maxim Magazine July 2007 issue page 115 which teaches guys how to twist where a woman is getting her ideas from. To page 118 and “Dr” Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda, the Anti-Christ millionaire, multiple wives, preacher. To Time’s magazine issue of “God wants you to be Rich” taking a look at the resurgence of TV evangelists “Dr” Joyce Meyers and others. Who is getting Rich? Who is having the good life? The Sheep, or the Shepherds? Republicans, Democrats, 16 major Religions, the American dream, Health, Wealth, Beauty, Sex, Sexy, and Relationships, and Celebrity Gossip 1000 fold! It comes at you from all sides, in all kinds of media, every day! Where does one run or hide? If they even can.

Yesterday’s show was about the “Miracle of Aging”. How as we get older, we sage or become wiser and the acts of others or our culture become less of a grief. Are these teaching something new? No. Whether one gets there from following Marianne’s writings or Ben Franklin’s
“At 20 years of age the Will reigns, at 30 the Wit, and at 40 the Judgment.”
Or whether if one wants to follow the advice of a Martha Beck ‘North Star’ book, or the writings of ‘Mark Twain’s Helpful Hints for Good Living.’
Or to go as far back as the Greeks and the birth of Western Philosophy where they ask, “Which is best for people to pursue: Pleasure, Power or Prudence?” They felt it was Prudence.

In the March issue there is an article on Happiness. You feature the scientist from the University of Wisconsin who was also on the 20/20 episode of ‘How to Happiness”. Where some educators go on to say that 50% is hereditary, 40% is up to the individual and ONLY TEN PERCENT is job, materialism, etc. Now I have a tough time believing those percentages, but there is truth to this, ‘its all in your head business’.

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Yesterday’s show tells us to not look back. To not say, if only I was a seeker of knowledge and answers when I was a youth. If only I would have done ABC then, I wouldn’t be in the mess I am in now. So I am to live in the now.

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to”. ~Kahlil Gibran

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ~Author Unknown

But lets go back in efforts to perhaps be able to focus more on where to go forward. To have one’s “Best Life Yet”, trying to figure out just how ‘good’ can it possible get with what one has going, then telling the brain it is okay and the spirit to fly.

Childhood short version. Youngest of three, born in 1966. Parents divorce by age 5. Father moves to live in California for the next 17 years. Mother is single and struggling to raise and afford three children. She becomes a lesbian and struggles with her own pursuit of happiness, life and “how to” based upon her mindset. Best way to describe my life then? Like a leaf on the wind I guess. Drifting around not caring where I was going, how I was going to get there, or what lied ahead. I was very emotional, sensitive, easy to distract and upset. I can vaguely remember saying something to a sixth grade teacher to a question, I am not sure was; but the answer was something that perhaps I should step out in front of traffic on my way home from school.

I had problems, issues, issues that went unattended other than some disciplinary action or a shake of the head and a walk away. High school wasn’t much better. Mainly I was looking for companionship all those years and not an education. I was looking for prestige and recognition. I wasn’t getting either, so I wallowed in my sorrow rather than use education and study as a distraction and focus on a better life ahead. I couldn’t wait to graduate, move some distance away and get away from dominance and the control of others.

I was unprepared for the cost of living and how the system works for who gets a job and why. I am making minimum wage at any place that would give me a job. And there weren’t many places. I thought about joining the Army after high school. But I decided not too because I injured my knee badly playing football just before my senior year. I haven’t been able to run or play anything physical since. My walk is a hobble, not a stride.

I am confused by the man you had on your show once. He was from another country and he fled through the desert to escape his turmoil. Stowed away on vessel that got him here to America. Went college, and now with his education has a great job and a great life. Keep in mind the whole concept of “How to Happiness”, its all in your head, its not what you have or where you are, its how you think – yet his happiness came externally before internally. Would he be happy if he still were in the land he came from? Or the man to be featured on today’s show and this weekend, Sheg. He comes again, from another country and arrives here with but a duffle bag. I do not understand how foreigners are able to get here with “nothing” and get an education and have the means to life, let alone get into the United States to begin with (Visa, Green Card, etc). When Americans need an elaborate financial plan to save for college.

Where did these people get the money, a place to stay and a job? That is what my mind is asking. Because I was working for minimum wage at places like Burger King and IHOP, and found it very hard to come up with rent, cost of living and college expenses. Financial Aid? Yes I received financial aid to pay for schooling. They had some weird red tape for being accepted. I never would fully receive the money I would ask for. They would tell me that a good chunk of the money was to come from parental contribution. And I had to explain that my parents don’t contribute a nickel. Yet they told me that it doesn’t matter, we still consider they do and only give you so much and they are expected to give the rest. And I would be steaming in my head saying, BUT HEY DON’T! Then an advisor said, don’t worry, your 23 now, and the law is that at age 24, you are considered completely independent and will receive all the money you apply for. I was relieved yet asking in my head, “WTF kind of system is this?” Had I known that is how the system works, I would have waited till 24 to go to college. I should have had the mindset of getting away from all bad influences and worked two jobs then. Saved money and got a clue of what I wanted to do than have gone to college.

Of course at age 19, your name is in the system and credit card offers come in the mail. They still do daily and annoyingly. Maybe I will add later about the top ten consumer complaints that aired yesterday on the news for Americans and Marketing. But I was kid with no money, no savings, barely making it and now I have credit cards to buy now pay later for. Well by my mid 20s, I was in debt way over to what was coming in and it’s hard to say I hit rock bottom because when haven’t I been at rock bottom?

College was very frustrating as there was only one school I felt that was affordable and would give me some kind of recognition worthy of attending when applying for jobs after. But classes were seldom available. They were always full and you had to beg and get up at 4 am to get in lines to try and be in the top 3 sign-ups that the professors might take. Only once did I get a class that way. I would get warnings from financial aid that if I don’t obtain at least 12 credits and take the money, disciplinary action will follow.

I would attend on an off depending if I had some money, well where at least the minimum payments of everything didn’t tie up every dime. A real trying year should have been my junior year but the State law was that a student needs to pass a written English proficiency exam in order to be considered junior status. If you fail, your status remains a sophomore (last priority when it comes to getting classes). You don’t know the subject until it is handed out at test time. If you have no idea what the current event is on, how can you write about it? Plus, English, my worst subject: grammar, comprehension, and vocabulary). I failed the first time and had to wait a year before I could take it again. So again, last priority, two classes if I was lucky towards my major. I passed the exam the following year. The year after that, I went back for my senior year, all was fine. I got my remaining credits and attended classes. One class, the internship, didn’t meet for two weeks to begin with because of the holiday. When that day came, I was called to the front after the class along with a transfer student. We were asked why didn’t you come see me (the professor) 6 weeks prior to the year beginning? ‘Didn’t know I had to” was my response. He insisted it was in the course curriculum book. I insisted it was not. He told me I could not be in the class as I could not be placed at a job now, it was too late and I have no portfolio. I went home, found the course book and I was right it was NOT there. I went to the Dean who replied, “hmm, must have been in the spring book and not the fall book”. So I withdrew from college and sent back the unspent money to financial aid and decided to return the following semester and work on that portfolio.

I sent the money back as I would not have had 12 credits, only 9. I received a letter a few months later saying I violated financial aid again by not obtaining the required credits and that no further financial aid will be given to me. I called, furious and with questions because I sent the money back! They responded, “Sorry, you spent $55 of the money did you not?” Yes was my reply as I needed books and some supplies for other classes that met two week prior to one. Well since I spent a part of the money received, even if it was a dollar, I needed to have x amount of credits. THAT’S IT! I HAVE HAD IT! I AM DONE WITH THIS! That was my attitude about the system, college know it all professors, traveling, parking, the whole bit I couldn’t stand. I was also not very good in my chosen field.

So back out into the system I went with $14,000 in school loan debt and $4000 in credit cards with max interest rates. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you’re only making competitive wage and trying to pay for everything else, the money isn’t there. Angry, bitter, depressed, spiritually beaten, I didn’t care anymore. The system had won and never showed any mercy. My community and connections could care less for my woes and say it was my fault. Life would constantly repeat itself that no help would come from anywhere but myself. Who gets help and why? Who rises to the top and gets opportunities? Is the system fair? Unbiased? Who gets what jobs and why? What kind of people ends up working third shift? Who gets all the modeling and acting jobs? How much do those jobs pay? Are they all that hard? Why is Rachel Ray on every box and not Paula Dean? Would an ugly investigative reporter be in Lisa Ling’s job? Does happiness come from within and salary, attention, and environment means so little?

You had the 42-year-old female stripper and asked her why. Hell, for the past 10 years I have been telling myself, like heck if this is a man’s world. This is a woman’s world. If you have a body, money up the wazoo is there for the making. What about morals and what you have to go through? Compare it to work ethics; morals of CEOs and what conditions some factory workers go through. Hell yeah if I was a woman with a body and needed a way out, why not?

I should mention that after my father’s death last year, I heard a story from one of my uncles. We knew my father had this kind of unofficial godchild. A woman who came to work for him in his restaurant, which my uncle had given him. Her name was Kelly and she told us my father was a Godsend. My father told her she couldn’t have a job because she wasn’t 16. She put on an apron and went to work any ways and kept doing things until my father would hire her. She came from a dysfunctional family. A family with major problems. She turned her life around. She enjoys her life in California and she credits my father for being the person who made a difference. My uncle told me a story of when my dad left the restaurant given to him to go into the priesthood. The waitresses were wondering where my Dad had gone? So my uncle told them he left and the girls were upset because apparently my dad told them he was going to pay for their college tuition! Well that explained to my uncle where all the money had gone from this moneymaking cash cow.

My father did start to send us some money from California to Wisconsin when I was around 15 I think it was. $50 a month, which was a lot of money back then. I took some of the money and bought a Walkman. A prestigious item for a teenager back in our days. I kept it hidden from my mother, as she would want to know where I got the money. Well my older brother wanted to get me in trouble one thing lead to another and she wanted to start charging us rent – what a coincidence, $50 a month. So I wrote my father and said don’t send the money, mother will just take it.

But now think if my father had put that $50 into bank accounts for us for college when the time came? And here I am back questioning the philosophy, it is not others who are responsible for you, only you are responsible for you and you quality of life and happiness. Others have no impact or can be relied upon in Life. Still struggle with that one now and again.

So what kind of jobs could I get and still can only get? “How fast can you move” jobs. There is no thinking, there is no talking, you monitor your station and you MOVE or else. So despite what Tori Johnson and all other job satisfaction gurus write, old school is still a very much part of our culture. Where corporate thinking is, your not here to make friends, bosses aren’t to be nice, make the message loud and clear. They say Safety, Quality and Production are policy in that order, but only when someone gets hurt or items come back for poor quality. Nine times out of ten its, “Lets go lets go lets go! This order has to get done and out the door!” We need you to work this weekend, do as I say not as I do, blah, blah, blah and with your latest O magazine article, yep, what happens when you say “No” to management. They want yes men only, blind obedience. People are spent, burnt, gloom hangs on their faces and they get on each others nerves about how to do things, how you’re suppose to do things, but don’t you tell me when I am slacking or wrong.

When you make your rounds around work or around town. Do you ever observe people’s faces? Where they hide outside the building to get away from everything. Have a cigarette and just have this, “can’t wait to get out of here” look?

How do you get out? Gurus say to surround yourself with positive people. People who believe in you or your dreams. People who will support your efforts to be a better person. Where are these people? I can find virtual ones in magazines, long dead writers who wrote books, and online web sources. I wrote in a blog once how Valerie Bertinelli was a virtual hero after I saw an interview with her lashing out at magazines to “stop messing with our minds!”. But in real life, here around me, among my acquaintances? Over the years I have come to wonder what good are people? What good are the people I know? I have only met a rare few in my 40 years. But I cannot go to them, for they are married and have family. To seek their council would mean I am not working at my station, and
after work is out of the question, they are of the opposite sex and people would read other meanings into it.

Four people who enrich my spirit are, have been:
1) Kris. She was a crew supervisor at my first job at Burger King. I was asked to work a double shift to which I agreed. But you can’t work 16 straight hours, you have to have a break in-between. So I was sitting in back in the break room. Some time later Kris walked back there and asked what the hell am I still doing there. I told her I don’t have a ride and home is seven miles way. She took out the keys to her car and said, “Here, take my car.” Doesn’t seem like much, it was even a ford pinto, but no one had ever trusted me or would do such a thing for me. She was cool. She was the kind of person my social click would never have hanged out with in high school. Leather jackets, cigarette smoker, what we nicknamed as ‘burnouts’, and degenerates to society. She was one of the coolest people I have ever known and always had a smile. She stayed at Burger King, went on to be head manager. Than, 20 years later, management let her go. The two stores in the city struggled for cash and they cut all the major expenses. Near as anyone can figure, she was one of them (the expenses). She went to work for McDonalds and I didn’t get to stop in like when she worked at Burger King over the years to say, “hey”, as she was being constantly moved. I saw her at the local library one day, she had a book on “how to write a resume”, things apparently were not going well and she needed to look for a new job for her family and for herself.
2) Jill. I met her while I was a janitor for a Senior home. She was a registered nurse working in one of the wings of the establishment. I would go to her for her smile and her advice on dating. On the weekends the nursing staff would always be short handed for feeding the residents and she would ask for my help. I couldn’t resist that face. They gave me the easy ones. One of my favorites was Leonard. He couldn’t speak, and would slowly move his head and mumble with his jaw. In there somewhere was a conversation and a thank you. I knew I would get in trouble on Monday as someone would complain about a floor in another part of the building was only cleaned once but was suppose to get cleaned twice (after each meal).
3) Traci and Lori. My current supervisors. They didn’t like me at first. Here I was, a temp for what would be, I think I am going on my 35th job? Yeah I will get to that. But I needed a new job and yep back into the same ole same ole system. Same old waste of time interview questions, same old spiel, yeah, yeah can we just get to the monkey see monkey do job already. That might be a subject you want to do one day if you haven’t already. Temp agencies, why they are, how good are they and how do temps get treated in society by employees and by culture. Two years later here, I am still a temp, half by choice, half by not. Traci was the first supervisor in a long time to have personality. She was also one of the only few who would allow me to have an opinion, a very vocal one, and be able to take it and sometimes work a compromise and sometimes not. She now works in another part of the building and is not my supervisor anymore, but we get in our verbal fun in passing. Lori did not like me when I started. I recently learned she grew up on a small farm when she was kid out in a 'barely aware of' area much like I grew up in. Out in the town of Rubicon, Nabob area. She had no extra curricular activities. Before school as a child she had to do barn chores, than ready for school, than go straight home for more farm chores. “Gundrums was your name”, I asked. You and I might be cousins. Turns out we were not but she is still cool nonetheless. What makes Lori cool? Her work ethics, her convictions, her willpower, and she is the only person I know, or maybe it has just been so long, who encourages me to keep trying. Whether it is the lottery or some hair brained scheme I have in my head, keep trying, one day you will succeed.

I once counted all the jobs I worked at, either for a day, a week or a year or more. I know it is over 30. So now I know, there is something wrong with me right? Bells and alarms are going off, this guy has a problem. Well I would dare you to go back to all the jobs I have been at, and see the turnover ratio at these jobs. Who stays there and why? Are the management people related or married? What do the employees earn and what benefits do they get? What do the people there like to do outside of work, and in some cases, while at work? What are the conditions of these places? Is that company still in business or is it an empty building now? Speaking of benefits, I have been to the dentist 2 times in twenty years. Oh my God! What? Well enclosed are my earnings over the years and most employers don’t provide benefits anymore. Read articles about how companies go overseas and try to cut out all the benefits for employees as possible - yet the CEO lives large. Plus check out the latest polls and stats on the issues for this year’s Presidency and one being health and insurance issues. Or read some of the national magazine articles of the past few years. Topics such as, “I can’t afford to be sick”.

There have been other possible turning points in my life where I made mistakes or something could have gone my way. One being the time I tripled my income earnings and got a job that actually paid a little. But then I went and got my first ever brand new car because I was tired of how others perceived me in my junkers. You always want the money back after finding out it wasn’t worth it. Now I have a used van and I can get four tires compared to the cost of one Camaro high performance tire. I could have paid off my debt, maybe went back to college?

When one place I worked at closed they offered to pay for schooling. But you had to go in a certain time frame – immediately! Or the money wouldn’t be available any more. I applied to a college, got accepted, got my orientation letter. Went to orientation and saw a counselor who told me I was set and to go down to the registration desk. Stood in line, and when I gave them my slip – all classes were full! How could this be? She said I should have signed up weeks ago. How could I have? The letter said today was my orientation/registration day? So the time frame was blown.

I have always wanted to be my own boss but trying to start a business without knowing how to write a proposal plus no financial backing is impossible. I read a lot of articles how people start their dream jobs, but I have had no luck. I have found trying to hire others for their skills is too expensive and unreliable. I tried T-shirts; I tried some watch designs to Harley Davidson and Star Trek (Paramount). Got an interesting response form Harley Davidson and Majel Roddenberry for the Star Trek watches. But in the end, they weren’t interested. The most recent scheme was to try and start my own social network. Cost quotes were outrageous and I researched for over a year. Seeking help and information from people was rarely useful and in the end I hired a small firm for roughly $1400. But I didn’t like any of their work from the first Artwork return and asked for revisions which they refused and said they did what I asked, works done and time allocated is used up. Well I got the local contact TV help to get involved and low and behold if they didn’t change their tune and I didn’t have to pay the full amount. Still lost out on $700 but…

Last year I wanted to just get out of here. I put everything I had into a $20 a month storage unit and drove to California. I took in the sites as I drove and got to see a lot of things I never saw before. I attended a Deal or No Deal audition but I was not show material. I traveled around a little bit more and lived out of my van for near three months. Yes, it’s amazing what you can do with so little money and put your mind to work creatively finding things to use. But eventually I settled back into a State I dislike, a community that interests me little and a job that is unfulfilling. I reside 4 blocks away so I can walk to work and pay little for gas (prices). I live in an efficiency, as I don’t own much. Even what little I own, there is enough hobby stuff there to last me ten years if I want to work on it. So my bills are minimal and I keep a journal now. I waste a lot of money on snacks and boredom items. I buy things thinking I will use them or find them entertaining but I do not.

My debt should be fully and finally paid off by June. But what to do then? I haven’t been to a doctor in ages. My body has many ailments. I do need to see a dentist. But what about after all that, if the doctor bills don’t take it all away. How many years do I have left? I am not that old but my body hinders me a lot (my knee and my back).

What is my inner voice saying? It is telling me I still want to get away. Away from all the unhappy people. All the people that are too busy. The community that only cares for certain people, a country that is not united except when it needs votes, sales, donations and viewers. Something is just screaming get out and go live somewhere else.

I do try to make a difference. How much effort do I put into that? Some. When I go into low wage places where I am a regular customer, I will eventually try to get a person’s name. They are afraid and want to know why and I will say that it is better than “hey you, how are doing?” And for a while it works and one can make their day better as I am sure most just drive through get what they want and drive off. Its amazing when you treat these workers at these places like people instead of rejects how their faces change. I try to make people smile at work but it don’t usually work (stress prevails). And when you are on the last rung of the ladder, no one fears your position or sees you as much of anything.

But I have researched and I can’t get out based on what sources say. To relocate would be costly, which makes me even more confused with the two gentlemen who left their countries with nothing, got here, educated, a great job and a great life. All of which doesn’t count as happiness is all in your head and your mindset, not what is around you or what you have right? I have no passion to create because an idea without a plan or money is just an idea. What possible idea could I skillfully and financially do on my own? To increase my income would require higher learning, but what do I want to learn? How long would it take? Who would hire a 40+ year old vs. a fresh good-looking college kid? How much living is there yet to do? What is the best possible life with what I have, got or can do?

Hopefully, in time, something, someone or some thought will come to mind again and be the thing that makes me feel fulfilled. Where would Mary J. Blige be if she didn’t meet the people she did (good and bad)? What if she never had made it? Would she be just as happy, full of joy and at peace? Or Chris Rock. What if Eddie Murphy just walked through and never asked the managers to put him up on stage? I accidentally came across a web site today called TMZ. If anyone wants fame and fortune, I would have to think this site would make them think twice. It’s insane.

My Income Sheet
1985 $1,898
1986 $6,296
1987 $5,442
1988 $6,258
1989 $5,442
1990 $7,075
1991 $4,934
1992 $4,761
1993 $7,604
1994 $5,368
1995 $5,739
1996 $7,423
1997 $20,223
1998 $27,645
1999 $24,000
2000 $14,320
2001 $6,417
2002 $20,047
2003 $23,668
2004 $23,000
2005 $21,526

In 1966, the year I was born, the average household income was roughly $7,000. Homes, cars, gas were very inexpensive compared to now. One can research all that and find the information. You can also research household incomes through

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/incomestats.html
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/h03ar.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

?'s

2008-04-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

As you go through Life you will be asked or ask yourself these questions at some point.

As Parent or Person which is Best to use?
Tough Love
Unconditional Love
Both

What Religion is thee Religion or is no Religion the Best?

Fate, Destiny or is God's Will that guides your Life?

Is Patriotism Devotion or Blind Obedience?

Is the Quality and Happiness of One's Life achieved through the individual? Or is a community effort?

If individual, than why care for your Neighbor, City, State or Country? If saving yourself and protecting your money and looking out for your gains is the right way? Than why give to charity or help others at all? Following that guru advice of saving self first before trying to help others? Shouldn't the United States Government pull out all money and efforts to help other countries and fix itself first?

Individualism? Or Group effort?

Prudence, Pleasure or Power? Which is best to pursue? Or is there a balance?

How much money is enough?

Does all human Life have value? Or only those with Charisma, Money and Power?

If Life is a group conscience effort? How than should humanity proceed?

Choosing to put up a fight or to teach your mind not to let it bother you? This was a hard one all my life as I have been a person for fairness, ethics, morals and what is right. All of which is just a person's point of view. But if you chose to put up a fight, you better have some kind of threat or a great lawyer. If you don't have the numbers behind you, the power or the money - your fight will more than likely go no where. All you will be is a nuisance, a trouble maker or not a team player. If you chose to be David vs Goliath and Win, you're a hero - if you lose, you were dumb or insane. Finding yourself on the short end of the stick constantly will make you angry and bitter where I had to train my mind to "not be bothered" by all that is wrong with the World. To enjoy my Life, my time, and what I am capable of doing. I would much rather see those who deserve it get what is coming to them but...

When to help people? Lets say things were more like I wish they were. A community where people came to those in need or troubled. Would this be a mandatory overtime job? More than likely, if you lived in a place where people volunteered their time to help others, there would be those who would abuse this good nature and have others do all the work, toil and expense and they would spend the time relaxing. Or perhaps more like the story, "The Boy who cried Wolf". When do you help people? I suppose its for the cause or with some, the payoff in return (money, sex, recognition). Where do you draw the line or decide this is something that person has to do alone to become stronger, be more responsible and when do you lend a hand or intervene?

(to be continued)

Julius Lester and Jewish America

2008-03-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/

PBS had a show on the other night which I was watching a part of while on break at work. The documentary talks about this ethnic group and its religious roots in America. The story I found the most interesting was Julius Lester and the Poem of, "Hey there Jew Boy." There was a lot of ignorance and tension among the Blacks and the Jews at one time during his life where he lived over the usual, money/control/lifestyle. And the Blacks felt a bit betrayed as the Jews of all people were being prejudice when it came to jobs and the community. Since the long history of prejudice and crimes against the Jews, there was always a common bond among the two ethnic groups. Well Lester had a Poem that was read on the airwaves that spoke out against the Jews in anger, wishing the Jew was dead. What makes it an amazing story is that years later Lester would come to study the Jewish Religion and Convert. He would go on to teach and preach how ignorance and a person's lack of desire to learn and understand leads to anger and violence.

One of the things Lester said on the show that he liked about the Religion is that it "allowed him to question" himself and all things. Most religions dont allow you to question or think, there is just blind faith or however your spiritual leader wants to interpret the text and tell you what it means and how to act.

No More Television

2008-03-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

When I feel the urge to buy a new television, I just watch this clip from a great movie in 1976 called Network. Here we are 30 years later and its still relevant.

I donated my television I owned to a group of people two years ago, and I don't miss it. I loved watching TV was a kid: Bionic Man, Battlestar Galactica, Gilligan's Island, and more. Some scholars felt television would dull a person's brain and called it the boob tube. Of course I disagreed all because I was a ignorant kid who loved TV. Now, 30 years later, with all the drama on TV, Reality Shows and Celebrity gossip channels and using sex as an attention getter, I now concur with those scholars of the past. The TV is a waste of time and brain matter. No not all television is bad, there are some good channels which enhance your mind and soul - a little TV is good and the rest of the time should be on learning something or working on a project.

Read this today

2008-01-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

@ "Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong." ~ Kingdom of Heaven (movie)

@ "Before this battle is over, the world will know that few stood against many." ~ Movie 300 And isn't that what we all are searching for? Affirmation that our little voice can have a big impact? That our screams will echo in a world so often void of anything worth hearing...

@ "This is what I want from life: to know that I protected those who could not protect themselves... that I fought my battles beyond most, until I knew it was time to move on. that I spoke what my heart felt even if it was the hardest path to take... that no matter how much we all deceive each other, that I never once deceived myself. and that people could say of me as I lie in my tomb, "of her kind, there was none before and will be none to come". That is what I wish. That is all I want. ~ KICESIE

UW Wisconsin Meditation Study

2008-01-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

University of Wisconsin Website

Brain scans show meditation changes minds, increases attention

June 25, 2007

For hundreds of years, Tibetan monks and other religious people have used meditation to calm the mind and improve concentration. This week, a new study shows exactly how one common type of meditation affects the brain.

Using a scanner that reveals which parts of the brain are active at any given moment, the researchers found that meditation increased activity in the brain regions used for paying attention and making decisions.

"Most people, if they heard a baby screaming, would have some emotional response," Davidson says, but not the highly experienced meditators. "They do hear the sound, we can detect that in the auditory cortex, but they don’t have the emotional reaction."

The changes were associated with the practice of concentration meditation, says study leader Richard Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the Waisman Center. Practitioners were instructed to focus attention intently on a stimulus, and when the attention wandered off, to simply bring the attention back to the object, explains Davidson.

"In one sense, concentration mediation is ridiculously simple, but in another, it's extraordinarily difficult," adds Davidson. "If you try it for two minutes, you will see that it's not so easy. Minds have a propensity to wander."

In collaboration with colleagues Julie Brefczynski-Lewis and Antoine Lutz of the UW-Madison W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, Davidson compared newly trained meditators to people with up to 54,000 hours of meditation experience. The study is being published this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

After the novices were taught to meditate, all subjects underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain while they were meditating. Among all experienced meditators, the MRI scan found greater activity in brain circuits involved in paying attention.

"We found that regions of the brain that are intimately involved in the control and regulation of attention, such as the prefrontal cortex, were more activated in the long-term practitioners," Davidson says.

A different picture emerged, however, from looking only at the most experienced meditators with at least 40,000 hours of experience. "There was a brief increase in activity as they start meditating, and then it came down to baseline, as if they were able to concentrate in an effortless way," says Davidson.

Effortless concentration is described in classic meditation texts, adds Davidson. "And we think this may be a neural reflection of that. These results illustrate one mechanism by which meditation may act in the brain."

While the subjects meditated inside the MRI, the researchers periodically blasted them with disturbing noises. Among the experienced meditators, the noise had less effect on the brain areas involved in emotion and decision-making than among novice meditators. Among meditators with more than 40,000 hours of lifetime practice, these areas were hardly affected at all.

"Most people, if they heard a baby screaming, would have some emotional response," Davidson says, but not the highly experienced meditators. "They do hear the sound, we can detect that in the auditory cortex, but they don't have the emotional reaction."

As Davidson notes, any comparison of average middle-aged Americans to people who have meditated daily for decades must try to associate the differences with meditation, and not lifestyle factors such as isolation or religious faith.

"This was a highly unusual group of people. Two-thirds of the experienced meditators were Tibetan monks, recruited with the help of the Dalai Lama, and they all had an extremely long history of formal practice."

For 15 years, Davidson has had a scientific relationship with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, to investigate the effects of meditation.

Still, the correlation between more meditation experience and greater brain changes does suggest that the changes were caused by meditation.

"If it were simply lifestyle, we would not expect a very strong correlation with hours of practice," Davidson says.

Other evidence for the neurological benefits of meditation came from a study Davidson reported in May, which showed that three months of meditation training improved the ability to detect a brief visual signal that most people cannot detect. "That was a more definitive kind of evidence, because we were able to track the same people over time," he says.

Psychologists have long considered an adult's capacity to pay attention as relatively fixed, but Davidson says: "Attention can be trained, and in a way that is not fundamentally different than how physical exercise changes the body."

The attention circuits affected by meditation are also involved in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which Davidson describes as the most prevalent psychiatric diagnosis among children in our country.

"Our findings suggest that it may-I stress may-be possible to train attention in children with methods derived from these practices," he says.

Davidson says scientific studies of meditation are proving traditional beliefs about the mental benefits of meditation. Yet although meditation is often associated with monks living a life of simplicity, poverty, and prayer, "There is nothing fundamentally mysterious about these practices; they can be understood in hard-nosed western scientific terms."

And, he adds, a growing body of "hard-nosed neuroscience research" is attracting attention to the profound effects of meditation.

"This deserves serious scientific attention," he says. "It also explains why people spend time sitting on the meditation cushion, because of the effects on day-to-day life."

Davidson compares mental practice to physical exercise.

"We all know that if an individual works out on a regular basis, that can change cardiovascular health," he says. "In the same way, these data suggest that certain basic mechanisms of the mind, like attention, can also be trained and improved through systematic practice."

Kids Know Their Culture

2008-01-19T10:20:00.001-08:00

1500 kids were surveyed and asked what are the top things best to have?

1. Being a Celebrity 2. Good Looks 3. Being Rich 4. Being Healthy 5. Pop Music 6. Families 7. Friends 8. Nice Food 9. Watching Films 10. Heaven/God

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=423273&in_page_id=1770

So like the one Greek philosopher of so many years ago: Health, Wealth and Beauty are the 3 things anyone could want ~ those are the tickets to Paradise on Earth. As for the "non" versions of those things? Well you know what they get and how they are treated no matter what country you live in.

The Super Nanny

2008-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is a good show, its been on for several seasons; but I am curious as to why "Americans" NEED a "British" Super Nanny to show us how to manage our kids? We took away spanking - too cruel. We went to time outs, which don't work. I have seen ridiculous ways like on Jerry Springer where you send kids to "Boot Camp" and make their life HELL by Mr I will Kick your Ass Drill Sargent. Still no Improvement. But along comes this Charming woman with simple rules, boundaries and structure projects and Presto Change O! Harmony instead of chaos. But I am still curious of how things got so uncontrollable in America? Hmmm.

http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/S/supernanny/

Fundamentals of Happiness by ABC 20/20

2008-01-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

Now if you can only get CEOs, Supervisors and the like to follow this philosophy. So I think it is great advice and helps, but it wont work in every situation because lets face it, your boss and anyone else out to try and take advantage of you will because you won't get upset and be happy even when they are trying to manipulate you and make you upset. I know any time someone wanted to take an attitude with me and I wouldn't let it bother me, it would make them even angrier and fallout would be even worse with a "on paper" superior. But this is great every day advice.

ABC News
Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness
New Research Shows That Humans Have More Control Over Their Happiness Than Previously Thought
By MICHAEL MENDELSOHN

Jan. 11, 2008—

What exactly is happening inside the brains of people experiencing joy and happiness?

"It's a very complicated chemical soup," explained Dr. Richard Davidson, who has made a life's work out of studying "happy brains." His lab at the University of Wisconsin is devoted to understanding how much of our joy level is set at birth, and how much we can control.

With a skull cap containing 128 sensors, Davidson's team can watch a subject's brain respond to a series of photographs, some pleasant, some distressing.

"We can challenge the brain by presenting these emotional images and look to see how you respond to them," Davidson said.

ABC News' Bill Weir underwent the test, and by studying the activity in his left prefrontal cortex, Davidson discovered that Weir's brain was "more positive than not."

"Now, it doesn't mean that you don't have episodes of negative emotion," he explained. "But those negative emotions don't linger."

People with happy brains have their parents to thank, to a certain extent, not only for happy genes, but also for loving childhoods. Studies have shown that angry or critical parents can actually alter a child's happiness level until it's set around age 16. But can adults adjust their own feelings of happiness?

Happiness Interventions

Until recently, most research psychologists were more interested in what made people depressed than what made them happy, and pharmaceutical companies have played a crucial role in promoting happiness by developing very successful anti-depressants. But evolving research in a field known as positive psychology is getting people to ask themselves how they can become happier, not through drugs, but by making changes in how they act and think.

"Antidepressants don't make people happier, they just decrease negative emotions," says University of California-Riverside psychology professor Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky. In her new book, "The How of Happiness," Lyubomirksy argues that as much as 40 percent of our happiness "is left for the intentional activities that we can choose to engage in -- the things that we do and think every day of our lives." (How happy are you? CLICK HERE to see where you fall on Lyubomirisky's Subjective Happiness Scale."

What are these "intentional activities"? Scientists know that happy people practice, among other things, more acts of kindness, are able to lose themselves in whatever they enjoy doing, and avoid dwelling on their problems.

Lyubomirsky has had lab subjects actually engage in some of these activities, and found that people can indeed force themselves to truly become happier. Not surprisingly, such happiness interventions take work, because people easily fall back to their genetically-determined happiness set points. Scientists have known for decades that a large part of our temperament is genetically pre-determined; by studying the personalities of identical twins they've found that about 50 percent of our happiness -- or unhappiness -- can be traced to our genes. Adding the 40 percent that we can control with our daily thoughts and actions still leaves about 10 percent unaccounted for. This remaining 10 percent is related to our life circumstances, such as where we live, how much money we have, our marital status, and how we look.

Hedonic Adaptation

Surprised that your life circumstances have such little influence on your happiness? Researchers have found that people eventually return to their genetically-determined happiness set points after big changes in life, as seen in lottery winners and newlyweds.

Four years ago, Caroline Johnson volunteered for the ABC show "Extreme Makeover," and received everything from a new nose to new teeth and the requisite breast implants. Did these physical improvements make her happier?

"I think about a year it made a difference," she said. "People are seeing you for the first time and they compliment you all the time. And then once it wears off, it's just normal life again."

"It's a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation," explained Lyubomirsky. "We tend to adapt to any kind of positive change &once you make $100,000, now you sort of change your goals. Now your goal is to make even more." Identical twins reared in the same household who do not share the same levels of happiness can also provide clues about what it is in our lives that make us happy -- the 40 percent of happiness within our control. Johnson is the perfect test case for the 40 percent theory, because she herself has an identical twin, Cat Bunnell.

After Lyubomirsky gave the sisters a battery of questionnaires she "was stunned [by] how different their scores were. Caroline got a 5.5 out of 7 & pretty happy," she said. "Cat scored a 3.25 & below the midpoint on happiness."

"They have the same DNA," explained Lyubomirsky, "and so to try to explain why one is happier than the other you have to kind of look at other factors."

One reason for the happiness difference between the twins is their outlook on life. Johnson is a self-employed dog groomer whose business hit a rough patch recently, yet she remains upbeat and committed to success. "I'm very optimistic & I know where I want to be," she said. "By next summer I have definite goals that I expect to meet."

Her sister has a very different outlook on life. Regarding her future, Bunnell said, "I don't feel like I'm progressing as much as I want to in my job or just the financial situation & It just feels like it just weighs on me too much and I just feel like I'm not going to get out of it."

"We really see major differences between the level of optimism that they have," said Lyubomirsky. "(We see) Caroline being more optimistic, Cat kind of ruminating and dwelling more on sort of bad things."

'Happiness Is Really Within Us'

Perhaps another reason why Johnson is happier than her sister is her ability to nurture relationships. Johnson is married with three children, while Bunnell is a divorced single mom, struggling with the dating scene at age 37.

"I don't have somebody that can just hold me because I'm having a hard time," said Bunnell.

Regarding her prospects for finding another husband, she said, "I feel like I'm really giving up on all that."

Besides the optimism, commitment to goals, and ability to nurture relationships that might make Johnson happier than her twin, there are many more ways to affect the 40 percent of happiness in your control.

"The happiness activities are not going to surprise anyone," Lyubomirsky said. "I mean, they're things like gratitude, forgiveness, relationships, savoring the present moment, meditation. I try to sort of determine to what extent those things are supported by research."

Davidson would agree. He has studied the brains of Buddhist monks, men who spend their lives deliberately forcing positive emotions, and their happiness is off the charts. His new data claims that if a person sits quietly for a half-hour a day just thinking about kindness and compassion, their brain will show noticeable changes in just two weeks.

"In many ways, this is the most important idea in neuroscience in the last decade," he said. "Our brains are just waiting to be transformed, and they're always being transformed. But we can take responsibility and change the brain in more positive ways."

"Research is showing pretty convincingly now that happiness is really within us, it's not outside of us," said Lyubomirsky. "It's in what we do. It's sort of how we act, how we think every day of our lives."

Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Space Exploration and Expansion

2008-01-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

Oprah had a show the other day dedicated to "going green" and recycling. Optimism is nice to have but reality allows one to face pitfalls in theories. The discussed of the many ways people can cut back on waste on recycle what they use. But it is my opinion that it wont work. Why? People are all about convenience. There are three things that motivate people to do anything. 1) They will get paid for their work. 2) It will get them sex. 3) They will be given alcohol or drugs for their work. 4) if they "don't do the task, it will lead to their immediate death. Only the best of humanity will make an all out effort to separate cans, glass, plastic and paper and take them all the way to the recycling center.

30 years ago when I was a boy there use to be paper drives. Trucks use to drop off bins which people drove to and put their old papers in. Than the service was dropped because of cost.

Students and engineers have made Ingenius designs in solar energy and homes that benefit the ecosystem, but Government and Builders don't see them as an affordable design for society yet. So what will it take to use or do things that will make a better World? Most likely the brink of death or enough people die in an area an effort is then put forth.

But despite mankind's greatest efforts, the Earth will cease to support life. Either by man's hand or a natural catastrophe. War, an Asteroid, Disease, the Sun burning to hot are a few examples. Someday the race of men will end.

Humanity has but one choice and that is to learn how to travel and inhabit other planets. To learn how to terraform the land and atmosphere. We already have an idea of how to do these things. Space in the new frontier as the West was when Columbus first discovered it in the 1400s. New land, new hope, new culture and a new way of living.

Rise and Fall of Nations

2008-01-03T10:01:00.001-08:00

Today I was out shopping for a household item and I walked past the magazine rack to see if anything was worth buying. I decided to pick up up "Time" magazines January issue, it has Vladimir Putin on the cover who they nominated as 'man of the year'. I have only paged flipped through the magazine reading articles her and there but based on the articles I got to thinking about the Roman Empire. Why did this once mighty Empire and Crown Jewel of the Europe fall?

Reading one writer's opinion he lists the following: 1) Decline in Moral and Values. 2) Public Health Decline. 3) Political Corruption. 4) Unemployment. 5) Inflation. 6) Urban Decay. 7) Inferior Technology (they couldn't keep up with growth) 8) Military Spending.

I do believe the United States will eventually fail as a culture, though this past year, much of the population spoke out against the powers that be thanks to the Internet. The Internet has provided a way where the people's voice cannot be controlled and hand picked by the media and turned into a way to mind control the massed through media. The public has also, thankfully, in several cases decided to take on the power houses and just not watch their shows, buy their products or confront their words.

So perhaps there is hope for America yet, but I still see the those in or with power and money still controlling the impulses of nation and foregoing morals and reason to try and get people to throw dollars their way ~ even our spiritual leaders.

But there is some good that comes form all the corruption. Eventually people do seem to get sick of it and wise to their ways and just won't follow them any more.

I's a crazy World, it always has been. I was reading about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the other day. A woman who came from a rather well to do family and her own father was hanged based on accusations of crime. She would go on to educate herself but in ways that were controversial to some of her cultures beliefs. She would rise in popularity to be elected leader and forced out of leadership twice. Go into exile but yet return to a troubled Nation which yearns for improvement. Opposing powers and ideals would clash as they always do with fabricated stories on both sides spinning the truth in order to win the competition for money, power and control. As in the past, one side decides not to leave the situation up to debate and fate but to kill the opposition and take control and enforce rule.

Now this brings me back to the United States, Russian and China. Not the only countries ( not forgetting Iraq and Iran) to be talked about in 2007 but had a lot going on with trying to restore greatness to their lands. 2007 years have past since the decision of historic writers and chroniclers switched from B.C. to A.D. notation. How long has man been on this Earth? No one really knows. Much has become debated between God and Science the past few years. Still the heated debate and killing of other religions and religious zealots continues. Still countries still fight for resources, wealth and power. Still governments and establishments try to find ways to control humans for their weak habits and nature that does little to benefit society.

I lived in America for 40 years. I find myself wanting to live elsewhere most of the time. Oh I started out a patriot and I was conditioned into believing that certain behavior, needs and obtainment defined success and the measure of a man, but I have come to see most of that which is presented is an illusion. People pretend its about community and helping each other but for the most part, it is just people trying to accumulate materials, money, sex and power. It is about the individual and how that individual gets to that life of quality doesn't matter, even it it means leaving others to die or take away from them.

Watching the World these past years, I understand why at times during a cultures climactic turn, a group of people would slaughter all the opposition, including the women and children, in order to erase one way of thinking and establish a new. So there would be no more going around in circles with only the powers benefiting from taxes, laws and rules and the people still left in despair. I understand the age of enlightenment where grow tired of the killing and torment and want stability and control and to just live in peace an harmony.

Here I am, still alive and part of this World. Still unsure of what part I play in it as it continues on like it pretty much always has. The only thing is in the last 100 years, mankind has advanced so far in mechanics and technology, it has not stopped to think about what it all means, can do, or the fatal errors it can make.

Last night when I left work and started to walk home I looked up at the stars. Once again pondering what is out there. Will mankind one day eventually make it to another solar system? Or are we destined to die here through war or by raping the Earth for its resources for a mere fews wealth and power?

The Future?

2007-12-28T08:02:00.000-08:00

Will Global Warming be the "common enemy" that will unite the World int working together? At a meeting in Bali, Indonesia where 187 countries where represented, it was decided that, "Yes", Global Warming is official and that countries should be making efforts to try and and prevent it from further damaging the World. But little was decided as to how to stop or slow the effects. So, more than likely, it will take a death toll before real efforts are made. But with Death on the line, people become very negotiable. SO it might be the one thing that does get the World talking peace and group efforts.

Russia is working with Iran to move forward on Nuclear Energy. Putin has a 80% approval rating and is a charismatic and strong character, heck I even admire the guy! He promises his people to restore Russia to a Major power and to bring back stability to all the crime and corruption that flourished after going Democratic. After being on this planet 40 years and watching how lawyers and governments (people too) put a spin on every story so you never know the truth. The whole reporter murders are mystery and where all those assets go after the takes down the corrupt is another another question. But here Russia was our "ally" for almost a decade, want to bet they will be made out in the media as an enemy again and someone to fear? Always happens when a "rival" is on the block for power and economic stability.

Where does China's future lie? They are a super power, they have such a huge population and everyone looking to rape the labor market their has set up a factory or shop of some kind making pollution there out of hand. Will Civil Rights and a demand for a higher quality of life arise or do the people not mind how things are going? Will China ally with Russia and Iran to help prevent the United States from trying to Democratize Asia in this Century, much like the US always went to War in Korea, Vietnam and other parts of the World to try and stop the spread of Communism in the 1900s?

A woman in Saudi Arabia was whipped 200 lashes for being a rape victim. It was her fault for being "alone" with the man. Does this seem right to you?

As always who will stand up and challenge the way humans behave? Who will just let things go on business as usual? Who will believe there is nothing that can be done or are too busy or powerless and who will say the cause is more important than the materials I possess? Does what is happening out of my immediate vicinity matter, or should I only concern myself with that which is closest to me? Let the World rise and fall as it may and just pursue my happiness till the end of my days?

Whose Wit and Wisdom?

2007-12-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

"It aint what you dont know that gets you, it's the things you know that aint so."

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about alcohol."

"If you've been in the game 30 minutes and you dont know who that patsy is, you're the patsy."

"Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell. Spirituality is for people who have been in Hell."

"The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself."

A Way of Life

2007-11-24T09:47:00.001-08:00

This will probably be my last journal entry for a while. The Chinese invented paper, and they believed that through writing, a person became immortal. I do not see myself as a man "of" the people" but a man who is/was "for" the people. I don't think people are wise, I think they just have a "way of life" which was embedded in them from their culture or their parental upbringing. A person of that culture will either feel jubilant, indifferent or angry based on what is important, who and what matters, and who and what does not. From this that individual will either support the community or seek it's destruction/reform or their their own. I have come to find myself struggling with trying to further reason with those around me and letting go of that which stirs like burning embers in a campfire. To tell myself let the people be and suffer what fate awaits them good or bad. But to just tend to my interests, well being and happiness.

Global Warming is the Hot Topic but Why Now?

2007-11-15T07:51:00.001-08:00

Global Warming has been around since...well a lot longer since the "keep the Planet Clean" Commercial with the Native American classic crying scene in the end from when I was a kid (over 35 years ago). Is it s HUGE deal now because we are going into an election year and is once again an "issue" for the politicians to use to get in but do nothing about once they are elected? Kind of like drugs, abortion, energy crisis, inflation, war, poverty and so on?

Global Warming is happening, or at least some kind of terraforming. Over the years I have watched political sides debate on whether Global Warming is happening and on what kind of scale. My scientist colleagues say it is nothing to worry about, well mine say it is a serious issue ~ once again spinning the heads of the public that they don't know what to think so they don't act.

I am sure I am come off as a pessimist is my writings, but that is because I am an activist. Optimism is good and those kind of people are more pleasant to be around but how are the Earth's and Society's problems going to get fixed or changed? Osmosis? Maybe you were born lucky (beautiful) so society hands you whatever you want and you don't have to worry about cultural problems. Maybe you're rich now and again, you don't have to worry about cultural problems. Let only those who suffer the problems deal them, and let them be too meek to ever do anything about them so thus I can rule and control. Promise them or get them to believe that if they suffer an imaginary place will be theirs when they die and existence there will be far greater and they will have much more than they ever could have here on earth if only they obey and suffer for me or their country.

It is actually good that things are getting worse, that so many are feeling the effects. Why? Because as usual, there has to be Hell to Pay or Shit has to hit the fan so hard before humans act. Thanks to Greedy American CEOs sending all manufacturing jobs over to China, the Chinese have a huge pollution problem now. And their numbers are unlimited and their labor extremely cheap, combine that with American Greed the problem is far greater than our resolutions. One can only hope the Chinese exercise the the origins of sabotage and go on strike hopefully crippling more American economy. Why would I wish such a thing? Because if I have to be a patriot and do X for my country, it makes no sense that American companies can go run off and build in foreign countries for their cheap and low standards and dont want to pay Americans a decent wage or benefits.

When disgruntled workers damage or destroy equipment or interfere with the smooth running of a workplace, it is called workplace sabotage. This can be as part of an organized group activity, or the action of one or a few workers in response to personal grievances. Luddites and Radical labor unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have advocated sabotage as a means of self-defense and direct action against unfair working conditions.

On the positive side, there was a news broadcast of a energy challenge that Universities collaborate on each year. Each team has to develop an environmental friendly home. One that uses solar power for the most part and an alternative means for when the sun goes down. The designs are very ingenius, and the award is also based on practicality and cost. Which is what prevents most of these homes to ever be put into use, supposedly.

There are some upstart power companies who have for a few years now, developed a way to make power using algae. Algae also cleans up the atmosphere by taking in the CO2. At first people were not willing to fund or take it seriously until the Government started to think about it. Thus they saw dollars to be made if someone else risked their money, or the taxpayers money actually.

Supposedly a guy out there also figured out how to get hydrogen from salt water. The largest resource on the planet. But these people need our backing, our vote. We can't just sit and hope the world gets better. We have to partake in it and make it better.

It is brains I am lacking or stupidity?

2007-11-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

I have been reading more or seeing more about Obama Girl lately, and I come to that circle once again if it is just that I am not smart enough to do something off the wall stupid or that I am just not naturally stupid in order to turn it into something lucrative. Obama Gorl has been talked about on the VIEW, Howard Stern - whom she would consider laying - and other talk shows and magazines. I didn't dig that deep into her Myspace profile, but for someone who all about/for Senator Obama, he isn't even her number one friend or on her friends' list. Hopefully that is because Obama wants people to vote based on convictions and the issues and not because some woman with a nice tan and healthy body walks around promoting him or, herself really if you think about it like I do.

Is it I am just not smart enough to do something dumb to gain fame and fortune? That I am not naturally stupid or can't "act" stupid enough to make in lucrative. I should just dump my convictions, go into porn, make the money and move to a place where the focus is on advancing humanity.

I am in a culture that prefers to go for money, fame and pleasure vs wisdom, discovery and principle. I understand why cultures in history and present chose their way of life or did things unbecoming of man. I understand why people would abandon those around them and let nature takes it course and look to only secretly take care of themselves and the ones the care about in hopes they will survive and the others suffer a fate of fools.

Focus, Desire, Wits, Folly, Community, Individualism, Thought, Empty headed, Conscience, Pleasure driven, Self Help, Companions....Humanity.

Fit Nation

2007-11-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

CNN is doing a series called Fit Nation, exploring all the things humans need to have a healthy mental and physical life.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/fit.nation/

I particularly liked the video on Healthy Workplace. Where your workplace actually becomes part of the solution to the Nation's and Society's problems by taking initiative and responsibility, you know, actually leading people into a more healthy environment. So so so many places in this country,and I have worked for several, dont care, say its not my responsibility, and just let their employees annoy the hell out of each other and their jobs turn them into zombies. The study shows, happy workers work better, enjoy their jobs more, and more productive and create a better work environment. Gee, who would of thought. But thanks to so many fake CEOs who say they care and give you the bull propaganda, take all the money and leave people with spit to live on for quality of life and no benefits - who love to pay employees with "thank yous" because they cost a thing, and people have been trained to believe that this is "nice" and psychologically rewarding. Um I cant by gas, groceries, get loans, pay bills with thank yous, I need a raise, I need benefits, I need to work with happy people.

So CCN thanks for the Good article and yes I will say check out a book called Mavericks at Work again, until greedy, crappy companies, CEOs, and Congress get it right. Until we get rid of this go go go, shut up no talking get to work! You cant sit down! You have to stand all day! Crap. Check with any doctor and they will tell you this isn't healthy. CEOs and Supevisors never liked it when I catch them babbling and say no talking and say if sitting is lazy and unproductive, than why dont you take out all the chairs in the offices and make tabletops so you guys have to stand all day? Oh thats right, your philosophy only works one way or in special situations and they dont apply to you.

One God, One Religion, One Kingdom!

2007-11-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

I was reading some Ancient History today and I got to thinking about the many tribes, cultures, and lands that fought for the many reasons humans do. And I started to reflect upon several of the Leaders I have read about at one time or another: Richard the Lionheart, Salah ah-din, Lie Bei, Genghis Kahn, Stephen the Great of Romania, Julius Caesar, Oda Nobunaga, Catherine the Great of Russia, Moctezuma, the list is long. There was at one time in the known world another long list of Gods. Before humans understoood the forces of nature; the treacherous sea, the wrath of wins, the hate of fire, and the anger of volcanos. For only such power could come from a god. Living among humans and being exposed to culutres through modern media, I can understand how men and women years ago sought ways to keep society civil and the nature of humans noble. The need for gods, kings, religion, law and order and a code to adhere to. And than to one day be a King of Kings and/or a ONE true God and no others. Is there? Or was it all clever thinking to try and put an end to war and a deterant to the worst nature of men. Today in the year 2007 AD, we do not have as many gods as than, but still many Religions. Still we bicker and argue over interpretation and acknowledgement of what is true and what is blasphamy. Men still use each other for their own gain. Tie lies and use patriotism, duty and codes and ways to trick others to do their bidding. Still few men live a high quality of life off the hard labor of others. The people who work themselves to death or to strain and no longer have or enjoy a quality of life gain little for thier labor, it all goes in one direction. Spiritual leaders use the text and code and spin that which is already confusing into a manner which serves what the individual believes and not what God supposedly said to man. The set themselves up as a vessel to God and use fear, anxiety and man's supersticious nature against them to donate currency for their bank accounts. God did not create currency and trade. Man made those. I would imagine that one day some Nation or Culutre will set out to burn the world and destroy all opposong believes and religions and try to have just one. Uniting the Globe like those above were able to unite their lands to become one kingdom - at least for a time. Humans do not share or work for the benefit of all, only for themselves.

Friendship is friendship but business is Business!

2007-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

That is exactly what Benedict Arnold and Judas use to say too.

I Write to Harshly

2007-10-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

I prefer the black and white movie version - but I still like stand and the phrases, "I can not go against conscience", or "support those who argue amongst themselves", "I cannot and will not recant!".

So if you read the Declaration and hold it as scripture so to speak can you not go against those who argue and bicker and divide up the money pie that America has become?

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Poker Chips

2007-10-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Putin goes live on TV phone-in to escalate nuclear war of words

· President tells of new generation of weapons
· 'Grandiose' plan to combat US missile shield

Luke Harding in Moscow
Friday October 19, 2007
The Guardian

Vladimir Putin conduct his annual televised phone-in. Photograph: AP

President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia was developing a new generation of nuclear weapons as part of a "big, grandiose" plan to boost the country's defences against the US.

Speaking during his annual live question-and-answer session, Mr Putin said Russia was upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and strategic bombers. It was also developing "completely new strategic [nuclear] complexes", he said.

"Our plans are not simply considerable, but huge. At the same time they are absolutely realistic. I have no doubts we will accomplish them," Mr Putin said, during a three-hour phone-in programme shown across Russia on state-run TV.

Mr Putin said Russia would defend itself if the US goes ahead with its plan to install elements of its missile shield in central Europe. "I can assure you that such steps are being prepared and we will take them," he said.

His comments follow unsuccessful talks last week with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. Mr Putin began their meeting in Moscow by signalling that Russia might dump the intermediate-range nuclear missiles treaty."

This is an excerpt from a UK online newspaper. War has never been a permanent solution. It only temporarily postpones current problems to only resurface or create new ones. When Bush went in to the Middle East for his delusions and own agendas, he opened a new can of worms. Now the cards are being shuffled again and new poker chip antes are being made at the table. I do not see war as being a solution based on all the wars fought and all the reasons one goes to war. Unless you're going to exterminate the whole population like some leaders from centuries ago, leaving no one left from that culture and destroying all knowledge and philosophy of that culture ~ it/they will only come back to trouble you. What about conquering and assimilation? All depends on the wills of those conquered and how their brains have been programmed by experience and training.

I fail to see why no one decides to go the knowledge route. Why groups of different people (not political leaders and not cult or religious leaders) but the people themselves get together and share concepts and ideas. Tolerating each others differences but expressing how it makes them feel and why it makes them feel that way and offer theories and and possibilities?

Russia detonated a bomb this past year, the father of all bombs. A bomb that works like a Nuclear bomb but made of chemicals and gas. I don't blame them, nor do I blame any Asian country seeking to gain a level of threat so their voice can be heard, so their culture and philosophy will be preserved. You would do the same. It is the people of these Nations who will suffer. The people who merely want to see the joys of nature, the happiness of discovery - those who wish to have a good home and family - all who suffer because why? You know the answer.

A New Era was Born

2007-10-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

One night Galileo Galilei peered through his telescope studying the still mysterious and well unknown Universe. He saw smaller bodies of mass rotating around a much larger body of mass (moons going around Jupiter). He had discovered that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, but that it is the Sun. Of course no one would believe him because they had been programmed to think otherwise. The Church had a lot of power then in politics and a strong influence over the way people think. The church had been telling people that Earth and men are the center because of creation. The church was not going to acknowledge Galileo for his findings, even after they peered into the telescope and saw the facts. They were so disillusioned that they would not believe their own eyes. And if they backed Galileo on his discovery, that would mean they were wrong in their teachings. And if they were wrong one one subject, how many more would they be wrong about? Galileo being a passionate strong minded man with a strong will went out into the land to show people his discovery. The church had long been criticizing earlier astronomers for their theories and Galileo wasn't going to be any different and the church had the dogma and the brainwashed minds of the people. It went so far as the church having to bring Galileo in for an inquisition where they made him sign a confession that all of his work and findings were false. It took up to this point were a man was about to be tortured and suffer much pain until death to get him to recant (even though he was right!). He was put under house arrest and watched over and controlled for the rest of his days till death - all because those hwo had control, money and power wouldn't relinquish it even when facts are staring them in the face and the world would be wiser and better for it. That is why Galileo is a hero and a man to be admired, he held on to his vision up to the point of where was going to be cut open and mutilated if he didn't. How many people today who hate the design of society, back down when even a mere threat of losing finances, the next raise, the next job promotion, the job itself would be lost if you stood up for what you believed? America, the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or the land of cover your ass when something is going down and hide in your homes hiding from the problems of your country? Money over morals? Pleasure over principle? Ease over conflict? The United States has a high GNP and an Army that can not be challenged except by nuclear means or a unity of nations in Asia to oppose. America has sacrificed it's Society and what the Declaration means for power, pleasure and greed. You can not disagree with the way the majority of people think and act in our society towards each others and what they want for themselves.

Earlier this month was Christopher Columbus Day. In early October Columbus had discovered the new world and the Earth was changed forever. Cultures would clash, many would die competing for the riches of the new world. Whole new cultures would be lost from disease and being overwhelmed. Many of them would fight to hang on to their would and their culture and you would have too. Unfortunately they did not know the numbers and the strength of the enemy whom they had no quarrel with. But the leaders of the brainwashed spoke of the evil savages and backwards culture over yonder and sent in the trained war dogs to slaughter.

Columbus' journal has recorded from memory by his sons.

1) "Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone..."

2) Friday, Oct. 12th..."As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted and became wonderfully attached to us... I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion."

3) Sunday, Dec. 16th... The Admiral ordered every civility to be shown them, "because," as he observes, "these are the best and most gentle people in the world, and especially as I hope strongly in our Lord, that your Highnesses will undertake to convert them to Christianity, and that they may become your subjects, in which light, indeed I already regard them."

The natives thought Columbus and his men were gods from the sky who came to visit, so controlling them and converting them would have been easy. Columbus notes that the people he discovered were gentle and kind and should be treated with civility. But in time that would not happen as greed of other Nations and thirst for power and control by officials is unquenchable.

In America today, the facts still show and the culture still practices that there are those who are superior to others by either: appearance, religion practiced, and social standing born unto. No one speaks outright about it for then they would come under fire. But it is quietly spoken of behind doors and it socially practiced out in the streets. We don't directly kill people anymore for that would demand direct retaliation and could be morally challenged. Instead, we indirectly practice Eugenics by cutting off the mans to survive financially to those who are inferior and are chosen to serve. People here still are controlled by fear (absolutism) to work and maintain order and control. If you do not do as they say, you will become an outcast, financial burden shall fall upon you, and you will suffer until the end of your days. Can you truly say America is a Democracy? All are suppose to hare power and have a say. All are suppose to have a quality of life, and a good one not a lack of.

Most of this will sting because you have been trained incorrectly on what patriotism is and if you chose to challenge those who rule you, you don't love it and are bad people. Well what then were the founding fathers who challenged the rule of the crown and went against their leader because he wasn't going to surrender his power, wealth and control for the betterment of the people? They wrote it down that if your leaders prove to be unreasonable and fail to provide a quality of life who labor, than those who work hard for their life should than speak against and rebel. For why should someone else become rich and have a high quality of life from your hard work? You go home with a pittance and little to nothing for your or your families happiness while a select few have it all? And why do they? They've changed the rules and the mindset of the people. And the status quo will do nothing to improve their culture or their quality of life. Shame.

Dr Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and all those people buried in National cemeteries fought and died and have become forgotten so we could become whores.

A whore does immoral acts and job in order to get paid. Is your job and why you do what you do any different? Usher in a new Era for the better, I would rather die fighting than serve disrespectful and unworthy lords. "Dont tread on me".

Lessons in Humanity were discovered long before Dr Phil and Oprah

2007-10-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

Scholars, Writers, Poets, and Philosophers new about the nature of men long before modern gurus. They have only been forgotten or ignored, trumped by modern culture and mindset. I recommend these two items as they will humor you and lead you to think about what has been lost and should be recovered.

Where have all the leaders gone? by Lee Iacocca

2007-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I read this excerpt in a city newspaper and I find several online sources doing the same talking about this book because Mr Iacocca makes some great statements.

Excerpt
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

I Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.

Who Are These Guys, Anyway?

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader

I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points—not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

So, here's my C list:

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President—the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.

Leadership is all about managing change—whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths—for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION—a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President—four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.

It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know—Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world—and I like it here."

I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

The Biggest C is Crisis

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

A Hell of a Mess

So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.

Sick in America

2007-10-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Oprah I havent seen your show a whole lot in years past but I caught a few moments the other day on work break. I was wondering whom I was watching?! I felt that over the years you became like Barbra Walters ~ No opinions or take a stand, you just present both sides and let other people make the statements. I think high profile people with the power to persuade fear too much for their career and the backlash of having convictions will have (Rosie Odonnel factor). It is a bad career move or a lawsuit will soon be on the way, the reputation smear soon to follow in the newspapers and on Insider TV. But yesterday I was giving a thumbsup and a cheer to see Oprah in their fighting again! Good to have you back.

But I am curious if this is another talk about it or is something oging to be done. Example April 2006 Issue of Readers Digest cover, "I cant afford to be sick!" So that is almost a year and half ago. There have been magazines and newwspapers, heck if you go back to Patch Admas and the Gesundheit Institute, he proposes a better society a long time ago.

Some facts: Ireland is rank the highest for quality of living with Norway right behind. America is not even in the top 10 on this public list. Over 300,000 Irish immigrants came to Amrica for a better life over the past 20 years. They have ALL moved back! Why? In health care, America ranks 37th! How can people cheer and honestly say America is the Greatest Country on Earth? You cant unless your trying to sell something to a bunch of brainwashed ignorant people.

Do we need temp wroker agencies anymore? Why bring this up? Well a company can keep you as a temp worker forever if they so chose. They get workers and they dont have to pay benefits. Sweet! If you a American company. Why are so many jobs in India, Russia, Mexico and China? Hmmm...

Over the years if I complain people will say, "At least its something", or, "Its better than nothing". Its terrible is what it is. If I went to my supervisor or CEo with the words the woman used to describe our system, "Its not the best, there are problems but we're working on them". If I went to my boss that my performance is meeting the numbers I would be FIRED! My boss doesnt care about problems you get the numbers despite the problems or your done - period.

The USA today wrote an article about how thousands now cross the borders for their healthcare. My father had degenerative arthritis. He had to fight with his employer about his aches and pains and why he cant do the work as they want him to. He had to go to a COMPANY doctor by their choice who said - ah there is no problem. He got so bad that he went to a second doctor, a specialist who said, you should be declared legally disabled. So he fought his emploer with those documents, lost of course as my Dad had no money for a lawyer and he retired early with no coverage. He developed Sleep apnea. Woke in the night throwing up. He died of a Heart attack within 3 years of retiring. He had nothing his whole life. One of his last staements to me was, I think I skipped my golden years and went straight to my rusted.

At work there are at least a dozen people walking around with ailments and some who have this woe is me face every day. They feel used, they struggle to do the job - they do it cause they are afraid of the alternatives. So here we get back to people living in "fear" in the land of opportunity and greatness.

Here is what I fear - everything is all talk and sales. The People who made this country used the musket, the hatchet and the cannon as their debate tools with the People who held all the power and money. I fear that is the only way still to get to those who are the modern day Kings of Society.

In a summer Esquire Magazine featuring Angelina Jolie on the cover, there is an article by a writer who went to interview a man known for being brutally honest. He hides NOTHING. The article starts out by the author saying, "Lets face it, if we told the truth we would all be fired, divorced etc". Our Nation is lies, we live on lies and deceit rather than truth, justice and the so called American way. See Alicia Keys, "I am a Prisoner of Words" on Youtube. If I had the money, I would most likely move to the UK too, where the top ten Nations of Quality are.

Patch Adams
http://www.patchadams.org/

Radical Honesty
http://www.esquire.com/features/honesty0707

Readers Digest
http://www.rd.com/content/the-cost-of-health-care-in-america/

Oprah "Sick in America" Sept 2007
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200709/tows_past_20070927.jhtml

Person Of the Week

2007-09-26T21:15:00.002-07:00

ABC News always does a person of the Week. I am looking for the Channel 12 version of this as they are going to start an "ordinary person doing extraordinary things" series.

But this Youtube one got my attention.

Talking about what Art is, or what is Art and what isnt Art touches a sensitive psot with me because I had to go through all that when I was studying Art finally in college 20 years ago. I hated they way professors use to make us paint and the criticism you would get for your work if you tried to paint what interest you or the way you wanted to paint or learn how. Everything had to be abstract or unusual so it would make the veiwer think. I just wanted to learn how paint realistic, but that was boring, beenthere done that as a culture or in histrory. I like Fatansy Art, I like Larry Elmore. I rellay liked Larry when he started to post a sign by his booth, "Just because no one understands you, doesnt make you an Artist". I still have this old copy of the Art of Dungeons and Dragons and in there another guy talks of this same cliche - who knows your professors works? Who knows who Snoopy and Charles Schulz is? So he commented on doing what your professors want so you getthe grade, learn by the experimenting, than do what you want when you get out.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Person+of+the+Week&s

Home Owners and Renting Costs

2007-09-26T21:15:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back, the USA Today wrote an article about how people who rent use half their income to pay for that rent. Now I just recently moved into a studio. It has a kitchen hall one person can fit through, a bathroom, and an area that is my bedroom/enternment room/dining room/whatever else. That is is. It takes up 37% of my income and the landlord warned me I might get denied and would need a cosigner as my income didn't quite meet their requirements!

But getting back to that 50% being spent on rent, if you look at "How to get out of debt" budgets, like Oprah's Debt Diet, you should not be spending that much on housing and rent. How many Americans are working two jobs to make ends meet? Where is the stress relief? How can there be family togtherness and time to relax when the cost of lving is getting so high? Who allows Banks to make such deals in the first place?

USA Today Wednesday September 12th. Article "Paying for a Roof over your head - but not much else."

Remember when I mentioned my meeting with my Bank Financial Advisor after receiving my small inheritance and how we got to just talking and she commented on it is going to be bead when these teaser loans come due. Well here we are.

A Changing USA - USA Today Sept 12th
15 million workers head to work at 6 am (in order to beat traffic jams they leave two hours early and eat breakfast when they get where they are going) - I moved 4 blocks from work so I dont have to drive.
18.9 million are considered house poor
20 somethings say "I dont" to marriage. I must of been a pioneer in this category 20 years ago as the cost of living and common sense rules me over romance and social pressure.
Women Outnumbering men at colleges! A CEO once told us that 40% of Wisconsin women DONT work. That the 60% who do are the highest in the Nation. So can I guess that 50% of women don't work in this country? And the ones who do work where and do what? Maybe more women will be taking on higher roles in society 10 years down the road?

Average Pay 2006
Top 20 private equity hedge fund mangers make $697 million/year
USA CEO 10 million
US worker $29,544

The US has over 400 billionaires now - use to be 313, BUT back in 1985 there were only 13?! It takes 91% of the population to equal what these 9% have in earnings. Does this tell you anything or make you wonder? Dont you want to grab a pitchfork and light and torch and go marching?

Changing Inner Cities

2007-09-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

A few months ago a 4 year old girl was shot and kill by a drive by gang related shooting. She was not the intended target. I wrote to several high profile people conveying my disgust by the lack of effort to stop such events, to transform inner cities and lives of Americans. Obama, Oprah, and Rachel Ray were amoug some that I wrote. But it was the hometown city that made me proud on Thursday Night. I didnt get to see the whole episode as I was on my last 15 minute break. The Journal Sentinel did a write up of the news report and this is a clip from the online web site.

Channel 12 is taking on the broad topic of violence in Milwaukee's inner city with a long-term project that kicks off tonight at 9 with a one-hour special that won't be interrupted by commercials.

"On Assignment," anchored by Kathy Mykleby and reported by Mike Anderson, will have a single sponsor, Great Lakes Quick Lube, the area chain of Valvoline oil change centers. Instead of conventional commercials, the company's president, Jim Wheat, offers opening and closing messages that fit the tone of tonight's documentary.

General manager Jan Wade describes him as an underwriter, rather than an advertiser.

The hour focuses on 24-year-old Julius Bullock, his family and the people who try to help him. He, his family and the people who've tried to help him out of a life of violence speak without the traditional interruption of the interviewer. The questioner is off-camera and rarely heard.

It's a powerful way to tell the story - and it's a direct result of the shooting death of 4-year-old Jasmine Owens four months ago, a story that shocked journalists in the Channel 12 newsroom as much as it shocked others around town.

"Everyone came in and said, 'Isn't there something else we can do?' " says executive producer Rita Hagen Aleman.

That "something else" starts tonight.

"We've been talking with Julius for a couple months," she says. "We didn't even roll tape until people had gotten to know each other."

That relationship between the people behind the camera and in front of it is clear, as Bullock tells the story of how he became involved with the Vice Lords gang.

"It was, like, the best thing that happened to me at that age. Everything that we did . . . we did it 'cause we was like a crew, like a family."

While Wade says this is the start of a long-term project, she's not sure where it will go, or how long it will take.

"At some point, we want to have a town hall-type of discussion," says Wade. "But this really is a work in progress."

CHANNEL SURFING: "Seinfeld" vet Mark Metcalf will be the host for movies on Channels 18 and 24 from Thursday through Sept. 30 to promote the Milwaukee International Film Festival. Metcalf lives in the area and owns Mequon's Libby Montana Bar and Grill.

• Milwaukee Public TV general manager Ellis Bromberg and local TV historian Dick Golembiewski will talk about MPTV's half-century of broadcasting in a free forum at 10 a.m. Sunday at First Unitarian Church, 1342 N. Astor St.

• The one-hour "Milwaukee Braves: The Golden Legacy" debuts at 10 p.m. Friday on Fox Sports Net, available on cable and satellite.

• NBC has signed a deal with former "Gilmore Girls" mom Lauren Graham to develop a show for the network.

A MONTH AWAY: The Fox Business Channel - which launches Oct. 15 - has named four anchors: Hearst-Argyle Washington bureau chief Peter Barnes; former anchor and Forbes.com reporter Jenna Lee; Bloomberg TV anchor Nicole Petallides; and Financial Times columnist Cody Willard.

Article Source: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=664142

Now imagine this going a step further. Imagine ALL the local news channels taking up the banner and getting involved to make a difference compared to what you normally see ~ just reporting and causing awareness. I was proud that Channel 12 actually took initiative, without commercials and letting the people speak.

Protest is Dead. Long Live Protest

2007-09-04T22:03:00.001-07:00

This was the title of another article in UTNE May June discussing how to still make your voice heard.

It starts out with a history lesson of when 43 years ago, 250,000 people descended on Washington DC to register their support for the civil rights movement. They carried signs and listen to Joan Baez sing "We shall overcome" and to Martin Luther King Jr's speech "I have a Dream".

They were taken seriously as the US Justice Department readied troops to quell rioters (although no one rioted). When I have studied up on Mr King, you have to wonder how this now "Humanitarian Leader" was considered a "threat to National Security". John Lenon singing "Imagine" asking people to drop their labels of others and just live as one species, yet he was a threat because of his influence he had over millions. So they wanted to deport, dicredit and silence him. If you look back into history and see any "hell rasier" what they had to face and how they cast in the media and what happened to them (jail, run out of town, shot), many of which who were just raising a voice against social injustice.

67% disapprove of Bush's handling of the War, a level that matches sentiments of the public at the end of the Vietnam War. "Many of us are disilusioned with the tactics and strategy and partisanship within the anti war movement, there doesnt seem to be much interest in talking strategy. Action has become ritualized. And frankly, without a major shake up of the status quo in the movement, I cant imagine how the movement could ever become a force in shaping US foreign policy" ~ Student Organizer

The next paragraph goes on to give the history and strategy associated behind Mahatma Gandhi's civil rights movement. Media images of black protestors facing police batons, water cannons, and savage dogs were effective because the illustrated - dramatically - the immorality of Southern style segregation. The first step in building a movement is getting people's attention, which is not easy. It talks about street protesting and property damage vs a succesful anticoporate campaign named Bubble Project (www.thebubbleproject.com). A book by Ji Lee and how he made and got fined for vandelism making bubble sayings over advertisemnet billboards. (Ex Starbucks mermaid billboard, "Have you seen my nipples?") He claims he is simply trying to transform the coporate monologue into a public dialog.

Confrontation tactics like blockades kick the door open. But if all we do is protest, without actually helping to define the solutions, we are as thin as placard.

Of course, it's is far easy to shout slogans than it is to sit down at the table and hash out, say, energy policy. But that is exactly what groups that want change are starting to do.

There is another article I read where it compared the Government and the people relationship as being Adult to Child and that Government needs to turn it into a more Adult to Adult relationship. This article is titled, "Meet the New Boss: You". It talks about a man named Matt Leighninger and his countless experiences and attendeces to community meetings.

Organizers, can intuit the needs of the Have Nots and, given the right issues and skills, marshal them into a force to be reckoned with. It's easy to see whay these assumptions remain compelling: You've got a villain in the Haves and a Hero in the Organizers. But the Have Nots? Well, at the end of the day, they're basically extras in the drama.

Self governance seeks, rather than a fight for whats right, solutions that arise from collaboration and consensus.

The article goes on for another two pages. If you can find a copy of this Magazine "UTNE May June 2007" it is on pages 38 to 45.

Helping Yourself

2007-09-04T22:02:00.001-07:00

I could keep going through my box of articles that I refer back to when I need a pick me up, refocus or try again and post them here in hopes to inspire or motivate you. But at some point you're going to have to find the drive within you to do this because what works for me, might not work for you.

Articles I was going to post but you could probably find at your local library or online searching:

Readers Digest: America's 100 Best Inspiring stories ~ May 2006. Several good articles in here and I like the Amazing Robot Boys story.

Millionaires in the Making. Money Magazine August 2000. There is a several page spread on several people and what they did (are doing) to take care of their finances.

My Cousin gave me some articles when we use to work with each other at a factory ten years ago. They were from some newsletter called Bottomline.

1) Tell Yourself there is nothing to fear but fear itself. 2) Before you try to sell others, sell yourself (self confidence). 3) Tell yourself from the outset that you may not get what you want immediately. 4) Organize your thoughts. 5) Refuse to indulge in confusion. 6) Be committed to continuous learning. 7) Offer value in exchange for cooperation 8) Give the employees whom you supervise the resources to be self responsible. 9) Communicate clearly. 10) When you ask, ask from the heart. 11) Ask in an entusiastic manner and voice. I will add the strategy laid out on page 3 of the article for this one. Maintain steady eye contact to show that you mean business but exhibit with respect and admiration. 12) Be prepared to deal with resistence. If someone resists or challenges your request, be gracious and polite, do not lose your temper and become discouraged. No may just simply mean not yet. 13) Learn the Art of saying Thank You.

Look up and find out who Kim Peek is, Abigail and Brittany Hensel and Veenie Mahmoud for starters.

Making Friends, Lovers Post Divorce: ABC News Good Morning America web site.

How to get everything you want in Life. Redbook Magazine August 2006 or www.redbookmag.com They also had an Energy Solutions December 2006 article.

"People take your breath away with their courage" Soledad O'Brien. Redbook magazine article 2006.

You saved $500 Now What? Good Housekeeping November 2006. added helpful web sites Bankrate.com, Hsbcdirect.com, Troweprice.com, Emigrantdirect.com, savingforcollege.com, treasurydirect.gov.

What Are You Afraid Of? by Frances Moore Lapp'e

Effective Thinking by Dr Gerald Kushel

Success Secrets of Leaders Today by Nathaniel Brandon, Phd and managemnet consultant.

A managers top skill may be ability to get along with others by Diane Stafford

Mess Up Your Life by www.prevention.com and magazine. It is from July 2002, so it might be a litte hard to find.

Easy stories to find are in USA Today, like yesterdays article on Michelle Pfeiffer on aging, relationships and life.

Steve Jobs "You have to find a job you love"

2007-09-04T22:01:00.002-07:00

I was reading the Money section of the USA Today on top influencial business people. Steve Jobs is ranked the third highest.

I found this speech about a year ago on Stanford's web site.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Have You Got What It Takes

2007-09-04T22:01:00.001-07:00

A list from stopgap.co.uk in my quest to be an entreprenuer:

1) They work hard and they play hard, too. They get up early, they rarely complain, they expect performance from others, but they expect extraordinary performance from themselves.

2) They are incredibly curious and eager to learn. They study, ask questions, and read constantly.

3) They network extraordinarily well. They know lots of people amd they know lots of different kinds of people.

4) They work on themsleves and never give up! While over night wonders become arrogant and quickly disappear, really successful people work on thier personality, their leadship and management skills and every other detail of life.

5) They are extraordinarily creative. They go around asking, "Why Not?" They see new combinations, new possibilites, new opportunity and challenges where other see problems and limitations! *ho man this is my life herein a nutshell at work but in reverse. I am a troublemaker, not a team player or insubordinant because I dont just shut up and do the work or shout "yes sir right away sir!" I fire back with how it is the process and ancient machines and the "you just have to deal with it" mentallity is just plain stupid. But supervisors and bosses dont want feedback, they just want results and dont care.

6) They are self-reliant and take responsibilty. Incredibly successful people dont worry about balme, they dont waste time complaining. They make decisions and move on.

7) They are usually relaxed and keep their sense of perspective. Even in times of stress and turmoil, highly successful people keep thier balance, they know the value of timing, humor and patience.

8) Extremely successful people have a gift for living the moment. They know that "now" is the only time they can control. Tehy have a gift for looking people in the eye, listen to what is being said, enjoying a meal and fine wine, musci or playing with a child. They never seemed rushed, and they get a lot done. They take full advantage of every day.

9) Lvingin the present gives them the unique ability to look over the horizon. They observe trends, they notice changes, see shifts, and hear nuances others missed.

10 ) Repeatedly successful people respond instantly! When an investement isnt working out they sell. When they see an opportunity, they make the call. If an important relationship is cooling down, they renew it.

Check List For Building People

2007-09-04T22:00:00.002-07:00

Cant remember where I got this from:

1) Accentuate the positive. This does not mean lie or make things up, this means find out what the person has working for them and let them know it.

2) Be liberal with praise. Again I think being sincere is better than being a suck up.

3) Eliminate destructive criticism (good luck with that one in our society) ~ eliminate put downs, demonstarte the right way, acknowledge improvement. *count out any boss I ever worked for =P

4) Compliment sincerely, frequently, publicly.

5) Greet employees by their names

6) Keep a 3x5 file (hobbies, family, special interests.)

7) Work on your own self image - its contagious!

8) Give credit where credit is due - don't steal the thunder

9) Ask how can I help and follow through with action.

10) Accept blame - set the example

11) Say "I am sorry" and I understand" and mean it! Eliminate completely "sorry about that".

12) Give challenges - people are most bored when least challeneged.

13) Master and Apply the "Fundamental Rules of Behavior". *oops see page 9, dont have that copy any more.

14) Listen! Listen with sincere interest.

Quarter Life Crises (Early Debt) as by ABC News

2007-09-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

A Good Morning America article I found months ago talks about people who grow up understanding little about financing and how they fall into debt and suffer a "quarter life crisis". People ages 25 to 35 spend 25% of their income on debt payments. A spokesperson by the name of Bay in surprised how people who have taken calculus don't know how to calculate, and the last time he checked, no coourses are offered on how to manage debt and interest rates.

Bay sees our culture as part of the problem by preaching a sence of entitlement (lionizes celebrity) and the current financial climate. Starting salaries are lower and housing costs are significantly higher. With college students leaving institutions with large student loans to pay off, it all adds up to a disatrous combination and challenging economic picture.

"We grow up media obsesses", Bay says, "A celebrity saturated universe. It is not about keeping up with the Joneses anymore. It is about keeping up with the Jessica Albas and Jennifer Anistons."

Bay, "I am so stunned they're not panicked. They say to me, 'Well debt is normal. You're suppose to have debt' ~ They confuse establishing a credit history, which you do if you get a car loanand y ou pay it off every month, with racking up what is unmagable debt."

Me: After high school. I followed conventional thinking that I had to go to college and get a degree. Not a two year tech school. No, those were not prestigious enough to get a good job (listening to my peers). I had no mentor. No clue about anything. I worked minimum wage jobs making $6000/yr trying to pay for cost of lving and college. Credit Card companies are evil bastards who know their business. They know who to target, who wants money, who needs money. I used credit cards to buy school supplies and pay for other things. So on it was maxed with a high interest rate so I remained in debt a long long time. I must not have kept the readers Digest issue on "Is college worth the money?" (year old now I think reminds me of my days). You can find articles on how college degree folks earn on average X amount more than your high school graduate. You can also find many articles on college loan scams and how financial institutions really nail people who are just trying to do what IS needed to get ahead. Funny how that works. You need health care, gas, an eduaction, so go figure it becomes a money coo. Yeah yeah, supply and demand. They first rule of economics, charge what the market will bear. Who makes these prices? I do, cause I can!

I would attend college on and off as I could scrape up enough to try and get through a semester without being penniless half way through the semester. I was following the sheeple. What I should have done was just work two jobs for several years, get a clue on what I wanted to do, not just try to pick what pays good and what is available. Having a goal and sticking to that goal. I still have college loan debt today (last out standing debt). It took a long time to free myself, and I still cant afford anything with a $20,000/yr salary (no I never finished my degree). Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I have heard a million times. But I know what I want to do, and it is not to work for someone else.

Our Favorite Villains

2007-09-04T21:59:00.003-07:00

I am using the Library Internet this morning and I dont have my articles to refer to continue my Open Letter to Obama blog, so with the time I have left before I have business meeting and than heading of to my job, I am going to talk about our Favorite Villains: Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney, etc...

By what is happening, it can only confirm the War on Drugs has been long over, Drugs won and scored a Major Victory and the United States gave an unconditional surrender.

A female coworker was listening to Dr Phil on the radio while I was working next to her and Phil asked, "What is it going to take?", referring to Lindsay Lohan.

Anna Nicole was my age so her trash tabloid articles kept popping up in my life for a long time. When did it end? When she died, well not quite yet, maybe another two years yet. What will stop Paris, Lindsay, Britney, etc? When they finally over dose or shoot themsleves in the head over stress. If they are lucky, a near death experience will change them before its too late. Motherhood might change Britney yet. It is obvious Mom and Dad can't stop them, don't want to stop them. The Judicial system is a joke in this country ~ we have long known that there is no equal time for equal crime (Haves vs Havenots). Money, Power, Politics rule just like in any other kind of Government.

At first I use to get mad at these celebrities, but my anger was misguided. I than got mad at the media for following these people and publishing their articles because they are the ones that create the tabloid celebs. Than I realized that it is not them either, it is the people who watch, read and fund all that junk by paying attention to it. Than, like just about everything else, you teach yourself not to let it bother you and just go about your life and let TIME take care of the situation.

I actually felt a wee bit sad when Anna died. Sad that she could never stop being Anna Nicole Smith. With all her money that she couldn't find something else in this huge World with all of its diversity to enjoy and spend her time doing. With the World the way it is, after a while I didn't hold it against her (Anna) how she got out of the status quo and open many doors of opportunity that a single mother and low wage waitress could never get. Just wished she would of went in some other direction with all that opportunity. But in the end, for the most part though I felt who cares, what did she do and how did she spend her time? I will feel the same when these other women drop dead from their lifestyles, Oh darn, and go about working on things that matter to me. So much they could do, what a waste. Maybe they should watch the Richard Pryor tapes or talk to Ray Charles surviving family members? Maybe they just want to spend their life partying till they die? Prudence Pleasure or Power, what is the best to pursue the Greeks wondered.

Open Letter to Barack Obama

2007-09-04T21:59:00.001-07:00

For the first time in all my life I am actually paying attention to who is running for President of the United States. I voted once in my years of eligibility which was the last election. You see I never felt it mattered who was in the White House and I will get to explaining that in future blogs. How I got involved this year because my attitude is different and I was watching an episode of Good Morning America where they were featuring Michelle Obama and I liked what she had to say and the answers she gave. So later on I watched the debates and after it was over, I liked what Obama had to say the most. Now on the flip side I like Fred Thompson and I will get to explaing that in a later blog too.

I donated $25 to Obama's campaign about a month ago after receiving several emails on his new campaign approach to reconnecting Americans. I NEVER gave to a campaign ever in my whole life. The pitch was that Obama's staff wants to hear my story and why I am following him, and that I should submit my story along with my donation, and that I could win a sit down dinner with the Senator to discuss life. Well my story would go on for pages knowing how I communicate so I just left that field open and sent $25, the minimum to the campaign. If you knew my circumstances, past and how I came to believe what I do, you would understand. But just about every few days I would get another email saying donate more we need you! And tell us your story. I never gave any more money and later the USA today reported Obama with record fund raising and in the lead. But that day I like what Bill Richardson had to say that it is not who can raise the most money but gain the most hearts. Bingo. Because that is exactly how I feel, the Presidents I have always watched over the years know money. They know how to make it, but they don't know how to make people and build a Nation.

So I sent a letter to the staff managing Obama's campaign that they should be very happy that I gave at all and that I started to follow him because I saw strength in his wife, and I liked her comment that she hates politics. Anyone who hates politics gets my vote because we need less bull and more pull in my opinion.

But now what happens. Two days later I get an email on how I can meet Michelle at a dinner but in order to do so, I have to come up with $1000 to $2500 for his campaign. Okay now you pissed me off. I am not paying to see you. Maybe you should look back in history and see why Ceasar's men followed him through thick and thin and how he had their moral and support in times of turmoil. It was because he suffered as they suffered. He didn't have no special tent, food or pleasure that the other men did not. He slept, ate and fought and shared the risk of death like they did. Why did Sparticus have the Will of his men? The Egyptian Pharoah Snafu started a new concept in Pharoah leadership, he wasn't going to present himself as a God or better than his people. He went out and said we are Egyptians, a campaign of togertherness with common struggles and goals.

If you admire a particular Ancient Civilization in history, ask yourself why you do. Is it because of the enormous wealth they had or the King rather? The mightiest army or the brilliant strategy they used? What is it the against all odds stand that they made? Their technological marvels they had ahead of others? I know I marvel Ancient cultures for what they achieved, not because of how much money they had or how beautiful the average citizen was. But for what they achieved.

Senator Obama's staff now has sent me a letter in the mail asking to hear my story yet a third time to be a part of this "movement". But apparently what the staff doenst realize is I can get my story out on a much larger scale and I dont have to donate any money to do so, it is called the Internet. This way my "whole" story gets to be read and not just a sentence clipped out and added to Obama's space or letters he sends to others. Last night CNN was featuring questions submitted by people through the Internet, I couldn't watch because I was at work with my new hours. So in the blogs to come will be "my story". I am still watching Obama, I haven't given up on him, I am just a little agitated with the whole money thing and I want him to know that he should learn to make do with little to nothing or what he's got; just as I have to figure out how I am going to survive or thrive with what I got.

Dream Job

2007-09-04T21:58:00.002-07:00

The place that I work at currently has a lot of women working there, there is something like 75 women and 10 guys. So during breaks the television is set to Soap Oprahs and Talk Shows and the tables around the room have Women Magazins on them. So I read them from time to time and Good Housekeeping always has an article on Dream Jobs.

Zhena Muzyka in Ojai, CA makes exotic teas. In 1999 she was 24 and a struggling writer. She started making extra money as a "guest tea maker" in cafes. She would experiment with recipes and test taste them. She borrowed $3000 from family and purchased a CART to sell from as she couldnt afford to rent a space. One thing lead to a nother and now she makes $60,000/yr which is significantly less than the average CEO's but she doesnt mind. She pays a fair price for the ingredients, the margin of profit is smaller but "everyone" is happier in the end.

Katrina Markoff in Chicago, Illinois makes exotic chocolates. After earning a degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, she set off to "embrace the street foods" of different countries, from Vietnam to Australia. Eight months later she came back and got a job at her Uncles Mail Order Company. But soon she realized what she wanted to do with the skills and knowledge she learned overseas, make exotic truffles. She started to combine spices with chocolate and her friends thought they sounded disgusting, but after they ate a few they were convinced. She was able to get a $50,000 loan from the Small Business Association, quit her job, and opened her shop. Her big break came when she pitched her chocolates to Nieman Marcus a local department store. "At first the buyer seem impressed, the boxes weren't as pretty as they are now", Markoff says laughing. Turns out all the staff ate the chocolates before the exec could try one and he called to say they needed more! One thing lead to another, investments, loans and in 2006 her choclates revenued 7 million dollars and she takes home $80,000.

Maia Haag Minneapolis: Gving brith had trasformed her from corporate big wig to creative writer. While on maternity leave she received a customized storybook in which her baby was the lead character. This gift inspired her to quit her high stress job and start to wrote personalized kids' books. With money she inherited from her grandmother ($85,000), she spent every sent on her dream (Illustrators, Publishers, etx). Using the web abd a L.L Bean representitive, her sales reached $2.7 million in 2005. Her take home $50,000+.

Dawn Barnes Santa Monica CA, Salary in 2006: $600,000+. Her two boys dragged her off to a family style karate class in 1984. She was hooked and a passion was born. She got of the hang of things fast an in four years a first degree black belt. She borrowed money on her credit card and set out to rent her own space with her own "ambience" touch as she felt studios needed more of a fell to them. She put the word out with flyers and word of mouth and more and more customers started to come. She would put in long hours teaching than doing the books and maintenance. Wanting to branch out she partnered with a business savvy friend. It was a great macth as the two married and were opening more and more stores. Later they made a childrens book (black belt club) which sold $200,000 copies. Revenue reached $3 million in 2006.

Billy Bob Teeth. A entreprenuer magazine you can find this month on the shelves. Have you seen these things ever? They are a gag item invented by a guy going to school for dental cosmetics. A guy noticed this other guy in the stands acting crazy and getting women to come over and sit by him, hug him and get their phone numbers. To his dismay when he saw a good look of the the guy he had really bad teeth. Really bad! But after the game the one guy got to meet the man in the stands having all the fun but now his teeth were white and near perfect. He asked what the heck and the guy showed him the gag item he made in class. Well one thing lead to another at the two went into business and made $37 million on the idea.

I keep a box with success stories in it from all the ones I find in magazines and on the Internet. I read a story on Kathy Ireland, you know, the fitness model and actress? Well she wanted to start her own business one day but she needed a loan. Why Kathy would need a loan I don't know, I would think the jobs she had paid pretty well and she should have equity in excess. When she went looking for a loan she couldn't get one. She was looking to borrow around $58,000 for her socks she wanted to create and sell. She would get turned down repeatedly until she went to a friend in the business who gave her the loan. Its good to have friends in the right places :) Her company is doing good.

The history of McDonalds is about to be retold on television and it is a good story of how a guy (Ray Croc) who use to peddle paper cups to restaurants saw what two guys were doing at theri business and knew they were on to something.

Henry J Kaiser and the maker of Liberty Ships is another great story for me. If you keep looking, you will keep finding stories of people who took destiny into their own hands with a "can do" attitude. Fate also plays a part for it helps to find someone esle who believes in your dream. Go Green algae fuel project in Popular Science for example, and what really takes an idea into mega money success ~ money power and politics.

If your thinking about being an entreprenuer you can keep finding stories like these, but you have to steer clear of the get rich quick schemes. I wanted to be my own boss for so many years but not knowing what or how I would buy those "How To" books or memberships but walk away frustrated and sad. But you just pick yourself up and keep going and look for something you're truly passionate about.

Here are some bad ideas and desperate attempts I made a decade to two decades ago.

My first idea came back in college. I was studying graphic design at the time and I was wondering hwo to make money. What can I make that would sell? What would sell? What can I afford to make? Well being very young my mind was on sex, alchohol, and rock and roll ~ partying and babes. I remembered some high school gals had dipped their hands in paint/ink and pressed them to the buttocks of their shorts or pants. This obviously attracted a man's eye even more to what they like. And of course, living in the conservative midwest with religion and all, this was seen as "naughty!" But lving in a larger city those life rules aren't so prominent and I was making up designs for shorts with logos and sayings for the ass end of item wear. Well one day Cindy Crawford was in town a Boston store promotional tour. I found out about it last minute and raced to the college computers and tried throwing something together to show. I than raced to the Boston store and waited in line. I got to meet her, dropped off my idea and graciously got out of line as so many wanted to meet her. Did she call? Hell no! The work was bad! The idea I see is in effect today, but my work was cheesey and bad, and Cindy hates cheesey if you read anything baout her back in the day. But, at least I was bold ebough to go out there make a fool of myself and go for it even though the idea and approach was bad.

When I was at my lowest for desperation, hating life and the status quo, I reached for miracles. I would buy into the Mellenger Company, SMC, Matthew Lesko and mail order crap. That is whay I point out to you that there are 42 scams for every one legit. Why I want you to read Mavericks at work. To find out through patience and research of where you can get free help and actual government advice rather than buy the bull. There is so much crap thrwon into the mix that you have a tough time trying to find out who is real and who isnt.

With the Mellenger Company, I looked at all their books and tried to figure out what is was I wanted to sell. I didnt like any of it. I thought it was all cheesey. But there were these watches bing made Hong Kong that had an image on the dial and image rotating as a second hand. I liked this because I could make custom designs and get them made. So at first I did this Harley Davidson watch and had a proto type made for $200. $200 back whn I was making $4 an hour was a large investment for me as all my money was tied up to the costs of living! I submitted photos to Harley Davidson and the idea. They wrote back, (which if you do this often enough you find classy and admirable as most dont even bother to write you), but they rejected the idea as they already had a contract with a major maker and they dont sell watches in my proposed price range. $14 at the time.

I wasn't done with that idea, I decided to do some concept art this time rather than prototypes and had them electronically printed out using Adobe Illustrator. I made Star Trek designs, 3 kinds. I went to a convention Majel Roddenberry was at in Milwaukee. She was married to Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek who had passed away by then. I showed her the Harley prototype and the designs. She suggested if I wanted to go big to contact Paramount as they had the license. So I sent in my concept art to them and never heard a word. A friend use to get the Fan magazine and even before I submitted the art work, there were already watches very similar to my idea being made and sold. Majel had said at the metting that if Paramount rejected the idea to c ontact her she might still be interested and able to do something has she has limited rights. I wrote to her a third time with my findings and never heard back. But she WAS interested even if it was for a moment. One of those concept ideas is in my pic area.

SMC. This is another pay to be a member scheme where they have the products you just peddle them and set your profits. You buy all the materials from them, for example catalogs, and anything else you think you might need to get your mail order business going. What you don't know is all these extra costs like getting a bulk mailing permit. Than you have to put your name and company on the catalogs, so I got a rubber stamp. You have to register your company and get a LLC. I chose not to get the bulk mail permit and just start local by of course, friends and family, asking permission to leave catelogs at places for people to look at. The major fall backs on this one was I had permission by the store manager to leave catalogs on a rack at the entry/exit of his grcoery store. I placed about 30 catalogs on the bottom of the rack not being used. I came back a week later and they were ALL GONE! Wow I thought, okay I will got get 30 more. I came back 4 days later and they were all gone! Hmm, cool, okay but I am getting a fishy feeling. So I put out another 15 and came back the next day and they were all gone! So I opened the lid on the trash can in the corner of the entry way and there they all were. I went to the store manager and asked if he saw anyone and he said no. And I asked again if it was okay to do this and he said yeah sure no problem. So I asked who he thought might be doing this and he had no idea, definately not one of his employees. So I thought maybe it was magazine guy who runs the rack and I asked if I could buy my own rack and put it in the entry way for my catalogs. Again, sure no problem. So I went to a Goodwill store and bought a rack that stands straight up taking up little space and would fit in the corner of the entry way. I put my last 25 catalogs on the rack and left for my real job and returned the next day to find my rack and all the magazines gone. But hope would return as I recieved my first order and it was for $100! So I started to order up the merchandise to be shipped from California as I wanted to be knwon for fast friendly cutomer service! The customer had given me a credit card number. An expense and transaction I could not handle so I called to say I need a check or money order. Her items came from UPS the same day her check camein the mail so I took the box and personally delivered it to her across town with a smile on my face. They had a look of shock on their face and I thought it was from my fast friendly service and persoanl delivery! They took the box and I went on my merry way with my first check to the bank to deposit it into the business account I set up. Two dyas later I get a fine from the bank for trying to deposit a bad check they woman had wrote. She got her items which I paid for, and I paid a fine for her bad check. I would receive more small orders over time but SMC would always be out of stock on the popular items and I had to refund these people or tell them sorry, that item is no longer in stock and it made me mad because it made me look mad. I looked into one of those best catalogs magazines you get in the mail and checked into how much this would be to have my catalog featured in it. I was denied as someone had already been featuring their SMC catalog in the magazine and if I wanted to secure a place if the other person ever stopped, it would be $2000 deposit =P.

Matthew Lesko, I would like to punch the guy. I dont even know if it is him or people pretending to work for him. I read an article a few years later after I bought his book about a group of media people trying to put him on the spot for his spiel. I bought his books. They are large and drenched with information. So much so that you get lost in the pages and what to look for. All the information in his books and others like his, can be found for free. Their speil is that they took it all and put it in a book easy for y ou to use and find =P. Just go to the SCORE or the legitimate Government loan web sites and ask. If they want you to buy something, it isnt legit. I was looking at Matt's book for the $100,000 free money for a toy store. The one I would make at least. But every person I checked with wouldnt help me write a business proposal for free, no I had to pay $600 and go to school and they will show me how =P. Well 6 months later some guy called reffereing to the books and how they are with Mr Lesko and they want to help me with my "dream". If you want to make money in America, sell dreams people, not a specific item. See not everyone will want your item, but they do want their "dream", so sell some bogus book or item to help them significantly obtain their dream =P. Well the "counselors" were going to help me understand this book as apparently many were taken back by all the info and they were going to help me with the proposal and get the money to obtain my dream! They were very good at the bull, mind massaging me that I had a really GREAT idea and that they really wanted to help. And if I dont succeed, THEY LOOK BAD. And they dont want to look bad so they 'sincerely' want to help you. For a mere $1000 for their 'professional' help. I just had this bad feeling, Bob you been conned before, biten by the gotcha, don't do it. But the one side of you that really hates your boss, your insulting wage and benefits, and struggling to come up with money to do anything convinces you to do it. So I grabbed the credit card and cha ching. Well I got a call a week later for my first session ($250) and the woman again asked me about my dream. Than she asked me where I was from and I was confused as to why that was important. So she told me to get my book, go to the index and look up the section on Wisconsin. I am confused by all this but I do it, and she says go to page xyz on Wisconsin and call ALL the people listed on that page and ask for help. Me: "WHAT?! Arent you going to help me?" Them:" We are, we are telling you were to look, so call them and dont take no for answer!". Now I am pissed. Now I want to bury someone next to Jimmy Hoffa. If your going to call me and tell me to use the book that is a bunch of crap. I could of done that for free.

Years later I would try Tshirt designs and write the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers on the designs I drew up asking if they would be interested in working together. They said no and I asked if I did it myself if their would be copyright issues even with modifications. They said yes, for the Packers I had to write Fruit of the Loom, but the result was the same...No :).

I thought about temporary tattoos before the tattoo craze all started up again. Tried my hand at cold calling insurance sales, yuck, you really have to be pushy and convince yourself and the customer you're helping them and to not mind being screamed at 9 out of 10 calls.

So I made mistakes, some of my ideas are bad, or were executed very poorly. But inventors in history had lots of bad ideas along with thier few good ones. The History Channel has a show on this, and their is a place in Michigan I believe, that houses all the bad ideas people have had over the centuries. But it is tribute to man's imagnation and never surrendering to what the terms and conditions are being offered or more like dictated. To strive for more and find something worth doing or what makes you happy. Years went by until I had/have another idea (one in the works), don't worry, its not a scheme you find on TV or a magazine. I may never make it, but I am going to die trying.

Remember the scene in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn asks Eowyn what "does" she fear? And her response is a cage. She fears being trapped in a cage and that in time uselessness and old age give in an accept it.

Good things dont happen to good people. Good things happen to those who are prepared for when opportunity comes. Good things happen to those who are wise about the businesss, who aren't push overs, who challenge what is being presented to them with the right questions. So the common creating communication quote of "good things happen to good people" is wrong as it also contradicts with "nice guys finish last". Education and street smarts are the most important along with confidence and self esteem. It took too long for me to learn this and now I stumble and struggle, but Will still has a say in my future.

Sex Relationships Health Wealth Beauty

2007-09-04T21:58:00.001-07:00

One of the Greek philosophers said the three things anyone could ever want is Health, Wealth and Beauty. It should be obvious as to why.

Yesterday I went shopping for a broom and I stopped at the magazine rack. I have to control myself so I don't spend $50 on magazines of interests (Photo, Sculpting, Painting, Space, Technology, SciFi, Business), and than just browse cover to cover the guys magazines like the GC issue with Jessica Biel in it.

But even though I am a guy and I like to look at beautiful women, I think of it more like the Ancient Greeks and Romans from when I studied art. The human body was seen as a thing of beauty. Be honest, a healthy body is beautiful and it is nothing to be ashamed of. But there is a problem with our approach to it I think. EVERY magazine in the female half of the rack had an article on how to lose weight. This is nothing new, they ALWAYS do. I think these subjects are more valuable than gold, diamonds or oil. The source won't run out until human race does. No matter how many magazines, TV Shows, Newspapers, Devices, New treatments, New Chemicals, Advanced techniques, Lost Ancient Secrets ~ there will always be a need and room for more. For health it is fairly simple I think, diet AND exercise. But Bob, your overweight! Yeah, cause I don't exercise, and I drink diet coke and not water. I am 40, having sex isn't a major priority in my life like when I was age 16 - 30. Your priorities and ideals change every 10 years you live trust me. The best preacher surmon I ever heard was, "I don't have to teach you anything, Life will do that all on its own".

In the USA today last week, there was a study done and found that women like having sex with men with muscles. *Shocking* and that men with muscles get more sex and have more partners than those who don't. *Shocking* And women chose the muscular men for flings and the less buff for long term relationships because Joe Average is more devoted and less likely to cheat *Shocking*

What gets me staring at folks with a get real look is when they start bashing the other sex for their primal instincts and honesty (public reputation versus reality) about what they like. Like Tara Conner for example. If she was crowned Hooters' top model vs Miss America her behavior would be no big deal, pretty normal I think. But we have an image (American) to maintain no matter how false it is and we don't want kids thinking (or doing) any more about what they already do. Even though on every magazine cover is a hot woman in almost all her glory and Dad's stash of Playboy always gets discovered. Duh, it is human nature ~ you expect men to change or women? Where do we get our mythical men and women from I wonder? We want these naughty types but they also have to be gallant, loyal, and elegant ~ there is no harm in wishful thinking and waiting but I think people should be more real and not be shocked by behavior. It is never ending material for comedians and TV shows like Married with Children or Life According to Jim.

I was reading an advice column the other day and the woman was talking about how 2 of her 3 sons "Married Well". I laugh when I hear two women talking and it is about how one woman is giving her man two months to ask him to marry her, and if he dont she is gone! Yeah like marriage will be off to a good start. At a summer picnic there was a group of women talking to their 20 year old sister about how she blew it and chose her current boyfriend when their sisters were trying to line her up with a minor ball league player now pro. What is a "good" catch? Eva Longoria marries a Sports Athlete *shocking*. Women go for a Rock Star, Sports Star, Movie Star...surprise surprise. And when they break up again surprise surprise. And than they go right back and do it again :). Maxim this months has a small list of stars who cheated on their wives, I am sure a full list would be much longer of who has and I am sure some realtioships are perfectly fine with this as long as the wife is number one in the end (Steve McQueen's bio). It is human nature.

But when you read that only 2% of young women find themselves to be beautiful because they dont have the perfect body (which is?), than I shake my head. 20/20 is about to do a show where young women are getting breast implants for a high graduation gift. The women at work just would not let me capture them on camera because they all have a self esteem issue. These women aren't super models but they have nice shapes too! Personally I like butts more than I do boobs. Look at Betty Page, she has this look and style and her boobs were not el grande yet she is a sex symbol still standing. I thought women were the only ones guilty of plastic surgery and enhancements, but this one magazine I have talks about men and calf implants and chest implants. There was an article last week in the USA today about how height still effects how people see you and gets you places in life. BC, AD, whatver timeline, country, religion or governmnet, physical features still pretty much determine and help immensely to the life of quality you will have.

I dont think you have to be drop dead sexy to be defined as beautiful. Their is grace, style, glamour, character ~ Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connelly, Princess Di, Jacklyn Smith, Jacklyn Kennedy. Chest size, heck you have Gwen Stefani, Kira Knightly, Shakira, and Milla Javavovich as good examples. I find Sara Ramirez hot, the William Sisters (tennis) I think are sexy, as I do Laila Ali and Kat Von D. Perhaps my favorite is a woman from the Middle East, like an Egyptian or one from Brazil perhaps. The dark eye lashes and the veils...

I can not compliment a women on something until, oh, maybe a year after I have known her. Even then I have to be careful when and how I say it today. They will remind me they are married, or they blush and get red in the face or creep out uncomfortably. It will be something simple like orange is a good color on you. I like your hair that way it looks nice. Or asking if they lost weight they look good. If it was coming from maybe George Clooney it would be a welcomed comment and an even better ego boost. I understand this, I often get complimented on the color of my eyes and when I was younger it was easier or harder to take depending who said it.

Sex is not so taboo anymore. At least with the younger crowd. With my peers and older acquaintances it is still not allowed. So you watch Dr Ruth, Sue Johnson, or Dr Sari Locker.

Here is a quote from a Maxim article, "You can steer clear of those high maintenance headaches (and have some personal growth) concentrating on what you want and dont want from a relationship. Let no amount of booty compromise that. It may take a few failed flings to get the hang of it, but stick with it, and eventually Prozac free chicks will show you love."

Hey ladies, if you go by the magazine stand, check out Maxim July's issue and flip to page 116. See the advice given on how to counter your questions and insecurities as laid out in Marie Claire, People, Glamour, O, Cosmo, and Intouch.

If you want to read a really interesting article, both male and female, check out the Esquire issue with Agelina Jolie on the cover and flip to the page 121 and read the Radically Honest article.

Now I know a guy who is screwed up and in 30's. He has stories up the wazoo of chicks he had an encounter with. He goes after the early 20's because they are screwed up in the head and confused and insecure about life. He gets them to trust him and see he has a pension and a good job and he might be "security". *sound buzzer* eh wrong. He also goes after older women forty five and up because banging a young guy still makes them feel wanted and sexy. That they still got it and are young. Older women also have less baggage and their own money.

I like reading Gene Simmons' forums and his answers to people. He is real and just puts it out there. I also like this new gal on the radar, Megan Fox. No fluff, no illusion, no pretending for the gig or the bucks ~ just real.

As for money and wealth? Well it should be no shock that there are scams out there everywhere trying to make you rich by their advice. The internet has something like 42 scams to every ONE legit make money scheme. Most of us aren't super models or born into an inheritance, and good portion of us can't marry it. We either have to steal it, slowly invest, get child support, or win the lottery. Too many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Nearly 50% I think it is now. And of those 50%, many make over $100,000/yr. I read an article in Redbook I think it was this past spring about a couple who was the top dog on their block as far as wealth and goodies. Than the job required them to move and they moved into real ritzy area in Florida where they were no longer the big fish but the little fish on the block. They started to spend their money on all the finest things in life to try and impress their new neighbors and to be "in" with the "in crowd". Well they lost everything and fell into debt and it took humility and humbleness to get them back on track but they are still in debt and paying for their past mistakes trying to live by somebody else's definitions of who matters and who doesn't.

I have a Money magazine from almost 10 years ago (June 1997) and it has in it almost the same advice you will find on Oprah's forum topic "America's Debt Diet". It is simple, live below your means, stop spending money on things you don't need. Less partying, more investing. We buy so much we don't need: Newspaper, Craigslist, the laundry mat tac-board, rummage sales, ebay, everywhere people are trying to get rid of so many things they don't use anymore or never used.

*Found the old issue: 1) Live Below Your Means 2) Budget your spending 3) Launch a discipline savings and investing plan 4) Take on debt sparingly 5) Pay as little as possible in income tax 6) hire an astute, independent financial adviser 7) start your own business.

In a Sheboygan paper a year ago I read an article about a secretary who made 8 million dollars by having TWO advisors in investing who did not know each other but they knew she had another advisor, this way neither would lie or give bad advice.

A former coworker went to Colorado on a hiking trip. He was amazed at how the town population kept fit. They all went walking. There were no fast food restaurants in town. The community voted against it. The whole town he said seems to have this philosophy and support system to stay and be healthy.

For 20+ years now I have been reading the same kind of articles on certain subjects, which have been around long before I was born. So the sooner you learn about human nature and how work with it, around it, or deal with it the better you will be. (Try just being honest with yourself, a postive attitude and self esteem with a sense of humor). It is all a mind game, society will try to mess with yours to try and stop you or to have you surrender and settle for less than what you deserve. Don't let it.

Oprah's May Issue 2007 of O, "Get a Life Lift!" see also pages 71, 90, 304, 306

Good House Keeping February 2007 and the "Marcia Cross" article. Life after 30 (yes it happens to a lot more than you think), learning that it might not be men in general but the men you pick, how fate and destiny both get you your goals and not just one or the other.

GQ page 42 and being a guy trying to break out of the conventional mentality and going your own way ~ the trying to diet article is just one example.

Readers Digest May Issue page 216 with Dr Phil

Find our Who "Martha Beck" is and see if what she has to say inspires you at all.

If the conventional (cultural conditioned method) isn't working, maybe you have to get unconventional and just take the verbal heat from society to find happiness. I would have to dig a ways back in Gene Simmons' "Your Letters" section, but he commented on a submitted letter that Life is about choices, and you have to live with results and deal with it. If you chose pleasure over prudence, you can't make excuses for what happens after. Live with it and move on.

The Fisher King

2007-09-04T21:57:00.002-07:00

It begins with the King as a boy--having to spend a night alone in the forest to prove his courage so that he could become king. While he was standing there alone, he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail, the symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be the keeper of the Grail, so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions, of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement, he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible...like God. So he reached into the fire to take the Grail. And the Grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire, to be terribly wounded.
Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper, until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die.
One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. Being a fool, he was simpleminded, he didn't see a king, he saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you, friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need a some water to cool my throat." So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water, handed it to the king. As the king began to drink he realized that his wound was healed. He looked at his hands, and there was the Holy Grail that which he sought all of his life! And he turned to the fool and said in amazement, "How could you find that which what my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."

http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/grail.html

I also like the movie starring Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams

America through the Decades

2007-09-04T21:57:00.001-07:00

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decades.html
An interersting site filled with fashion, music, quotes, fads and tidbits of the times.

1901 - 1909

76,000,000 Americans in 46 states (by the end of the decade.)
Policeman arrests woman for smoking in public
$46,000,000+ in the U.S. treasury
8,000 cars - 10 miles of paved roads
1900 - Auto deaths 96; lynchings 115
San Francisco Earthquake took 700 lives and cost over $4,000,000 in damage.
Average worker made $12.98/week for 59 hours
Life expectancy: 47.3 female, 46.3 male - 33.0 blacks

1960's ~ I was born in 1966

Population 177,830,000
Unemployment 3,852,000
National Debt 286.3 Billion
Average Salary $4,743
Teacher's Salary $5,174
Minimum Wage $1.00
Life Expectancy: Males 66.6 years, Females 73.1 years
Auto deaths 21.3 per 100,000
An estimated 850,000 "war baby" freshmen enter college; emergency living quarters are set up in dorm lounges, hotels and trailer camps.

1980's ~ I graduated 1985, $3.10/hr was my salary (minimum wage) and I made a whopping $6k/year - WOOHOO! Another source says the average salary that year was 25,000/household.

Population: 226,546,000
Unemployed in 1980:
National Debt: 1980 - $914,000,000,000
National Debt: 1986 - $2,000,000,000,000
Average salary: $15,757
Life Expectancy: Male 69.9 Female 77.6
Minimum Wage: $3.10
BMW was $12,000; Mercedes 280 E was $14,800
Attendance: Movies 20 million/week

It is also interesting to see what a house cost during these different decades.

Prof Muhammad Yunus

2007-09-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights..

..>..>

About Grameeen

When we started giving out tiny loans under a system which later became known as the Grameen Bank, we never imagined that one day we would be reaching hundreds of thousands, let alone five million, borrowers.

Grameen Bank

Provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh without any collateral. At Grameen Bank, credit is a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socio-economic

http://www.grameen-info.org/

Banking for the Poor and someone trying to end Poverty, hmm who'd of thought?

Some Excerpts of Mark Twain

2007-09-04T21:55:00.002-07:00

Several generations have grown up with Twain's stories, from the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to delightful accounts of globetrotting like Roughing It and A Tramp Abroad.
Twain also wrote essays. Some, unleashing his appreciable contempt for organized religions, seemed so blasphemous that they stayed unpublished until a half-century after his death in 1910.
Yet, among the least-known of Twain's words are his fiery political statements. They reached many people in his lifetime -- but not in ours.
Today, few Americans are aware of Twain's outspoken views on foreign policy and social justice. As his fame grew, so did his willingness to challenge the high and mighty.
Samuel Clemens adopted the pseudonym "Mark Twain" in 1863, when he launched his writing career as a newspaper reporter in the wild Nevada territory. During the next five decades, many of his most incendiary paragraphs first appeared in newspapers and magazines.
Twain was painfully aware of people's inclinations to go along with prevailing evils. When slavery was lawful, he recalled, abolitionists were "despised and ostracized, and insulted" -- by "patriots."
As far as Twain was concerned, "Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." With chiseled precision, he wielded language as a hard-edged tool. "The difference between the right word and the almost right word," he once commented, "is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."
Here are a few volts of Twain's lightning that you probably never saw before:
* "Who are the oppressors? The few: the king, the capitalist and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft- handed and idle eat."
* "Why is it right that there is not a fairer division of the spoil all around? Because laws and constitutions have ordered otherwise. Then it follows that laws and constitutions should change around and say there shall be a more nearly equal division."
* "I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/8187/

"For in a republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant – merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is 'the country?' Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Is it the school-superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in the thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn't."

Source: "Documents Related to 'Diaries Antedating the Flood'" (from the collection The Bible According to Mark Twain)

"In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of."

Source: Papers of the Adam Family

"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death."

Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Mr Twain is another writers work I enjoy..

Ben Franklin's Words before the signing of the Declaration

2007-09-04T21:55:00.001-07:00

Mr. President

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
I find his thoughts and words on Life to be humorous and wise.

To the Naysayers

2007-09-04T21:54:00.001-07:00

On the calendar at work for this month is a quote about the word "Tenacious".
Underneath it reads, "There is no joy like the one you get for doing something others say you can not do."

The majority of people on this planet are percentage players. They follow a plan or someone's belief that will yield the best chance for success. I on the other hand look at the risk/reward and want more. Sometimes based on your situation you have to really roll the dice for what you want. "The greatest dreams are often unrealistic" ~ Will Smith.

Here are seven stories of people who proved the naysayers wrong.

http://www.rd.com/content/how-famous-people-achieved-their-dreams/
*copy and paste (cntrl C / cntrl V) into your browser if need be.

Need more inspiration?
http://www.rd.com/channel/inspiration/

Always look for a way.

Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire

2007-09-04T21:53:00.002-07:00

This morning while enjoying my breakfast I was watching 'Brian's Song', the story of Brian Piccolo and Gayle Sayers. Brian asked Gayle, "What is like to have it all"? To have everyone coming to you and offering you anything you want. Gayle responded with, "what is like to be you to be able to go wherever you want without fear of being who you are". Brain envied the person who society worhsips and doesn't have to do much to get offers because of natural talent. Gayle feared what will happen once it wears off, what will happen when society stops wanting him.

When Gayle injured his knee he was ready to quit and give up on football because he thought the ride was over. Brian wouldn't let him quit. The two had a partnership that drove each other to success. Brian could of let Gayle given up and taken his job. Their wives were there too supporting each other when they (husbands and each other) faltered.

Mickey Mantle couldn't understand at first why grown men would cry when they met their Hero. He was at the time one of the greatest and highest paying ball players. After he retired life would teach him some new lessons. He was a poor business manager and soon would be hard up for money. He was an alcoholic which would serious affect him and his family. By 1980 he started to turn things around, beginning to accept the role as a role model and hero and to help others. If you get a chance, you sould watch the Bob Costas Bio on Mr Mantel.

When my father passed away this last year we found notebooks in boxes stored away in the attic. He in secret wrote poems. One of his writings was titled "How did you get to be you". It was kind of freaky because I often contemplate humanity how does one make it to such heights and others fall a drift. Who did Halle Berry encounter that pushed her forward or picked her up when she was down before she had the confidence to stand alone (Mom and School Counselor). That bum that you see walking on the back streets drifting alone with his spirits and hope crushed. How did he get there?

Bruce Lee gave up when he injured his back, but his wife wouldn't let him quit. She lit a fire in his belly to be a fighter again. Enter the Dragon. Successful people credit somebody at acceptance speeches for inspiring or helping them to get there. Failing people who blame the world for their lack of success are told it is their own fault. It is just human nature like JFK said about success has many creditors and failure is a lonely orphan, that whole blame thing we do.

I falter. Some days I write wonderful words, other days I make no sense. Some days I envy those who are born with "good genes" or have been "blessed" and are "discovered". Some days I am more aware of what is important at the human level in the soul and it matters not. "A rich person is not one who has the most, but one who needs the least". Some days I know what id I want to do, some days I am on the fence about everything. Some days I marvel people, some days I am like Samuel Clemens, "Ah it is most a pity that Noah and his family didn't miss the boat."

I am confused when people preach about YOU are responsible for your life and I should not seek your time or sweat. Your criticism comes easy, free and often enough but other than that. And than I am confused when you need help, donations of money and sweat and I should rally to your cause and are offended when I don't.

When I watch movies and read stories like Bruce Lee and Brian's Song, that keeps me going. I just wish the whole world worked that way rather than running. But you do find a few gems amoung the living who still believe and inspire (Yvonne J. Miller). How I react to you changes how you react to me and vice versa. So when I falter, when I wimp out like Gayle Sayers or Bruce Lee, will you tend the fire?

My vitual kindlers: Valeri Bertinelli, Veenie Mahmoud, Lee Iacocca, Kim Peek, Marie Osmond, Sara Ramirez, Gene Kranz, Sarena Willaims (it is not a comeback), George Foreman (Killer to Cream Puff ESPN Classics), (to be cont)

Motivation and Confidence

2007-09-04T21:53:00.001-07:00

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. ~Charles Kettering

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. ~Conrad Hilton

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. ~Confucius

If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm. ~Bruce Barton

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. ~Kahlil Gibran

The greatest dreams are always unrealistic. ~Will Smith

"Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember." ~Anne Sullivan

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ~Author Unknown

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/success/
http://www.quotegarden.com/goals.html

Confidence Quotes
http://www.quotegarden.com/confidence.html

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. ~Bruce Barton

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes. ~ Sally Field

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. ~Helen Keller

How do people become success stories? Ambition, "can do" attitude, and meeting the right people in life.

"Always hard working and tenacious, a series of circumstances in the early 1980's left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and the sole guardian of his toddler son. Unwilling to give up Chris Jr. or his dream of financial independence, Gardner started at the bottom. Without connections or a college degree, he earned a spot in the Dean Witter Reynolds training program. Often spending his nights in a church shelter or the bathroom..read more

"Yes. The movie RUDY is a True Story. Rudy's Dream was real, the tackle was real, the carry off was real. The Struggle was real. The Victory was real. The movie was made to tell a story that would inspire others – to let people know that no matter what the odds are, they can overcome them – they can win. No matter what your background, your grades, your size – you can find a way. It won't come easy. The message is clear that you need to struggle, you need to prepare to earn your Dream. It's all about The Dream, The Struggle, The Victory!"
read more

Seabiscuit was undersized, knobby-kneed, and not much to look at, and was given to sleeping and eating for long periods. Initially, he was trained by the legendary Sunny JimFitzsimmons, who had taken Gallant Fox to the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Fitzsimmons saw some potential in Seabiscuit, but felt the horse was lazy read more

Secret to Success

2007-09-04T21:52:00.001-07:00

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you you believe you were meant to be"

~ George Sheehan

"Know where to find the information and how to use it- That's the secret of success"

~ Albert Einstein

I have turned to literary inspiration for encouragement because, well, I don't find it among the living. You've heard the cliché "People who become successful don't quit. They don't let others bother them as a visionary is often laughed at until they succeed. Successful people fail a lot."

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

~ Thomas Edison

Mr. Edison is most known for the light bulb, which he failed thousands of times and took years to make. Many in his community saw it as a failure and when they asked him if he thought it was, his response was something like: "A failure? Heck no! I now know a thousand different ways how NOT to make a light bulb."

I see myself as an inventor rather than a scientist like Einstein. Einstein knew how to use the information he found, I do not as of yet. So like Edison, I learn by trial and costly error. A trait unacceptable in modern capitalism culture. But I am not discouraged by failure; rather failure merely states man's insatiable drive to find something better. Watch the History channels Failed Inventions videos, if nothing else, the amount RJ Reynolds spent on the Premiere cigarette idea should make you feel a little better.

Another guy you all know but perhaps not his story, Colonel Sanders. Forget the modern business issues with KFC. Rather, go back to the roots of how KFC got started and at one time, had more store locations than McDonalds! You see, Mr. Sanders use to run a gas station and kitchen for his livelihood. He did like every American is suppose to: go to work, work hard, invest your money where you government and businessmen tell you, and eagerly wait to retire. But when retirement came and he received his first Social Security Check, he was very upset! "I can't live on this", he exclaimed! So he needed something to sell. What to sell he wondered. Well everyone use to love the chicken I cooked at the gas station kitchen, I will try that. So he hit the road with his secret recipe and drove to over 1000 restaurants before he convinced one to sell his chicken. *source* thisisawar.com. He was the founder of the franchise business. How many of us give up after a dozen, six, one try?

So I need something to invent. I have lots of ideas but not the knowledge or financing to make them fly, except maybe one. Working on it :)

"Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember."

~Anne Sullivan

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

~Kahlil Gibran

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.

~Bruce Barton

You don't have to be well educated to be successful. It helps, it definitely increases the %'s and on average college graduates make double of a high school graduate. But Einstein was a below average math student before he unlocked the secrets to the universe. Abraham Lincoln suffered from severe depression and many others like Reynaldo Robledo *(page 104 May issue Readers Digest) went on to success learning a passion and keeping at it.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TakeControlOfYourLife/

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TakeControlOfYourLife/story?id=3171218&page=1