Good day friends! </wave>

I’ve been pretty lax about keeping current on FaceBook with my friends and acquaintances; doh! Been trying to fix this the last few days, however.

I’ve occasionally tried to post a little bit of history via my Facebook page at times : http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history & http://www.440.com/twtd/ are two popular sites I’ve used.  Facebook has been a really decent way to reconnect with lost friends and to meet new folks, and to somewhat keep up with current friends and family as well.  I decided this was a great idea (after May 5, 2009 – two years ago) and it definitely has been a positive so far!

Side note : Recommended Reading List – for folks young and old to see what could and should be our future & legacy . . .

Sometimes though, despite trying to live by one of my Dad’s favorite bits (the Desiderata),  you end up falling short, or stumble.

When you do fall short, reading things like what this grumpy dude wrote don’t really help a lot, in keeping a positive outlook. (see previous post . . . happier is a lot more peaceful, too!)

Getting an email to read (daily) of the Dilbert cartoon, as well as Day by Day cartoon, is a lot more positive I think : at least when you can laugh a bit, you’re not so close to crying when things seem tough.

A definite positive I’ve enjoyed in recent times : taking up the tobacco pipe again on New Year’s eve, 2009.  A wonderful hobby indeed, is My Lady Nicotine . . . I hadn’t smoked a pipe really since using a cheap corn-cob pipe in High School.  Ahh, the days of trying not to get caught, being ‘somewhat’ adventurous . . .

While I’m putting out some random bits here . . . while I’m getting around to things I haven’t done lately : since I’ve never publicly thanked them, I’ll just say I have the greatest appreciation for Keith and rest of the Bowman Family for all their assistance.  What wonderful folks and family they are to many of us!

To close out today’s post, I’d like to leave you with a few images and a few tunes :

 

Belushi, boy, there’s a lot there for some of us to identify with.  OK, safer / better to say “a lot of images” <hah!> . . . including :

 

 

To see all of my accumulated FaceBook pictures, you can head over here (near the bottom of my main page). (there just wasn’t a nice way, otherwise, that I could easily locate to show them off to the world at large, who aren’t ‘friends’ with me on FB ….)

As well, here are a few songs I’ve enjoyed listening to recently (right click and save, to get your very own copy on your machine) :

The Blues Brothers, 1

The Blues Brothers, 2

The song listed at the bottom of this post ….

I’m feeling better already from the public venting …. blogging is definitely therapeutic

Cheers friends!

—————-
Now playing: The Police – Bring On The Night
via FoxyTunes

 

Some days are just tougher than others.  Allergies have been killing me, and I think I caught a bug last week as well.

Allergy meds to the rescue   That, and kind friends stopping by my home – thanks!

Unfortunately, missed a friend’s wedding over last weekend due to just not being up for traveling.  Everyone and their dog has been out cutting grass, as well, which doesn’t help

At least the rain on Sunday (May 1) helped damp down the pollen a bit.  Ah well, got to keep trying for the cheerful bits :

Same as the link on the main page suggests (click the puppies to get to the goods )  — puppies , rainbows , & butterflies <grin> – those are cheerful bits, and that’s the backstory for why those pictures are what they are, on the website, just FYI

Well at least by staying indoors and using the air purifiers, I’m avoiding a lot of the pollen, so there’s that to be thankful for!  That, and going out to lunch with friends once a week – it’s a blessing to stay in contact and involved with at least some of the local folks (scheduling can be tough on us all, naturally!)

Hope everyone else had a stellar weekend, and that your work week is flowing along as mine is.  Happy days, friends!

—————-
Now playing: The Eagles – In The City
via FoxyTunes

—————-
Now playing: The Specials – Enjoy Yourself
via FoxyTunes

Take what you wish, leave the rest in peace.

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Look with all your eyes, look. -Jules Verne

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. -H.P. Lovecraft

Freedom has no barcode. -J.G. Ballard

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable. -Ambrose Bierce

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything. -Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Who then is free? The wise man, who is lord over himself, whom neither poverty, or death, nor bonds affright, who bravely defies his passions, and scorns ambition, who in himself is whole and rounded, so that nothing outside can rest on the polished surface, and against whom Fortune in her onset is ever defeated. -Horace

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will watch the watchers? -Juvenal

It takes a very long time to become young. -Pablo Picasso

via FaceBook.

Бренды – Балтика – №6 Портер

Life is rough sometimes.

Perhaps just the tried and true, no? No need to burn fossil fuel, hang with friends at one home or the other, then stay put

Yes, for non WordPress folks, “Save Draft” is one of the editing buttons in the Publish window; it makes sure the work you’ve been doodling in the “Post” window is saved, in case “Stuff Happens™”

/Cheers!

Yale H, Esquire is fully online. He usually has some good insight over at his blog - RUMINATIONS, RAMBLINGS AND RANTS.

He tweets, as well though naturally I reacquainted at the obligatory FaceBook page.  What is the world coming to; social networks are likely a good investment, eh?

Your useful bonus for staying with us after the video link : http://www.convertcase.net/

“Accidentally left the caps lock on and typed something, but can’t be bothered to start again and retype it all?”

Converts to and from Sentence case form, lower case, UPPER CASE, Capitalized First Letter Case

Paste arbitrary text, click convert.  Yessir, slick and free.

Selected excerpts from friends . . .

Yeah, if you don’t have a quotes page up on FaceBook, how am I going to raid your wit?

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From Tracy : Your life is right now. It will always be right now. You might as well decide to start enjoying your life right now, because it’s not ever going to get better than right now–until it gets better right now! ~ Abe-Hicks (5/11/02)

Greg : “All it takes to start an insane asylum is a big room and the right kind of people”

Jennifer : Not really a quote but…I love this line from Robert Frost’s famous poem-
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

And this one by Emerson…

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it … Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Shere : “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
–Cree Indian saying

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
–Albert Einstein

Yale : “If it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks, it’s not funny.”

“You know: you have lovely hands — do you moisturize? I swear by it. I try all sorts of lotions. I went through a fragrance-free period last year, but now I’m liking this new brand fortified with rose hip. My sister, you know, she uses the aloe vera with the sun screen built in… You know: they say cinnamon is wonderful for your pores. Read that on the internet. And that ideally you should be wearing gloves to bed, but I find that would interfere with my social agenda. Problem is: I get a reaction to camphor so I can’t use traditional remedies…”

Beth : ’I love you Beth. You always keep me calm when I want to gouge someones eyes out.’ Megan

‘ Censorship is like telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.’ Mark Twain

‘One Day At A Time’

‘Stop then! The deliberate manufacture of your own misery!’

“Listen, kitten….”

“Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissary note, today is cash in hand.”- also Don B.

Donger : I’m on the top of the pyramid to have you support, but I ‘d like to be the bottom of the pyramid to support you. President Gary D. Forsee - May 27, 2009

Smooth roads never make good drivers
Smooth seas never makes good sailors
Clear Skies never makes good Pilots
Problem and hassle free Life NEVER makes a strong person
Be Strong enough to accept the challenges of Life
Don’t ask Life , ‘Why Me ?
Instead say ‘try Me!’

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There, plenty of bits for you to digest.  Hey, not going to use up all the wit from friends in one go, these were just near the top of the page in the FB window I had open <grin>

On this note, I leave you with a happy butterfly, and stuff™

/Cheers

Stolen roses, from another friend out on FaceBook.   As always no one has to agree, but there are always points to consider . . .

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Without tools, man is nothing; with tools he is all.
_________________________________________

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!
-Samuel Adams
_________________________________________

The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably, thought and act.
- Orison Swett Marden
_________________________________________

Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords.
-Benjamin Franklin
_________________________________________

If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.
_________________________________________

“It is not enough that we do our best, sometimes we must do what is required.”
-Sir Winston Churchill
_________________________________________

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein
_________________________________________

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain

I’ve got to give all those social networking things their due. Not only are they amazing time-wasters (hey, someone has to pay the bills) but they do allow a lot of folks to reconnect, and keep everyone appraised of some of the things going on in their life. Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Myspace, etc.  I’ve noticed even families using this quite a bit, I think it’s pretty nifty since many of us are spread out over at least one country.

Among tons of other friends I found in the last 6 weeks, one friend has been deployed multiple times overseas. It is indeed a changing world, as she noted.

I can’t personally thank all of the folks who’ve tried to make a difference overseas.  Unfortunately, a lot of the great work they’ve done has been overshadowed by politics (from all sides).  Trying to get a consensus built is no easy task in that area, not that it is here either.  But I have to believe that a lot of these folks have really helped out a lot of folks “over there” and made the world a better place, overall.  Thanks!

Today, featuring “Tracy” :

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” ~ Dr. Seuss

“Our kids learn because they can’t help it! It’s like breathing! Life is Learning … Learning is Life … “and Life Rocks!” ~ Dayna Martin

“Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream.” ~ Hugh Hefner

“The children desire freedom! And every particle of their being from their Source says, ‘You are free. You are so free, that every thought you offer, the entire Universe jumps to respond to it.’ And so, to take that kind of knowledge and try to confine it in any way, defies the Laws of the Universe. You must allow your children to be free, because the entire Universe is set up to accommodate that. And anything you do to the contrary will only bring you regret. You cannot contain those that cannot be contained. It defies Law. ” ~ Abraham

“The butterfly flitting from flower to flower ever remains mine, I lose the one that is netted by me.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

“It’s not that I feel that school is a good idea gone wrong, but a wrong idea from the word go. It’s a nutty notion that we can have a place where nothing but learning happens, cut off from the rest of life.” ~ John Holt

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkein

“The learners shall inherit the earth while the learned will be beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” ~ Eric Hoffer

“Children are born with the ability to learn whatever they need to know and will do so, as long as they are not hindered by well-meaning people trying to teach them.” ~ John Holt

“Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.” ~ The Dalai Lama

“The opposite of courage is not so much fear as it is conformity.” ~ Wayne Dyer

“On with the dance; let joy be unconfined is my motto, whether there’s any dance to dance or any joy to unconfine.” ~ Mark Twain

Hey, I only have so many personal favorites to go around, so it’s always nice to see what others value too.