Wednesday, August 28, 2013

14 Lessons From Benjamin Franklin About Getting What You Want In Life

I feel it is perfect, at least in the situation I am in right now !!! Read it 

Here are 14 action-inducing lessons from him: 

Less Talk, More Action 

  • 1.“Well done is better than well said.”
Talk is cheap. Talking about a project won't get it completed. We all know people who constantly talk about the things they are going to do but rarely ever take that first step. Eventually people begin to question their credibility. Taking action and seeing the task through to completion is the only way to get the job done.

  • 2. Don’t Procrastinate 
“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
This is probably one of the first quotes I remember hearing as a teenager. With an impressive list of achievements to his credit, Benjamin Franklin was not a man hung up on procrastination. He was a man with clear measurable goals who worked hard to turn his vision into reality. What are you putting off till tomorrow that could make a difference in your life today?
Be Prepared 
  • 3. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

You need a plan to accomplish your goals. Charging in without giving any thought to the end result and how to achieve it, is a sure way to fall flat on your face. Think like a boy scout. Have a realistic plan of attack and a systematic approach for getting where you need to be.
Don’t Fight Change 
  • 4. “When you're finished changing, you're finished.”

Whilst many of us don’t like change, others thrive on it. Either way change is inevitable. The stronger we fight against it, the more time and energy it consumes. Give up the fight. Focus on proactively making positive changes, instead of having change merely thrust upon you. Wherever possible, try to view change as a positive instead of a negative.
Get Moving 
  • 5. “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
There’s a reason we use the expression, movers and shakers. Movers are the ones who take action, the people who get things done, while the immovable are sitting around scratching their heads wondering how others could possibly be so successful. Which group do you want to belong to?
Avoid Busywork 

  • 6. “Never confuse motion with action.”
We are always running around doing things. We rush from one meeting or event to the next, sometimes without achieving a great deal. At the end of the day, how much of our busywork are we proud of? How much of that running around improves anyone’s life (including ours) for the better? Make your motion mean something.
  • 7. Give Yourself Permission to Make Mistakes 
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
If we fear making mistakes, we become scared to try new things. Fear leaves us nestled in our comfort zone. Staying in your comfort zone rarely leads to greatness. Taking risks and giving yourself permission to make mistakes, will ultimately lead you to whatever your version of success may be.
  • 8. Act Quickly on Opportunities 
“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
Opportunities are everywhere. The trick is being quick enough and smart enough to seize them when they arise. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that something won’t work or can’t be done, allow yourself the freedom to ask what if?
  • 9.Continue to Grow 
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
We all have vices of some description. The key is to keep them under control or preferably eradicate them entirely. Be kind to those around you, whether they are neighbors, family, co-workers or friends. Never accept that you have finished growing as a person.
Keep Going 

  • 10. “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Have you ever looked at a successful entrepreneur or business person and thought how lucky they are? Most of the time, luck has nothing to do with it. Hard work and sacrifice on the other hand have everything to do with it. Successful people deal with failure. They tackle their demons head on. They pick themselves up and keep going.
  • 11. Know Yourself 
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
Understanding ourselves is not easy. Sometimes we just don’t want to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s much easier to hold onto a romanticized version of ourselves or to simply view ourselves through other people’s eyes. Start by being brutally honest with yourself. Follow through with understanding, compassion and acceptance.
  • 12. Don’t Self-Sabotage 
“Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
We spend so much time worrying about other people hurting us, yet fail to comprehend the damage we inflict on ourselves. If you are using negative self-talk, lying to yourself or indulging in addictive behavior you are self-sabotaging. Life can dish up enough challenges without us adding to the mix. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself like you would a best friend.
Don’t Give Up 

  • 13. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Achieving our goals can be downright exhausting. There will be days when you want to give up. There will be times when your energy levels flatline and you wonder why you bother getting out of bed. Yet you push forward, day after day because you believe in yourself and you have the determination and strength to back up that belief.
  • 14.Wise Up 
“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
Benjamin was definitely onto something with this one. Who hasn’t had the thought - I wish I could know then, what I know now? Unfortunately there is no time machine; there is no going back. The key is to wise up as early as you can to start forging a life of purpose, achievement and happiness.



Sunday, August 25, 2013

♥ Having Church ♥

Let's have church people! Yes, today I have been having church, not in a chapel or a cathedral but in my heart, mind and soul. I awoke before 5 am and I have been watching the Gather Gospel hour marathon. I have to admit I have not been to this place just between God and I for a while now. I have been sick, and yes that was a time that I needed him most. It has been so hard for me to ask for prayer from my peeps lately since I was judged not so very long ago, and I have to watch what I post on my timeline as well. For you see the devil used someone I truly cared for to steal my joy. When things like this happen they come from the devil, and he can use anyone preachers, teachers, scholars, you and yes even me.

Let's get this straight I am a backslider I profess nothing, but yes I love the Lord with all my heart and soul. Yes, it has been a while since I served him, but I have praised him daily. I know that most people believe "Once saved always saved", but not me. For you see my grandfather is a "Pentecostal Preacher". This is and will be forever my religion, since I find "truth" in the teaching of Pentecost. No we do not handle snakes, since that is always the first thing that people ask. The Pentecostal religion comes from the book of "Acts". Pentecost can be found in the 2nd chapter of Acts. This is where God gives Peter the keys to the kingdom, and well worth checking it out for yourself. 

I know it is a cop out, but I found it hard to conform myself to the teachings of the Pentecostal religion which a majority of people do. For you see as women we never cut our hair, wear makeup and wear dresses only and almost down to our ankles. I can conform to no tobacco, alcohol which in most religions believe that we must keep our bodies (Our Temple) clean. But, I must also say that in the Pentecostal religion we do not judge others. We accept everyone, pray for everyone although they may not attend our church. A woman could enter the church in a bikini and we may be shocked, but the church would welcome her or anyone with open arms. For you see this is yet another soul that though love,compassion and caring can possible be won over to Jesus, but only though the same love and compassion that God gives us. No I have never saw a woman enter the church in a bikini, but once a girl around 18 years old roller bladed in wearing shorts and a tank top. Lets say she was ready for a change, and yes she found it that day. My granny once said, that when we make it to heaven the people we expect to see will not be there, and the people we least expect will be. Not saying I will be there, but we must first change ourselves before we can reach anyone else.No I am not a fence rider for the bible tells us that we must be hot or cold and not luke warm, and that if we are luke warm the "Lord" shall spew us from his mouth. Religion is something I take very seriously!  

As for the reason for this post, I find it very hard to be me now. I see my friends post on their timelines graphics that read if you "Love Jesus" like or repost. I always did until I was hurt and yes humiliated by someone that made it a point to post their dislike for my pictures and post on my timeline. Yes, I did call them on it, and yes they apologized to me which I accepted. I still accept their there apology, and yes I love them still. But, since that day I have tried to respect their feelings, and then on Friday I made a mistake and tagged myself in my photo's that were not tagged. I really did feel bad and yes I blocked my albums on that page so that they were not posted on my timeline. But, I found that I could not block the pictures from my timeline after all, and I have wondered since Friday if I hurt this person or what they must think of me? 

Then, this morning I received clarity. I sit here wondering why I was worried after all? Why I respected this person more than they respected me? For you see since that day I accepted their apology, I have made a effort to forget about it, and to move on. For you see I do forgive others, so that I too can be forgiven.I have liked things on their timeline, and left comments that were never answered. Then this morning I thought about this person and about our friendship.For you see a few months ago I almost died. This was after what was said to me, their apology and the apology I accepted. For you see I had a subdural hematoma, and surgery to repair the bleed back in May of this year. I am still not 100% well yet, but thank 'The lord" I am getting there. No it certainly was not Karma or punishment for the way I dress, my pictures or anything I have done. I had previously had surgery for a brain stem/spinal cord injury that I sustained several years ago and the leak was from a blood vessel that weakened and burst nothing more. 

I looked back today at the unanswered emails, likes and post to this person and it brought a tear to my eye. Then I looked to make sure, and there was nothing from this person while I was sick. Not a single email or post to say "get well" or I am praying for you. I know this since my friend Haley copied each of them, printed them out for me to make me feel better while I was in the hospital or on the mends at home. They simply did not pray for me while I was sick, and still ignore me today. But I pray for this person, love this person and yes I most definitely forgive this person. I know this person means well or I would have deleted them already. I only bring this up because their lack of compassion for their friends in need. I know my world will not stop if they have a problem with me. I know that I must start being myself again, and not care about what others think of me. I have but one judge and this person or no one on this earth can take his place. Halleluah!


     

I am not mad, but only hurt! 
Don't Judge Me, For You Too Shall Be Judged.    



        

Friday, August 23, 2013

What I hope to achieve








This is what I hope to achieve:

1) 5 mile
runs twice a week
2) Strum and sing One song
3) Enroll bike license at BBDC and go for lessons at least twice a week
4) Portrait Drawing skills
5) Write 5 more stories for my short stories book
6) Be 48kg
7) Finish reading 50 shades of grey
8) Know more about starting an online business
9) Draft out plans for an online business
10) Clean out my room and make it more conducive to work in

So today's plan is:

6:30pm: Watch Mad Men and have dinner
7:30pm: Practice guitar
8:30pm: Draw
9:30pm: Watch Mad Men
10:30pm: Read 50 shades of grey
11:30pm: Run
12:30am: Watch Mad Men
1:30am: Sleep.

We'll see how this goes later. Will blog before I sleep on the progress =)



Army major convicted of murder for Fort Hood rampage

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Maj. Nidal Hasan has been convicted of premeditated murder for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood. That means he's now eligible for the death penalty.

Military jurors found the Army psychiatrist guilty on Friday for the attack that killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others at the Texas military base.

The trial now enters a penalty phase, where prosecutors will ask jurors to sentence Hasan to death.

Hasan is acting as his own attorney. But he didn't call witnesses or testify, and he questioned only three of prosecutors' nearly 90 witnesses.

Through media leaks and statements to the judge, the American-born Muslim signaled that he believed the attack was justified as a way to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders from U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.


For-40-Years-This-Russian Family Was Cut Off From Society...



Siberian summers do not last long. The snows linger into May, and the cold weather returns again during September, freezing the taiga into a still life awesome in its desolation: endless miles of straggly pine and birch forests scattered with sleeping bears and hungry wolves; steep-sided mountains; white-water rivers that pour in torrents through the valleys; a hundred thousand icy bogs. This forest is the last and greatest of Earth's wildernesses. It stretches from the furthest tip of Russia's arctic regions as far south as Mongolia, and east from the Urals to the Pacific: five million square miles of nothingness, with a population, outside a handful of towns, that amounts to only a few thousand people.

When the warm days do arrive, though, the taiga blooms, and for a few short months it can seem almost welcoming. It is then that man can see most clearly into this hidden world—not on land, for the taiga can swallow whole armies of explorers, but from the air. Siberia is the source of most of Russia's oil and mineral resources, and, over the years, even its most distant parts have been overflown by oil prospectors and surveyors on their way to backwoods camps where the work of extracting wealth is carried on.


Karp Lykok and his daughter Agifia 
wearing clothes donated by Soviet 
Geologist, shorting after their family
was rediscovered.  

Thus it was in the remote south of the forest in the summer of 1978. A helicopter sent to find a safe spot to land a party of geologists was skimming the treeline a hundred or so miles from the Mongolian border when it dropped into the thickly wooded valley of an unnamed tributary of the Abakan, a seething ribbon of water rushing through dangerous terrain. The valley walls were narrow, with sides that were close to vertical in places, and the skinny pine and birch trees swaying in the rotors' downdraft were so thickly clustered that there was no chance of finding a spot to set the aircraft down. But, peering intently through his windscreen in search of a landing place, the pilot saw something that should not have been there. It was a clearing, 6,000 feet up a mountainside, wedged between the pine and larch and scored with what looked like long, dark furrows. The baffled helicopter crew made several passes before reluctantly concluding that this was evidence of human habitation—a garden that, from the size and shape of the clearing, must have been there for a long time.

It was an astounding discovery. The mountain was more than 150 miles from the nearest settlement, in a spot that had never been explored. The Soviet authorities had no records of anyone living in the district.

The four scientists sent into the district to prospect for iron ore were told about the pilots' sighting, and it perplexed and worried them. "It's less dangerous," the writer Vasily Peskov notes of this part of the taiga, "to run across a wild animal than a stranger," and rather than wait at their own temporary base, 10 miles away, the scientists decided to investigate. Led by a geologist named Galina Pismenskaya, they "chose a fine day and put gifts in our packs for our prospective friends"—though, just to be sure, she recalled, "I did check the pistol that hung at my side."

As the intruders scrambled up the mountain, heading for the spot pinpointed by their pilots, they began to come across signs of human activity: a rough path, a staff, a log laid across a stream, and finally a small shed filled with birch-bark containers of cut-up dried potatoes. Then, Pismenskaya said,

beside a stream there was a dwelling. Blackened by time and rain, the hut was piled up on all sides with taiga rubbish—bark, poles, planks. If it hadn't been for a window the size of my backpack pocket, it would have been hard to believe that people lived there. But they did, no doubt about it.... Our arrival had been noticed, as we could see.

The low door creaked, and the figure of a very old man emerged into the light of day, straight out of a fairy tale. Barefoot. Wearing a patched and repatched shirt made of sacking. He wore trousers of the same material, also in patches, and had an uncombed beard. His hair was disheveled. He looked frightened and was very attentive.... We had to say something, so I began: 'Greetings, grandfather! We've come to visit!'

The old man did not reply immediately.... Finally, we heard a soft, uncertain voice: 'Well, since you have traveled this far, you might as well come in.'

The sight that greeted the geologists as they entered the cabin was like something from the middle ages. Jerry-built from whatever materials came to hand, the dwelling was not much more than a burrow—"a low, soot-blackened log kennel that was as cold as a cellar," with a floor consisting of potato peel and pine-nut shells. Looking around in the dim light, the visitors saw that it consisted of a single room. It was cramped, musty and indescribably filthy, propped up by sagging joists—and, astonishingly, home to a family of five:




The silence was suddenly broken by sobs and lamentations. Only then did we see the silhouettes of two women. One was in hysterics, praying: 'This is for our sins, our sins.' The other, keeping behind a post... sank slowly to the floor. The light from the little window fell on her wide, terrified eyes, and we realized we had to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Led by Pismenskaya, the scientists backed hurriedly out of the hut and retreated to a spot a few yards away, where they took out some provisions and began to eat. After about half an hour, the door of the cabin creaked open, and the old man and his two daughters emerged—no longer hysterical and, though still obviously frightened, "frankly curious." Warily, the three strange figures approached and sat down with their visitors, rejecting everything that they were offered—jam, tea, bread—with a muttered, "We are not allowed that!" When Pismenskaya asked, "Have you ever eaten bread?" the old man answered: "I have. But they have not. They have never seen it." At least he was intelligible. The daughters spoke a language distorted by a lifetime of isolation. "When the sisters talked to each other, it sounded like a slow, blurred cooing."

Slowly, over several visits, the full story of the family emerged. The old man's name was Karp Lykov, and he was an Old Believer—a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect, worshiping in a style unchanged since the 17th century. Old Believers had been persecuted since the days of Peter the Great, and Lykov talked about it as though it had happened only yesterday; for him, Peter was a personal enemy and "the anti-Christ in human form"—a point he insisted had been amply proved by Tsar's campaign to modernize Russia by forcibly "chopping off the beards of Christians." But these centuries-old hatreds were conflated with more recent grievances; Karp was prone to complain in the same breath about a merchant who had refused to make a gift of 26 poods [940 pounds] of potatoes to the Old Believers sometime around 1900.

Things had only got worse for the Lykov family when the atheist Bolsheviks took power. Under the Soviets, isolated Old Believer communities that had fled to Siberia to escape persecution began to retreat ever further from civilization. During the purges of the 1930s, with Christianity itself under assault, a Communist patrol had shot Lykov's brother on the outskirts of their village while Lykov knelt working beside him. He had responded by scooping up his family and bolting into forest.


That was in 1936, and there were only four Lykovs then—Karp; his wife, Akulina; a son named Savin, 9 years old, and Natalia, a daughter who was only 2. Taking their possessions and some seeds, they had retreated ever deeper into the taiga, building themselves a succession of crude dwelling places, until at last they had fetched up in this desolate spot. Two more children had been born in the wild—Dmitry in 1940 and Agafia in 1943—and neither of the youngest Lykov children had ever seen a human being who was not a member of their family. All that Agafia and Dmitry knew of the outside world they learned entirely from their parents' stories. The family's principal entertainment, the Russian journalist Vasily Peskov noted, "was for everyone to recount their dreams."

The Lykov children knew there were places called cities where humans lived crammed together in tall buildings. They had heard there were countries other than Russia. But such concepts were no more than abstractions to them. Their only reading matter was prayer books and an ancient family Bible. Akulina had used the gospels to teach her children to read and write, using sharpened birch sticks dipped into honeysuckle juice as pen and ink. When Agafia was shown a picture of a horse, she recognized it from her mother's Bible stories. "Look, papa," she exclaimed. "A steed!"

But if the family's isolation was hard to grasp, the unmitigated harshness of their lives was not. Traveling to the Lykov homestead on foot was astonishingly arduous, even with the help of a boat along the Abakan. On his first visit to the Lykovs, Peskov—who would appoint himself the family's chief chronicler—noted that "we traversed 250 kilometres [155 miles] without seeing a single human dwelling!"

Isolation made survival in the wilderness close to impossible. Dependent solely on their own resources, the Lykovs struggled to replace the few things they had brought into the taiga with them. They fashioned birch-bark galoshes in place of shoes. Clothes were patched and repatched until they fell apart, then replaced with hemp cloth grown from seed.


The Lykovs had carried a crude spinning wheel and, incredibly, the components of a loom into the taiga with them—moving these from place to place as they gradually went further into the wilderness must have required many long and arduous journeys—but they had no technology for replacing metal. A couple of kettles served them well for many years, but when rust finally overcame them, the only replacements they could fashion came from birch bark. Since these could not be placed in a fire, it became far harder to cook. By the time the Lykovs were discovered, their staple diet was potato patties mixed with ground rye and hemp seeds.

In some respects, Peskov makes clear, the taiga did offer some abundance: "Beside the dwelling ran a clear, cold stream. Stands of larch, spruce, pine and birch yielded all that anyone could take.... Bilberries and raspberries were close to hand, firewood as well, and pine nuts fell right on the roof."

Yet the Lykovs lived permanently on the edge of famine. It was not until the late 1950s, when Dmitry reached manhood, that they first trapped animals for their meat and skins. Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. Dmitry built up astonishing endurance, and could hunt barefoot in winter, sometimes returning to the hut after several days, having slept in the open in 40 degrees of frost, a young elk across his shoulders. More often than not, though, there was no meat, and their diet gradually became more monotonous. Wild animals destroyed their crop of carrots, and Agafia recalled the late 1950s as "the hungry years." "We ate the rowanberry leaf," she said,

roots, grass, mushrooms, potato tops, and bark, We were hungry all the time. Every year we held a council to decide whether to eat everything up or leave some for seed.

Famine was an ever-present danger in these circumstances, and in 1961 it snowed in June. The hard frost killed everything growing in their garden, and by spring the family had been reduced to eating shoes and bark. Akulina chose to see her children fed, and that year she died of starvation. The rest of the family were saved by what they regarded as a miracle: a single grain of rye sprouted in their pea patch. The Lykovs put up a fence around the shoot and guarded it zealously night and day to keep off mice and squirrels. At harvest time, the solitary spike yielded 18 grains, and from this they painstakingly rebuilt their rye crop.


As the Soviet geologists got to know the Lykov family, they realized that they had underestimated their abilities and intelligence. Each family member had a distinct personality; Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites. The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when "the stars began to go quickly across the sky," and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: "People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars."

"What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'" And Karp held grimly to his status as head of the family, though he was well into his 80s. His eldest child, Savin, dealt with this by casting himself as the family's unbending arbiter in matters of religion. "He was strong of faith, but a harsh man," his own father said of him, and Karp seems to have worried about what would happen to his family after he died if Savin took control. Certainly the eldest son would have encountered little resistance from Natalia, who always struggled to replace her mother as cook, seamstress and nurse.

The two younger children, on the other hand, were more approachable and more open to change and innovation. "Fanaticism was not terribly marked in Agafia," Peskov said, and in time he came to realize that the youngest of the Lykovs had a sense of irony and could poke fun at herself. Agafia's unusual speech—she had a singsong voice and stretched simple words into polysyllables—convinced some of her visitors she was slow-witted; in fact she was markedly intelligent, and took charge of the difficult task, in a family that possessed no calendars, of keeping track of time.  She thought nothing of hard work, either, excavating a new cellar by hand late in the fall and working on by moonlight when the sun had set. Asked by an astonished Peskov whether she was not frightened to be out alone in the wilderness after dark, she replied: "What would there be out here to hurt me?"



Of all the Lykovs, though, the geologists' favorite was Dmitry, a consummate outdoorsman who knew all of the taiga's moods. He was the most curious and perhaps the most forward-looking member of the family. It was he who had built the family stove, and all the birch-bark buckets that they used to store food. It was also Dmitry who spent days hand-cutting and hand-planing each log that the Lykovs felled. Perhaps it was no surprise that he was also the most enraptured by the scientists' technology. Once relations had improved to the point that the Lykovs could be persuaded to visit the Soviets' camp, downstream, he spent many happy hours in its little sawmill, marveling at how easily a circular saw and lathes could finish wood. "It's not hard to figure," Peskov wrote. "The log that took Dmitry a day or two to plane was transformed into handsome, even boards before his eyes. Dmitry felt the boards with his palm and said: 'Fine!'"

Karp Lykov fought a long and losing battle with himself to keep all this modernity at bay. When they first got to know the geologists, the family would accept only a single gift—salt. (Living without it for four decades, Karp said, had been "true torture.") Over time, however, they began to take more. They welcomed the assistance of their special friend among the geologists—a driller named Yerofei Sedov, who spent much of his spare time helping them to plant and harvest crops. They took knives, forks, handles, grain and eventually even pen and paper and an electric torch. Most of these innovations were only grudgingly acknowledged, but the sin of television, which they encountered at the geologists' camp,

proved irresistible for them.... On their rare appearances, they would invariably sit down and watch. Karp sat directly in front of the screen. Agafia watched poking her head from behind a door. She tried to pray away her transgression immediately—whispering, crossing herself.... The old man prayed afterward, diligently and in one fell swoop.


Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. In the fall of 1981, three of the four children followed their mother to the grave within a few days of one another. According to Peskov, their deaths were not, as might have been expected, the result of exposure to diseases to which they had no immunity. Both Savin and Natalia suffered from kidney failure, most likely a result of their harsh diet. But Dmitry died of pneumonia, which might have begun as an infection he acquired from his new friends.

His death shook the geologists, who tried desperately to save him. They offered to call in a helicopter and have him evacuated to a hospital. But Dmitry, in extremis, would abandon neither his family nor the religion he had practiced all his life. "We are not allowed that," he whispered just before he died. "A man lives for howsoever God, Giants.


When all three Lykovs had been buried, the geologists attempted to talk Karp and Agafia into leaving the forest and returning to be with relatives who had survived the persecutions of the purge years, and who still lived on in the same old villages. But neither of the survivors would hear of it. They rebuilt their old cabin, but stayed close to their old home.

Karp Lykov died in his sleep on February 16, 1988, 27 years to the day after his wife, Akulina. Agafia buried him on the mountain slopes with the help of the geologists, then turned and headed back to her home. The Lord would provide, and she would stay, she said—as indeed she has. A quarter of a century later, now in her seventies herself, this child of the taiga lives on alone, high above the Abakan.

She will not leave. But we must leave her, seen through the eyes of Yerofei on the day of her father's funeral:

I looked back to wave at Agafia. She was standing by the river break like a statue. She wasn't crying. She nodded: 'Go on, go on.' We went another kilometer and I looked back. She was still standing there.


Facebook and Privacy Settings

Here is a post I didn't post because I know that there are a lot of people out there who would have something rude to say about it and I didn't want my post to become the next viral post to get a bunch of rude comments.  But I really do feel it needs to be said.


Here is the truth about privacy settings.....




Since I can control the comments on my own blog I decided to write it here instead.  So, here is the unposted post:  

This could start a firestorm, but I feel it must be said.  A bunch of my friends and family have been posting that privacy comment saying they will unfriend anyone who doesn't change their privacy settings...you know the one; and I just read a bunch of comments on the FB Q&A about how they are all upset that Facebook isn't private and how Facebook should be protecting our privacy.  Guess what!  Facebook isn't private, never was, and never will be.  And neither is the Internet.  Anything posted anywhere in "the cloud" can be seen, read, found....  If you don't want it seen, don't post it.  If you don't want it read, don't write it and post it online.  NO social media platform is private.  Don't be mad at Facebook because your comment or picture is seen by others....be mad at yourself for posting it.  I'm sick of hearing about how everyone is so upset that they posted something and it's all Facebook's fault that a bunch of people saw it.  Facebook didn't post it...you did!

I'm sure there are those that will have something to say about this.  Leave your comments if you would like.  I'll respect your opinion and would appreciate your respecting mine...even if we don't agree. This is why I do not accept everyone's tags or tag that many people. For instance someone tags me and I get friend request, this shows me that that person saw me in a tagged pic or where I commented on someone post. I cannot blame facebook since I post a picture or made a comment now can I?


'Million Muslim March' Planned for 9/11








Reality Is?






Big Brother



It astounds me that there are people out there that don't really care about this. I mean what could go wrong....wake up.......
For over a year, EFF has been fighting the government in federal court to force the public release of an 86-page opinion of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Issued in October 2011, the secret court's opinion found that surveillance conducted by the NSA under the FISA Amendments Act was unconstitutional and violated "the spirit of" federal law.
.....What does make it past the redaction details repeated wrongdoing that even the FISA Court, long perceived to be the NSA's rubber stamp, found egregious.....A footnote on page 16 points out that the agency had "substantially misrepresented" the extent of its "major collection program" (including the harvesting of "internet transactions") for the third time in less than three years. The same set of footnotes attacks the so-called "big business records" collection, accusing the agency of using a "flawed depiction" of how it used the data to basically fleece the FISA court since the program's inception in 2006.

Then there's this pair of concluding sentences, which severely undercut anyone's arguments that the FISA Court is a reliable form of oversight.
Contrary to the government's repeated assurances, NSA has been repeatedly running queries of the metadata using querying terms that did not meet the standard for querying. The Court concluded that this requirement had been "so frequently and systemically violated that it can fairly be said that this critical element of the overall… regime has never functioned effectively."
..... This opinion appears to detail the NSA setting up its own complicit court system, intentionally misleading it in order to continue its surveillance programs unabated......The leaks keep coming and keep pointing to the same conclusion: the NSA has acted as a law unto itself.


Back In Maryland



I spent all day Thursday calming my nerves from a stressful week in North Carolina. I was stressed since I had to take the N.C. boards and was interviewing for a position there. That position is now mine. I earned it I can tell myself that now. No one else could test for me, no one else worked so hard to get me to this point in my career but me. Sometimes I do not feel worthy of the blessings in my life, but who am I question them.


Friday, August 16, 2013

Furthering My Journey

Hello Readers,

 I have certainly had a lot going on this week ugh! I shouldn't say ugh! Since my life is taking me on yet another incredible journey. I am in a southern city as I write this. All alone in a hotel in the wee hours of the am. I came back to my room yesterday give out, and fell asleep without my dinner. I have traveled here this week to take my boards. I was pretty nervous about having to take the boards over again since I just had surgery to repair a subdural hematoma a couple of months back. Although, I studied before leaving home there was no way to know what questions that would be asked until I started taking the test. I must admit everything has has flowed in to my brain when I needed a answer. haha! I was so worried that I had forgotten everything I had ever learned.

I have found a rather cute cottage here. It is only two bedrooms, but very clean and so much storage space to be a two bedroom. The only flaws the place has is that both bathrooms has standard size tubs, but I take showers so that shouldn't be a problem. The tubs are good ones that are without seams, and has a place to hold shampoos and soaps bottles etc. The tubs also have handle on each of them, but I am use to a big tub and separate shower. So I suppose I will be roughing it for the next year until I return home.








 


















I thought that I would be able to return home, but Georgia hospitals seem to be filling up, but I have now applied for a peds position once my fellowship is completed.   






Thursday, August 15, 2013

INFERNO by Dan Brown Revised





Warning: Spoiler Alert!

1) I have seen that the primary figure in most of the action novels is a stand-in for the author. It is loosely based on the author or rather what he would like to be or thinks of himself. He is almost perfect, the women just love him. He escapes capture and defeat in the (n-1) th second. "Handsome face", "couldn't help liking the Harvard professor" are oft repeated.

2) The antagonist is deeply troubled by overpopulation and asks some pertinent questions but that plot is completely muddled up by introducing this concept of superhuman by the same set of people who want to alter gene sequences (YAWN)
And without doubt, I was rooting for them and when I knew the virus/bacterium had already been released that will make one-third of the earth's population infertile, my heart sang. YES!!

3) In Angels and Demons and Da Vinci code, the plot was clear. It unraveled well, with one plot leading o another. Here, so much of the symbolism goes over my head, I am unable to recall one clear

4) Brown has actually done a product placement in his book! What the.. No, I am not going to repeat it.

5) The writers should be taken to task for allowing such huge repetitions. Now, come on! The Guardian's review of the book had me LMAO.


http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/19/dan-brown-inferno-review


Fiddlers Green Melody




I LOVE THIS!