Motivaitonal Monday - February 13th

Welcome to yet another installment of Motivational Mondays.  I apologize for not providing your Wednesday installation of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits, last Wednesday was more than a little crazy...actually, when you come to think about it, all of last week was absolutely nuts.  Well, before we get too distracted and I wander off into a discourse of how crazy a week can get, lets work on our Motivational Monday topic.

Last week we talked about reviewing your past successes, learning from those successes but not reliving those same successes.  Today we are going to talk about dreaming.  Dreaming can be good for you and it can be bad.  We are going to cover both aspects of dreaming tonight...

Remember when we were much younger (only a few days ago for me...) and we had all these big dreams about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to be when we grew up?  Well, hopefully you all have not yet grown up.  You should continue to dream and to dream big.  If you dream about relatively simple achievements, you will never get motivated to go out and achieve those dreams.  If you dream big, you stand a much better chance of becoming motivated to start working toward that dream.

There is a practical aspect to dreaming big though.  Dreaming big is one thing, but you can't dream of becoming a runway model if you are 5' 1" and more than a little overweight.  There has to be a bit of a practicality to your dreams.  You know what dreams you have that you can achieve with a lot of work.  Some people may just talk about their dreams, but never put any effort into working toward them.

If your dreams are real enough to you, there is no reason in the world why you wouldn't be motivated to start working towards them.  Start a "dream board" where you begin putting pictures of what you want up on a cork-board or wall.  As you collect these pictures of your dreams, you should start becoming more motivated to obtain those same dreams.  Then, on the days, weeks or sometimes months where you feel you are lacking the motivation to do anything, you can look to that wall and remind yourself of why you are working so hard.

No doubt you have also dealt with those who are "dreamers".  These people may talk about all the great dreams they have, but they never, ever, seem to get anything done.  They only dream about what they could do or have, but they never make the effort to work towards that dream.  That type of behavior can be very de-motivational (is that really a word?).  Those are the types of people that you want to avoid because they could suck you into their dream, and keep you from doing what needs to get done to achieve your dreams. 

Your dreams should be your source of inspiration, something that drives you to get up every morning, and the same something that keeps you up late into the night.  They should get you excited about the future, they should drive you to plan and work to achieve those goals.  Powerful dreams can move you to heights you may never even believed you could achieve.  These dreams are what create greatness in man.

So, focus on your big dreams, develop your own "dream board" and start working on moving closer to achieving that huge dream you have always had.  Even creating a dream board is a lot of fun.  You may find that the more you build your dream board or wall, the more you want to continue to build it.  That board can become an awesome inspiration to you and your family to keep working towards your dreams.

Until Wednesday (really...I mean it...THIS Wednesday...)...

Motivational Monday - February 6

Happy Monday one and all!!!  Welcome to our second February installment of Motivational Monday.  Hopefully your Monday wasn't as bad as you may have imagined it would be over the weekend.  For those of you who watched the Superbowl yesterday, it was a fun game...  No matter who you may have rooted for, both teams played hard and well.  I don't have any fingernails left after the game yesterday, but I am happy I got to watch it. 

Watching these two awesome football teams battle it out for that ultimate prize, you have to wonder how they stayed motivated.   Both teams had huge motivation to win, yet we all know there was to be only one winner. (In my book, both teams were winners, they both played to the absolute best of their abilities).   I read in the news today that Tom Brady was utterly dejected after the loss to the Giants.  It has to hurt, to be so close to winning the Superbowl for the fourth time in his career.  Heck, the Patriots were leading until the last 4 minutes.

From this loss, you have to wonder, how does the team get motivated to play again?  The most obvious is that you know they have to look at their past successes.  They know they can win, they know they have the talent to win.  Now, to stay motivated, they will have to remember the successes, but they must also look at what they did wrong and learn from those mistakes or missed opportunities. 

What the New England Patriots are going through after yesterday's Superbowl is nothing different than what we all go through on a daily basis.  The only real difference is that a lot more people saw them fail, whereas we may only have a handful of people watching us fail.  In this economy, many people are looking for work and having one heck of a time landing a job.  They may be interviewing like mad, but never getting that job offer they hoped for.  It is difficult to continue day after day to remain motivated, when you feel like you are continuously failing and not landing that job.

You need to stay motivated, remember that you did land jobs in the past.  Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses, remember why you were so good at your job.   Focus on your successes to help keep you motivated.  As we discussed last Monday, you do not want to dwell on those successes, but if you feel that your resolve may be slipping, remember your prior success and strive to remember how good you felt when you did get that job, or win that big contract. 

Use your successes to motivate you to move forward.  Even though Tom Brady was very depressed and despondent yesterday, you know that in a day or so, he will start focusing on what they need to do to win the next Superbowl...  He brought his team 3 prior wins, he will build on that and motivate not only himself, but his team to focus on winning so they can take the Superbowl podium next year.

Until Wednesday....

Being in Balance, or am I?

As much as I would like to "cheat" and provide you a blog on Motivational Monday, or Trivial Tips and Tidbits, I believe I owe you all some version of an explanation for why I disappeared for a few months.  As you know, I had been working on my Motivational Monday blogs along with my Trivial Tips and Tidbits blog on Wednesdays...and then...poof, I stopped posting.  Well, just because I thought I had everything balanced... I didn't.

How many times have you thought that you had your life under control only to discover that you have been juggling one too many balls?  Once you drop one of those balls, all the others just come tumbling down.  I write these blogs in part to keep everyone looking at the positive side of life.  My mother always taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  That is in part why I stopped writing.  You all don't need to hear any more of the woes of the world, nor do you need to hear someone else jabber on about how tough life is. 

My life got just a tad out of balance and I had a very difficult time getting that balance back.  The way I chose to maintain balance, was to take a break from writing.  I felt very guilty about not updating you all, but on the other hand, I discovered that I cannot juggle a dozen balls at the same time.  I discovered that I had bitten off more tasks than I could chew and was getting so buried in all the things that "needed" to be done, I started burning out. 

Along with work, weekend shows, I decided it would be good to get involved and become a foster parent in dog rescues.  I had absolutely no idea how much of an emotional toll that took.  For those of you who may not really know me, I am always open to helping hurt and abandoned animals.  It doesn't really matter which ones, but I always end up getting involved in some kind of animal rescue, be it a baby bird that couldn't fly, a duck that got hurt, a dog that was found wandering along the side of a road, a cat that got hurt.  I have always been there to help when I can.   So, fostering dogs until they got adopted out seemed a great way for me to help. 

Theoretically, the idea was great.  In actuality, fostering took a major bite out of my spare time and made a huge dent in my emotional resources.  I will go into my adventures with fostering on a future blog, but suffice it to say, that by the time I finished working, doing chores and then taking care of frightened dogs (yes, plural...heaven forbid if I do ANYTHING in small amounts..) and cleaning up after dogs that don't understand the term "housebroken".  Well, let's just say that my life got more than a little out of balance.

Things have somewhat calmed down now, and with luck, I will be back in the blogosphere keeping you entertained, perhaps educated, or just curious.  I still plan on blogging Mondays and Wednesdays with additional blogs when I have extra stuff to offer you.

Take care and we shall be talking once again, shortly.

Until Wednesday (i.e. tomorrow...)

Procrastination -

Tonight is more a night for procrastination than for real work. We finally have another break from painful high temperatures, and I would rather be enjoying the cool evening air than sitting in front of the computer finding more obscure facts to entertain. You will get your Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits this week...just not tonight...perhaps...

• Horses
  
  Tonight I should be helping you all laugh by providing my weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits. Well, I am not entirely thrilled with that prospect tonight, and have been procrastinating writing this weekly article tonight. Granted, I have loads of silly bits of information to entertain you with, but for some reason, I do not feel that this weekly installment is going to be that much fun, I am not feeling inspiration.
  
  Let's discuss procrastination instead... one of my favorite ways to procrastinate is to decide it is time to organize my desk. My desk periodically looks like a bomb hit it, even though I know exactly (well, almost) where every piece of paper really is. But, when I am not in a very inspired mood to do what I should do, that is the best time for me to straighten my desk.
  
  I guess you could say that my desk usually doesn't look too bad, but if it is consistently neat, then you know I am procrastinating....kind of like tonight...
  
  My next best method of procrastinating is to decide it is time to mend shirts, re-apply buttons, and darn socks...now really, how many people really darn socks anymore...if you are into procrastination...well, count me in...
  
  Lastly my best method of procrastination is to play with all the animals around the house. That includes the two dogs that keep me company, but lately, I have been spending quality time with my neighbor's horses...not for any particular reason except that it has been pretty evenings, and I didn't want to go inside and get any work done...
  
  I know, for those of you who read last week's Motivational blog on Wednesday, I talked about ways to get things done even when you don't want to do it. Well, as you can see, even though I have been procrastinating, I do still get done what needs to be done...just later than usual. Procrastination can be fun, so don't dismiss it out-of-hand.
  
  Think of all the mischief you can get into by procrastinating, especially if others would RATHER you get your chores/tasks done... Procrastination does have it's benefits, heck, my desk does get regularly cleaned, the animals get played with, and over-all, I have fun. After I get the procrastination out of the way, I find I become more motivated to complete the tasks that I had been putting off.
  
  So, the upshot is, some procrastination is good, but too much of it will get you in trouble.  Since I don't feel like getting into too much trouble, I better start working on the weekly Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits segment for either tomorrow or Wednesday. Stay tuned to see which day I end up posting...
  
  Until tomorrow....

I am ALIVE!!!

Hello one and all. Bet you thought I would never poke my head out of my hidey hole... Well, here I am, almost back in the saddle. Tonight is going to be a brief, wandering chat, nothing too difficult and really, I do promise to get back to regular posting...

I realize I don't have to explain myself, but feel it is the right thing to do... Since the economy has been SOOOO stinky, I did go out and get a short-term job. The problem is that this "short-term" job turned into a major job that then turned into major hours and weekend work. Not quite what I had originally signed on for. The problem has been that I have had to drag my tired butt home every day after 10-12 hours working both in a warehouse and on a computer. Needless to say, I had zero energy to even want to eat dinner let alone talk to you guys about anything.

My mother taught me a great lesson, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. So...three guesses why you haven't heard from me in a Looonnng time? I have now re-screwed my head back on straight and will carve time out of my evenings to at least chat with you all again. I truly have missed talking with you and after reviewing my old posts, needed to take my own commentary and advice to heart.

So, here I am talking once again and hopefully you all can forgive my disappearance and allow me to redeem myself by writing more consistently.

Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch, enjoying the lightning show in the distance. It has cooled down a bit here, all the way down to 102. A nice breeze has kicked up and it was overall a pleasant evening until I happened to look down. As I was sitting comfortably in my outside chair, what did I see, but a BIG BLACK HAIRY thing skulking around right under my chair. My first reaction was to get all body parts as high in the air as possible. Then I looked again to see this SPIDER slowly wandering around under my chair.


I then realized I was trying to fly, feet, and hands were waving around in the air, but it did nothing to lift me any higher from that BIG SPIDER. After my initial shock though, I realized it was most likely a tarantula (still not sure because my eyes were not adjusted too well to the dark, I was watching lightning, so I was still somewhat night-blind. After my eyes adjusted to the dark better, I did confirm I was looking at a tarantula. Then I carefully watched where it was walking and was able to put my sandeled feet back on the ground. I quickly ran to the back door, flung it open grabbed the dogs and locked them in the bedroom. I then flicked on the back porch light, verified the tarantula was still there and ran to get my camera.

So now you see what I saw, and you have a pretty good idea how big this male Arizona Blonde Tarantula is... the tiles are 6"x6". Pretty cool.

Anyway, this guy was subsequently picked up and placed on a bush OUTSIDE the fenceline so the dogs would not hurt or bother it. So all's well that end's well.

That's all the fun for tonight. I will be back tomorrow for a brief chat...PROMISE!!!

Until tomorrow...

Happy Valentines Day

Hi everyone. As you most likely have noticed, I have been offline for a whole week. There is a name for what happened - THE FLU... yup, the creeping-crawling crud. Nothing like wiping you out and kicking you when you are seriously down. Last week was spent dragging myself from one day to the next, with loads of sleeping in between. The good news is that I lost a bunch of weight, not because I couldn't keep food down, but because I was too tired to want to eat anything. This week is a little better, but am still getting really tired fast. It is because I don't want to leave you guys abandoned that I refuse to go to bed right now and wanted to post a quick blog...

Don't get the Flu...get a flu shot...you are not indestructible... trust me, been there...done that... Anyway, on to more fun stuff.

Today is Valentines Day. How many of you are actually aware of the origins of Valentine's Day? Well, tonight, your weekly trivia is on the origins of Valentine's Day...

To put it succinctly, nobody REALLY knows the true origins of Valentine's Day. There...blog done... well, not really. Bet you want to know just a tad more...

Some people may believe that Valentine's Day was based on something romantic that Saint Valentine did...but in actuality, it appears that one of the Saint Valentines (there were at least 3) was sort of a romantic, he married couples even when there was an edict against any and all marriages...

Let's start somewhat at the beginning...pre-Christian... There was a pagean feast of Lupercalia was where names of young girls were written on pieces of paper and placed into jars. Then, each boy would draw a girl's name from the jar and become partners, either for the duration of the festival, or the duration of a year (depending on your interpretation of history). This partnership was not necessarily platonic, so you can easily see how the Catholic church had problems with this Roman festival.

During the time of the Roman Empire, Emperor Claudius II of Rome (aka Claudius the Cruel) was having problems recruiting men as soldiers. He believed that the men were more attached to their homes and women and thus became weaker soldiers for that attachment. Claudius believed that if he outlawed all marriages and engagements, he would have more men willing to become soldiers, and be stronger for the lack of marriage. A Roman Priest, St. Valentine, secretly married couples even though it had been outlawed. He was ultimately caught and beheaded for his criminal acts.

Before this particular St. Valentine died, it is reported that he performed a miracle for one of his jailers who had a blind daughter. Depending again on your interpretation of history, St. Valentine became attached to the blind daughter of his jailer and prior to being put to death, wrote her a letter that was signed "From your Valentine".

Since the Catholoc church did not approve of the pagean holidays, they opted to change the name of the festival of Lupercalia to Valentine's Day (how historians made that connection is still sketchy to me...) and walla...you now have Valentine's Day.

Truly, I tend to believe another theory. Many historians agree that the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love was by Geoffrey Chaucer (1382). Chaucer had written a poem to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. This whole theory makes more sense and the concept of romantic love was also picked up by William Shakespeare. The holiday of St. Valentine's Day took root and has evolved over the centuries.

So, no matter what you want to believe about the origins of Valentine's Day, have a wonderful day. Happy Valentine's Day.

Until tomorrow...

What My Home Says About Me

A house can just be a place that protects you from the elements and where you can rest safely for the night. A home should reflect who you are and what you stand for.

Former home of Joaquin Miller (poet), Wash., D.C. (LOC)

My home definitely reflects my personality and some of my habits. What my home says about me is that I have wide and varied interests (i.e. eclectic). Currently my home reflects what I perceive the Arizona atmosphere to be, and no, that is not just HOT. The house reflects the southwest tastes and decor, but there is some modern art thrown in just you you wouldn't get bored.


My home reflects my personality, interests and habits. For those of you that know me personally, you know that I have dabbled in many, many things, and am always a willing learner for new ideas and experiences. The only time I would say "NO" would be if trying or learning something would be unethical, illegal or immoral. Other than that, all bets are off, and I am a willing student.


When I start on a new path, I immerse myself on that path until I have answered the questions I had. That is not to say I would be no longer interested in that line of thought, but that I have answered the original questions I had and that I did not want to pursue any further questions...for now. The house reflects this personality trait too, you see the acceptance of western style art, but then it doesn't go too far. In one room you will find caracatures and fantasy artwork hanging on the wall. In another room there is a definite Aisian influence. In yet another room you will find just an odd mix of art deco, traditional art, and other odd pieces of work.


Each room has it's own feeling and theme, so depending on your mood, you are not overwhelmed by any one particular style or series of thought. The only consstant throughout the house is the plethora of books. Again, the books cover a wide range of interest, ranging from the classics to art history, to novels, to biographies, to fantasy, to westerns, to adventure, to history, reference...you get the picture.


So, coming to my home provides a tiny glimpse into my overcrowded, active and always questing brain. It is a fun place to be..(in my humble opinion). Perhaps if you are ever in the area, you can wander on by and take a look-see for yourself.


Until the weekend (I will NOT be posting tomorrow...)

Finally on the mend

Well, today was the first day that I felt like a human being. No more water-hose called a nose, my coughing is getting under control and sneezing is a thing of the past. Now that my head is not so stuffed up, I discovered that all that stuff that I blew out also blew out ideas for the upcoming blogs...

The good news is that once I plow through all the back-logged e-mails and messages, I should have re-located my list of desired blog topics so you won't be entertained anymore with my woes of a cold... The great news is that I managed to get through this cold in record time. I came down with bad cold symptoms Saturday night, and the majority of the discomfort was gone most of today. Usually colds for me would last at least 10 days.... I would attribute my greatly improved healing time to the stem cell nutritional products I have been taking regularly.

If you have questions regarding the stem cell nutritionals, please feel free to visit my website at www.hawgwash.stemtechbiz.com These products have worked wonders in me, especially during this cold and flu season. I can tell you that the people I am consulting for are amazed at how fast I recovered from this cold. They have been sick before me and are still dealing with the illness....

Tomorrow we will be back in full swing regarding "normal" blog topics...if you have any idea what my "normal" blog topic is, please let me know... Perhaps we will do another Millionaire focus, we haven't had one of those for quite a few weeks....

Tune in tomorrow for what the topic will be...the anticipation is building...

Until tomorrow...

Fun Facts Weekly Installment

Well, ever so slowly, I am getting back into the swing of this increased workload. It is truly amazing how much work is generated this time of year, even if you didn't plan on taking on extra tasks.. Welcome to this week's installment of Fun Facts. Since it is Monday, and since we are now officially in the Holiday Season, it is critical to remember to laugh. We can all too easily forget that this holiday season is not supposed to be a grind, but we are supposed to renew our goodwill toward mankind (I know, it can be especially difficult to be NICE this time of year, with everyone rushing around being extra rude...). So, now it is time to sit back, take a deep breath (don't forget to exhale too...) , relax and be prepared to take a few minutes to read some fun facts and have some fun...

Don't know how many of you watch football, but I saw this brief editorial in a local Independent Newspaper (Apache Junction/Gold Canyon Independent) and got a kick out of it:

"Training at the Cardinals practice field was delayed nearly two hours this morning after a player reported finding an unknown white powdery substance on the ground. Initially the Cardinals thought it was a prank! Training was immediately suspended while police ad Homeland Security officials were called to investigate. After a complete analysis, Glendale Police forensic experts determined that the white substance, unfamiliar to most of the players was, in fact, the goal line. Practice will resume this afternoon after police and Homeland Security decided the team was unlikely to encounter the substance again."

Did you know what to call a group of unicorns? (other than non-existent???) A Blessing.
A group of Kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of ravens is called a murder. (that was sort of weird)
A group of owls is a called a parliament.

If you ever want to make friends with a rabbit, they love licorice...

Remember 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Did you know that the eye of a giant squid is fifteen inches in diameter - the size of a basketball?
In light of that, the giant squid has the largest eyes in the world...

The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in it's head....ewww...

For those of you who love penguins - the penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins...really...

The Emperor Penguin is the largest of the penguin species and can weigh up to 90 pounds. The Fairy Penguin is the smallest and weighs only 2 pounds.

Depending on the species, a wild penguin can live 15-20 years. During that time, they spend up to 75 percent of their lives at sea.

Penguins are found only in the Southern Hemisphere. While most people associate penguins with Antarctica, they are much more widespread and penguin populations can be found in South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The northernmost penguin species is the Galapagos penguin, which lives year-round near the equator.

Lastly, I thought I would include some fun labels...just in case you thought people were getting smarter:

On a Sears hairdryer - "Do no use while sleeping" (and when would YOU use your hairdryer?)

On a bag of Fritos - "You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside." - uuhhhh...

On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding - "Product will be hot after heating." Really???

On most brands of Christmas lights - "For Indoor and outdoor use only" - OK, you got me, where else would you use them???

I saw this on a peanut tin - "Warning contains nuts." - boy, you really needed to know that didn't you?

This one really made me wonder about how the warning came about - On a Swedish chain saw - "Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals."....ouch...

Hopefully this brought a brief smile to your already busy day. Don't forget to take a deep breath and smile, it really isn't all that bad out there. Just look around, you will find funny stuff all over. Once you start laughing, your attitude and outlook will get better. Hopefully you enjoyed this Fun Facts Weekly Installment.

Take care....

Until tomorrow...

Blue Moons

Well, tonight is the night of the Blue Moon. If you live in an area with a lot of cloud cover, do not fret, the moon is not really blue tonight. It is not even made of blue cheese as I had been told as a child. I also remember hearing the phrase, "Once in a Blue Moon". That phrase was intended to mean that the particular event happens rarely.

There are actually two definitions of Blue Moons. The first definition, which is the one I was aware of, was a second full moon in a single calendar month. Since the lunar cycle is usually 28 days, at some point you may encounter two full moons in the same month, or 13 full moons in a calendar year. Since there is only a few days difference between our calendar months and the lunar months, the occurrence of a double full moon in one month occurs about once every 2-3 years.

There are even very occasions where we have two full moons in one month, and then no full moons in the following month. That occurred in 1999 where there were two full moons in January, none in February (a traditionally short month, and then two full moons in March. The next time we can see a double Blue Moon will be in 2018, so now you have something to look forward to...

The second definition comes from an old Farmers Almanac definition. In the Farmers Almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when an extra full moon occurs in a season. So for November 21, 2010 we will have already had our 3rd full moon, with the 4th full moon occurring in December. Generally, a season only has 3 full moons in it.

Based on both definitions, November 21, 2010 is a Blue Moon, but this agreement does not always occur. Some people prefer to use the definition of the third full moon of four in a season is the more accurate definition of a Blue Moon because it appears to be the older definition. Whichever definition you personally prefer, tonight is truly a Blue Moon.

If you have clear skies tonight, enjoy the full, Blue Moon. Otherwise, you can look to the sky, use your imagination and enjoy the Blue Moon that is there, but you can't see it...

Until tomorrow...

Fun Trivia Facts

Well, I know, it is not Monday, but it is the Wednesday "Hump" Day and since we missed Monday, tonight we are presenting Fun Trivia Facts. If you have had a rough day and are not looking forward to the rest of the week, perhaps this brief respite will help you survive.

Tonight we are going to rejoice that we are not living in England between 1558 and 1603:

At that time, medicines were not so advanced, it really was not wise to get sick. If you did get sick, you may have been asked to ingest some powdered burnt swallow feathers (do you know how stinky that is?), red coral, pigeon's dung or your own (YUCK!!), mistletoe may be taken in the month of March, swallow syrup of poppy, earthworms, or consume a prepared pill or suppository coated in gold. One cure for kidney stones was a mixture of white wine (OK, I can do that...), salad oil, powdered crab's eyes (do you KNOW how little those are?) and the bone in a carp's head. I think I would rather be sick than to take any of those medications!!!

The women's clothes were not quite as you would think during this time either. The clothes were mix and match (sort of like today...but not..). Sleeves, bodices and skirts were not connected. You connected the different pieces with straight pins (OUCH!). That is largely because safety pins were not invented until 1849. You really didn't want to bend too much for sure... At least if you had two dresses, you could make a lot of different combinations this way...

How many of you think men's codpieces were places to put the man's "junk"? They were not used for that at all...often they were stuffed, and a man could keep important things (no, not the "family jewels") like money, papers, etc in a codpiece for storage...

Now if I was worried about being poisoned, I would wear a ring containing a piece of a unicorn's horn because if I wore that, I was protected from poisonings. The problem? No such thing as Unicorns...ooops..

In England, young men would play female characters in theatrical roles. Women were not allowed on stage at the time. Elizabethans believed there was a difference in genders right from the start. A male fetus was thought to grow on the right side of the womb and the female, the left. Fortunately, the reasoning for malformed or unusual-looking children was switching from the idea of the mother sleeping with the Devil to the more "forward-thinking" concept of Maternal Impressions. If a pregnant woman saw something that startled her, the baby born would have some resemblance to that particular thing (like a boy with scaly skin like a fish, or a horsey face child..). Craving strawberries could cause a woman's unborn child to be born with a "strawberry" birthmark on their skin.

Hopefully you are now happier that you are here now, instead of in England between 1558 and 1603. We all need to be glad about something.

If you are looking for an additional income opportunity, check out our website for some ideas. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

Halloween, Whats so great about it?

Tonight's subject is intended for fun and more trivial facts that you can bore your friends with. We celebrate Halloween in the United States every October 31st. On this day, people dress up in costumes, have parties and go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We all hear about witches, ghosts and goblins and listen to very scary stories about ghosts and hauntings. We may even go to a "Haunted House" to get frightened by things that go bump in the dark.

The big question here is, Halloween, what is so great about it? For some, Halloween is the highlight of their year. Some people will get married on October 31 because it is Halloween. OK, so what is so great about it? What are the origins and why do we still celebrate?

Depending on where you look or who you talk to, Halloween either originated with the Christian tradition of celebrating the lives of Christian martyrs or, Halloween originated with the Celtic people of pre-medieval Europe. The word "Halloween" has its origins in the Catholic Church. The word comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve, All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. Pope Boniface IV established May 13, 609 AD as a day of celebratory remembrance for all the Church's martyrs. Pope Gregory III later changed the date of remembrance to November 1, when he dedicated the chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to "all saints", hence November 1 became All Saints Day.

If you opt for Halloween originating from Celtic tradition, the Celts divided their year into halves: the "light half" and the "dark half". The "light half" covered basically Spring and Summer, when the days were longer, and the "dark half" covered Autumn and Winter, when the days were shorter. The Celts celebrated the end of the light half of the year with a festival of "Samhain" which became a fixed date in the Julian calendar of November 1st. The name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". This time of year was the Celtic New Year.

One belief is that on the last day of the Celtic year, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. They believed this was their only hope for afterlife. Since the living did not want to be possessed by the dead, on the night of October 31st, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes (making the homes cold and undesirable) and then they would dress up in all types of ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighborhood, possibly trying to frighten away the spirits looking to posses them. The custom of Halloween was brought to America by the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing Ireland due to the potato famine.

The custom of trick-or-treating may have had it origins from the medieval practice of souling, when poor people would go door to door, receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. Currently, Trick-or-Treating may carry an implied threat that if the children do not receive "Treats" (candy), they would perform a "trick" or some kind of mischief to the homeowner or on the home owner's property. The practice of Trick-or-treating does not appear to have become very popular until the 1930's.

Halloween costumes traditionally are of ghosts, witches, ghouls, goblins, or skeletons - basically supernatural figures. Over time, the types of costumes extended to include popular fictional and real characters, or the alter-ego of the person creating the costume. Modern costumes worn by today's trick-or-treaters are now intended for entertainment and amusement. Sometimes they scare neighbors and often compete with others for the most original, scary, ugly, funny, or pretty costume.

Overall, Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood (because you walk from door to door visiting your neighbors) and allows you to interact with strangers which you may not have opted to do on a "normal" day. The real value in Halloween comes not necessarily from winning a costume contest, but from interchange with strangers and neighbors, thus exorcising our fear of strangers, and reaffirms our social bonds with the people in our neighborhood. This time of year may be the only time we actually go around and talk to all of our neighbors.

So, enjoy your Halloween evening and have fun reconnecting and possibly frightening people this Halloween.

Until tomorrow...

How to keep blogging

Last night we talked a little bit about how to stay motivated to continue posting blogs. We covered some pitfalls of blogging and how to possibly get past the excuses... Tonight we are going to continue our theme on how to keep blogging. I was never very consistent writing in my diary as a child, so am constantly amazed that this blog has been going for over a year now.

The biggest difference between blogging and writing in a diary is that when blogging, you may not be divulging your innermost secrets, you are actually talking with others. At least that is how I view blogging. It really is no different than being a reporter writing a column for a paper. The biggest difference is that usually what you print will post without any editor checking your work. Not sure if no editor is a good idea, but hey, at least you get to say what you want to say when you want to say it. The downside is that depending on discussion topic, you could easily alienate your readers. That is a risk you take though, every time you take up the proverbial pen and paper (or keyboard and computer screen...)

So, the question is, how to keep blogging when your ideas may be running thin, or you just aren't in the mood. As we touched upon last night, theoretically, you should have a backlog of written blogs already scheduled to post, but some of us don't have THAT much to say at one time of the week. One of the tricks I use to keep my blogs short, but useful is to basically bribe myself. There are things I would really rather be doing on some nights of the week. In order for me to enjoy those activities, I make myself blog before the activity takes place. That is an amazing way to inspire blogs.

If you know what you want, and see a definitive end to your blogging day, you tend to get more inspired than if you saw the whole evening stretching out in front of you with no sense of urgency. Granted, some people are not driven well by deadlines, but I have found setting specific deadlines does keep the ideas flowing better. Sort of like a synthetic procrastination. You have a deadline to make, and that could be when you do your best work.

Another trick that has been helpful, is to not over think a subject. This may sound a bit odd, but it may make more sense once explained. You have a blogging idea, you research the daylights out of that idea. You now have squished in your brain a ton of information on your topic, and suddenly you are in a brain vapor-lock. You now have too much information vying for position on your blog page. What I have found helpful is to write down what you know, or want to say, in outline form and then put the outline away for a day or two. Yeah, that doesn't help the blog you want to write tonight, but it will make a much better article tomorrow. If you give your brain some time to absorb and process all the information it obtained, you will find that if you give it a day or so, your ideas crystallize and your article will practically write itself.

There are times when you need to give your brain the opportunity to process and compartmentalize the information you have been stuffing into it. Otherwise, you may end up putting too much information in your article and losing people along the way. In today's rushed life, we only have a little time to dedicate to relaxing and/or informative reading, so it is important to provide good information, but not information overload. Keep it short, effective and sweet. You will have more fun writing, and your readers should have more fun reading.

Tomorrow, we will switch subjects, (to help prevent the aforementioned information overload) and you will just have to dial in to see what the new topic will be.

If you are looking for a second income stream are interested in starting your own home based business, our website might have something to interest you. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding earning a second income or starting your own home based business. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

One Sick Bird

Well, some of you may have wondered where I wandered off these last 48 hours. My bird seems to have had some type of stroke and I have been trying to nurse her to some version of health these last 48 hours. Currently she is one sick bird. I have a Double-Yellow Headed Amazon, subspecies Tres Marie and we have been together over 28 years. She has had some health issues in the past, but has been healthy these last two years. Three years ago I finally discovered her true gender, she laid an egg for the first time since we were together, even the various vets believed her to be a male...

Anyway, you may have noticed that I don't use the term "own" this bird. We have been together so long that there is no real way that I own her anymore than I own the air I breathe. I may have owned her the first few weeks, but after that, whatever she needed or wanted, she usually got. Not much different than having children. Actually, many people teased me that she was essentially my child. We have had many adventures together, she has been through a lot of moving, she has been through a marriage and a divorce, and most recently, she has been on the road whenever we travel. I do not leave her or board her if it is at all possible, especially as she has gotten older.

When I first encountered her, she was a pretty sick little bird too, and it took the vets and I about a year to clear all her respiratory problems up. We discovered in that year that she had allergies and a light form of asthma. We were able to create allergy shots for her, and I learned to clean out her nose when she got too congested. You could say that our relationship developed quickly due to her need for medical care, but even though I was giving her shots several times a day, she quickly learned to trust me in all that I did. She did also learn to hate one particular towel (which I always used to wrap her up prior to giving her a shot or flush out her nose...) but after all was said and done, she did trust me to help her feel better.

Two years ago, she seemed to have had some sort of mini-stroke (my observations, not the vet's), not sure what it was, but she lost some movement in one of her feet. She seemed to be in a lot of pain when she put weight on her foot, so we assumed she wrenched it somehow. We took her to the vet and he provided her some pain medication and some antibiotics, but she quickly got worse. At one point, she had lost so much weight that we thought for sure she was not going to survive, but once I discarded the medications and just gave her protein drinks, she rallied and became healthy again.

A year after that episode is when she started laying eggs, which is very odd for a bird as old as she was. (BTW - she was estimated to be around 7(ish) years old when I found her, don't know where she was for her first years..) She stopped laying eggs last year for which I was very grateful, since I didn't want to cook the ones she laid and I was also told that a bird in her mid-30's laying eggs was hazardous to her health. She still seemed fine, with some bouts of depression when we were not on the road.

She loves traveling more than any animal or person I know. If we don't drive around with her after a month or so, she gets depressed and then sick...

Well, late this last Friday evening, I heard some scrabbling on the bottom of her cage and knew something was not right. After 10pm she is usually on her night-perch and doesn't move around until dawn the next day. When I covered her that night, she seemed fine, but when I uncovered her around 11:30 that evening, she was on the floor of her cage with her wings spread out. When I reached into the cage to see what was up, she just fussed at me, but couldn't move. I thought she had somehow tangled her foot on the floor of the cage, so promptly went underneath to see if I could help.

What I discovered was that she was unable to move either of her legs or feet. Her right foot was curled up, and her left foot was open, but would not close. The only thing that moved on her was her beak and her wings. I picked her out of the cage and tried to see if anything was broken. I discovered that she had lost a frightening amount of weight, but could not find anything else wrong. Since then, I have spent all my waking hours with her, trying to entice her to eat and drink and hopefully regain the use of her legs and feet.

Today she is looking perkier, but is still unable to move either of her feet. She is learning to move around by dragging her body with her beak and with her wings. I continue to spend the majority of my time with her on either my lap or chest, or on a pillow right next to me. She is more alert today and not sleeping as much, but I am not sure she is out of the woods yet. What she is eating today is a protein drink (ST-5) and that does seem to be giving her extra energy. She doesn't seem to be in any significant pain, but seems to go through bouts of extreme frustration because she cannot climb onto her perch, nor can she sit on my shoulder, which she loves to do.

I will continue to work with her, hoping that she will rally, but if you do not see me online much, please realize that I am not ignoring you, but focusing on helping my bird recover. I was forewarned that due to her earlier respiratory illness, she may have a shortened life expectancy (this species lives to be about 50 years old), but she is still relatively young for her species and I am hoping that she will recover fully, like the last time. I am even hoping that the ST-5 combined with a little bit of our StemEnhance product from StemTech will help her to recover. The ST-5 has done wonders so far this weekend, and I will start her on the StemEnhance first thing tomorrow. (The StemPet product does not seem to appeal to her since it was designed as a chewable pill for dogs and she doesn't want to chew anything right now. The good news is that she really likes the ST-5 in both juice and plain water.)

I will keep you all posted, sorry this was a long rant, but I am very worried about my companion, and anyone who has had the privilege of being owned by a dog, cat, or any type of pet, most likely understands the worry and pain I am going through. I admit, I am greedy, 28 years has been great, I would like another 10 more years with her. She has done a lot to improve my quality of life.

Until tomorrow...

Millionaire Focus tonight on Felix Dennis

Tonight is another installment of Millionaire Focus. The goal with these weekly spotlights is to help provide inspiration and learning to those who are working at their own businesses. The Millionaires we look at had humble beginnings and became millionaires. Tonight we are going to briefly look at who Felix Dennis is and what his views are on developing a successful business. This is week two of our Millionaire focus, last week we focused on Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal. Felix Dennis had developed and owned Maxim magazine, which is the world's biggest selling men's lifestyle magazine.

According to Felix Dennis, he had wasted a good deal of his youth playing in R&B bands. He then became involved in co-editing and selling a counter-culture magazine in England, "OZ" in 1971. He and two other people ended up getting arrested for "Conspiracy to deprave and corrupt the Morals of the Young of the Realm". (Basically the government felt the magazine was obscene) After a lengthy trial he and his co-conspirators were found not guilty of conspiracy. In 1973 he went to set up his own publishing company, Dennis Publishing and begin publishing such items as Kung-Fu Monthly and Cozmic Comics. Due to the rise in popularity of Bruce Lee, Kung-Fu Monthly brought early success to Felix Dennis.

Dennis kept an eye out for emerging cultures, and set up personal computing magazines MacUser and Personal Computer World. He also launched Computer Shopper and PC World. He also diversified his income by creating a mail order company. The business model was extremely simple. It kept operating costs to a minimum and used direct marketing through high quality catalogs.

Felix Dennis is also an accomplished poet, and has written over 1,000 poems. He started his poetry after a "life-threatening illness". He has also published two books, "How to Get Rich", and the sister book, "88 The Narrow Road". His views on business are very helpful for those of us working to grow our own businesses.

As we have stated in prior blogs, Felix Dennis believes that you can never get rich working for anybody else. What is refreshing about the book is that Dennis provides practical advice for beginning businesses. He focuses on maintaining ownership of your own company. He feels that the key to eventual riches is maintaining that ownership. The reason is, when you ultimately sell your company, if you own most of it, you will receive most of the monies on the sale.

He admits that being in your own business will include a lot of failing and groveling, but you need to stay driven. He believes that if you are not driven by desire, you should not attempt to create and grow your own business. Even with your drive, you should still keep your eyes open to the possibility that your idea may not be good. You need to look at what the numbers in your business is telling you and continue to talk with other entrepreneurs.

What was interesting is that Felix Dennis strongly believes that you should develop passions outside of your business. It will help provide balance and grounding for you and your business. He believes that you should ultimately give away all the money you earned, help others get started. In 2008 his was worth somewhere between $400 and $900 million.

He believes that if you want to be rich, first stop being so frightened.

We can all use that advice in our own businesses. Felix Dennis has some wonderful observations about how to become successful, with hard work, cunning and a solid work ethic.

If you are looking to start up your own business and don't know where to begin, please check our out our website. We may have something that will interest you. We are also available for advice and guidance. You can always reach us through e-mail at hawgwash1@yahoo.com . We would love to help you to become the next self-made millionaire.

Until tomorrow...

Willie Wonka

I spent the majority of the day catching up on paperwork. I am still not done, but needed to do something that would give my much beleaguered brain a rest. For a change, I turned on the TV and started channel surfing. I came across a movie I had wanted to see, but didn't want to see so badly that I was going to pay almost $10 to do it... the remake of Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. This movie had Johnny Depp in it and was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, created in 2005. I have liked Johnny Depp in several other films (not all, just some) and was curious to see how this movie turned out.

I have liked Tim Burton's (the director) spin on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and due to my mood, thought I could do with some dark humor... so I started watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was very impressed with how the movie was put together, it was not what I had expected. This movie is like a traditional fairy tale (perhaps it really is a fairy tale...didn't look that hard into it..) where there are obviously good children and obviously bad children portraying extreme behaviours. So now, instead of just watching a "simple" film, I was looking for the lesson in the story. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp did not disappoint, the lessons were clear, and the bad children did get their just desserts...

I don't know why, but I had the impression that the 'new' movie with Johnny Depp did not hold closely to the original movie, made 34 years earlier (with Gene Wilder, directed by Mel Stuart 1971). I was very surprised and impressed that this remake kept very close to the original story line. I really liked the background that was provided about why Willie Wonka became who he was and the ending was much more surprising than I had expected. After watching the end of that movie, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the original 1971 version followed immediately after the new version. That was a real treat, because I could now easily compare and contrast the two versions.

I had only seen the original Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory once as a child so was again interested in watching it through adult eyes. Again, it was definitely presented as a fairy tale with traditional good children and bad children. I was extremely impressed with this version too, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Comparing the two interpretations of Willie Wonka, I was impressed that they both portrayed the character basically the same. Obviously Johnny Depp's interpretation had a darker angle to it, but overall both actors kept the character the same.

You may think that watching either Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would be just for children, but there are very adult lessons to be learned in both films. You just have to keep an open mind and to look at what is being said, not just what you see.

Sometimes "children's" films do apply to adult themes. Take a look and let me know what you think...

Until tomorrow...

Run for the Wall - Pre-Trip

Today was our first full day spent with our Run for the Wall Family. It was a great day in Rancho Cucomonga, CA, not just because of the weather, but due to the fact we were able to catch up with so many of our family. Because we are scattered all over the United States, we do not always get to stay in touch with each other. At least once a year we have the opportunity to get together with most of our "family" and spend some quality time.

For those of you not familiar with Run for the Wall, it is an annual motorcycle event that starts in Los Angeles County and takes 10 days to get to Washington, D.C., ending at the Vietnam War Memorial ("The Wall"). People can join the group at specific stops along the way, so nobody is required to start in California and go all the way to Washington, D.C.. "Run for the Wall recognizes the sacrifices and contributions made by all veterans who have served our nation. Veterans of recent conflicts and those currently on active duty are especially welcome to join us as we ride for those who cannot."

The mission statement for Run for the Wall is as follows: "To promote healing among ALL veterans and their families and friends, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (POW/MIA), to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars, and to support our military personnel all over the world." Run for the Wall strives to maintain a save, supportive and private atmosphere in which all participants can reflect and heal on their journey to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the hope that they can return home to a new beginning.

I have been participating in Run for the Wall since 2005. At the time, I had been looking for something to do for my vacation, and was talking to a co-worker and good friend about possibly attending this event. As it turns out, he was a Vietnam Veteran and wanted me to go to the "Wall" to visit on behalf of some of those he had known and lost in the War. I chose to take the trip on behalf of my friend, who could not go. The first morning that I appeared to attend (I picked up the group in Phoenix, AZ), if it had not been for the wonderful people at registration, I would have been so overwhelmed, that I may have chickened out and found something else to do for vacation.

As it was, the people that registered me, made sure I knew where to go and who to look for. They made sure I was taken care of and assigned a place to stage my motorcycle in anticipation of leaving by 8 am. For someone who had never been in a motorcycle group of more than 50, it was scary being in a group of over 200. There were other new riders joining in Phoenix, there were people called Platoon Leaders who lead groups of us towards Washington, D.C.. There were also Road Guards who were essentially responsible for keeping us safe on the road and helping advise us on better riding techniques. Honestly, the Road Guards scared the daylights out of me. These people were seriously good riders, very intense and not afraid to tell you what you need to do to improve. They were never rude, or mean, and wanted to help. They just scared you when they would zoom up beside you (while you are riding down the road) to tell you that you need to straighten up. You end up wanting to ride like they do, and I worked very hard to make sure they had nothing bad to say about my riding.

After the first 100 miles, I started not being so tense, the death-grip on my handlebars started to lighten up and my heart started pumping at a more normal rate. After lunch (about 200 miles now) I really started getting into the swing of the ride. What was really impressive was the fuel stops. They had a system down that they could gas up over 200 motorcycles in less than 30 minutes. That is a sight to behold. Everything they did was on a schedule. There were people assigned specific tasks, people assigned to point us all in the direction we were supposed to go, people to direct us to snacks, people making sure we drank enough water (especially important as we rode across the desert) and people just moving around making sure you were safe.

After I completed that trip in 2005, I knew that this was an event that I must attend every year. The friendships that were formed, seemed so much stronger than any other friendships that I have had in the past. In less than 10 days, I went knowing only 2 people on the Run, to now riding with over 400 of my closest friends. What is really fun is that every year since, I meed up with my first 200 of my closest friends, and then find several hundred more as the Run progresses to Washington, D.C..

If you ever have the opportunity to even do one leg of Run for the Wall, it would be an unforgettable experience. If you would like more information on Run for the Wall, their website is http://www.rftw.org/, or you can e-mail me at hawgwash1@yahoo.com. It is now time for me to get off the computer and get back to catching up with my "family".

Until tomorrow...

You found WHAT in the Garage?

I bet that title caught your eye. What is even more fun is that this is entirely true. I am exhausted today because of the drama we experienced throughout the day. This is legitimate drama too, not something to over react to... Bet you want to know what we found in the garage, huh?

Can you say....RATTLESNAKE? Not just a little, baby rattlesnake like we found in the back yard a year ago. This was a full-grown, BIG Western Diamond-backed rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). It gets worse... we found it because I tripped on it... Yup, I was quickly walking through the garage, heading out to the trailer in preparation of a lunch meeting we had, and my foot caught on something on the floor. Since I was moving at a pretty brisk pace, it took a few more steps to slow myself down before I could turn to see what in the world I had tripped over.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a very large reptilian tail disappearing over some dog fencing. I am not proud to admit that I did bounce around a bit before becoming coherent enough to tell Steve what was going on. It must have been pretty funny for an outsider looking on to see me dancing all around outside the garage door sputtering and going "ick". When I finished my histrionics, I carefully walked over to where I last saw that TAIL only to discover there really was a snake in the garage. Not only was it a snake, it was a very LARGE snake and it looked to me a LOT like a rattlesnake.

The reason I was not so sure about the rattlesnake part was the darned thing didn't make a noise. You always hear about the warning rattle that those snakes give before striking, but there was no rattle. There are snakes out here in Arizona that look a lot like rattlesnakes, but are not. I was hoping that this was one of them, but I knew the shape of this snake's head was very much like a rattler, not like the gopher snake that has similar coloration. The really cool part about living in Arizona is that if you find a rattler, all you have to do is to call the local Fire Department and ask for them to remove the snake.

The Fire Department usually comes quickly, in our case, they came with the hook and ladder truck. Luckily they did not come with lights flashing. They arrived about 5 minutes (it seemed like HOURS...but really) and were really great guys. I had hoped they would show up quickly because I was concerned that the large snake in the garage would slither somewhere we could not find. Luckily the snake pretty much stayed put, it did coil waiting for some type of attack from us...but it really didn't go anywhere. The firemen came with what looked like a 5-gallon paint bucket and pincers (about 3-4 feet long) that they use to catch the snake.

Since luck was with us, the guys were able to quickly catch the snake before it hid somewhere. When they grabbed it, we discovered that we had at least a 5 foot, pissed-off snake on our hands. They even had a little trouble keeping the snake in the bucket, it kept trying to push the lid of the bucket off. What was super scary was that this snake had lost it's rattles. There was no way to warn us it was there, we could have been bitten at any time since it could not make any noise. The firemen said I was super lucky I wasn't bit, since I did accidentally kick the snake. Adding to that comment, they looked around and said that there was a very high likelihood that there were more rattlesnakes in the garage...somewhere... Imagine... I think the one fireman giggled, but I couldn't tell... They went on to say that in all likelihood, this particular snake has probably been camping in the garage all winter long... Lovely... Gives new meaning to look before you leap...

Once we got over the shivers of having a LARGE snake in the garage, we did manage to make our lunch appointment. After returning home, I wandered over to the neighbor's home to let them know what had occurred. The next thing you really won't believe. As I was returning to the house (we are next door neighbors, all I did was walk the gate between our properties) another large rattlesnake was laying across the path I had walked minutes earlier.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. So, on the phone again to the Fire Department to have them come out AGAIN to remove yet another rattler. This one was a little colder, not as pissed and did have it's rattles attached. It still didn't rattle, so if I had not been watching this time where my feet went, I would have stepped on this snake too... I am thinking along the lines of St. Patrick. It seems the rattlers like to come out when I am wandering around. If this keeps up, nobody will want to be near me here in AZ. The firemen came again to the house, again grabbed the snake and put it in the bucket. At least this one was not as pissed off and did have it's rattles. I still didn't get rattled at, and am not sure why. So in less than 3 hours we had two relatively large snakes removed from the property.

What was a bit embarrassing is that the guys who responded to this second call were the same ones who responded to the first call. When they pulled up, the first thing they said was, "You found another one already?" They did reiterate that the first one they got was really big, but something had bitten it's tail off, hence no rattles. What is really good (in my eyes, not Steve's) is that the Fire Department does not kill the snakes, they just relocate them about 5 - 10 miles away. Hopefully those snakes don't have a sense of home and will not return... what a thought...

So, here I am, sitting in the study, INSIDE the house, with all the doors firmly closed. We have double-checked the weather stripping to be sure no snakes find their way into the house. Next step is to clean out the garage completely, and try to keep the snakes OUT (assuming that we got all the snakes out already). One theory is to crunch up moth balls and sprinkle that around the perimeter of the garage. Supposedly the snakes don't like the smell of mothballs... We shall see. I will keep you all posted on our progress...

Until tomorrow...

Personal Development - The Reactor Factor

I know that I mentioned Steve was quoted in a new book by Marsha Petrie Sue. I have finally carved out some time to really read this book (and not scan the pages) and thought you might be interested in the contents of this book. I am not going to give you the short version of the whole book, but there are some items I have found that are very helpful and I want to share them throughout the upcoming weeks.

This new book, "The Reactor Factor - How to Handle Difficult Work Situations Without Going Nuclear", by Marsha Petrie Sue is a handbook that provides exercises and tools to help you respond positively instead of reacting inappropriately. What I really like about the format of this book is that even though there are exercises in the book, Marsha provides those exercise pages on her website too, so you don't have to scribble all over your book. That is a huge plus for me, I hate writing in books, I grew up very old school, you did NOT write in your books... Also, by writing the exercises on separate paper, you can loan your book out to other friends without fear of them seeing what you were thinking or what situations you may see yourself in.

The first chapter in this book, Deciding to Decide: Take it, Leave it, Change it, is something that I wish I had read when working in the Corporate world. The thoughts contained in this chapter crystallize what I had to learn the hard way. It takes what you would really see as common knowledge and intuition and puts it right in front of you. After reading the chapter, I realized that I made those decisions, and can see how I worked them through, but it would have been really nice to have not relied on intuition and actually have a process that brings to the forefront the thoughts that are kicking around in your heart and in your head. How many times have you been so stressed about a situation that you felt you were paralyzed and couldn't make any type of decision?

The Deciding to Decide chapter outlines basically the three choices we all have to make. Most of us make these decisions unconsciously. By making you conscious of your thought processes, you become more aware of the reasons for your actions, and can probably improve your situation because you are more aware of the root of the problem and can now write down essentially a decision chart before you react. Even for those of us self-employed people, this chapter is extremely useful. Sometimes you don't understand why your head may say to do one action, but your heart may be directing you to go a different direction. By being able to outline the processes, you are no longer just reacting, you are responding methodically and logically to the situation. In the long run, you will find that you are more comfortable with the decisions or non-decisions you made. This process helps you gain control of what you may feel is an uncontrollable situation. Once broken down into its basic options, it is so much easier to decide to decide. Even a non-decision is a decision. but at least after reading this chapter, you are consciously making the decision to not do anything and will feel better about yourself because of it.

This book is a great read, once you get started, you really don't want to put it down. I had originally expected to fall asleep to this book (I find self-help books generally help me to sleep, not much else), but that is definitely not the case here. You will find that you have to force yourself to put the book down because as you read, you find more and more tools to deal with difficult situations. We all see these situations and it is exciting to see a process to work the problems out. You can order the book by clicking on the book picture in the upper right hand side of our website, we do not receive any money or compensation for promoting this book. This is information that everyone who works should have at their fingertips.

Until tomorrow...

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all of those veterans and active members of our United States Military.

We spent a wonderful morning preparing and then participating in a Veterans Day Parade here in Apache Junction, but more on that in a bit. I first want to give a very brief history of Veterans Day.

Originally called Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, it was first incorporated in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson. It was created in honor of the signing of the Armistice Treaty which ended World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month. Two years later on Armistice Day, an unknown WWI soldier was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In 1938 Armistice Day became an official National American Holiday. The year after Armistice Day became a National Holiday, WWII broke out in Europe. The start of WWII ended our hopes that WWI was "the war to end all wars". Over four hundred thousand America troops died in World War II.

After the Korean War (during which 36,000 Americans died) Congress felt that veterans of all wars should be recognized so in 1954 they changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. President Eisenhower signed the bill proclaiming the holiday a remembrance of all wars and changing the name to Veterans Day.

Veterans Day celebrations now take place across this wonderful country of ours. The people of Apache Junction have their own Veterans Day parade, which includes inviting the local ROTC cadets from all branches of the military and inviting members of the the local American Legion to participate. We rode with the American Legion Riders for this event. The Parade included local school bands and drill teams, the Model T club from Mesa were also in attendance. I know I am being pretty vague about who was in the parade, but since we were staging, I really didn't have an opportunity to visit all of the others in the parade.

At 9:30 we had the presentation of colors, and immediately after that we had a flyover by two F-15's from Luke Air Force Base. I would hazard a guess that the pilots of those two F-15's heard the crowd applaud and yell their greetings. It was an awe-inspiring sight to see.

As we were staging in the pre-dawn hours today, we had the great honor and pleasure to meet Army Lieutenant Colonel Margaret "Maggie" DeSanti. She has recently retired from the Army and is one of the most vibrant people I have met. Her tour of duty included service in Vietnam, 1968, 1969 and she served during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Maggie had several fun stories to tell about her time in the service, and was a great source of information regarding her service. What she didn't discuss (we found out from one of her friends) was that she lost a daughter in the Twin Towers during 9-11. Her daughter was a waitress in one of the towers when it was hit. Maggie does not appear to be the kind of person who will dwell on things she cannot change, she is very focused on the here and now.

It was really great to see Maggie prior to the beginning of the parade going around to greet the various ROTC groups and spend some time talking with each of them. When she went to greet the Army ROTC, they all stood at attention and saluted her. That must have been a great thrill for those cadets to be greeted by a Lieutenant Colonel. Maggie does not appear to be one to take any 'guff' from anyone. Her handshake would put most men to shame, she is very active and in no way planning on drifting into retirement quietly. I feel honored that she spent time talking with me, a mere civilian, but she did have a good amount of fun teasing Steve, the Marine, who in the pre-dawn (and pre-coffee) hours did not see her uniform correctly. Steve first believe Maggie to be a Lieutenant (he claims he didn't see her shoulder boards...ha..) and then he believed her to be part of the Navy (again, he thought her uniform was blue, not black...). He just kept digging deeper until Maggie finally let him off the hook. Since Maggie was a Nurse, she actually helped all branches of the Military, and she has fond memories of some Marines she came in contact with.

What really touched me was all of the people lining the streets of Apache Junction, waving flags, little children holding up signs that say Thank You, and everyone waving. It was a wonderful day for a parade and everyone seems to have really enjoyed themselves. I am already looking forward to next year.

Until tomorrow...