Random Photos and Comments From Joan

artsy

2012-02-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

A Stone Street in England

2011-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

This is a scene from Workington, England. (see..this blog truly is random)I found this picture while helping a lady do research on her g g granfather who was a captain of a clipper ship that was in The Great Tea Race from London to China. One site said he was born in Workington...so here is a scene from modern Workington. I wonder how old this stone street is....

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Mariners/2003-02/1045600165

Blueberries

2011-03-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Been thinking about my favorite food: blueberries! John planted a bush in a pot and it is blooming now.

Father of five earns Purple Heart | father, five, heart - Victorville Daily Press

2011-03-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Father of five earns Purple Heart | father, five, heart - Victorville Daily Press

A Book Room

2011-03-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

I do not remember where I got this picture, but I like it. I like books...I would love to have a book room like this! Enough said!

Digital Learning Center UVC

2011-03-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Digital Learning Center, Utah Valley College, Orem, Utah

I love this picture! I have seen the building in real life. I love the time of day. I love that "all blue" feeling that happens often after the sun goes down (but not always). I call it "The blue time". In this learning center, there are just lots of windows...and lights shining out...the lights a symbol of the light of knowledge. There are rows and rows of computer terminals with students at the,...you do not see shelves of books. You do not see "the stacks" and people roaming up and down reading call numbers on the book spines. This is digital learning. I hope those student remember to get up and walk around every half hour! To give their butts a break!

Design

2011-03-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

I was browsing on the Internet and when I cam across this picture from kaboodle.com. I thought...how lovely...how unique. Take a simple object, not very lovely (like a dish drainer) and give it some class! Hooray for creative designers!

OLd Age Fun

2010-09-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's Frozen Custard in Southern California !

2010-07-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

A small, unassuming shop in a mini mall in Irvine...
..carrying on a long tradition started by the Strickland family in Ohio in 1936.
...using these wonderfully fshioned cylinders to make....

FROZEN CUSTARD....!!But here in Southern California at this Strickland's, they just call it homemade ice cream. (Because if you're not from the midwest, you wouldn't understand. )

It is cool velvet on the tongue! I had this vanilla cone first, then went back and got chocolate.

My husband had banana, one of the flavors of the day.

On the monthly schedule of flavors, I see that on July 30th, they offer avocado !

Youth

2010-05-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a young lady, age 20, pure and perfect!

To Make Someday

2010-05-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

A nice cloth basket with handles....soft and pleasant.

Author James T. Summerhays

2010-05-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

I thought this was interesting...

http://ldsmag.com/ideas/100514twisted.html
During the twentieth century, many in the emerging fields of brain science operated under the assumption of absolute biological materialism—the idea that all reality in life can be reduced to our natural, physical dimension. For example, some neuroscientists sought to explain the deep mysteries of human consciousness not as any cosmic interconnection of spirit and matter but merely as a series of chemical reactions in the brain. Such assumptions in reductive materialism and pure determinism may sometimes be necessary within the realm of controlled scientific inquiry; but when adopted as a way of life, determinism has profound repercussions not only in the political realm of social strife but also in the quieter realm of personal and spiritual struggle.
For example, academic circles and mass media outlets alike reported the neuroscientific discovery that human qualities are determined in the first few years of life. True, the developing brain is a specimen of great wonder as neurons and synapses nimbly multiply and trim themselves according to external stimuli, but once the brain’s hardware is fully wired, it is no longer plastic or pliable and therefore is much like that old dog, the one with no new tricks.
Parents had about three years to make the right impression on their child—or else. From the late 1940s onward, determinism became big business as disciples of Dr. Benjamin Spock and disciples of behaviorism rushed out to buy the latest parenting manual. In fact, proper child development became a great controversy between behaviorists and Spockites in the 1940s and 1950s precisely because both sides assumed that the window of opportunity to mold the little tykes was so fleeting and so crucial.
Science may not have intended it, but there was a side effect to this zeitgeist, namely that adults were banished to the doghouse where the proverbial old dog dwelt. The philosophical ramifications of pure determinism became the devastating, albeit conventional, wisdom. If the wellspring of all adult thoughts and cognitions cannot change, then adults themselves cannot change; thus, happy notions of regeneration or repentance are but deluded tricks grown-ups play on themselves. Any appearance of authentic change in the human spirit can be dismissed as an anomaly in the human biological system. As a result, countless adults, helped along by Freudianism, bemoaned the abominable events of their childhood as the cause of their troubles, and countless more used their childhood as an excuse to make trouble and act rather abominably.
As it turns out, more recent research into neuroplasticity has firmly established that the adult brain is capable of profound changes even in the later stages of life. Beginning in earnest during the early 1990s and picking up steam in the 2000s, influential researchers began publishing their findings in adult neuroplasticity. A seismic shift began taking place in the field of psychology at the same time, for if adult neuroplasticity is possible, then it would follow that many aspects of psychology would need to be revisited—which, it appears, is precisely what happened. Four psychologists—Seligmann, Haidt, Schwartz, and Burns—exemplify this seismic shift.
In 1990, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman wrote for a general audience Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, which later helped spawn the positive psychology movement as well as instill the hope that people are not helpless and that profound and fundamental changes are possible in adulthood. Seligman and others note that the DSM-IV, the manual used by all psychiatrists and psychologists to diagnose their patients, is a thousand-page codex of every mental flaw ever discovered but has almost nothing to say about human strengths and how to build upon them. Such a negative skew does have important and even vital uses, but all shadows and no light is rather dreary, particularly to those trying to chase away the indigo shades of anxiety and depression. Positive psychology has become a welcome desert shekinah to those groping for more illumination.
Just as quantum mechanics infused a mystical essence into the sciences, researchers in positive psychology also began to see patterns and correlations emerge between the new understanding of neuroplasticity and age-old religious practices. Dr. Jonathan Haidt set out on the ambitious task of sifting through and redacting those universal moral ideas found in all the major ancient religions and civilizations and then reinterpreting them according to modern research in positive psychology and neuroscience—thus was born The Happiness Hypothesis. Such a link between religion and this new psychology is compelling, so compelling that even an atheist like Haidt can see it. And for believers, there is something soul-satisfying in seeing Jesus’ and Paul’s admonitions vindicated in verifiable research.
For instance, Haidt points out that the Christian (as well as Buddhist and Hindu) notion that humans are divided beings battling between two forces is also true for the brain. Scientists can measure brain waves in the left and right frontal cortexes, areas found just behind the forehead. But “it has long been known from studies of brainwaves that most people show an asymmetry” (33). Those who are naturally happy, upbeat, and given to other positive emotions show stronger brain activity in the left frontal cortex. Those who suffer depression, anxiety disorders, and a host of other negative emotions display a more active right frontal cortex. In fact, a person’s level of happiness “is one of the most highly heritable aspects of personality” (33). But inheritance need not kill hope. Haidt argues that “you can change your affective style” (35) to a happier disposition, and he points to research showing that focused prayer and religious meditation can cajole the brain’s activity to lean to the happy left.
Haidt and Seligman are willing to engage religious ideas, but Latter-day Saints are still likely to disagree with a few of their views concerning the restrictions materialistic biology places on human nature. Seligman suggests elsewhere that abnormal sexual identity is totally unchangeable, and Haidt devotes a portion of his book to exploring research that suggests spiritual experiences are merely a series of neurochemical reactions in the brain’s temporal lobes that can be manipulated with drugs (201–206).
Such passages may strike Latter-day Saints as somewhat faithless and skeptical, especially coming from a couple of positive psychologists. Latter-day Saints do acknowledge biology as a powerful force, but one that under normal circumstances influences human action rather than one that determines it. Latter-day Saints do acknowledge that in some cases biology has a stranglehold on freedom of choice (such as those with severe mental handicaps, major neuropsychiatric disorders, or advanced chemical addictions), but even then they hold on to the hope that someday, somehow, there will be miraculous relief.
Also, for Haidt to observe that a reported spiritual experience has an effect on the physical brain creates no problems in Mormon theology, which teaches that the essence we call spirit is actually a refined material. Hence there is nothing very spooky in the idea that the temporal lobe, though physical, might help interpret spiritual data. But for Haidt to suggest that the source of the experience begins and ends in the brain seems, to a believer, particularly closed-minded.
True, Latter-day Saints and scientists alike acknowledge that certain deterministic boundaries exist because of biology. We all experience them and easily observe them every day. But Latter-day Saints come from a tradition where they believe, for instance, that the people in the city of Enoch, over a lengthy process of time, were so transformed that they no longer belonged on this earth and were taken to heaven. It should not be surprising, then, that Latter-day Saints are likely to hold a more optimistic view on the possibilities of human change and redemption than what much of the research currently suggests.
More in line with this Latter-day Saint optimism, two other psychologists’ works exhibit much more unabashed exuberance towards the powers of human agency in swimming against the pull of mighty biocurrents: Dr. Jeffrey R. Schwartz’s The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force and Dr. David D. Burns’s bestseller, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Schwartz and Burns strike me as more willing to push against the boundaries of determinism and forge ahead under a new, brain-as-dynamo paradigm—but not in a foolhardy way. They point to mountains of research—much of it more cutting edge—and decades of clinical experience to back them up.
Schwartz introduces readers to a world where patients with total paralysis move cursors on computer screens with the power of their own brain waves; subjects who overcome paralysis through prolonged mental effort despite the sensory nerves to their arms being completely severed; patients who suffer profoundly from obsessive-compulsive disorder receiving considerable or complete relief through “redirected attention,” a method that observably changes their brains’ structure; and examples of mind-over-matter that do indeed exist beginning at the quantum level.
Delightfully, Schwartz also considers the spiritual realm of the mind in connection with the material realm. His smashing together of the ancient spiritual particle and the new science particle creates a brilliant flash of energy that should be quite refreshing to educated religionists. And more than refreshing, his book is also a sobering reminder of the moral hazards that arise when spiritual notions of mind and consciousness are altogether removed from neuroscience:
Wrestling with the mystery of mind and matter is no mere academic parlor game. The rise of modern science in the seventeenth century—with the attendant attempt to analyze all observable phenomena in terms of mechanical chains of causation—was a knife in the heart of moral philosophy, for it reduced human beings to automatons. If all of the body and brain can be completely described without invoking anything so empyreal as a mind, let alone a consciousness, then the notion that a person is morally responsible for his actions appears quaint, if not scientifically naïve.
A machine cannot be held responsible for its actions. If our minds are impotent to affect our behavior, then surely we are no more responsible for our actions than a robot is. It is an understatement to note that the triumph of materialism, as applied to questions of mind and brain, therefore makes many people squirm. For if the mysteries of the mind are reducible to physics and chemistry, then “mind is but the babbling of a robot, chained ineluctably to crude causality,” as the neurobiologist Robert Doty put it in 1998. (52)
Related to Schwartz’s ideas on redirected attention, Burns’s book Feeling Good has pioneered the field of cognitive restructuring, which is a systematic redirecting of a person’s distorted thoughts toward more truthful thoughts. Humans have an automatic internal dialogue of thoughts running nearly all the time, and, as it turns out, this internal dialogue often lies. Catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, labeling, filtering, and other distorted thoughts create distorted emotions. Reprogram the distorted internal dialogue, and watch depression, anxiety, anger, and other troubling states of mind dissipate over time:
Even if there is some type of genetic or biological disorder in at least some depressions, psychotherapy can often help to correct these problems, even without medications. Many research studies, as well as my own clinical experience, have confirmed that severely depressed patients who appear very “biologically” depressed with lots of physical symptoms often respond rapidly to cognitive therapy alone without any drugs. (460)
Also, several independent studies reveal that depressed patients “appear to stay undepressed longer than patients who receive only antidepressant medication therapy and no psychotherapy” (462). The mind’s ability to overcome biological forces is powerful indeed, but it is no reason to become giddy or reckless. Those with severe disorders like bipolar I or schizophrenia must almost always stabilize their condition with medication first before volitional cognitive restructuring can have any effect (462). “My clinical practice,” says Burns, “has always been predicated on an integrated approach” to biology and the mind (463).
Latter-day Saints can benefit from a more integrated approach as well; whatever spiritual advantages they might enjoy do not always translate into mental health advantages. They suffer from mental disorders almost as frequently as the larger population. But many Latter-day Saints are suspicious of psychology, partly because of its secular nature (and its Freudian beginnings) and partly because of the idea that true religion is supposed to fix everything.
For some Latter-day Saints, using psychotherapy is to admit spiritual defeat. Ironically, the scriptures are saturated with Schwartz and Burns—or at least the principles they espouse. Latter-day Saints eager to learn more about the workings of their minds should consider reading The Mind and the Brain to gain much-needed hope and then Feeling Good to gain much-needed skills.
Among brain researchers, the adage once was, “For every twisted thought, a twisted molecule.” Now it might read, “For every twisted thought, there is a way to untwist it.” Granted, all those ways have not yet been discovered. Many mental disorders baffle both subjects and scientists to this day. The city of Enoch example must be tempered by the example of the “lunatics” in the New Testament who were quite helpless to control their actions until Christ performed a miracle. But for those who are suffering milder disorders and for those “normal” people who just want to keep improving and progressing well into old age, neuroplasticity offers the evidence that such change is possible. And Schwartz and Burns uncover two main roots of that change: human belief and human will. A crucial moment on the path to brain transformation is when people first believe they can transform it and then decide to transform it.
This is not to say it will not take time, effort, and wisdom, nor is it to say that many will not need the help of medication or the guidance of a good doctor. Schwartz’s research using brain imaging technologies firmly establishes that consistent amounts of doctor-assisted mental effort over months and even years, amounting to thousands of good choices, is often necessary to affect the desired biological changes within the brain. And, of course, adult neuroplasticity has certain boundaries, just as human agency has certain boundaries.
But we now have strong evidence that those boundaries are less confining than previously supposed. Schwartz’s research firmly establishes that another essence is working on the brain that transcends a deterministic biology; something else is looping back onto the brain and changing it. I call it humanity—external human experience and internal human will. Many more psychologists today agree that this humanity has great transformative power, and they are throwing off the old Freudian-era sturm und drang and embracing a more optimistic and pragmatic approach to psychology. And many others, like Schwartz, go a step further and see neuroplasticity as one more reason that the scientific realities of material determinism should be interweaved with the religious and spiritual perspectives of agency, will, and volition.
Biological determinism is everywhere, and to some of it we must surrender. All are susceptible to infirmity and disease. All must grow old and die. But these facts are no reason for scientists, philosophers, or regular folk to surrender to a one-sided determinism that does not allow for transformation, redemption, liberty, and transcendence. Gladly, if the new research is any indication, such a surrender will not be necessary.

James T. Summerhays (james.summerhays@byu.edu) is Administrative Editor at BYU Studies and is a member of the BYU Studies Review Board. His recent publications include “The Cosmic Mind: The Blueprint of Our Potential,” accessible at www.meridianmagazine.com
``````````````
Before his position as an editor at BYU Studies, James T. Summerhays was New Media Editor at Deseret Book and most recently an administrator in the Continuing Education department at BYU. Having been involved in the publishing world in some capacity since the time he was sixteen, he has always been fascinated with different mediums of communicating ideas.
“Communication, whether it be in art, music, or the written word has always been my passion,” he says. “The challenge of expressing a lofty idea with clarity and persuasion has always intrigued me. I never tire of it. If there is a way to perfectly capture the true essence of the Restoration through a symphony, or if there is a way that the clever turn of a phrase could forcefully convey the reality of some exalted principle, then I am interested in that way.” Such a challenge can be frustrating, however, “I probably fail most of the time, but the process of trying to discover a perfect and powerful form can be fun.”
James has published numerous articles and has recently produced the documentary Witness the Restoration: The Smith Family Artifacts and Their Story. James and his wife Mary have five children, and he enjoys golf, music composition, art, and basketball — “at least back when I could jump.

my face

2010-05-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Another favorite flower

2010-04-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

I love PEONIES ! ! ! !

Funeral Mass for Poland's President

2010-04-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Coffins with the remains of the Polish presidential couple are taken to the Basilica of Our Lady in Krakow. Tens of thousands of grieving Poles packed into Krakow for the burial of President Lech Kaczynski, though Europe's air travel crisis kept many world leaders away.

Polish soldiers bring remains of late Polish Preisdent Lech Kaczynski and his wife to the Basilica of Our Lady in Krakow.

A funeral mass for Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who died in a plane crash a week ago, began late Saturday at St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw. Over 100,000 Poles packed the streets of Warsaw as the coffins of of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife left the presidential palace on their way to Krakow.

Poland holds funeral for president Kaczynski

By admin

Created 18/04/2010 - 17:04

http://www.france24.com/en/print/5037326?print=now
Tens of thousands of grieving Poles packed into Krakow on Sunday for the burial of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife alongside ancient kings and heroes, though Europe's air travel crisis kept many world leaders away.
US President Barack Obama and dozens of other dignitaries abandoned plans to attend because of the volcanic ash cloud, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev showed solidarity after the April 10 plane crash in Russia that killed the couple and 94 others.
Mourners applauded the Kaczynskis, tossed flowers and waved red and white flags as the cortège weaved through the narrow streets of Poland's former royal capital, after their bodies were flown by military aircraft from Warsaw.
Sirens wailed and church bells rang to mark the start of the funeral mass at the Gothic Basilica of Our Lady in Krakow's central square, where huge crowds had gathered to see the service relayed live on giant screens.
The archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, thanked the foreign leaders who came to the service and said he hoped the crash would help end decades of tensions between Russia and Poland.
"The empathy and help that we experienced during these days from our Russian brothers raises hope for rapprochement and reconciliation," he said. "These words I direct to Mr. president of Russia."
Kaczynski's Tupolev Tu-154 jet slammed into a forest near Smolensk in western Russia while heading for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet forces in the Katyn forest.
Acting president Bronislaw Komorowski -- who met Medvedev before the funeral along with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- said at the service he hoped Russia would one day reveal the full truth about the atrocity.
Despite his reputation as an often divisive nationalist, Kaczynski and his wife Maria were to be laid to rest in the cathedral crypt of Krakow's Wawel castle, alongside Poland's monarchs, national heroes, saints and poets.
They will be lowered into a sarcophagus inscribed with their names and a cross. It will lie next to that of Poland's revered independence leader, Jozef Pilsudski.
The funeral marks the climax of a national outpouring of grief since the crash, which also killed scores of senior military and civilian officials.
"It's an exceptional moment. Poles have to be here," said Maria Kurowska, the mayor of the town of Jaslo, who was in the crowd.
Police said there were nearly 100,000 mourners in Krakow, half of them outside the church and the rest on a huge square which once accommodated some two million people during a mass by Polish pope John Paul II.
A day earlier a similar number massed in Warsaw for a public memorial service for all the victims of the crash.
But the Icelandic volcano eruption that has disrupted European air travel also cast its shadow over Sunday's funeral.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Britain's Prince Charles and South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan were among dozens of dignitaries who cancelled.
The leaders of many countries close to Poland, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, arrived in Krakow by road and rail instead.
Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus slammed EU officials for failing to come, saying that "grand phrases about European unity are really nothing but cliches."
Poles lining the streets of Krakow said the foreign no-shows did not detract from the solemnity of the day.
"It looks like a higher power is at work but nothing is keeping us away," said Anna Zajac, 28, who came with her husband and two children from a suburb of Krakow.

Wawel Cathedral in Poland

2010-04-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

Polish Leader Buried In Ceremony Of Patriotism

President Obama, French President Sarkozy Cancel

VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer
POSTED: Sunday, April 18, 2010
UPDATED: 5:44 pm EDT April 18, 2010

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/23185984/detail.html

KRAKOW, Poland -- Tens of thousands of Poles bade farewell to President Lech Kaczynski on Sunday at a state funeral filled with pomp, pride and an outpouring of patriotism that his divisive and unpopular leadership had never generated.
Mourners applauded and chanted "We thank you!" as the caskets bearing Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, were carried slowly past pale-toned Renaissance buildings for burial among kings and poets in the ancient Wawel Cathedral.

"Poles finally appreciate him," said Ryszard Stolarski, 56, one of many weeping mourners. "I never imagined that Poland would honor Kaczynski in this way."
Many world leaders, including President Barack Obama, could not be there because their travel plans were wrecked by the enormous plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

The funeral came eight days after the Polish air force Tupolev 154 crashed on approach to Smolensk, Russia. The worst tragedy to strike Poland since World War II killed the first couple and 94 other people, including top civilian and military leaders.

In some ways the tragedy, and Russia's response to it, appear to have begun the long process of finally healing wounds that have soured the two nations' relations for decades.

Kaczynski, a lifelong skeptic of Russia and fervent anti-communist dissident, had focused on building closer ties to the United States, advocating for a U.S. missile defense base in his country. But even as president he sometimes pushed diplomacy aside to sharply criticize Russia.

Yet since the plane crash Kaczynski has become an unwitting catalyst for new words and gestures of trust between the long-divided Slavic nations.

Kaczynski's fatal flight, which investigators have said was likely caused by pilot error, was meant to take him to a memorial for 22,000 Polish officers murdered by Stalin's secret police in 1940, killings known as the Katyn massacres and intended to wipe out Poland's brightest and best.

The patriotic Kaczynski wanted to honor them and push Moscow to do more to acknowledge the Soviet crimes, which Moscow had blamed on Nazi Germany during the communist era, a cover-up often known as the "Katyn lie," and given little attention since.

After the plane crash, Kaczynski's body was recovered by Russians. The normally stoic Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin set the tone with an outpouring of emotion. And during Sunday's Roman Catholic funeral Mass, a Russian Orthodox priest also prayed over the caskets.

And though many world leaders, including Nicolas Sarkozy of France, were kept away by the travel chaos caused by Iceland's volcano, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on a jet to pay his respects at the state funeral in the 13th-century St. Mary's Basilica.

Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, told the congregation during the lavish state funeral for the first couple that Kaczynski's death has created hope that "we will all know the truth about the Katyn massacre."

Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz acknowledged those new ties, saying the tragedy had given rise "to many layers of good between the people and nations."

"The sympathy and help we have received from Russian brothers has breathed new life into a hope for closer relations and reconciliation between our two Slavic nations," Dziwisz said. "I direct these words to the president of Russia."

It was Medvedev's first visit to Poland, and before returning home he declared that the two nations are taking a "step into the future."

"Tragedies can bring out difficult emotions, but very often they bring people closer and I believe that that is what the residents of my country and Poles need," Medvedev said.

The rhetoric wasn't always so conciliatory.

In particular, during the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, Kaczynski had made it clear that his loyalties were with Georgia and its president, Mikhail Saakashvili.
During the conflict he traveled to Georgia and at a mass rally accused Russia of wanting to return to the "old times" of dominating the region. "Our neighbor thinks it can fight us. We are telling it no," Kaczynski told the rally alongside the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine, all former Soviet republics.

He later declared Russia's policy "imperialist and revisionist" in a joint statement with the Baltic countries.

Those words appeared forgotten Sunday, as did Kaczynski's more combative positions. He was a conservative nationalist, winning the hearts of many older Poles and war veterans. But the younger generations often found him excessively fixated on the past and accused him of harming relations with both Germany and Russia with his focus on Poland's old wounds.

But the way in which he died -- his Tupelov 154 crashing in heavy fog with a swath of country's elite aboard -- provoked profound grief and a sudden surge of admiration.

"Kaczynski had good and bad qualities, but now you shouldn't say anything bad about the dead," said Karolina Rajchel, 19, a student who traveled five hours from Wroclaw to join the 150,000 others packing Krakow's streets.

"I am here to honor the president as well as all those who died," she said.
Those who long supported Kaczynski saw the outpouring of grief and respect toward his memory as a sign that the broader society was finally coming to appreciate him.
Before he died, his most recent opinion polls showed him with around 25 percent support, meaning he faced an uphill battle to get re-elected this autumn.

New elections must be held in June, and politicians on Monday are expected to start looking toward that balloting, now that eight days of official mourning will have passed.
One big unknown centers on who will represent Kaczynski's Law and Justice party in the election, with some observers speculating that his twin brother Jaroslaw, a former prime minister, may run in his stead.

Izabella Bruchal, a wheelchair-bound engineer who watched the Mass on one of two huge video screens in a large grassy field just beyond Krakow's Old Town, said she was happy to get a degree of closure with Sunday's funeral though said the pain would not go away quickly.

"It's been horribly difficult with the coffins coming back over several days this week -- it was a nightmare. It was necessary to bury the dead president and now I feel some relief," Bruchal, 59, said as her son wheeled her off the field when the funeral ended. "But the mourning is not over. We will grieve a long time."

After the Mass, the bodies of the first couple were carried atop a pair of artillery caissons pulled by army Humvees in a funeral procession led by the archbishop, clergy in purple robes and soldiers across the picturesque old town and up the Wawel hill, where a fortress wall encircles a castle and a 1,000-year-old cathedral overlooks the Vistula River.

As they made their way down the nearly mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) route, the crowds waved Polish flags, clapped and chanted: "Lech Kaczynski! We thank you!"
Twenty monks rang the massive Zygmunt Bell inside the Wawel Cathedral, its pealing echoing across Krakow.

The first couple were interred together in a honey-hued sarcophagus made from Turkish alabaster in a crypt under the cathedral's Silver Bells Tower. Afterward, a battery of cannon fired 21 volleys, smoke pouring from their barrels as mourners watched.

The decision to bury Kaczynski at Wawel sparked protests in recent days, with some people saying that despite the national tragedy he still does not belong in the company of some of the nation's most august figures. The hue and cry over the decision even spilled over to Facebook where thousands said the decision was not right.

Wawel's crypt is the final resting place for numerous Polish kings and statesmen. Among those there are Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, the exiled World War II leader who died in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943; Jozef Pilsudski, who led Poland from 1926 until his death in 1935; Romantic-era poet Adam Mickiewicz; and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of the American Revolution and of Poland's 1794 uprising against Russia's occupation.
___
Associated Press Writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw and Marta Kucharska in Krakow contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved

My Favorite Flower

2010-03-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

C O S M O S ! I love the fern-y stems and leaves and the single blossom perched on top of that light and airy greenery

Attempting to Reach America

2010-03-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was fascinated by this story last month in the LA Times. A 2 week trip in a rcikety boat: these folks are brave...and desperate.

William Pierre Louis, 23, left, works on the boat. Those who can't afford to pay cash for the Florida trip provide labor.

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-boats7-2010feb07,0,3603449.story
latimes.com
Haitians prepare for boat journey to Florida
An orphaned teen is one of two dozen Haitians on a vessel awaiting their time to leave. Some are further enticed by news that Haitians in the U.S. have 'temporary protected status' after the quake.

By Scott Kraft
February 7, 2010
Reporting from Cap-Haitien, Haiti

The unfinished wooden boat rocks gently in the backwater of Cap-Haitien Bay, lulling 17-year-old Douna Marcellus and two dozen others to sleep as tight balls of mosquitoes hover overhead. Cicadas serenade them from the reeds on one bank and, on the other, black pigs root through smoldering trash.

Like the others in the boat, Douna is a refugee from Port-au-Prince and the unspeakable horrors of the earthquake and its aftermath. Her parents and sister were crushed in their home, just seconds after Douna walked out the front door to run an errand for her mother. The government offered free bus tickets out of town and Douna took one.

But this city on Haiti's northern coast is just a way station. When builders finish the boat in a few days, it will set sail with the teenager and at least 40 others for the United States. If they survive the 600-mile crossing, and aren't intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard, they'll soon be walking the streets of opportunity.

"America is a place where everybody can become someone," Douna says before bedding down for the night, an expression of certainty on her pretty young face. "It's where everyone lives like human beings."

And besides, she says, "I have nowhere else to go."

The Jan. 12 earthquake, and reports of a U.S. administration newly sympathetic to undocumented Haitians, has meant opportunity for the shady world of Cap-Haitien boat builders who promise to make the dream of life in the United States come true. The desperate are pouring into town and many of them, like Douna, plan to escape.

'90s exodus

In the early 1990s, when a junta drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power, thousands of Haitians left by boat for Florida to claim political asylum. But the U.S. reinstalled Aristide to power in 1994 and in recent years the flow of boat people from Haiti has slowed to a trickle.

After the earthquake, the Obama administration quickly announced that it was granting "temporary protected status" to the more than 100,000 undocumented Haitians estimated to be living in the United States, and suspending deportation proceedings. That status can be extended up to 18 months.

The move was generally welcomed by politicians on both sides of the aisle as a fitting humanitarian gesture in the wake of the tragedy. But some expressed concern that it might trigger renewed efforts by Haitians to attempt to enter the United States by sea.

Haiti's ambassador to the United States recorded radio messages discouraging his countrymen from trying to make the risky journey, and the Coast Guard increased its patrols.

"It's clearly something people here have thought of," said Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a spokesman with the State Department's Western Hemisphere bureau. "But we've not seen any increased outflow from Haiti."

To qualify for temporary protected status, Haitians have to prove that they were in the United States on or before the quake. But for people in the country illegally, that could be difficult to verify, and the would-be immigrants in Cap-Haitien are counting on that.

'A lot of demand'

Dorcilien Louis, a taciturn man of 40, is the captain of Douna's 42-foot boat. Late last week, he was overseeing the final stages of construction: Workmen with long saws were building the cabin, and he had a crew out looking for material for a sail and a second motor. ("Our first engine has a little problem.")

It took three months to build the boat, at a cost of about $8,000, he said. When he began the project, he wasn't thinking of Miami but of Providenciales, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, about 130 miles away, where the authorities are less vigilant than the U.S. Coast Guard.

During his 15 years as a captain, Louis has made a dozen journeys to the islands with passengers hoping to start new lives and, perhaps, eventually find a way to the United States. About half of those journeys were successful, he said.

(When the authorities on those islands intercept boats from Haiti, they sink them, jail the passengers and put them on the next flight home. The U.S. Coast Guard sinks boats it intercepts as well, but usually transports the passengers back to Haiti on Coast Guard ships.)

Louis changed his itinerary, though, and stepped up the ship construction after the quake, when thousands of people began arriving from Port-au-Prince. Some of them had money, and were looking for a way to get to the United States.

"We've got a lot of demand, and these people from Port-au-Prince are the big customers," Louis said. "It's time to take the risk."

He said 40 passengers had signed up for the journey and he was expecting 20 new arrivals from the capital. The boat is built for 40 people, "but it can hold 60," he said. And if a few more paying customers show up at the last minute, he added, "we'll squeeze them on too."

The boat is being built on a narrow, secluded waterway that feeds into the bay, out of sight of Haitian coast guard patrols and U.S. ships that Louis said he's spotted on the shimmering blue sea just outside the bay.

"The U.S. Coast Guard is giving us a lot of worries," said Walker Michel Bernard, one of the passengers, who was wearing an Ohio State University cap in the sweltering sun. "They've heard we are going. But we're watching them, and as soon as we get a chance, we think we can make it."

The fare for the journey is flexible. For those who can pay, Louis charges $2,000.

"But people who don't have money can bring wood for the ship," he said. "And people who don't have wood, we put them to work as builders." (As a teenager who lost her family in the quake, Douna is being allowed to go for free, he said.)

Louis has never made the journey to the U.S., and navigation has been a problem for the boats, which often spend two weeks at sea on a trip that, even in the rickety boats, should take less than a week. But this time he is bringing along two navigators who've made the trip, though both were on boats that were stopped by the Coast Guard.

If he makes it to Miami, Louis said, it'll be his last trip as a captain. He'll push the boat back out to sea and won't give it another thought.

"I'm not coming back to Haiti. Screw the boat."

The time was right

Among Louis' passengers is Fanise Jean, 24, who lives on the ground floor of a pastel-pink French Creole house a short walk from the water. Jean has twice attempted the journey, once a year ago and again in July. Those journeys depleted her resources, which she collected as a beautician, and her stamina.

"It's a lot of suffering," she said. "People throwing up on you, you can't take a shower, there's little food, and the boat is always shaking back and forth." One of her journeys lasted 14 days because the captain got lost, and three people became ill and died.

Until last month, Jean had been resigned to waiting longer before trying again. But she began reconsidering two weeks ago, when she got word that her boyfriend, who lived in Port-au-Prince, had been crushed to death in the earthquake. "We had just talked that morning on the phone," she said.

Then, she heard from a friend in Boston who had joined her on one of the earlier attempts to reach the United States. The friend, alone among those on the boat, had been allowed to stay because she was eight months pregnant. The baby was born and the friend was being held for deportation.

"She called to tell me that she got her papers," Jean said. "Just like that. All the Haitians in the United States are getting their papers."

So, Jean decided the time was right. On both of her previous trips, Jean got within sight of Miami before the Coast Guard arrived, and those memories have stayed with her.

"We saw a lot of beautiful lights and a lot of cars," she said. "But we never touched the ground."

If she can just reach Florida, she said, "I won't have a problem. I know people everywhere there." Leaving her family makes her sad, "but I'm not all that sad, because I'm going to look for a better life."

Douna, though, feels that she's leaving nothing behind.

"I saw the house go down on my mother," she said. "No one is left for me."

Audio slide show: Haitian boat holds hope of a better life

scott.kraft@latimes.com

What Some People Do For Fun

2010-03-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

Sean Zyduck of Kronenwetter reads out a trivia question Thursday night at Applebee’s in Wausau. Zyduck works for Team Trivia of Wisconsin, which holds local and statewide trivia contests. (Xai Kha/Wausau Daily Herald)
If you go
What: Trivia contest
When: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Thursday
Where: Applebee’s, 2221 Stewart Ave., Wausau
Cost: Free
Call 715-848-1110 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 715-848-1110 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Trivial pursuits

Kronenwetter resident brings game show
atmosphere to Applebee's

By DJ Slater • Wausau Daily Herald •
March 8, 2010

By day, it appears Sean Zyduck has a fairly normal
life.

He works as the manager of Bouche's Kronenwetter
Park, a mobile home community in Kronenwetter.

By night, well, that's a different story. Zyduck, of
Kronenwetter, trades in his managerial authority for
a microphone and a handful of questions.

From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Thursday at
Applebee's in Wausau, Zyduck is a trivia game host,
providing patrons with 20 questions and the chance
to win prizes and bragging rights for the night. It's
part of an entertainment gig that he hopes will catch
on at other establishments throughout the Wausau
area.

"I think trivia is a big draw for people," he said.
"People love it."

Late last year, Zyduck saw an advertisement in an
area newspaper for a trivia host through a company
called Team Trivia of Wisconsin, which sets up trivia
contests at locations throughout the state. Zyduck
couldn't resist responding to the ad, because he
already had 10 years experience working as a disc
jockey.

The owner of Team Trivia of Wisconsin came up to
the area at the end of November and trained Zyduck. On
Dec. 6, Zyduck had his first gig at Applebee's
"It's something new and different that people can do
without spending a lot of money," said Mike Kull,
the director of operations for the Wausau
Applebee's. "It's a fun environment."

Each two-hour contest provides players with 20
questions, Zyduck said. He reads off one question at
a time and allows players to wager a set amount of
points for each question. Contestants cannot lose
points if they get a question wrong.

The final question is the only exception. A team can
wager from 15 points to zero points, depending on
how well they are doing in the standings. If
contestants answer this question wrong, however,
they will lose whatever they wagered, Zyduck said.

The top three contestants or teams from each trivia
contest win a prize. First place gets a $30
Applebee's gift certificate, while second and third
place get gift certificates of $20 and $10
respectively, he said.

"The fun of trivia is that it challenges your brain and
you see what you know and don't know," Wausau
resident Carole Dixon said. "It's just so much fun."

Dixon was at Applebee's in early January when
Zyduck approached her and her friend and told
them about the trivia contest. Since that time, Dixon,
who is part of a four-person team called The
BrainFartz, has made an appearance every Thursday,
walking away placing no lower than third place each
time, she said.

The trivia contest has wide appeal because anyone
can play as much or as little as they want, Zyduck
said. People can join a league and qualify for other
Team Trivia of Wisconsin contests across the state,

or simply observe the contest as it unfolds.

The trivia night hasn't caught fire yet like it has in
larger cities such as Milwaukee and Madison,
Zyduck said, but it's slowly gaining popularity.
When he first started, Zyduck didn't have a single
league team. Today, he has four.

"I think trivia night is a lot of fun," he said.
"Sometimes, I read the wrong answer just to see if
everyone is paying attention."

Like Zyduck, Kull thinks the trivia contests will start
to see bigger audiences as more people find out
about it. Trivia, he said, has a wide appeal because
anyone can participate in it.

Ideally, Zyduck would like to be able to offer trivia
contests three nights a week at three different
locations. That dream soon could be realized;
Zyduck said he's talking with two establishments in
Rothschild about bringing trivia to them.
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/fdcp/?1269203769096

Dreaming of Frozen Custard

2010-03-18T16:22:00.001-07:00

Where oh where can I get frozen custard in southern California?

Plain or with mix-ins....mmmmm...

Raspberry frozen custard...mmm...

Chocolate "velvet on the tongue"...just wishful thinking...but I am sorely tempted to take a SW flight to Milwaukee just to visit Kopp's Custard!!!

I'm a Bookaholic

2010-03-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

I found this cute poster on http://www.rhapsodyinbooks.com/

I guess the first step in any addiction is to admit it....OK, I admit it! I am a bookaholic

The question is....do I want to change? Should I change whether I want to or not? I will be thinking about that now for a time.

Marie Osmond

2010-03-17T22:20:00.001-07:00

I am a Marie Osmond fan big time so when this tragedy happened, I was interested. After reading about Michael (see article below) I felt more of the family's pain at his loss.His funeral was in the Provo/Orem Utah area, which I consider to be my second "home town".
Here is Marie being comforted by President Monson

. At the end of the article, it states that Marie and Donny have continued their stint in Vegas. They are doing it for Michael. I would love to go see them perform.
The casket...the reality.

Marie Osmond's son: 'Too tender-hearted for this world'
By Ben Fulton
And Ellen Fagg Weist
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 03/15/2010 09:42:56 AM MDT

http://www.sltrib.com/features/ci_14670693

If stuck in the back seat of a car, Michael Bryan would joke for hours with siblings and friends rather than complain. Give him a hot, dirty job on a construction site, and he would seek you out one year later to thank you, once more, for the opportunity.

A deep thinker who was often quiet and unobtrusive, all the young man needed was a spot in a conversation to offer a joke that would have everyone laughing.
Bryan, the 18-year-old adopted son of Marie Osmond and her second husband Brian Blosil, was all that and more, according to those who knew him.

That was before Feb. 26, when he jumped eight floors to his death from his Los Angeles apartment, while newly enrolled at the Fashion Institute of

Design and Merchandising.
Thanks to the iconic status of his famous mother, the youth's death has sparked ugly headlines and speculation by entertainment reporters, bloggers and Web commentors. That seems a haphazard, tragic memorial for Bryan, whom longtime friends and acquaintances characterized as a classic example of the cliché "still waters run deep."

Those closest to him haven't broken the silence requested by his mother, who was photographed weeping during the Monday funeral service at a Provo stake center near the Mormon temple, attended by Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alan Nierob, Osmond's Los Angeles publicist, said his client seeks silence as she and her family grieve. Osmond returned to the stage of Flamingo Las Vegas with her brother Donny the day after Bryan's funeral.

"The way Osmonds survive is we keep singing, and that's what we want to do tonight. I know my son would want that," she said from the stage, according to an Associated Press report. Members of the Osmond family contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune -- including his uncle Jimmy, his cousins Don Jr., Nathan and Aaron -- declined comment or didn't

Marie Osmond watches as the casket of her son Michael Bryan is taken from a chapel after his funeral in Provo on March 8, 2010. Bryan, 18, died Feb. 26. (AP Photo/George Frey)return e-mail or phone queries. In a phone conversation, Stephen James Craig, the sole child of Marie's first marriage to Stephen Craig and the oldest of her eight children, declined comment out of respect for his mother's wishes. Bryan's father, record producer Brian Blosil, didn't return Tribune calls.

Adopted as a newborn in 1991, Bryan and his seven siblings lived through Osmond's and Blosil's March 2007 divorce. Some seven months later, Bryan entered rehab.
"He shared with me that he had some substance-abuse issues, but I can't remember if he talked about those before or after he entered rehab," said Dave Wilbur, a Saratoga Springs music instructor who taught Bryan bass guitar. "I'm a recovering alcoholic myself, so I was very sympathetic about listening."

The outlines of Bryan's personality, and the possible motivation for his suicide, are discernible only from anecdotes and respectful suppositions by those close to the families of both his mother and father.

What emerges is the portrait of shy young man who had little trouble enjoying life, even if he as an adolescent he struggled with depression. Next to his suicide, the most shocking announcement to many was news of his October 2009 legal name change from Michael Brian Blosil to Michael Bryan. Granted by a Utah 4th District Court judge, the petition deleted his adopted father's surname and apparently altered the spelling of his given middle name to become his surname.

In an attempt to grieve away from the media spotlight generated by the high-wattage presence of the Osmonds, the Blosil family held its own memorial Sunday, the day before the funeral.

"For anyone to insinuate anything negative about the two separate services is flat-out wrong," said Alan Hawks, a friend of the Blosil family, who attended the Sunday memorial. All comments about the Osmond family at the service were completely positive, he said.

Bryan spent his formative school years in Utah County, attending Cascade Elementary and Canyon View Jr. High School up to 10th grade at Orem High before moving with his family to Henderson, Nev.

He played football in the Orem City League team with his father, also a football coach, said Lisa Hatch, who worked 23 years alongside Marie, most recently as vice president of the singer's popular doll company.

Hatch, whose two children grew up with Bryan and his siblings, remembers his youthful excitement visiting Disneyland. By tradition, the park provides security so celebrities and their children can bypass crowd lines for amusement rides. Staying out late without their parents, Bryan and Hatch's children decided to stand in line like everyone else.
"I'd never seen anyone so excited about being in line for a ride at Disneyland," Hatch said.

Noting Osmond's Dec. 9 broadcast appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" last year, Hatch said she found the media "agenda" regarding Bryan's suicide extremely distasteful. DeGeneres thanked Osmond for "her support of equal rights" during the broadcast, after which the singer, acknowledged that her adopted daughter Jessica Marie was gay.
"I couldn't love her more," Osmond told the studio audience. "She's just the greatest person. All my kids are great. How do you not love your child? I don't understand that."

Bryan had a penchant for exotic foods, and took both drum and bass guitar lessons at Orem's Modern School of Music in the years before he enrolled at the Los Angeles design school.
"He was really talented," said Wilbur, his former music instructor. "He could take almost any challenge you threw at him. He was a great kid, but seemed conflicted back then. He had some issues with his parents that he talked about during lessons. But what kid doesn't have issues with his parents?"
Hawks, who owns a construction company, remembers Bryan's notable work ethic.

Many Utah County friends approached him about possible construction jobs for their children, but Osmond's and Blosil's son proved to be a good hire. In fact, he turned out to be one of the hardest-working young adults Hawks has ever met. "You can't find 15-year-old boys who put in 12-hours days like he did without wincing or complaining a single time," Hawks said.

Thinking about what Bryan might have gone on to achieve is what makes his suicide such a tragic paradox for his friends. "He simply made an error in thinking," Hawks believes. "Knowing Michael as I did, I'm sure he said to himself afterward, 'Now why did you do something like that?'"

Though his parents' divorce caused "some strife" in the family, as most divorces do, Hawks speculates Bryan was simply trying to figure out who he was when he changed his name late last year.
"There was some bumping of heads when he was younger, but people need to understand that was coming to an end completely," Hawks said. "I can't emphasize enough that he loved both his mom and dad. Teenagers go through struggles. Sharing his feelings and emotions was probably his weak spot. He was probably too tender-hearted for this world."
bfulton@sltrib.com; ellenf@sltrib.com

Here is another article, with more details about the funeral...

Marie Osmond's Son Remembered At Utah Funeral
PROVO, Utah (AP) ―
http://cbs2.com/entertainment/Marie.Osmond.son.2.1546649.html
Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son was remembered at a funeral service Monday with fond words, laughter and music from his famous singing family.

Michael Bryan's uncle, Donny Osmond, also appealed to God in an opening prayer.

"Bless my sister," he said, breaking into tears. "Bless my sister and her family."

Bryan was then memorialized by six of his seven siblings as a lighthearted person and a deep thinker who had a brilliant sense of humor and a kind, generous heart.

"He was a man of his word. He wasn't a talker, he was a doer. He was reliable," Bryan's sister Rachel Blosil, 20, said, struggling to express herself through tears. "He knew my hopes, he knew my dreams, my secrets, things that nobody knows. He was my best friend."

Police in Los Angeles have said Bryan died Feb. 26 from an apparent suicide after jumping from the eighth floor of the Metropolitan apartment building. An official cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests.

Police said Bryan left a note but have provided no details about its contents.

One of five children adopted by Marie Osmond, Bryan previously used his adoptive father's last name, Blosil. Records from Utah's 4th District Court, however, show a judge had granted him an October 2009 petition for a legal name change.

Marie Osmond and Brian Blosil divorced in 2007 after two decades of marriage. She also has three other children from marriages to Blosil and first husband, Stephen Craig, whom she divorced in 1985.

In 2007, Marie Osmond said her son had entered a rehabilitation facility but did not disclose what he was being treated for.

About 450 mourners attended Monday's services at a chapel near the Provo temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including church President Thomas S. Monson, who offered words of comfort to the family.

Bryan was a first-year student of apparel manufacturing at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and had planned on a career in retail marketing and design, according to a biography of his life read by the family's Henderson, Nev.-based church bishop, Gary C. Milne.

The life sketch, a traditional part of Mormon funeral services, described Bryan as a hardworking, self-motivated person who loved sports, the arts, traveling and a good meal — from sushi to Peking duck and Italian pastas. An accomplished musician, Bryan played five instruments and wrote his own songs. He was also dedicated to service and since high school had been working with special needs children, Milne said.

In sharing their memories, Bryan's siblings painted a portrait of a close-knit family, where laughter and music — along with whipped cream fights in the family kitchen and other games — were often present, with Bryan at the center of the fun, despite his sometimes quiet manner.

"He was an intricate part of our family," said Stephen Craig, 26, the eldest of Marie Osmond's children." Each member of our family and every person here is better for having met him."

In somewhat of a jest, each of Bryan's siblings proclaimed themselves to be their brother's favorite.

"My brother Michael loved me the most," said 7-year-old Abigail Blosil, who drew laughter from the congregation as she launched the friendly, family competition. "My brother wrote a song about me that said I made him very happy. See, he did love me the most."

In brief remarks, Marie Osmond expressed her gratitude for the outpouring of support and prayers she said she's felt since Bryan's death. Marie Osmond expressed pride in all of her children and acknowledged the presence of Bryan's birth mother, "who gave me the greatest gift."

"Thank you for those beautiful 18 years," said Marie Osmond, who had not planned to speak at the service.

The service ended with a traditional Mormon hymn, sung sweetly by Marie Osmond and her famous brothers — Alan, Merrill, Jay, Wayne, Donny and Jimmy. The eldest Osmond brothers, Tom and Virl, who are deaf, accompanied the family by signing the words.

Bryan's silver coffin was interred at the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery in Provo. At the graveside, the family scrawled handwritten messages onto orange balloons before releasing them into the air.

(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Recycled Glass!

2010-03-17T10:40:00.001-07:00

I really love glass..and so does my husband John. He loves to peruse pictures of beautiful glass art by Lalique. I like to collect certain kinds of glass jars! Anyway,

there is this place in Oregon, run by the St. Vincent de Paul people, and they take glass and recycle it and sell it. One of the things they make is this Celtic Suncatcher. Isn't that cool?

Here is a little "blurb" about it and the website....

Recycled Glass Suncatcher- Celtic Knot

When a visionary man from St. Vincent de Paul saw a smallmountain of glass growing off the freeway, he decided to recycle it instead of see it go to a landfill. And so, the Aurora Glass Foundry was born, owned and operated by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Oregon. Since then, Aurora Glass has become a powerful resource for the community, recycling old windows and other waste glass that previously landed in the dump. All the profits are returned to the community in the form of assistance for homeless and low-income people through emergency services, housing, jobs, training, and other charitable endeavors.

This tasteful recycled glass Celtic Knot Suncatcher will add beauty to your home all year round. It hangs from a looped hemp cord finished with Czech glass beads.
http://www.isabellacatalog.com/prod.cfm/pgc/21500/sbc/21503/inv/12912?mybuyscid=8124756653

5 Foods To Eat Every Day

2010-03-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

#1. Leafy Greens.

#2. Onions and garlic.
#3. NUTS

#4. Whole Grains.

#5. Yogurt

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/makeover/the-5-foods-you-should-eat-every-day-710199/

is my source for this information and has a video about it. I do OK with 4 of the items...it is the LEAFY GREENS that I need to improve on...what about you?

Rare Book !

2010-03-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

I, Joan, have great taste in books...and intuitive feelings about certain books. I saw this book on Larissa's shelf...Buddy's Little Self Help Book...by Buddy Hobbs (Will Ferrel's character in Elf.)

It is a cute, funny, charming little book and I said to myself...I would love to own this book. I think I may have given it to Larissa for Christmas, but not sure. She wasn't sure who gave it to her...was it me, her mom,..or Amy, her sister, ...or...? This price was $3.99 US. $5.99 CAN

Anyway, I went to amazon.com to order it. guess what? They no longer carry it. It is no longer in print, but you can by it new from one seller for 213.22!!!!! Or used from 69 dollars and up. Larissa found it on half.com for 100 dollars and up.

So..that goes to show....you may never know when a book you own has become a rarity!
It is so rare, it is hard to even find a nice uploadable online picture of it. I had to take a picture
of it myself to post it here...

Here is a cute saying from the section on Self Esteem...

If you try your best,
you'll never be a cotton-head ninny muggins.

These words of advice reminded me of Amy...
Eat frosting straight out of the container.

Some more...

Tights rule!

Never lose your Christmas Spirit

Being an elf is difficult work.
Humans can rarely do it
as they end to get testy when overworked.

Singing is just like talking, only louder and longer
and you move it up and down.

If you feel confused and sweaty,
its a sign that you need some alone time.

Maple syrup is a wonderful energy drink.

Don't eat cotton balls-
they're not cotton candy nuggets.

See? Cute, huh?

Brain News

2010-02-26T18:15:00.001-08:00

Kelsy alerted me to this article today..since I am studying the Polish language and need all the help I can get with my memory....

To Boost Your Memory, Take a Break
Resting after learning helps to cement new information, researchers say

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- Great news for working stiffs: You can take a break and feel good about it, new research suggests.

If you want to strengthen your memory, take a break after learning new information, say New York University researchers who found such "active rest" strengthens memory.

While sleep has been studied and found valuable as a way to preserve memories, less is known about how "active rest" during the day may affect them, said Lila Davachi, an assistant professor of psychology at NYU. So, she tested the memory of 16 study participants and evaluated the effect of rest on memory.

The study is published in the Jan. 28 issue of Neuron. The lead author of the study is Arielle Tambini, a doctoral candidate at NYU.

First, the researchers showed participants a series of images, each one pairing a face and an object. For instance, they looked at a "surfer dude" and a beach ball and were asked how likely the person was to be holding that object.

"After that, we asked them to rest," Davachi said. As they rested, the researchers observed brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The investigators wanted to examine activity between the brain's hippocampus and the neocortex. Long-term storage of memories is thought to result from the "off-line" transfer of information from the hippocampus to the neocortex, Davachi explained.

"The brain regions remained active during rest, suggesting a replay of the experience," Davachi said. This suggested, but didn't prove, that memories were being cemented, she noted.

So the researchers gave the participants the memory test after they had rested. "The subjects who had greater correlations between the two brain areas [during rest] had better associative memory," Davachi said. "They remembered the face that went with the object [better]."

Another expert found the study results interesting. "I think it is important in that [the study] is showing that active rest is a time when you get this transfer of memory," said Dr. Paul Sanberg, director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.

The finding may help both in a practical way, for individuals trying to improve their memory, and in research, to help experts further understand memory and what goes wrong, he said.

For people, the finding suggests having a rest period after learning new information may be valuable, Sanberg added. He doesn't know, however, if a coffee break would be the best way. It's probably better to sit, do nothing and let the new information soak in, he suggested.

"By keeping on doing many different tasks [after learning new information], you may interrupt the memory you want to strengthen," Sanberg said.

More information

Learn some tips on boosting your memory from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
SOURCES: Lila Davachi, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, New York University, New York City; Paul Sanberg, Ph.D., M.D., professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair, Tampa, Fla.; Jan. 28, 2010, Neuron

http://us.mc307.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=167992221&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+Jackie++Fielder+&abids=489#_pg=showMessage&sMid=1&fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&filterBy=&.rand=941599820&midIndex=1&mid=1_20393662_AI3IjkQAARryS4h4EQaf4FE8I4I&m=1_20394442_AIbIjkQAAAS9S4h6Zg3ULmFaGTg,1_20393662_AI3IjkQAARryS4h4EQaf4FE8I4I,1_20393045_AIjIjkQAAXC0S4hufAk9MXq742M,1_20392373_AIrIjkQAABLVS4hqOgj%2Fk2EpIOY,1_20391634_AIjIjkQAAUr3S4hpJQYlZg6eveQ,1_20390391_AIzIjkQAAWhwS4hjywM%2FmXzs5FM,1_20391046_AIbIjkQAANokS4hknQjgwVIdlFg,&.jsrand=6144033

Pig Knuckles?

2010-02-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

I have several hobbies, one of which is Polish Culture and Language.
Besides trying to learn Polish, I latch on to whatever interesting thing about Poland I can find. Here is a mind opening thought: These folks' favorite food is pig knuckles!

I ask : What are we missing? Something very delicious?

I searched for a picture of roasted pig knuckles and found one!

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-JeziornaFood expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27Family recipe: Pig's knuckles with carrots, celery and parsnips
From the Book, "Hungry Planet"
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373724,00.html

Pig Knuckels with a side of sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I like the little dollop of yellow mustard on the side. Dare me to buy pig knuckles and cook and eat them?

I Do Love the Color Green

2010-02-20T20:57:00.001-08:00

This is our newly painted bathroom with a leaf motif shower curtain and whimsical frog soap dispenser. The walls are colored Chives (A Wal Mart brand paint-1 gallon for less than 14 dollars)

Before..this bathroom had light pink walls and a dark burgandy shower curtain. It is amazing how color affects one's moods and how exhiliarating change can be!!!

Ponczka Time!

2010-02-03T22:42:00.001-08:00

Caleb Wojtalewicz spreads out freshly made ponczka on a table to cool as Scott Vuorinn fills them with prunes Friday as members of the St. Mary’s Torun Catholic Church in the town of Dewey carry on the pre-Lent Polish tradition of making ponczka. (DOUG WOJCIK/STEVENS POINT JOURNAL

I, Joan, regret that I never made ponczkas (pronounced POONCH kas)while our kids were growing up. It is a Polish Catholic tradition. Before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, the homemakers would make ponczkas. My mom made them every year. What a sight to see a big bowl of these big round brownish fried balls of dough dusted with sugar and filled with either dates, prunes or jam. They were best the first day.
So here is an article from my hometown newspaper about the current ponczka situation.
My folks have been getting them from the grocery store, instead of driving way out to the country churches.

January 23, 2010
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/print/article/20100123/SPJ0101/1230537/Ponczka-baking-a-sweet-endeavor-for-church

Ponczka baking a sweet endeavor for church

By Cara Spoto
Journal staff
Bready and mildly sweet, ponczka -- Polish doughnuts filled with prunes or jelly -- are well known to people in Portage County, scores of them the ancestors of Polish immigrants who moved here more than a century ago.

For many of their families, the language and other cultural elements of Poland have faded with each generation, but somehow, ponczka have managed to stick around.
On Friday, dozens of St. Mary's Torun parishioners gathered in the church's basement in the town of Dewey with one clear goal: to make a lot of ponczka.
Gathered in the steaming hot kitchen, women stood around a small table rolling yellow balls of dough. Just feet away, kids poured flour and beaten eggs into churning bread mixers. Behind them, men boiled the doughnuts in large vats of oil, rotating each one carefully before draining and handing them off to a runner to be filled and bagged.

Several parishes in the region hold annual ponczka events, typically before Lent. St. Mary's has hosted its event for close to 35 years, church secretary Kristi Vuorinen said. The church typically fills 500 ponczka orders from residents each year. This year, they reached the 500 order mark by Tuesday -- a new record, Vourinen said.

Work on this year's batch of doughnuts began at 4 a.m., as women came into makethe first batches of dough. The church has used the same recipe for years -- one that only the bakers themselves and a few parishioners know.

At 10 a.m., things were in full swing, with school children running back and forth to collect doughnuts. Huge vats of jelly and prune butter sat on tables.
Marty Tepp, 67, of Hull has volunteered to make the ponczka for as long as she can remember. She said she remembers coming home from school to find her mother with plate of hot ponczka waiting for her.

"She would put the whole prune inside," Tepp said.

Marion Schultz, 71, of Dewey, has taken part in the event for as long as it has been held. Surrounded by two flour-covered grandchildren, 9- and 13-year-olds Paige and MacKenzie, Schultz said what she likes most about the event is spending time with everyone. She said what makes a perfect ponczka has everything to do the rising of the dough.

For 13-year-old Caleb Wojtalewicz, of Dewey, who spent much of the morning filing bags with doughnuts, the best kind of ponczka is jelly filled.
"I haven't had prune yet, and I need something in all this doughnut," he said.

Technology Perks

2010-02-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

Save A Life, Use Technology !!!
The picture above is from the Associated Press:
AP – The sun shines onto the ice-covered beach of St. Peter Ording, at the north sea coast, Germany, on Thursday, …

Here is the story:
German man saved on frozen sea by webcam spotter
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer Desmond Butler, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 1 min ago (February 3, 2010 9:45 am)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_germany_webcam_rescue/print

BERLIN – Watch the sunset, save a life.
A woman admiring the sunset on a tourist webcam in northern Germany spotted a man who was lost on the frozen North Sea and probably saved his life by alerting authorities, police said Wednesday.

The man had climbed over pack ice off the coast to photograph a sunset near the town of St. Peter-Ording, then became disoriented on the ice, Husum police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow said.

Unable to locate the beach, the man began using his camera to flash for help. That got the attention of a woman hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in southern Germany who was watching the sunset over the sea on her computer.
The woman contacted police, who located the man's signals and guided him into shore by flashing their car lights. Officers then lectured him on the dangers of trekking on the ice.

Police would not identify the man or the woman who spotted him. Stielow said he was a German tourist in his forties.

She said locals are well aware of the risk of disorientation as darkness falls and the beach becomes hard to identify, but vivid sunsets over frozen landscapes often draw people away from the shore.

At the time the man lost his bearings, the air temperature was below freezing. He could have frozen to death or fallen through the ice, Stielow added.
St. Peter-Ording is popular tourist destination known for its beaches and sailing, and the local tourism board runs a Web site with a webcam. The board, however, said images from the webcam are routinely erased and the dramatic flashes from the man's camera were not saved before the story came to light.
____
On the Web: http://www.st.peter-ording-nordsee.de/webcam-strand.html

The Names of the Full Moon for 2010

2010-01-29T12:07:00.001-08:00

Full Moon Names for 2010
By Joe Rao
SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
posted: 27 January 2010
07:20 am ET

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/full-moon-names-2010-100127.html

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

There were some variations in the moon names, but in general the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England on west to Lake Superior. European settlers followed their own customs and created some of their own names. Since the lunar ("synodic") month is roughly 29.5 days in length on average, the dates of the full moon shift from year to year.

Here is a listing of all of the full moon names, as well as the dates and times for 2010. Unless otherwise noted, all times are for the Eastern Time Zone.

January 30, 1:18 a.m. EST -- Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the Moon after Yule. In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next moon. The Moon will also arrive at perigee (it's closest point to Earth on its non-circular orbit) less than three hours later, at 4:04 a.m. EST at a distance of 221,577 mi. (356,593 km.) from Earth. So this is the biggest full moon of 2010. Very high ocean tides can be expected during the next two or three days, thanks to the coincidence of perigee with full moon.

February 28, 11:38 a.m. EST -- Full Snow Moon. Usually the heaviest snows fall in this month. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some tribes this was the Full Hunger Moon.

March 29, 10:25 p.m. EDT -- Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. In 2010 this is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full Moon of the spring season. The first Sunday following the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday, which indeed will be observed six days later on Sunday, April 4.

April 28, 8:18 a.m. EDT -- Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and -- among coastal tribes -- the Full Fish Moon, when the shad come upstream to spawn.

May 27, 7:07 p.m. EDT -- Full Flower Moon. Flowers are now abundant everywhere. It was also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.
June 26, 7:30 a.m. EDT -- Full Strawberry Moon. Strawberry picking season peaks during this month. Europeans called this the Rose Moon. There will be also be a Partial Lunar Eclipse that coincides with moonset from the western and central sections of the US and Canada and coincides with moonrise for parts of eastern Asia. At its maximum the Moon will be overhead for observers in the South Pacific;nearly 54-percent of the Moon's diameter will become immersed in the Earth's dark umbral shadow.

July 25, 9:37 p.m. EDT -- Full Buck Moon, when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent. Sometimes it's also called the Full Hay Moon.

August 24, 1:05 p.m. EDT -- Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because when the moon rises it looks reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon. Since the Moon arrives at apogee about 12 hours later, this will also be the smallest full moon of 2010. In terms of apparent size, it will appear 12.3-percent smaller than the full Moon of Jan. 30.

September 23, 5:17 a.m. EDT -- Full Harvest Moon. Traditionally, this designation goes to the full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal (fall) Equinox. The Harvest Moon usually comes in September, but (on average) once or twice a decade it will fall in early October. At the peak of the harvest, farmers can work into the night by the light of this moon. Usually the moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice -- the chief Indian staples -- are now ready for gathering.

October 22, 9:36 p.m. EDT -- Full Hunters' Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it's now time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, as well as other animals, which can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest.
November 21, 12:27 p.m. EST -- Full Beaver Moon. At this point of the year, it's time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Full Moon come from the fact that the beavers are now active in their preparation for winter. It's also called the Frosty Moon.
December 21, 3:13 a.m. EST -- Full Cold Moon. On occasion, this moon was also called the Moon before Yule. December is also the month the winter cold fastens its grip. Sometimes this moon is referred to as the Full Long Nights Moon and the term "Long Night" Moon is a very appropriate name because the nights are now indeed long and the Moon is above the horizon a long time. This particular full moon makes its highest arc across the sky because it's diametrically opposite to the low Sun. In fact, the moment of the Winter Solstice comes just over 15 hours after this full moon, at 6:38 p.m. EST.
Last, but certainly not least, this will also be the night of a Total Lunar Eclipse. North Americans will have a ringside seat for this event (totality will last 73-minutes) and, depending on your location, will take place either during the middle of the night or during the predawn hours. Observers in Western Europe and western Africa will see the opening stages of the eclipse before the Moon sets; South Americans will see the Moon set either during the total phase or as the Moon emerges from the shadow. At mid-eclipse, the Moon will appear almost directly overhead for observers in southern California and Baja Mexico.

Learning About Tonight's Moon

2010-01-29T12:02:00.000-08:00

Biggest and Brightest Full Moon of 2010 Tonight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100129/sc_space/biggestandbrightestfullmoonof2010tonight/print

Robert Roy Britt
Editorial Director
SPACE.com Robert Roy Britt
editorial Director
space.com Fri Jan 29, 7:45 am ET

Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.
But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here's how the moon works:
The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon's orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.
Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.
As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.

Full moon craziness
Many people think full moons cause strange behavior among animals and even humans. In fact several studies over the years have tried to tie lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, and more. Connections have been inclusive or nonexistent.

The moon does have some odd effects on our planet, and there are oodles of other amazing moon facts and misconceptions:
A full moon at perigee also brings higher ocean tides. This tug of the moon on Earth also creates tides in the planet's crust, not just in the oceans.

Beaches are more polluted during full moon, owing to the higher tides.
In reality, there's no such thing as a full moon. The full moon occurs when the sun, Earth and the moon are all lined up, almost. If they're perfectly aligned, Earth casts a shadow on the moon and there's a total lunar eclipse. So during what we call a full moon, the moon's face is actually slightly less than 100 percent illuminated.
The moon is moving away as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 cm) a year.

The moon illusion
Finally, be sure to get out and see the full moon as it rises, right around sunset. Along the horizon, the moon tends to seem even bigger. This is just an illusion.
You can prove to yourself that this is an illusion. Taking a small object such as a pencil eraser, hold it at arm's length, and compare its size to that of the moon just as it rises. Then repeat the experiment later in the night and you'll see that the moon compares the same in both cases. Alternately, snap two photos of the moon, with a digital camera or your cell phone, when the moon is near the horizon and later when it's higher in the sky. Pull both photos up on your computer screen and make a side-by-side comparison.

Astronomers and psychologists agree the moon illusion is just that, but they don't agree on how to explain it.

Full Moon Wolf Moon Tonight

2010-01-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

This is almost exactly what the moon looked like this morning when I went out at 5:15 am to get the newspapers.

Yesterday, John came home from work with stories!

First, he almost got hit making a left turn onto the freeway entrance when a guy coming the other direction sped through a red light. The guy in front of John who was also attempting the left turn slammed on his brakes and John also slammed on his brakes but still nicked the car in front of him. John said if he was the car in front of him, he would have been hit (and creamed since he was in our little red Suzuki), because he would not have been able to slam on his breaks that fast. John said his reaction time is bad. So we are grateful.

Also...at school, the discipline problems were mighty...and unrelenting all day. "Even the sweet little LDS primary age girl-6th grader- was swearing at her gym classmates." The principal attributed it to the full moon.

Indeed, last night was a gorgeous bright almost completely full moon in a deep blue sky at dusk. This morning it was even more dramatic..it hung low in the west, big and white and round with fuzzy edges smeared by clouds...it was a classic scene! So I read today that tonight is the actual real full moon! Every full moon has aname...WHO knew? Tonight's moon for 2010 is named Wolf Moon. (Native American custom...I love it!)

Shorweood High School Lip Dub

2010-01-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/12/high-school-lip-dub-video-get-famous-by-going-backward-.html

If you go to this site and click on the actual video...which is also found on youtube...you will see one cool school! Cool in that there is great school spirit and creativity and fun. We heard about this on the Rachel Ray show today and they had 2 guys from the school on it....cool!

Cool School, Cool Idea

2010-01-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Teacher Keisch Wilson greets "Team" members Terrill Jones, left, Keymarian Washington and Bruce Palmore, who returned to Blair for an assembly. Also honored was Tevin Jones, Terrill's twin, who is not pictured. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / December 14, 2009)

latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grads4-2010jan04,0,497712.story
latimes.com
Four Blair High graduates team up to succeed at college

All are freshmen at Langston University. They support one another on campus and offer inspiration to younger students at their alma mater.

By Seema Mehta

January 4, 2010
When Keymarian Washington was in eighth grade, he was shot at while hanging out with gang members on a Pasadena street. By Bruce Palmore's sophomore year, his father feared that his son's poor grades and lack of motivation meant he would never finish high school, much less make it to college. Tevin and Terrill Jones grew up in a South Los Angeles neighborhood they said was dominated by gangs, violence and negativity.

The four young men met up at Blair International Baccalaureate School in Pasadena, where they graduated with high enough grades to attend a four-year university. Now, the four are being hailed as role models, particularly for other young African American male students.

Assistant Principal Mark Greene said the four friends, who have been dubbed "The Team," are an inspiration for Blair students.

"They see the alumni who are just like them, friends from the same neighborhood, and that gives them confidence," he said. "They know they can do it."

Their story wasn't always so optimistic. During high school, Palmore was drifting. His father, also named Bruce Palmore, an accountant who had been a member of Phi Beta Sigma in college, worried that his son was hanging out with the wrong crowd. He also worried that among African American teenagers, particularly males, there was not enough value placed on education. College attendance rates for black men lag behind rates for most other groups.

Hoping to inspire him, the father took the teen to a fraternity event. The young man was intrigued by a step show, a synchronized, percussive dance traditionally performed by African American sororities and fraternities, and decided that he wanted to start a chapter of the group's program for kindergarten-through-12th-grade students, Sigma Beta.

He started the group at Blair, recruited members and made new friends. By his senior year, he was earning a 3.7 grade-point average.

"The first six months, I could see this whole attitude change," his father said. "By senior year, he was actually a completely different person. His inner spirit was completely different."

As the Sigma Betas attended college fairs, visited college campuses and did community service projects, their friendship grew into a tight brotherhood. Palmore, the Jones brothers and Washington made a pledge: Not only would they graduate from high school and go to college, they would go together, to keep supporting one another. Palmore and the twins graduated from Blair in 2009; Washington graduated in 2008 and completed a year of community college.

"We're just going to carry each other through college, no matter how hard it's going to get," said Palmore, a computer-science major. "There are going to be obstacles. We're going to face them together."

The boys got help with the admissions and financial aid application process from mentors, including Foundation 44, a group created at Blair that aimed to get all 44 black seniors in the class of 2009 into a four-year university -- 38 made it -- and the nonprofit Smart Kids Pasadena.

The four friends settled on Langston University, a small, historically black college which offers majors that interested all four. The university is in a small town in Oklahoma, where Palmore, now 18, figured he and his friends could focus on their studies while staying out of trouble.

Moving to Langston, Okla., has been an adjustment -- the teenagers had never seen armadillos or deer before, and the weather was unlike the climate in which they were raised.

"When we first got there, there was lightening and thunder. That was scary," Palmore said. "The thunder was so strong it felt like an earthquake. . . . We didn't know what it was."

Washington added: "It's way different, nothing but land and cows and horses. No buildings, no mountains. You can see the stars more clearly."

The college freshmen have been completing "piles" of homework and trying to keep one another motivated.

"When one says, 'I don't want to do homework,' we say, 'We're not going anywhere until you do it," said Washington, a 19-year-old computer science major.

Their decision to attend Langston together created a ready-made support network for the boys, three of whom are the first in their families to attend college.

"The deepest fears were that we were leaving home, actually going and doing what a lot of kids we grew up around don't do," said Tevin Jones, 18, a biology major who wants to be a heart transplant surgeon. Jones and his twin brother were attending Blair on a permit, making a 45-minute commute each way from South L.A.

Terrill Jones, 18, said he went from having one brother to having three.

"It helped me a lot," said the business management major who wants to open a chain of restaurants in his hometown. "I have more people to rely on and to help out if they need help. I just love having them around."

The young men's story got around on campus after University President JoAnn W. Haysbert met Tevin Jones at a lunch in September. He told her about the group, and she met the others. She told them about "The Pact," a book about three black men who grew up in Newark, N.J., and pledged to go to medical school together. They succeeded; two are doctors and one is a dentist. Haysbert named the Blair alumni "The Team" and bought them copies of the book.

"We hope that individuals, families and African American men around the country will see the story of 'The Team' and be inspired that they too can come to Langston University, and I would dare say any university, but I'm recruiting for Langston University," Haysbert said. "I hope that 'The Team' will be able not only to achieve their goals but will be a messenger to others that you to can do the same thing."

When the four men returned to Southern California for winter break, they were greeted as heroes at their alma mater. During a holiday assembly last month, hundreds of students roared when the four took to the darkened basketball court in charcoal suits and ties sporting Langston University's orange and navy blue colors.

"I sat where you sat," Tevin Jones said. "You can do this."

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Electric Guitar

2010-01-01T10:40:00.001-08:00

John bought this at Ross for 30 bucks yesterday

Great Speech!

2009-12-31T12:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2009_09_15_Clark.htm

is a wonderful speech I heard on Sunday, Dec. 27th on byutv.org

A GREAT BEESWAX CANDLE COMPANY

2009-10-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

After doing some research, I have found a beeswax product company I really like:
Big Dipper Wax Works out of Seatle, Washington. Their website is
bigdipperwaxworks.com I plan to purchase some items from them soon. The muscle balm interests me, as well as the aromatherapy candles whic combine pure beeswax with essential oils.

Here is their story:

Our Story
It was back in the summer of '93 when I was first enlightened with the idea of making candles. My good buddy Hefe and I were hiking along the rugged shoreline of the Olympic Peninsula. On our first evening, as the final rays of sunshine dipped below the horizon, we breathed deep of the fresh ocean air and fixed our gazes upon the emerging stars. After several hours of philosophical banter on the meaning of life, my eyes settled on the most recognizable beacon in the northern sky, "The Big Dipper". Suddenly my future flashed before my eyes. I would use elements of nature, which I so respect, to create a natural source of light. Hand "dipped" beeswax candles. And so "Big Dipper" Wax Works was born. Like drones to their queen, we have served and remain dedicated to our values, and proudly continue to make the best all natural candles available.
http://www.bigdipperwaxworks.com/

Why Burn Beeswax

2009-10-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Photo above is from http://www.bsabcandles.com/index.php/beeswax-candles/beeswax-coral-candle-4inch.html if you are interested in ordering these unique beeswax candles

Why Burn Beeswax

Beeswax candles have been the choice of candle connoisseurs throughout the ages. They are a gift from nature that embodies a simple and healthy state of being.
Beeswax is 100% natural and a renewable resource that actually cleans the air by emitting purifying negative ions.

Most candles are made with paraffin, a petroleum by-product, which is not natural and is unhealthy to burn. To prepare it for candle making, it is chemically bleached and hardened, then artificially scented. Burning paraffin emits harmful, black soot and pollutes the air.

Currently, there are no regulations in the U.S. on disclosing ingredients on candle labels. You may find candles labeled "beeswax" that are made with paraffin, or other candle waxes, and contain as little as 1% beeswax. We are very proud to say that we use 100% beeswax in all of our candles, with the exception of a select few that are a blend of 50% beeswax and 50% soy wax, and are noted as such. The soy wax is added to help with the burn quality of certain candles.

Soy wax is a natural, eco-friendly, and renewable alternative to paraffin wax. Oil is extracted from the soybeans and hydrogenated. This process alters the melting point of the soy oil, making it a solid at room temperature. Our soy wax is made from soybeans grown by farmers in the United States. In contrast to paraffin, soybeans are a renewable resource; while global reserves of oil continue to shrink, the American farming industry can continue to supply the demand for soybeans. Soy wax is a very clean burning wax, with reduced carbon buildup and no pollutants. With the many different types of waxes available, soy wax is an excellent, all-natural option.

Beeswax, the purest of all candle waxes, is a product of the sustainable industry of beekeeping. The simple filtration of beeswax is a natural process that uses no chemicals and very little energy.

Beeswax is naturally aromatic, infused with the sweet, subtle scent of honey. Being nontoxic and nonallergenic, beeswax candles burn clean and soot free. While burning, they release negative ions, just as seashores or rainstorms do. These negative ions improve air quality by eliminating pollutants and allergens from the air that we breathe.

The high melting and burning temperature of beeswax translates into exceptionally long burn times. While burning, their golden flames glow with the same energy and spectrum of light as the sun.

Beeswax candles are the ultimate in beauty and luxury. They are the natural choice for people who care about their health and the health of the environment

http://www.bigdipperwaxworks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=38

Decisions For Healthy Living, 1

2009-10-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about super healthy living lately. Two things brought that out:

#1. A recent article in a health magazine that was by a woman who cured her breast cancer by radically changing her lifestyle and diet. (I will post part of that article later.)

#2. A phone conversation with my father-in-law who is very healthy and who told me about some of the supplements they take and how they eat. I had been telling him I started using brewer's yeast and lecithin...he and his wife have been using that for decades as well as a myriad of other suplememts and extra healthy foods. The only flesh they eat is wild caught salmon very rarely. They are basically vegetarian...no dairy at all for decades. They are so fit and healthy, being in their 80's and living in the wilderness of Idaho and having their own business, chopping their own wood for warmth (wood burning stove).

So these 2 recent events plus the awareness of awful diseases (My sister recently dying from complications from pancreatic cancer, and my best college girlfriend's husband, who has been diabeteic for a while and now has suffered a severe stroke)and the wondering inside my mind : Could this have all been avoided if a different lifestyle or diet had been followed? Lifestyle involves the concept of stress and how we deal with it, how we exercise, how our attitudes are, where we live (Is it polluted?)

Yes, yes, I know...none of us get out of this life alive, but why not strive for a high quality of living ...!!????? To be healthy is a great goal, I believe! Because with health comes the energy, vitality, stamina and inspiration to do "good works"...which we are taught to do in holy scriptures.

SO...HERE IS DECISION NUMBER 1 for Health Living:

I WILL NOT BURN PARRAFIN CANDLES IN MY HOME. NOR WILL I BURN INCENSE. I WILL USE BEESWAX CANDLES. Following are the reasons...excerpts from websites plus the web address of those sites....

WHY I WON'T USE INCENSE

Some researchers have begun to suspect that incense burning may pose some health concerns. Because incense is a slow burn, many believe that it gives off a lot of chemicals such as carbon monoxide, aldehydes, and respirable particles. They are of considerable concern because these particles are both upper respiratory and pulmonary system irritants. This means that they can inflame mucous membranes, and cause asthmatic attacks in sensitive individuals.

Burning incense can also produce sinaldehyde, many different kinds of aldehydes, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein. Both formaldehyde and acrolein are also mucous membrane irritants and acrolein irritates the eyes.
One study indicated that burning incense in your house at least once a week during pregnancy made it more likely that the baby would develop leukemia once your child is born. http://www.womenshealthcaretopics.com/bn_bodysoul_Incense.htm
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WHY I WON'T USE PARAFFIN CANDLES

Illuminating Thoughts – Toxic Candles

I enjoy using candles. Don’t you? Candles are warming, romantic, inspiring. Relaxing, comforting, symbolic. Burning them conjure different emotional responses for everyone who delights in them. Consumer reports indicate that candles are ‘in’ once again. Perhaps a 70’s revival or a nesting desire in increasingly troubled times.

Yet do we ever think about what it really is that we are burning or inhaling?
Paraffin candles are the most commonly burned candles worldwide. And are the most dangerous to our health.

Paraffin is an inexpensive sludge waste product of the petroleum industry that has been bleached then texturised with acrolyn, a known carcinogenic product. Supposedly an inert substance, if you have much faith in government/industry released information. However, once burned it releases toxins that are known carcinogens such as benzene and toluene which are inhaled and linger in the areas they are burned in. Not to mention the soot that leaves its residue on walls, eventually greying fabrics and ceilings. Soot from paraffin candles contains many of the same toxins found in diesel fuel.

Paraffin candles are as dangerous to the lungs as second-hand smoke and even more so if you are in the habit of burning many at the same time. It is also a non-renewable resource. Ever smell one? They stink.

Supposedly, paraffin for candles is ‘food grade’ – clearly a lie. The problem appears when we burn them. It is no longer recommended to be used in contact with food – remember grandmother sealing the jams with a layer of paraffin? Yes, we survived that era but life was simpler and cleaner then. Today we have to deal with cumulative factors detrimental to our health that never existed before.

Then there is the problem with lead in the wicks. Though lead has not been used since the 70’s in most of Central Europe and the USA, cheaper candles from other countries such as Asia or South America can still be seen on the market. Burning only a few with leaded wicks for 3 hours will increase levels 9 to 11 times over acceptable lead levels.

Gel candles though pretty because of the crystal clearness are likewise petroleum based or made from synthetic hydrocarbons. Think of them as petroleum turned into jelly with a few more added toxins thrown in such as butylated hydroxyl toluene. Pretty, but absolutely not a good idea.

Soy candles are relatively new on the selection palate and began appearing early 90’s. Invented in the USA and made from hydrogenated soy, palm and coconut oils, soy candles burn slower and last about 50% longer than paraffin candles. They burn cooler and have very little soot, and drips are easily cleaned up however, the flame is not considered a ‘warm’ flame. Some feel the ‘magic’ is missing with soy candles. By purchasing soy candles, you are supporting the omnipresent American soy industry which farms mostly genetically manipulated soy. Soy candles lay in price between the cheaper paraffin candles and beeswax candles. Soy tapers may bend at warm room temperatures and are often blended with stearin (stearic acid) a substance derived from animal or vegetable sources to harden them.

Beeswax candles. Ahh…my absolute favourite. Warm and sweet smelling, they symbolize for me a connection to the Earth. Beeswax is a by-product of honey and is made from the ‘caps’ of the honeycomb. These are the most expensive candles, but are price effective as they last up to three times longer than paraffin and twice as long as soy candles. Unlike paraffin, they are from a sustainable source – originating from flowers, fuelled by the sun and processed by bees.

They burn cleanly, don’t drip when properly used and give off negative ions that help concentration and clear the air. They are also non-allergenic and can help soothe the symptoms of hay fever, asthma and allergy sufferers. Natural beeswax candles are commonly golden to amber but can also be found almost black. Ivory coloured candles have gone through a special process to lighten them, which unfortunately weakens the natural honey scent. When purchasing, be certain that the label states 100% beeswax – some countries allow as little as 10% beeswax to still be labelled ‘beeswax’. A ‘blended’ beeswax candle most assuredly has paraffin or stearin.

Natural beeswax candles are a healthy, soothing comfort for us too. They feel warm to the touch, and are simply magical!
http://www.epicureantable.com/articles/acandles.htm

Selling Squash

2009-10-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Dennis' Plan for Miles

2009-10-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

more 2216 Center Street

2009-10-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

2216 Center Street

2009-10-01T15:23:00.001-07:00

Is This True?

2009-09-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Best Health Care Myth Debunked by Kate Ryan

I was waiting in a long line in the post office yesterday. One poor clerk was working the desk and was being besieged by patrons with multiple packages, a mass mailing, and a pick-up of a certified letter that didn’t seem to be anywhere. The wait seemed endless. An elderly gentleman in front of me – obviously old enough to be enjoying his Medicare benefits – huffed and said, “And NOW they want to take over our health care!”
I stopped myself before publicly arguing with this old fool, but I wanted to tell him that while he’s enjoying his government-run health insurance, many other people would give their eye teeth to have whatever he had – even if it was inefficient. It’s a damn sight better than nothing. I just figured he was a Republican, and left it at that. And If you only know one thing about politics, know this – if there is one thing that the Republicans are really good at, it is the “sound bite”, the succinct summing-up of any debate in three words or less.
Rationing! Death Panels! Illegal Immigrants! Government Takeover! The lies and disinformation campaign have controlled this debate for almost a month now. Liberals, Progressives, and just plain Democrats that want health care reform have been stunned silent by the sheer numbers of people the other side has gotten to believe this. They’ve even got elderly Americans believing that the Medicare that they love and revere so much, is NOT a government-run healthcare program. I am losing faith in the intelligence of the American voter.
What’s worse than the lies from the other side is the amount of time we are spending to tell the American people what health care reform is NOT, rather than what it is. Is it any wonder that support for an Obama health care plan seems to be dwindling? Nobody knows just what it is. The administration MUST do a better job at letting Americans know what they are buying and what they can expect. Any of these explanations must include the debunking of the more insidious health care myths – the ones that all of us seem to accept without question. First and foremost of these is “The U.S. has the best health care in the world.”
According to every agency that keeps statistics on health care about the only areas where the United States is tops are in financial indicators. We are ranked #1 in how much money per capita we spend on health care (over $7,000 per year in 2008 – twice that of ANY other country), number one in the percentage of personal bankruptcies caused by health costs (50% in 2006), we have more medical equipment per capita than any other industrialized country in the world (MRI machines, CAT scanners, x-ray machines, etc.), and the highest rate of health management support workers (business managers, administrative workers, etc.) to providers (doctors, nurses, and pharmacists).
What we do not have are outcomes. Of 48 surveyed nations, the U.S. ranks 47th in life expectancy in the world (just below Costa Rica), 43rd in infant mortality (lower than Cuba), and 24th in the probability that you will die before the age of 60.
The fact is, our “best” and wonderful system of medical care is only available to those who can afford to pay. From 2000 to 2006, overall inflation has increased 3.5%, middle-class wages have increased 3.8%, and health care premiums have increased 87%. The family share of premiums plus cost sharing have been rising faster than inflation, causing access problems for some. Current estimates are that about 47 million Americans – about 17% of the population – is uninsured. Four out of five of the uninsured are families, and about two-thirds are low-income workers. The most often cited reason for lack of health insurance is cost (over 50%), followed by lack of a job (24%). Less than 10% of the uninsured are those that just don’t purchase it. These chronically uninsured do not count those people that will face insurance gaps – temporary loss of coverage, usually due to unemployment. Looking over the last two years, about 82 million Americans younger than 65 experienced a significant gap in insurance coverage.
This does not include the underinsured population – the Americans with insurance who find that the coverage is not adequate. Several organizations estimate that about 16 million of the insured do not have sufficient coverage to protect them from crushing out-of-pocket expenses. Of all the personal bankruptcies that were filed due to medical expenses, 75% of those were by individuals that had health insurance. Finally, more than 40 million adults stated that they needed but did not receive one or more of these health services (medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses) in 2005 because they could not afford it.
The most important feature of any health care reform legislation must be to provide universal coverage and health care access to all Americans. Many proposals that the Republicans and “blue-dog” Democrats say that they can affirm are health INSURANCE reforms, not reforms to health care. Eliminating denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and prohibiting dropping an insured individual from coverage because they are sick are great ideas – but they do not improve access. They are also a red herring. No, they won’t deny you coverage with a pre-existing condition, they’ll just charge you three or more times what anyone else pays. Insurance co-ops again will not improve access because they must compete within an industry model that only makes money by denying coverage. A non-profit entity still has to cover its expenses and insurance reform does nothing to lower cost.
The only thing that is guaranteed to provide universal coverage, adequate access, and lower costs to consumers is a public plan option. Immediately, consumers would see savings over 20% due to less overhead costs. More enrolled would mean lower costs as the risk would be spread through a larger population. It would be Medicare for everyone – but younger working people would pay additional premiums.
It is time that we realize that it isn’t good enough to have the most expensive best health care in the world – that more and more citizens do not have access to.
(sources: World Health Organization, Center for American Progress, U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics
http://kateskitchentable.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-best-health-care-myth-debunked/

What Obama Meant To Say.....

2009-09-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here's what Obama meant to say -
according to Rush Limbaugh

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/5818

Submitted by twas_was on September 11, 2009 - 7:52am.

We spend too much on health care but we need to spend more. We need to add more people to the system by force if necessary. We need to expand health care as a matter of law, no exceptions. We need to compel insurance companies to provide more benefits to anybody and everybody who seeks them," but we spend too much on health care! One of the reasons is, it works. We all know that it's like buying a lawyer. The more money you spend on a lawyer, the better lawyering you get.

"By cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare -- which of course is a government-run entitlement program -- we'll be able to fund expanded health care without waste, fraud, and abuse. And of course we support Medicare. It's the Republicans who hate Medicare. We're only cutting over $500 billion from the already bankrupt program because there are other people, apart from our seniors, who need health care, too. Everyone has to sacrifice, particularly mom and dad, granddad, grandmom. But they won't mind. That doesn't mean, of course, we're going to ration care. We would never do that. We love our seniors.

"These are scare tactics by the special interests who always oppose reform. No, we're going to cut Medicare because we support Medicare, and we're going to cut benefits to seniors because we love our seniors. And what's all this talk about the government taking over health care? More fearmongering by the special interests! No, what's going to happen is that we will oversee the insurance companies to make sure they don't cheat and rip you off. That's right. The same politicians and bureaucracy that stole trillions from the Social Security trust fund to pay for ever more spending -- and the same politicians and bureaucracy that stole trillions of dollars from the Medicare trust fund -- will use their carefully honed skills and experience to ensure that the private insurance companies treat you fairly.

"And what we will do is tell these companies who must be covered -- which is anyone who asks to be covered-- we're going to tell 'em what they have to charge and we're going to tell 'em that they have to cover preexisting conditions. We're going to tell 'em what they can't charge. We're going to tell 'em what benefits they have to offer -- and if they fail to do exactly what we say, we're going to have to close 'em down to protect you. That doesn't mean, of course, that you have to change your insurance company. We would never tell you to drop your insurance if you like it! No. What we're going to do is put your insurer out of business. See the difference? And as you know, we are here to change Washington. We want to use free market language to massively grow government.

"We want to increase competition by destroying it. We want to grow jobs by killing employment. Our stimulus recovery is going just as planned. Real unemployment is now at 16.8% and rising. This is how we save the economy from the brink: By killing jobs, killing home ownership, and killing private property; by creating trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in new debt. This is how we will create a stable dollar, a prosperous economy. This is how we will grow businesses, increase home ownership and so forth. And if we don't it's Bush's fault anyway because I inherited all this! So don't you understand?

I'm in the process of destroying your country. I don't like it at all. I don't like this Constitution. It wasn't written for me. I never had a chance to vote for it. I've been saddled with it and my people, saddled with it and my party's been saddled with it and we hate this Constitution!

"This Constitution doesn't tell us what we can do to you. All this Constitution tells us is what we can't do to you, and we want the Constitution to tell us what we can do. Not only to you but for you. I don't like this at all. And I haven't liked it and my college professors haven't liked it and my parents didn't like it and none of my friends liked it. Bill Ayers didn't like the Constitution. Jeremiah Wright doesn't like the Constitution.

My gang at ACORN doesn't like the Constitution, and I'm gonna fix it -- and I'm doing it right in front of your eyes while I'm telling you the opposite of what I'm doing. I'm destroying your economy. I am foreclosing on your house. I have taken over two of the three big automobile companies. I'm going to make sure you can't eventually drive the car you want. And I'm doing all this to restore the economy so that we never have a down cycle like this. I'm doing all this to save the planet from climate change.

"I'm doing all it is so that you will have good jobs and good health care. You won't have any money unless you turn to me for it. It's essential that despite talking like a capitalist that we leave no industry free to actually make profits, because profits are the tool of the special interests -- who, after all, don't care about you as much as we do in this administration. We know what you need better than you do. We know how to manage your affairs and your finances better than you do. This is why we've nationalized the banks, the mortgage industry, the student loan industry, and soon the energy companies and the health care industry. We, after all, aren't driven by the profit motive. We're driven by the public interest, and we know what's in the public interest better than you do.

"That's why it's time to stop all this talk, stop all this bickering, stop the games and just shut up when I'm speaking and instituting my hope-and-change agenda. My agenda is your agenda whether you know it or not whether you accept it or not -- and it's going to be forced down your throat whether you want it or not. Now, I've tried very hard to work with Republicans. My door is always open to them. But they refuse to accept my agenda. They seek to sabotage real reform and real change and hope. They keep talking about empowering individuals to make their own health care decisions. The Republicans keep talking about cutting taxes for middle-class families so they can buy their own insurance.

"The Republicans keep talking about expanding health savings accounts much like IRAs and 401(k)s so that families can save some of their own money tax-free to prepare for catastrophic illnesses and increasing competition by enabling insurance companies to compete for business across state lines. Do you believe that idiocy from the Republicans? Do you believe that stuff? Individuals can't be trusted to do the right thing. We all know that. People are foolish. The only thing they should be free to do is make enough money so that we can confiscate 50, 60, 70% of it via taxes. In fact this whole nation filled with the notion of individual rights and limited government is nothing more than a racist invention of white slaveholders.

"And let me repeat this again: The whole notion of individual rights and limited government is nothing more than a racist invention of white slaveholders known as the Founding Fathers. We know that our Founding Fathers were racists. We never agreed to their Constitution. Did you vote for it? No. It was imposed on us from one generation to the next. So forget about it or else our agenda of redistribution of wealth and big centralized government will be obstructed by something as inconsequential as the highest law in the land which we don't respect; which we didn't vote for; which we think is a sham; which we think is racist, sexist, bigoted, and homophobic. The first thing I could do if I had a chance is rip the Constitution to shreds. Now, I know we're not to the point where I can do that yet in front of you.

"So I'm going to do it while you can't see me doing it all the while telling you, 'I support what you support." Now, we need to nationalize the health care system as fast as possible, and the reason is that we have so much more hope and change to get to in our agenda before the next election. We need to get back to cap and trade so we can manage virtually every business and household in the country, so we can begin the long neglected effort to limit and then shrink how much wealth is produced in this nation. We are 5% of the world's population; we use 25% of the world's resources. We are stealing from the poor of the world, and we have done this since our interception. We are immoral and unjust and we are imperialists. As global citizens, we must change our ways.

"We must do our fair share to participate in the world's poverty. We are too rich, and I'm in the process of making sure that will not be said about this country in the future. The standard of living, when I get through here, will plummet dramatically. That's only fair! We need to pay a penalty for usurping so much of the world's resources. Poverty exists in the rest of the world because of us and our Constitution -- which I didn't vote for and I didn't get a chance to vote for, and if I have my say about it, I'm going to rip it to shreds before I leave this White House. We must make ourselves poorer! We must learn to suffer through the misery that other societies impose on themselves. We're going to call this 'going green' so that you think that we're 'saving the planet,' but what we're actually doing is making you poorer.

"We are going to rob you of your wealth and the opportunity to earn wealth, because when we say 'going green' it conjures images of polar bears and flowing creeks and fields and flowers. It's time to return to simpler times anyway, agrarian times. The Industrial Revolution wasn't all that great anyway. There was more racism and slavery in the Industrial Revolution and more pollution and disgusting destruction of the planet. This is just part of our progressive agenda, an agenda for the modern era. It's time we moved forward into the past. It is time to make tomorrow our yesterdays. It is time to surrender yourself to the greater good. You must make sacrifices! We are, after all, a community of one -- and I am The One who will lead you to the Promised Land."
Rush Limbaugh 9/10/09

Obama's Plans

2009-09-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Just 2 articles and a web address to keep for reading about this whole thing going on now...

I follow Thomas Sowell's commentaries..they make a lot of sense. I trust him for themost part so far.

Listening to a Liar

Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them.
The words of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff were apparently quite convincing to many people who were regarded as knowledgeable and sophisticated. If you go by words, you can be led into anything.

No doubt millions of people will be listening to the words of President Barack Obama Wednesday night when he makes a televised address to a joint session of Congress on his medical care plans. But, if they think that the words he says are what matters, they can be led into something much worse than being swindled out of their money.

One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess-- for a program that would not take effect until 2013!

Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years-- more specifically, until the year after the next Presidential election?

If this is such an urgently needed program, why wait for years to put it into effect? And if the public is going to benefit from this, why not let them experience those benefits before the next Presidential election?

If it is not urgent that the legislation goes into effect immediately, then why don't we have time to go through the normal process of holding Congressional hearings on the pros and cons, accompanied by public discussions of its innumerable provisions? What sense does it make to "hurry up and wait" on something that is literally a matter of life and death?

If we do not believe that the President is stupid, then what do we believe? The only reasonable alternative seems to be that he wanted to get this massive government takeover of medical care passed into law before the public understood what was in it.
Moreover, he wanted to get re-elected in 2012 before the public experienced what its actual consequences would be.

Unfortunately, this way of doing things is all too typical of the way this administration has acted on a wide range of issues.

Consider the "stimulus" legislation. Here the administration was successful in rushing a massive spending bill through Congress in just two days-- after which it sat on the President's desk for three days, while he was away on vacation. But, like the medical care legislation, the "stimulus" legislation takes effect slowly.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will be September 2010 before even three-quarters of the money will be spent. Some economists expect that it will not all be spent by the end of 2010.

What was the rush to pass it, then? It was not to get that money out into the economy as fast as possible. It was to get that money-- and the power that goes with it-- into the hands of the government. Power is what politics is all about.

The worst thing that could happen, from the standpoint of those seeking more government power over the economy, would be for the economy to begin recovering on its own while months were being spent debating the need for a "stimulus" bill. As the President's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said, you can't let a crisis "go to waste" when "it's an opportunity to do things you could not do before."

There are lots of people in the Obama administration who want to do things that have not been done before-- and to do them before the public realizes what is happening.

The proliferation of White House "czars" in charge of everything from financial issues to media issues is more of the same circumvention of the public and of the Constitution. Czars don't have to be confirmed by the Senate, the way Cabinet members must be, even though czars may wield more power, so you may never know what these people are like, until it is too late.

What Barack Obama says Wednesday night is not nearly as important as what he has been doing-- and how he has been doing it.

Copyright © 2009 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved

http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=f22f19d3-b93f-4dc7-9f34-b61b09a9ab39&t=c
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Thomas Sowell: Obama's health care promises are shameless fraud
06:24 PM CDT on Friday, September 11, 2009

"Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud.

To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone's intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.

Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse" should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients.
If he can't pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain and other countries has produced – delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats.

One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style. Obama has mastered that art.

Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe. No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing. That is the core of Barack Obama's medical care plan.

Obama tells us that he will impose various mandates on insurance companies but will not interfere with our free choice between being insured by these companies or by the government. But if he can drive up the cost of private insurance with mandates and subsidize government insurance with the taxpayers' money, how long do you think it will be before we have the "single payer" system he has advocated in the past?

Mandates by politicians are what have driven up the cost of insurance already. Politicians love to play Santa Claus and leave it to others to raise prices to cover the inevitable costs.

Politicians have driven privately owned municipal transit systems out of business in many cities, by simply imposing costs and restricting the fare increases needed to cover those costs. The federal government can drive out private insurance the same way that local politicians have driven out private municipal transit and replaced it with government-run transit systems.

Barack Obama's insistence that various dangerous policies are not in the legislation he proposes sounds good but means nothing. Unbridled power is a blank check, no matter what its rationale may be.

Hoover Institution Fellow Thomas Sowell, who may be contacted through www.tsowell.com
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See this site also...very good...

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/5818

Bednar's Talk Will Be A Classic

2009-07-29T12:03:00.001-07:00

I heard about this talk last Sunday...Bishop Horvath use much of the material in this talk when he spoke in sacrament meeting...It was great! I want to have a T-shirt that says..."High on Reality"...or one that says "Keeping It Real". This is such an important concept: to be aware of Reality!
Here is the talk in its entirety:

Things as They Really Are
Elder David A. Bednar
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
CES Fireside for Young Adults • May 3, 2009 • Brigham Young University–Idaho

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4830-1,00.html

Elder David A. BednarBrothers and sisters, I love you and am grateful to be with you. I extend a special welcome to those of you in your final year of seminary who are attending a CES broadcast for the first time. As you continue your education, I encourage you to take full advantage of the opportunities you will have to learn and grow spiritually by enrolling in and actively participating in institute classes. You also will be able to attend future CES firesides, which will strengthen and bless you.

As I have looked forward to and prepared for this opportunity to learn with you, I have come to better understand the strong feelings of Jacob, the brother of Nephi. He said, “I this day am weighed down with much … desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls” (Jacob 2:3). The message I want to share with you today has over time distilled upon my soul “as the dews from heaven” (D&C 121:45). I invite your earnest attention to a serious subject that has both immediate and eternal implications. I pray for the Holy Ghost to be with and teach each of us during our time together.

I long have been impressed with the simple and clear definition of truth set forth in the Book of Mormon: “The Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls” (Jacob 4:13; see also D&C 93:24).

Tonight we will focus upon the first major element of truth identified in this verse: “things as they really are.” We first will review several key elements of our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness as the doctrinal foundation for knowing and understanding things as they really are. We then will consider methods of attack used by the adversary to distract us from or inhibit our capacity to discern things as they really are. And finally, we will discuss the responsibilities that rest upon you as the rising generation. You will need to be obedient, to honor sacred covenants, and to discern things consistently as they really are in today’s world that grows ever more confused and wicked.
Our Divine Destiny

In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles declare that as spirit sons and daughters of God we “accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize [our] divine destiny as heirs of eternal life” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102; or Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49). Please note the primary importance of obtaining a physical body in the process of progressing toward our divine destiny.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught with clarity the importance of our physical bodies:

“We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. He is pleased when he can obtain the tabernacle of man, and when cast out by the Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, showing that he would prefer a swine’s body to having none. All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him; the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power.”1

Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal estate. President Boyd K. Packer has taught, “Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character.”2 Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and act in accordance with truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In the classroom of mortality, we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, “according to the flesh” (see 1 Nephi 19:6; Alma 7:12–13).

Apostles and prophets consistently have taught the mortal and eternal importance of our bodies. Paul declared:

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16–17).

And in this dispensation the Lord revealed that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man” (D&C 88:15). A truth that really is and always will be is that the body and the spirit constitute our reality and identity. When body and spirit are inseparably connected, we can receive a fulness of joy; when they are separated, we cannot receive a fulness of joy (see D&C 93:33–34).

The Father’s plan is designed to provide direction for His children, to help them become happy, and to bring them safely home to Him with resurrected, exalted bodies. Lucifer labors to make the sons and daughters of God confused and unhappy and to hinder their eternal progression. The overarching intent of the father of lies is that all of us would become “miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27), and he works to distort the elements of the Father’s plan he hates the most.

Satan does not have a body, and his eternal progress has been halted. Just as water flowing in a riverbed is stopped by a dam, so the adversary’s eternal progress is thwarted because he does not have a physical body. Because of his rebellion, Lucifer has denied himself all of the mortal blessings and experiences made possible through a tabernacle of flesh and bones. He cannot learn the lessons that only an embodied spirit can learn. He cannot marry or enjoy the blessings of procreation and family life. He cannot abide the reality of a literal and universal resurrection of all mankind. One of the potent scriptural meanings of the word damned is illustrated in his inability to continue developing and becoming like our Heavenly Father.

Because a physical body is so central to the Father’s plan of happiness and our spiritual development, we should not be surprised that Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly. One of the ultimate ironies of eternity is that the adversary, who is miserable precisely because he has no physical body, invites and entices us to share in his misery through the improper use of our bodies. The very tool he does not have and cannot use is thus the primary target of his attempts to lure us to physical and spiritual destruction.
The Adversary’s Attacks

The adversary attempts to influence us both to misuse our physical bodies and to minimize the importance of our bodies. These two methods of attack are important for us to recognize and to repel.

When any of Heavenly Father’s children misuse their physical tabernacles by violating the law of chastity, by using drugs and addictive substances, by disfiguring or defacing themselves, or by worshipping the false idol of body image, whether their own or that of others, Satan is delighted. To those of us who know and understand the plan of salvation, any defiling of the body is rebellion (see Mosiah 2:36–37; D&C 64:34–35) and a denial of our true identity as sons and daughters of God.

Now brothers and sisters, I cannot tell you all the ways whereby you may misuse your bodies, “for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them” (Mosiah 4:29). You know what is right and what is wrong, and you have the individual responsibility to learn for yourself “by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118) the things you should and should not do and the doctrinal reasons why you should and should not do those things. I testify that as you desire to so learn, as you “watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives” (Mosiah 4:30), you will be spiritually enlightened and protected. And according to your faithfulness and diligence, you will have the power to discern the deception and repel the attacks of the adversary as he tempts you to misuse your physical body.

Satan also strives to entice the sons and daughters of God to minimize the importance of their physical bodies. This particular type of attack is most subtle and diabolical. I want to provide several examples of how the adversary can pacify and lull us away into a sense of carnal security (see 2 Nephi 28:21) and encourage us to put at risk the earthly learning experiences that caused us to shout for joy (see Job 38:7) in the premortal existence.

For example, all of us can find enjoyment in a wide range of wholesome, entertaining, and engaging activities. But we diminish the importance of our bodies and jeopardize our physical well-being by going to unusual and dangerous extremes searching for an ever greater and more exhilarating adrenaline “rush.” We may rationalize that surely nothing is wrong with such seemingly innocent exploits and adventures. However, putting at risk the very instrument God has given us to receive the learning experiences of mortality—merely to pursue a thrill or some supposed fun, to bolster ego, or to gain acceptance—truly minimizes the importance of our physical bodies.

Sadly, some young men and women in the Church today ignore “things as they really are” and neglect eternal relationships for digital distractions, diversions, and detours that have no lasting value. My heart aches when a young couple—sealed together in the house of the Lord for time and for all eternity by the power of the holy priesthood—experiences marital difficulties because of the addicting effect of excessive video gaming or online socializing. A young man or woman may waste countless hours, postpone or forfeit vocational or academic achievement, and ultimately sacrifice cherished human relationships because of mind- and spirit-numbing video and online games. As the Lord declared, “Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment … : Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13).

You may now be asking yourself, “But Brother Bednar, you began today by talking about the importance of a physical body in our eternal progression. Are you suggesting that video gaming and various types of computer-mediated communication can play a role in minimizing the importance of our physical bodies?” That is precisely what I am declaring. Let me explain.

We live at a time when technology can be used to replicate reality, to augment reality, and to create virtual reality. For example, a medical doctor can use software simulation to gain valuable experience performing a complicated surgical operation without ever putting a human patient at risk. A pilot in a flight simulator repeatedly can practice emergency landing procedures that could save many lives. And architects and engineers can use innovative technologies to model sophisticated design and construction methods that decrease the loss of human life and damage to buildings caused by earthquakes and other natural disasters.

In each of these examples, a high degree of fidelity in the simulation or model contributes to the effectiveness of the experience. The term fidelity denotes the similarity between reality and a representation of reality. Such a simulation can be constructive if the fidelity is high and the purposes are good—for example, providing experience that saves lives or improves the quality of life.

The image shown below is a computer-generated rendering of a sealing room in the Newport Beach California Temple.

Rendering

This and similar images are used as part of the planning and design process for each new temple that is constructed. The rendering portrays fabrics, furnishings, fixtures, lighting, scale, and proportion to show how each component will look and feel when finished. In essence, the entire temple and all of its elements are designed in detail before construction ever begins.

This picture is an actual photograph of the sealing room in the Newport Beach California Temple.

Photo

Please notice the fidelity between the representation of reality in the rendering (first image) and the reality of the completed room in this photograph.

This next image is a computer-generated rendering of a lobby area in the Copenhagen Denmark Temple.

Rendering

The following photo shows the actual lobby in the Copenhagen Denmark Temple.

Photo

In each of these examples, high fidelity is employed to accomplish a most important purpose—the design and construction of a sacred and beautiful temple. However, a simulation or model can lead to spiritual impairment and danger if the fidelity is high and the purposes are bad—such as experimenting with actions contrary to God’s commandments or enticing us to think or do things we would not otherwise think or do “because it is only a game.”

Today I raise an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls. The concerns I raise are not new; they apply equally to other types of media, such as television, movies, and music. But in a cyber world, these challenges are more pervasive and intense. I plead with you to beware of the sense-dulling and spiritually destructive influence of cyberspace technologies that are used to produce high fidelity and that promote degrading and evil purposes.

If the adversary cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and physically from things as they really are. In essence, he encourages us to think and act as if we were in our premortal, unembodied state. And, if we let him, he can cunningly employ some aspects of modern technology to accomplish his purposes. Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, ear buds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication. Beware of digital displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience.

Listen carefully to the following quote describing an intense romantic relationship a woman had with a cyberspace boyfriend. And note how the medium of communication minimized the importance of the physical body. “And so PFSlider [the man’s screen name] became my everyday life. All the tangible stuff fell away. My body did not exist. I had no skin, no hair, no bones. All desire had converted itself into a cerebral current that reached nothing but my frontal lobe. There was no outdoors, no social life, no weather. There was only the computer screen and the phone, my chair, and maybe a glass of water.”3

In contrast, we need to heed the admonition of Paul: “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thessalonians 4:4).

Consider again the example I mentioned earlier of a young couple recently married in the house of the Lord. An immature or misguided spouse may devote an inordinate amount of time to playing video games, chatting online, or in other ways allowing the digital to dominate things as they really are. Initially the investment of time may seem relatively harmless, rationalized as a few minutes of needed relief from the demands of a hectic daily schedule. But important opportunities are missed for developing and improving interpersonal skills, for laughing and crying together, and for creating a rich and enduring bond of emotional intimacy. Progressively, seemingly innocent entertainment can become a form of pernicious enslavement.

To feel the warmth of a tender hug from an eternal companion or to see the sincerity in the eyes of another person as testimony is shared—all of these things experienced as they really are through the instrument of our physical body—could be sacrificed for a high fidelity fantasy that has no lasting value. If you and I are not vigilant, we can become “past feeling” (1 Nephi 17:45), as did Laman and Lemuel long ago.

Let me provide another example of disconnecting gradually and physically from things as they really are. Today a person can enter into a virtual world, such as Second Life, and assume a new identity. An individual can create an avatar, or a cyberspace persona, that conforms to his or her own appearance and behavior. Or a person can concoct a counterfeit identity that does not correlate in any way to things as they really are. However closely the assumed new identity approximates the individual, such behavior is the essence of things as they really are not. Earlier I defined the fidelity of a simulation or model. I now emphasize the importance of personal fidelity—the correspondence between an actual person and an assumed, cyberspace identity. Please note the lack of personal fidelity in the following episode as reported in the Wall Street Journal:

Ric Hoogestraat is “a burly [53-year-old] man with a long gray ponytail, thick sideburns and a salt-and-pepper handlebar mustache. … [Ric spends] six hours a night and often 14 hours at a stretch on weekends as Dutch Hoorenbeek, his six-foot-nine, muscular … cyber-self. The character looks like a younger, physically enhanced version of [Ric].”

“[He] sits at his computer with the blinds drawn. … While his wife, Sue, watches television in the living room, Mr. Hoogestraat chats online with what appears on the screen to be a tall, slim redhead.

“He’s never met the woman outside of the computer world of Second Life, a well-chronicled digital fantasyland. … He’s never so much as spoken to her on the telephone. But their relationship has taken on curiously real dimensions. They own two dogs, pay a mortgage together and spend hours [in their cyberspace world] shopping at the mall and taking long motorcycle rides. … Their bond is so strong that three months ago, Mr. Hoogestraat asked Janet Spielman, the 38-year-old Canadian woman who controls the redhead, to become his virtual wife.

“The woman he’s legally wed to is not amused. ‘It’s really devastating,’ says Sue Hoogestraat, … who has been married to Mr. Hoogestraat for seven months.”4

Brothers and sisters, please understand. I am not suggesting all technology is inherently bad; it is not. Nor am I saying we should not use its many capabilities in appropriate ways to learn, to communicate, to lift and brighten lives, and to build and strengthen the Church; of course we should. But I am raising a warning voice that we should not squander and damage authentic relationships by obsessing over contrived ones. “Nearly 40% of men and 53% of women who play online games said their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends, according to a survey of 30,000 gamers conducted by … a recent Ph.D. graduate from Stanford University. More than a quarter of gamers [who responded indicated that] the emotional highlight of the past week occurred in a computer world.”5

How important, how enduring, and how timely is the Lord’s definition of truth— “things as they really are.” The prophet Alma asked, “O then, is not this real?” (Alma 32:35). He was speaking of light and good so discernible they can be tasted. Indeed, “they who dwell in [the Father’s] presence … see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace” (D&C 76:94).

My beloved brothers and sisters, beware! To the extent personal fidelity decreases in computer-mediated communications and the purposes of such communications are distorted, perverted, and wicked, the potential for spiritual disaster is dangerously high. I implore you to turn away immediately and permanently from such places and activities (see 2 Timothy 3:5).

Now I would like to address an additional characteristic of the adversary’s attacks. Satan often offers an alluring illusion of anonymity. Lucifer always has sought to accomplish his work in secret (see Moses 5:30). Remember, however, that apostasy is not anonymous simply because it occurs in a blog or through a fabricated identity in a chat room or virtual world. Immoral thoughts, words, and deeds always are immoral, even in cyberspace. Deceitful acts supposedly veiled in secrecy, such as illegally downloading music from the Internet or copying CDs or DVDs for distribution to friends and families, are nonetheless deceitful. We are all accountable to God, and ultimately we will be judged of Him according to our deeds and the desires of our hearts (see Alma 41:3). “For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

The Lord knows who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we really are becoming. He has warned us that “the rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow; for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed” (D&C 1:3).

I have raised a voice of warning about only a few of the spiritual hazards in our technologically oriented and rapidly changing world. Let me say again: neither technology nor rapid change in or of itself is good or evil; the real challenge is to understand both within the context of the eternal plan of happiness. Lucifer will encourage you to misuse and to minimize the importance of your physical body. He will attempt to substitute the monotony of virtual repetition for the infinite variety of God’s creations and convince us we are merely mortal things to be acted upon instead of eternal souls blessed with moral agency to act for ourselves. Deviously, he entices embodied spirits to forfeit the blessings and learning experiences “according to the flesh” that are made possible through the Father’s plan of happiness and the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son.

For your happiness and protection, I invite you to study more diligently the doctrine of the plan of salvation—and to prayerfully ponder the truths we have reviewed. I offer two questions for consideration in your personal pondering and prayerful studying:

1. Does the use of various technologies and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in your life?
2. Does the time you spend using various technologies and media enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve in meaningful ways?

You will receive answers, inspiration, and instruction from the Holy Ghost suited to your individual circumstances and needs. I repeat and affirm the teaching of the Prophet Joseph: “All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him.”6

These eternal truths about the importance of our physical bodies will fortify you against the deception and the attacks of the adversary. One of my deepest desires for you is an ever-increasing testimony of and appreciation for the Resurrection—even your own resurrection with a celestial, exalted body “because of your faith in [the Lord Jesus Christ] according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41).
The Rising Generation

I would like to speak specifically to you as you really are. You really are the rising generation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In October of 1997, Elder Neal A. Maxwell visited the campus of Brigham Young University–Idaho to speak in a devotional. During the day he was on the campus, we talked together about a variety of gospel topics in general and about the youth of the Church in particular. I remember Elder Maxwell making a statement that greatly impressed me. He said, “The youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation.”

He then indicated that his statement was based upon a truth taught by President George Q. Cannon: “God has reserved spirits for this dispensation who have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one, visible and invisible, to proclaim the Gospel, and maintain the truth, and establish and build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences. He has sent these spirits in this generation to lay the foundation of Zion never more to be overthrown, and to raise up a seed that will be righteous, and that will honor God, and honor him supremely, and be obedient to him under all circumstances.”7

Parents and Church leaders frequently emphasize that the young men and women of this generation have been reserved for this season in the history of the world and are some of the most valiant of Heavenly Father’s children. Indeed, such statements are true. But I often have wondered if young people hear this description so often that it becomes overused and trite—and that its importance and deep implications may be overlooked. We know that “unto whom much is given much is required” (D&C 82:3). And the teachings of President Cannon and Elder Maxwell help us to understand more fully what is required of us today. You and I are to be valiant and “obedient to him under all circumstances.” Thus, obedience is the principal weapon upon which the rising generation must rely in the latter-day battle between good and evil.

We rejoice that the Lord through His authorized servants has “raised the bar” for the young men and women of today. Given what we know about who we are and why we are here upon the earth, such inspired direction is welcomed and appreciated. And we should recognize that Lucifer incessantly strives to “lower the bar” by coaxing us to misuse and minimize the importance of our physical bodies.

The Savior has warned us repeatedly to beware of deception by the adversary:

“Jesus answered, and said unto them: Take heed that no man deceive you; …

“For in those days there shall also arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch, that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant. …

“And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:5, 22, 37).

Obedience opens the door to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. And the spiritual gifts and abilities activated by the power of the Holy Ghost enable us to avoid deception—and to see, to feel, to know, to understand, and to remember things as they really are. You and I have been endowed with a greater capacity for obedience precisely for these reasons. Moroni declared:

“Hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

“Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:27–28).

As we heed that inspired counsel, we can and will be blessed to recognize and repel the attacks of the adversary—today and in the days that lie ahead. We can and will fulfill our foreordained responsibilities and contribute to the work of the Lord in all the world.

I testify that God lives and is our Heavenly Father. He is the Author of the plan of salvation. Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer, whose body was bruised, broken, and torn for us as He offered the atoning sacrifice. He is resurrected; He lives; and He stands at the head of His Church in these latter days. To be “encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15) will be a real and not a virtual experience.

I testify we can and will be blessed with the courage and determination to face the world and all the powers of the evil one. Righteousness will prevail. No unhallowed hand can stop this work from progressing. I bear witness and testify of these things as they really are and as they really will be in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes

1. Quoted by William Clayton, reporting an undated discourse given by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois; in L. John Nuttall, “Extracts from William Clayton’s Private Book,” 7–8, Journals of L. John Nuttall, 1857–1904, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; copy in Church History Library; spelling and capitalization standardized; see also Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 211, 214.

2. Boyd K. Packer, The Instrument of Your Mind and the Foundation of Your Character (Church Educational System fireside for young adults, Feb. 2, 2003), 2.

3. Meghan Daum, “Virtual Love,” The New Yorker, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1, 1997, 82; or Meghan Daum, My Misspent Youth (2001), 19.

4. Alexandra Alter, “Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?” Wall Street Journal, Aug. 10, 2007, W8, W1.

5. Alexandra Alter, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 10, 2007, W8.

6. Quoted by William Clayton; in L. John Nuttall, “Extracts from William Clayton’s Private Book,” 8.

7. George Q. Cannon, in Journal of Discourses, 11:230.

© 2009 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. English approval: 10/08. Translation approval: 10/08. Translation of Things as They Really Are. Language. PD50013503 xxx

Fox 2

2009-03-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

The following 2 videos are from my camera..from Nov. 2008..when Fox was talking about Amy's labor experience...giving birth to CoCo.

Fox

2009-03-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

I love this bedroom....

2009-02-15T20:28:00.001-08:00

..because of the warm color of the wood. I bet is smells so good in this room..like pine. This cabin you can rent at Harvest Farm Campground in Harmony, Minnesota. You can go canoeing there, too. I have just put this on my list of places to go someday! go to wecamp.com for more info.

Armenian Relatives

2008-07-02T11:45:00.001-07:00

Tommy Mushegain and John Mooshegian (these are their correct spellings...they each spell their names differently even though they each have the same ancestor...this practice is called "creative spelling") reminiscing about old times. These guys know all the stories! Then we have Betty standing behind the couch in one picture..notice how the wall of the living room opens out onto Newport (or is it Balboa?) Bay.

OK...Here's how it goes, I think:

Sarbeck Mushegian (born 1875 in Karakala, Armenia/Russia) had 2 kids with his wife Arusiak Egigian: Levin and Mary.

Levin had 4 children. They were all at the re-union but I did not really understand it all! If I had to do it over, I would have taken a picture of all of Levin's 4 kids together! They are:
~Tommy
~Richard
~Patty
~Nancy

Mary had 5 children with her husband Arshak Amerkhanian. Of them, Betty Amerkhanian Hulihan is the only one alive. She is 84.
These are the 5 kids, then:
~Kachi
~Ruben
~Ruth
~Lynn
~Betty

I, Joan, wife of John (son of Betty) met all these folks at one time or another...even Mary herself (Xmas of 1976)who was an excellent cook! She cooked, in her later years, for rich Hollywoood people (movie stars?)
Tommy (the guy on the left) is a real sweetheart..gave John a big long hug and many kisses when he saw John at the re-union Saturday.

John Mushegian's dad is Ardash Mushegain (they spell it both ways..ian and ... ain and some of the folks spell it Mooshegian...(these are all the same family)
Now who is Ardash? Ardash is the son of Ovhannes
Ardash's dad is Sarbecks' brother.

OK..let's go back to their dad. Here is where it gets really interesting!

Musheg Gabrillof is the patriarch of this family. The ian at the end of the Armenian names means
family of So Musheg's kids (even though Musheg's last name was Gabrillof) are all Mushegian meaning ..family of Mushegian...!

So Musheg had 4 boys:
~Ovhannes (the oldest)
~Mugurditch
~Bakra
~Sarbeck (the great grandpa of John P. Hulihan and the great great grandpa of John P. Hulihan's kids)

Musheg means "Mouse" in Persian.

Before!

2008-07-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Long hair. Gotta go...sick of wearing a ponytail...can't really wear it down like this...

After !

2008-07-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Went to Supercuts this morning to get rid of my long hair. This style is called a "bob". Cool on the neck. 14.50 for the cut, 8.00 for the styling...hairspray, blowdryer, circular brush. $3.50 tip.

Wood Fired Pizza

2008-06-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

While we were in San Diego at the beginning of the week, we decided to splurge and go to a restaurant specilaizinf in wood fired pizzas. Here we are with our chocies: Thai Chicken Pizza (had peanut sauce in place of the tomato sauce) Kelsy gave me all the chicken from her pieces. John odered BBQ chicken. The crust was great, of course...very thin on the bottom, and a nice chewy crispy on the outside rim.

So that was our very first wood fired pizza. Very wonderful.

Isaiah turns 1 !

2008-06-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

Ah..another party for another 1 year old. Today, May 31st. This time..Isaiah! here is a picture of me and Isaiah, a picture of Tommy and his son Isaiah and his favorite present...a crocodile xylophone from Aunt Kelsy....and a cream puff picture (that's Christine, his mommy helping him blow out the candle).

Shayla turns 1 !

2008-06-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

We had a big birthday bash on May 24...in Fillmore, CA at the Nelson house. Lots of people were there! I picked 3 of the cutest pictures I shot, to share with you....One is of Shayla in her party clothes, one is of Larissa and Shayla and Heather (Larissa's friend from way back.)And I had to include the cream puff picture.
I am very thrilled that the Hulihan tradition of having cream puffs for the first birthday is being carried on into the next generation.

Cookie''s Sheared!

2008-05-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

The weather is hot here now, so we took Cookie down to Pet Smart to get sheared last Monday. It was a full 4 hour job! I loved the hot pink bandana her groomer put on her. Here are her before and after pictures.

Mother's Day May 11

2008-05-18T15:38:00.001-07:00

Thnak you to sweet Kelsy, our only resident child. She showered me with gifts, wall banners, and chocolate treats. Not pictured were 2 gorgeous and lavishly expensive chocolate bars. Thanks so much Kelsy. Thanks to all my children: They sent me cards and called and it was great!

The Artist

2008-05-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

This is Kelsy...I wish she would finish this sky mural! She needs more paint! We have to wait until paint goes on sale at Michael's. She is so talented.

Visit

2008-05-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Tommy and family came by Friday on their way to Vegas. Christine will be running in a 5 K marathon there Saturday.

DVDs for my Birthday

2008-04-27T00:00:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, we were watching random TV and found a movie:"Solomon". What passion! Wow! I had seen a lot of biblical movies in my day and this was tops. Later in the day, John told me he ordered the movie along with 3 others in a boxed set...for my birthday (which was April 22...he had already given me a hammock for a present, so this was a nice surprise.) The movies arrived (from amazon.com company, thanks to Larissa getting me a Prime membership) 2 days later! So this post is just to say how excited I am to see these movies.

David and Amber's Visit

2008-04-19T10:07:00.001-07:00

David and Amber are celebrating their one year anniversary and so they made a trip to San Diego and stopped here on the way down and on the way back.

While here, we pulled out a game John got at the swap meet about 6 months ago..called Abalone. It was great! Amber is quite a strategist! We et them take the game home, but have decided to get one for ourselves. More later! We are picking up Kelsy at the airport.

Molly and Charlotte

2008-02-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome Little Charlotte!

2008-02-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

Shayla

2008-02-23T13:25:00.000-08:00

I took this picture of our cute granddaughter Shayla on February 18, when she and her mommy were visiting. She is in the cutest stage now...creeping and cuddling ...laughing and babbling....She is 9 months old and the first child of our daughter Larissa and her husband Jon (Nelson). They live in Fillmore, California. She's a vegetarian baby so far...her mom has been a vegetarian since 7th grade. Her dad loves meat and grilling it outdoors. We shall see what develops. Larissa is such a good mommy. There is a picture here of Larissa introducing Shayla to her great grandpa (John Robert Hulihan) for the first time.

Dad starts to tell a story

2008-02-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

This was one of the dozen best things I did on my vacation to Stevens Point last October! Unbeknownst to my dad, as I sat in the backseat of his Mercury Grand Marquis with my tiny digital camera, I put it on video recording mode. It could only stay in this mode for a few seconds, so we only get the first part of the story. Sandy is sitting next to me in the back. And my mom is sitting on the passenger side up front. They can't be seen in this video and they were quietly listening to my dad, so you do not hear their voices.

The second part of the story is that my dad and his little brother Wayne (Dad used the name Dennis, but her meant Wayne)ended up waiting and waiting and waiting for Uncle Pete to come home from church so he could drive them into town. Uncle Pete never showed up and so they had to make a move. My dad, being the older of the 2, decided they would walk home. We are talking 11 miles, maybe more...this is from the south-east side Stockton to the north-west side of Stevens Point. I would love to clock it.
And so they did walk! I imagine they got home, very unaware of their fatigue, and grabbed those 2 dimes from the kitchen table and then walked-no ...ran... to the movie theater downtown. Uncle Pete never said anything about the incident, but my dad thinks he stopped at the tavern on the way home from church and simply forgot about his task to drive the boys back to Stevens Point. In this little video, I love my dad's voice and accent...and the tree-lined highway (we were on our way to the Rudolph Cheese Factory that day.)

Sweetness and Light

2008-02-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent photo, taken February 2008, of our daughter Kelsy Renee. I am currently so happy she is living at home now after being gone for 2 and 1/2 years. You see, she left home about a week after she turned 16...to live in Utah with her older sister Amy and Amy's husband Fox. Kelsy enrolled in a brand new charter school up there...a high school that guarantees you will also have an associate degree by the time you have earned your high school diploma. The school had just opened its doors and we are grateful that Fox discovered it. Now there is a very long waiting list to get in. It is called Utah County Academy of Science....or UCAS for short.
Kelsy got very adept at riding the city bus and also showed tendencies for loving to walk outrageous distances after a hard day of school and work (she worked at Sonic, a fast food place..she was a car-hop on roller skates.)

After graduation, she attended University of Utah as an art major. After completing one semester (living in a dorm for a while and then living off campus in Salt Lake City), she moved home here to Victorville on what I like to call a creativity sabbatical. Since home, she has just been a wonderful presence of "sweetness and light" here. The dogs are getting much more attention and this old house doesn't seem so empty anymore. We have fun trying new things together. I am helping her fine tune her driving skills so she can take her driver's test. When I introduced her to my dabbling in raw food lifestyle, she eagerly read many of the books and even purchase a food dehydrator. She made some very tasty vegetable "crackers"..and we now process our raw nuts and sunflower seeds with it, soaking them overnight to get the enzyme inhibitors off and then drying them back to a state of crunchiness in the dehydrator.

Kelsy is adventurous, fun, creative, loving, kind to animals, artistic, disciplined, etc..etc...!!!! So glad to have her home for a while! Our baby!

Loving Life

2007-11-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

This blog idea grew out of my desire to share my random thoughts and photos.
I have several other themed blogs, but this one will serve my desires to be creative and spontaneous about my reactions to life. Lately I feel so very "high on life"! I don't know why I am always happy and always energetic. Do I need to have my thyroid checked? Am I eating too much dark chocolate? Do I have I ADHD? I do not know! But, for now, I am riding on this high..this wave of joy in simply being alive. I hereby leave a record here, therefore, of my happy times and deep thoughts and random photos and comments.
The picture you see first on my blog is a favorite scene near my childhood home in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The picture was taken by me, from my bicycle seat, in early October 2007. Can you smell the pine, the moisture? I can.