This blog is not an act it is a habit................

Most years are about choices,

2007 was no exception.


At times I felt like climbing on the roof and looking up for answers. Domino's is about the first choice and the final choice I suppose. A time on the roof or walking through the park to ponder. Might as well have just listened to the T Cheshire Cat. He appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in conversation. He sometimes points out philosophical points that annoy. Plenty to talk about even with the cat.

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Just yesterday a Cheshire Cat popped out of nowhere and offered up a Rx for sanity. Seems as though his doctor had written this one down for him and he wanted to just pass it on to us. Sanity, he said, leaves sometimes when things change. You miss your prior routine, or feel alone, or don't know how you feel so he said the solution was to find something that you really enjoyed doing and to spend an hour a day or two or a few times a week and do that thing that you really enjoy. (Perhaps if we knew for sure what it was that we really enjoyed a lot sanity wouldn't be something we would need a Rx for? On the other hand I figure one might as well play along when the Cheshire Cat offers advice. So then what is it that I really like to do. Doing a blog is ok but it may not be anything new and since I am doing it already then it probably won't count. This guy said for him he like to make model airplanes? Said starting them was enough and finishing them was not necessary. That could work but then I don't do well with projects that require talent like that. So I look back and find that for several weeks I have enjoyed "a lot" spending time watching TV with Kathy and lately Mike. We watch "Alias" often each night. DVD's. The red head in the picture is one of the Stars. I realize that as far as a leading lady is concerned I liked the role her "mother had" so I suppose considering my age that may be healthy, sort of. Anyway 3rd Rock from the Sun is another one. I have enjoyed these. I remember missing the first few seasons of "Raymond". Wish I had missed them all so that now I could be watching it on DVD. So there you go. Something that helps with the Sanity. So what about the quote above on Excellence you ask? Ok I am asking it? "What we are we repeatedly do. Excellence then, one may conclude, is not a act but a habit. This of course is Aristotle's point about excellence.

Even so I figure it gets down to integrity.....................

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If we can have our acts and habits be of value and of worth then we may be more likely to have what we are excellent at be something of "integrity". I figure spending some time watching some funny and intense stuff with folks I like is pretty excellent and I am sane too........................

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(disclaimer..................Above you will find a picture of 4 folks sitting on a roof. They are discussing some intense stuff. The guy in the window wonders out loud and asks the older guy next too him, we will just call him the commander. Commander, he asks, how far do you suppose this rock travels each year as it circles around the Sun? The commander reply and this is pretty important stuff. He says, " ya know this rock, the 3rd rock from the Sun makes this trip each year. If however you want to know how far the rock travels then you have to remember that each year is not the same. Some have 365 days and one year each 4 years we have 366 days. You see to give you a specific amount of miles that the rock travels say averaged over 5 years would be necessary if you want to know a specific number. That number of miles for example will not be reached until 5:30 AM tommorrow. This may seem odd but it can be explained. Now if you must know as of yesterday December 30th 2007 this rock, the 3rd rock from the sun, earth, has traveled 583,652,710 miles. Ya see.

"Who am I", the sign is clear, but perhaps unnecessary, the trip dipped suddenly, the change was good

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down"

"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again"

`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs!

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The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence; at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice, Who are you? said the Caterpillar."I hardly know, Sir, just at present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning , but I think I must have been changed several times since then..........................

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2007 might have had some sharp edges around it. The trip was different. The fall may not have been down at all. The question of "who we are" dulls with sharp edges. The posted signs may have nothing to do with the trip anyway.

Inovative ideas below, good dancing further below. The year mostly behind.................

I was thinking some about our Christmas, probably inspired by a good friends blog, and I remembered that I forgot to get Mike one particular present that I know he needs.

Still dancing...................

That's me on the wall,
then too that's Kathy
with the boots, below.
Like my top hat? Still dancing after all these years.

The blog can do it....................... but then "chapter one" might be better. Yesterday I declared a book coming. I figured I needed to find a book in me somewhere even if it is a little one. If you do some soul searching and try to find a book you get diverted. Sub Plots in the way of finding plots. The plot worth it all has been what we have been though together..................... Then of course this takes me to chapter one. You see Kathy and I went out dancing. She put on her boots, ya see, and she and I danced. This might be a good chapter one.

Hard to dance alone

Us, dancing, might as well be a blog story because it has to be imagined............................... if I am to claim to dance. Then on the other hand I'd bet she could dance well enough for us both. Wish we were out dancing now................That is the point. It is indeed hard to dance alone. I figure I could make "chapter one" the story of her packing us up and getting the house sold and getting us moved. That would be a good story. This round has been a little harder but then in spite of how hard it is or can be she probably is the better story.......................

The Monotones did it, course they didn't really write a book

For a long time I have considered, planned, intended, and thought about "writing a book". The problem is I haven't done it. Comes a time that considering, planning, intending, and thinking needs to be replaced with doing.
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I have written a book before. I learned a lot when I did. I was noticing that on the back cover of a book by George Orwell is the publishers statement that "some books change the world. They transform the way we see ourselves and each other. The inspire debate, dissent, war, and revolutions. The enlighten, outrage, provoke and comfort. Another author, P.G. Wodehouse wrote a book called "Laughing Gas". The comments on the cover make no claims even close to what those on Orwell's book made. It says that he is a great comic writer. His words are, according to the cover comments, inventive, and his plot is good because it is complex and has sub plot and sub-sub plot. Sounds like I might have a chance. Not at inspiring debate but at being able to have a plot and sub plot and sub sub. It is all plot when I look back. Today, yesterday, and the whole year is one sub plot after another. My challenge may be to just pick a few plots and boil them all down to the sub plots within.
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"Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale" it says on the cover of his book. For me I may have to change the names to better convict the guilty but it probably won't have to be stale.
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Course some feedback will be critical.
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wonder wonder who, oouu who

Who wrote the book of love

Tell me, tell me, tell me

Oh who wrote the book of love

I've got to know the answer

Was it someone from above

I wonder wonder who, be-do-do who

Who wrote the book of love,

I love you darlin'

Baby you know I do

But I've got to see this book of love

Find out why it's true

I wonder wonder who, be-doooo who

Who wrote the book of love

Good Goals

"Thinking" brings to mind a lot of quotes, little thoughts, poems, and stories, all of which could serve to uplift my own spirits. It would also be possible to use the same energy and time to feel lost, out of control, and at the mercy of things beyond my control. It is a choice. In spite of what I might think is pushing my thoughts "it really is a choice".

Chosing thoughts that will uplift can help me see events even today that bring light rather than darkness to how I feel.
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I seem to average between 3 to 9 readers a day. You would have to count me as 1 or 2 of those readers, depending on whether I return to the blog more than once during the day. Close family makes up the rest of those readers. I suppose someone might drop by, jumping from blog to blog. Sort of wish that they didn't really.
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The reality of this blog is that in some fashion it does capture a few things that cross my mind at least for a few seconds during the day or when I do post. When I finish the blog I usually figure it is mostly positive in whatever it is that it implies.

The idea of finding a

positive thought about the day, on a regular basis,

would be enough for the purpose of " a blog".

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Being able to look back and find a trail of stuff that was ok or even good to have said on my blogs over the year is an accomplishment and one that I think has been achieved this year. Avoiding swearing or shocking or recounting bad things or troubles encountered is a worthwhile goal. I belive that if what comes out or accross in a daily journal style blog is negative then why not just forget those thoughts? What good do they do? Wanting to be better tomorrow than yesterday is in my opinion a better worthwhile goal.

A goal not realized is still a goal

and at least it is a direction of movement.

Even if events turn out wrong and one finds that they have had to deal or have been controled by appetites and habits, accomplishing less than one should have been able to accomplish, it still is no reason to amplify those event by coming to a blog to post those events. If one had an audience through a blog for profanity or for complaints against others then that reality ought to serve as black and white tangible evidence of a need to change. My advice to the negative is to "stop it". Just do better. Do your best. Try harder. Try to learn something new rather than dwell on something past. On business example of this but then perhaps a small example when compared to personal rambles is a business rumors blog I have recently read. How sad that folks need to find a way to be negative. The whole industry that is focused on loses some of the excitment that can help people do better by being exposed to the wide based negative feelings of others. If it is true for a large group of complainers it is more true for individuals. May my blog never be negative.
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Next year can be better than this year or last year, but even easier than that, is that tomorrow or just later today can be better and we don't need to wait until next year. It is indeed easier to think good things than it is to run a mile or to eat healthy or to forgive our self for mistakes.

It is so much easier to just think good things.

Then add to that the reality that one won't lose weight or run a mile or care about eating healthy or strive to learn more or forgive ones self "if" one doesn't start out by thinking about good things than about bad things.
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So why post a guy thinking in the grey? Why suggest positive ideas when I claim to have a trail of positive ideas? Why post much if only I am certain to be a reader?
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Don't know why.......................................................... Figured I would just do it.
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Then too if I have been negative I need to forgive myself and do better.

Things changed this year, I suppose.

December 24th, 2007. Snowing in Utah.
Can't help but look back on the year.

The Rose is Rose,

and was always a Rose

But the theory now goes

That the apple's a Rose

and the pear is, and so's

The plum I suppose.

The dear only knows

What will next prove a Rose.

You, of course, are a Rose-

But were always a Rose.

Robert Frost

Silent Night

Silent Night

Silent Night,

Holy night,

all is calm, all is bright'

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in Heavenly peace

Sleep in Heavenly peace

Silent Night,

Holy night, shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from Heaven a far

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia

Christ the Savior is born

Christ the Savior is born

Silent Night,

Holy night,

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

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If I had to pick a Christmas song that I really liked, and I just did of course, Silent Night might be the one. Some songs are better performed by a group than by just one artist. Some songs have a message that is beyond "one" voice or "one" person.

It is getting to be that time, ya know

Yes........................

looking for what it all means?

The difficulty of literature is not to write,
but to write what you mean."
-Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 - 1894.


A few blogs back I copied a verse from Ecclessiates that George Orwell had written in his book "Why I write". He had used the verse as an example of "good writing" and then he wrote a more modern approach to saying the same thing. The Ecclessiates verse really stood out as well written in comparison. On the other hand he made no comment as to whether the meaning of the better verse was something he had any interest in? You have to wonder how someone can identify something as being exceptional as to it's clarity without implying anything to the meaning? Take a closer look at the verse.

I returned , and saw under the sun,

that the race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong,

neither yet bread to the wise,

nor yet riches to men of understanding,

nor yet favour to men of skill;

but time and chance happeneth to them all.

The verse is indeed very well written. It says what it says so very very well. Then on the other hand is what

this verse says, correct? Is it true that here on Earth, under the sun, the efforts of men are dependent on chance and a time for those efforts to really make a difference? It is obvious that many who "stars shine bright" and who have the limelight are no better or wiser than many who do not. It is clear that some luck and timing make a lot of difference. On the other hand so many define their journey through life as part of a "plan". Trials are part of the plan. Setbacks yet part of the plan. So what about time and chance?

Not that I expect to solve the question but I did put the question to a good friend the other day. I was writing out a Christmas card and I figured why not ask what he thought about this scripture. I put the verse in the card with a note and an inquiry regarding his opinion. I know he will write back and it will be of interest when he does. I just asked what he thought of the verse. I wondered if that to him would be like asking, "what about the time and chance vs's "the plan" we all feel a part of or at least many do".

“I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”

-Benjamin Franklin, 1706 -1790.

Based on the quote by Franklin I would suspect that he would come down on the side of "a plan" rather than feeling the time and chance rendered the 100 failures of no worth.

“In the depths of winter I finally learned

there was in me an invincible summer."

-Albert Camus, 1913 – 1957

It looks like Camus figured there was a plan since his challenges labeled as "depths of winter" seemed to prove something of worth to him.

So it all may be good

per chance

Looking for Eldorado, not a Pilgrim Shadow

This looks like a good

Christmas Card.

Always interesting to

see what comes in the mail.

This guy Paul is from South Wales. I hope the link below works cause this is a really neat performance. Seems like Paul found his Eldorado...............................

http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html

Eldorado

by Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,

A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long,

Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old

This knight so bold

And o'er his heart a shadow

Fell as he found

No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength

Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow"

Shadow," said he,

"Where can it be

This land of Eldorado?"
"Over the Mountains Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Ride, boldly ride,"

The shade replied"

If you seek for Eldorado!"

A time and chance happenth to them all

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday the plane arrive and Kathy made it to Utah. Of course we saw yesterday what happened, the good guy was stuck on the front of the plane. Apparently today, two blogs later, o yes today has two blogs cause the other was too good not to stand alone (see below), we find that the good guy must have fallen out and the crew was hanging on behind. (yes indeed "hanging on behind" could be a symbolic statement here?) You see this picture must have been shot on her way to Utah and the other as she got off the plane in Utah?
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This indeed needs some scripture to clarify it, since after-all it is Sunday........
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"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,

nor yet riches to men of understanding,

nor yet favour to men of skill;

but time and chance happenth to them all"

Ecclesiastes

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This snow dusted scene, see 1st Sunday blog, reminds me of the Sandia mountains to the east which is the snow dusted scene further below that I speak of here.

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Imagine being a bird and rising just above the snow dusted mountains. Blue sky above. Large, black, strong wings, relaxed riding the air. Sometimes they bend and flex bringing a sudden change in flight. Sometimes they turnand twist, allowing a decent or dive or they just drive and move swiftly, pushing air to go higher or faster. Blue frames all that is above. No clouds, no riches, other than what his wings can bring. No need for favour, no race needed. Strength and being wise, a given. O for the time and the chance............................................................................

Wow

This picture needs to stand alone

She got on the plane this morning but look what happened

Kathy took off on the plane today........

This picture was taken as she landed. I suppose this could put Christmas at risk?

As I sat here contemplating whether we would have a Christmas my thoughts went back
to prior Christmas times. Some of my favorite Christmas times come to mind.

Last year comes to mind. I thought it was nice to have all the family together and it was neat to
be snowed in. Deep snow fell and it was like being trapped in the holidays. We have many years of nice Christmas times on Fortuna. We have enjoyed Christmas at Katies. It is fun to spend time with their extended family. When we were first married it was fun to go back to Idaho for Christmas. Somewhere way back then was "our" first Christmas by ourselves. I don't recall it exactly but you can bet Katie was with us when that finally happened.
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Course now it is all at risk having lost Santa to the plane that left this morning. (deep meaning here if you need help)
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I might mention, speaking of deep meaning, that if you read my cookie blog and was overcome with the insightful deep meaning then you need to read it again. Blogs change. It is not what you may remember.
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I tried to think back to favorite Christmas times growing up. That gets to be a little harder. I do remember that we almost always, late in the day on Christmas, went to our Grandparents house.
That was always fun. I don't ever recall going out of town to my Dad's parents for a holiday event however.
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Course it may be tough this year with Santa slammed like he is.

Official Christmas minus 10 days blog.................................................................

Acquainted with the Night

If you take the movie, Folsom Prison, at face value then Johnny Cash had already been well acquainted with the night before he stepped onto the stage at Folsom and re started his career. He took a chance and it paid off big time. The stakes for him were all about "him". Sometimes you just have to trust that stepping through the darkest night helps you find light. Or maybe it doesn't have to really be about getting ahead or being famous. Maybe it can be about doing what is right. Maybe "right" is "light". It was Dylan Thomas who wrote so well about this subject and advised that us saying,

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The real question is whether Thomas was suggesting that as old age comes that "light missed creates the rage" or that years of living meaningfully ensured continued rage each day in an effort to always find the light?

When I see the darkness, or things that make me think of darkness, I think of these poems posted here.

I read a blog recently raising the question of whether some of us had wanted to be Rock Stars at some point? Reference to an article in USA Today that said that "wanting to be a Rock Star still hogged the spotlight as a fantasy career". Right on. ..............Stand up and take center stage. I'll vote for that. Rock, country, a good motivational speech, anything taking us to center stage could work. Johnny did it well when he stepped forward rolled the dice and began his new career. Great song.................

I hear the train a comin';

it's rollin' 'round the bend,

And I ain't seen the sunshine

since I don't know when.

I'm stuck in Folsom Prison

and time keeps draggin' on.

But that train keeps on rollin'

on down to San Antone.

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Maybe he was extra good because he had to step forward and had been in the darkness. Maybe folks felt his words and it was like coming back from the night.

Robert Frost -

Acquainted With the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night

.I have walked out in rain --and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane

.I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

A blog about cookies

I was just thinking about my favorite chocolate cookies. The are one of my favorite treats. I was thinking some about "favorite treats" and I recalled that my mom used to make up danish desert red pudding. I loved that dessert. Probably still do. Kathy on the other hand whips up some fantastic chocolate cookies. These pictures fall short of capturing how good they look.

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This blog has changed. This particular blog. I re did it.

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figured this captured a more important thought................................................

Alone with our thoughts and who we are

Alone with our thoughts
Alone with who we are







































Sometimes success is just getting a email form someone you have been thinking about. Or it might be finding a blog from your favorite person who has posted some pictures you like. Going to sleep on your favorite sheets is a pretty good thing. I suppose the fact that the cat seemed to pay some attention to me today could be listed as a success.
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At the end of the day looking back and trying to identify successes or positive things takes some work. Not unlike the first cartoon above it is tempting to go look on whathappenedtodayof worth.com and see if the answer is on that site? Then too it may be easier to find the answer if I could just lay back on a couch and have someone ask me all the right questions and make notes as to "what it all means" on this particular day? Some famous quotes might help explain the days success? One quote that appeals to me has to do with "what has happened inside"? This quote tells us that "what lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"................................... It takes some work to keep that which of worth inside of us, intact. When you look at success today, or the best that a day might bring, in this way it takes the burden off of the "events" and even the day itself.
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Always bear in mind that your own resolution to

succeed is more important than any one thing

Abraham Lincoln

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Success usually comes to those

who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau

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I don't know the key to success,

but the key to failure is always

trying to please everybody.

Bill Cosby

Success is the sum of small efforts-

repeated day in and day out

Robert Collier

What lies behind us, and what lies

before us, are tiny matters compared

to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A river runs

by the window

The river was just outside our window. I could hear the rushing water from my bedroom. The tree branches were part of the view. It seemed like the birds began their day on those branches by my window. I can almost hear the wind on the leaves. The leaves were green and vines covered the the the rocks and much of the river on both banks. Some of the branches stretched almost to the middle of the river. I was a young boy and my time in the summers took me to the riverbank each day. Frogs, fish, snakes and rocks were the attraction. The rocks skipped and the big ones made ripples that sometimes if tossed into still water the ripples would travel to the other side. I don’t recall if the lessons that could have been learned from the ripples were even thought of then. Things change. The memories now suggest lessons. The ripples were of course easy lessons in cause and effect. Another question might be if at the time I did not see all of the lessons of these experiences then, why do I now seem to see some of them?

I am not suggesting that my time by the river really were life shaping. Stuff happens. You learn a lot from the real experiences you have. Plenty of things have happened over the years that were life shaping. It might be a stretch to look back and draw conclusions from things that at the time may have meant little. Even so the things that now seem symbolic do have a way of complimenting what we may have learned or how we may have changed even in just intensifying what we feel about it all.

I recall a number of years back an article in the Readers Digest. It said that before children could understand faith cognitively they had to understand it with their feelings.

Perhaps many of the things that happen to us in our youth are really learned through feelings rather than intellectually. Who we are may be the sum total of all that we have done but some things explain how we feel about it all.

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Men show their characters in nothing
more clearly than in what they think laughable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

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Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln

If in fact it is true that before children can understand faith

cognitively they have to understand with their feelings

then the "ripple effect" of this might very important.

It may be daffy but it push em out into the dark night time................

Don't

wait for next

year. Fire em

now!!!!

This time of year they don't trade you to the competition for a coffee pot 3 pens and a employee to be named later.....................They dont' trade you, instead they just send you out into the darkness. The truth is that in businesseses this is the time of year they realize that they have run their business all year "without a clue" regarding how it should be run so they let as many people go as they can. If it is down to 2 weeks before Christmas then that really means that there is only 3 weeks to the New Fiscal Year and if they blow a few folks out the door right now then they can perhaps give them a couple of weeks severance and start out your new year clean. No sense losing money next year. Then if the businesses are really challenged and have red ink all over the p&l, assuming they have a current p&l and are not just guessing about peoples lives and fates, they can just kick em out with no severance regardless of it being a couple of weeks before Christmas. Course many a business have a big team of folks on the payroll with nothing to do except kick folks out. Hands stay clean. The reality is.................................................................

"character reflects a history

and the decision of the day just reveals

that history, or who you are, like it or not"

Quote by Me

Other fine quotes on Character below, since that is what this is about

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we

think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln

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Nearly all men can stand adversity,

but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln

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Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
Elbert Hubbard

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disclaimer: pictures hand picked with a deliberate intent on reflecting specific people and events.