Wonderful story

What an amazing story - very moving.

I don't understand why sports players are heroes in today's society, but I'm so very glad that this kid had this particular experience with a very classy man.

There is no such thing as clean coal

Woman misses her flight at Hong Kong Int'l Airport

LMAO This is what my inner drama queen would sometimes like to do. Fortunately for the people around me, I'd rather act like a sane, mature person rather than like a ... well, like her. LOL

Funniest. Tweet. Ever.

... is this tweet from an army commander stationed in South Korea:

2 females/1 male caught in my barracks, showering together. I get to tell them why this is wrong. Don't talk to me about *your* HR problems.

Why am I still surprised?

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish

Soooooo adorable

Especially the little piggy squeals:



Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe

Did you know?

Another quote to share

When Akiba was on his deathbed, he bemoaned to his rabbi that he felt he was a failure. His rabbi moved closer and asked why, and Akiba confessed that he had not lived a life like Moses. The poor man began to cry, admitting that he feared God’s judgment. At this, his rabbi leaned into his ear and whispered gently, “God will not judge Akiba for not being Moses. God will judge Akiba for not being Akiba.”

- from the Talmud, as quoted in “Trusting Yourself” by M.J. Ryan

Cool

Watch it, give it time.

Rachel rocks!

A poem to share

- by Stephen Harrod Buhner, from “The Secret Teachings of Plants”

Semen is Latin

for a dormant, fertilized,

plant ovum –

a seed.

Men’s ejaculate

is chemically more akin

to plant pollen.

See,

it is really

more accurate

to call it

mammal pollen.

To call it

semen

is to thrust

an insanity

deep inside our culture:

than men plow women

and plant their seed

when, in fact,

what they are doing

is pollinating

flowers.

Now.

Doesn’t that change everything between us?

Wow

Wendy told me they were having a brutal heat wave down under, but then I got this e-mail forwarded to me by my friend Aviva:

Hi ya,

I truly am from a remarkable country! And we have THE cutest animals (AND some of the most deadly - I know!) But I thought you would appreciate how cute this is...! In Victoria the temperature has been above 44 degrees all week and they are forecasting another week of 40+ temperatures. Power is failing, trains have stopped running because tracks are buckling under the heat . It’s just scorching. And it seems that the people are not the only ones suffering.

Check out these photos of a little Koala which just walked onto my friends back porch looking for a bit of heat relief. She filled up a bucket of water for it and this is what happened!

A wonderful reconciliation

For more of the story, see http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/7/20341/61705/986/694652.

Wise words

What a hoot!

Obama speech tonight re. stimulus package

Praying for this man. He's the real deal.

25 More things about me

I posted 99 Too Many Things About Me a while ago.

1. I like to flirt.

2. I am really bad at flirting if I’m actually interested, or if I think that there is any chance of it going anywhere or of it being misconstrued. Then I start to freak out, which is not a very good brainspace to be in which to flirt. LOL

3. I strongly believe in saying nice things to people if I truly believe them. The other day I told one of my classmates that every time I thought about her, I couldn’t help thinking how proud her parents must be (she is such a truly beautiful, smart, confident woman with a radiant spirit). ‘Tis true … she didn’t know what to say, but I think she was moved and appreciated it.

4. I worry that when I tell people nice things, they will think I am trying to ingratiate myself with them, when actually I really do think those things and want to make sure I say them when I have the opportunity. Life is too short to hold back on saying nice things genuinely.

5. Telling my classmate that I thought her parents must be very proud of her made me feel like a bit of an old fart, in that I was relating to her parents rather than her. LOL

6. I was recently accused of being “superficial”.

7. I think some people need psychotropic drugs, such as the lady in my apartment complex who wags her finger at people and harangues them with her paranoid delusions. (I once smiled at her and said hello, and her outraged response was “How COULD you????” Hunh???) Sad.

8. I have sleep apnea, and sleep with a lovely mask and hose strapped to my face. No really, it’s sexy. ;->

9. The CPAP people always do a double-take when I show up for replacement equipment and ask if I’m there on someone else’s behalf – since I’m not an overweight middle-aged man, I don’t exactly match the profile of someone with sleep apnea.

10. I’ve had plastic surgery.

11. I have a very aggressive internal censor, and I keep a lot of my thoughts and feelings to myself.

12. Yet I still find I put my foot in it at times.

13. I think one of the greatest compliments one can receive is “I feel as though I could tell you anything.”

14. I’ve learned that listening is sometimes the skill of not being afraid of the silence in which someone is mustering up the courage to say what they’re really thinking.

15. I have been known to shower my cats with kisses.

16. Yet someday I will be without my cats, and I think I will take a looooong break from pet ownership. These two have been VERY high maintenance, and it’s been a challenge at times not to resent that.

17. I have a great deal of hope that things will be better with Barack Obama in office, but I have no illusions that he will be perfect. (Just a HELL of a lot better than the dude before. Remember him? I try not to.)

18. I think people who assume that Obama supporters are brainwashed, uncritical thinkers who haven’t educated themselves on the issues are themselves patronizing pricks.

19. Once someone has violated my trust, it’s pretty much gone forever.

20. I believe in being the qualities that I want to have more of in my world: love, understanding, compassion, fairness, etc. That doesn’t mean that I’m successful at being or showing any of those things (see #18 and #19), but I do believe it is my moral and spiritual imperative.

21. I could not read fiction for two years after I read “The Horse Whisperer”. That novel devastated me, and I fell in love with the main character who showed so much unconditional love and restraint to the female character, who was, frankly, not that loveable. What a beautiful book. The movie was too Hollywood.

22. I try not to think of my niece and nephew too much because I really miss them. Weird.

23. Popcorn is one of my favourite snacks.

24. I eat large bowls of it at a time. (It’s a whole grain, right? LOL)

25. My class’s motto is “Be the change”, as in “be the change you want to see in the world”. I think it is one of the most beautiful and inspiring charges a group could give itself.