The History of Halloween and Fun Pumpkin Facts!

I recently returned from my annual pilgrimage to Walt Disney World where we rode on the “Haunted Mansion” ride at the “Not so scary Halloween” evening.

In the US, people tend to make more effort to celebrate events like Halloween but in the UK we are catching up. I thought what do I actually know about Halloween?

The following article is from halloweenishere.com which is full of information about Halloween and includes:
Fun & Games Ghost Stories Rancid Recipes Costume Ideas Safety Tips
Haunted House HIH Store Haunted Art Buried Alive Ghoul School History
Send A Card Contest Graveyard Links HIH Award Link To Us

 

 

The history of Halloween and fun pumpkin facts!

Halloween, one of the world's oldest holidays, is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe. The autumn rite is commemorated in the United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages.
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honour of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which means "end of summer", the Celtic New year.

Trick for Treat

The custom of trick or treating probably has several origins. During Samhain, the Druids believed that the dead would play tricks on mankind and cause panic and destruction. They had to be appeased, so country folk would give the Druids food as they visited their homes.
An old Irish peasant practice called for going door to door to collect money, breadcake, cheese, eggs, butter, apples, etc., in preparation for the festival of St. Columb Kill.
Also a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

Did You Know...

• A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack, a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home. A muslin-wrapped treat is baked inside the cake that, it is said, can foretell the eater's future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that a prosperous year is on its way.

Bobbing for Apples

When the Celts were absorbed by the Roman Empire, many rituals of Roman origin began. Among them was the worship of Pomona, goddess of the harvest, often portrayed sitting on a basket of fruits and flowers. Apples were the sacred fruit of the goddess, and many games of divination involving them entered the Samhain customs.

The Witch's Broomstick

The witch is a central symbol of Halloween. The name comes from the Saxon wica, meaning wise one. When setting out for a Sabbath, witches rubbed a sacred ointment onto their skin. This gave them a feeling of flying, and if they had been fasting they felt even giddier. Some witches rode on horseback, but poor witches went on foot and carried a broom or a pole to aid in vaulting over streams. In England when new witches were initiated they were often blindfolded, smeared with flying ointment and placed on a broomstick. The ointment would confuse the mind, speed up the pulse and numb the feet. When they were told "You are flying over land and sea," the witch took their word for it.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Irish children used to carve out potatoes or turnips and light them for their Halloween gatherings. They commemorated Jack, a shifty Irish villain so wicked that neither God nor the Devil wanted him. Rejected by both the sacred and profane, he wandered the world endlessly looking for a place to rest, his only warmth a glittering candle in a rotten turnip. Read about Jack in the 'Legend of the Jack-O-Lantern' short story.

Did You Know...

• The Irish Potato Famine (1845-50) prompted over 700,000 people to immigrate to the Americas. These immigrants brought with them their traditions of Halloween and Jack o'Lanterns, but turnips were not as readily available as back home. They found the American pumpkin to be a more than an adequate replacement. Today, the carved pumpkin is perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday.

Halloween Masquerade Mask

From earliest times people wore masks when droughts or other disasters struck. They believed that the demons who had brought their misfortune upon them would become frightened off by the hideous masks. Even after the festival of Samhain had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy at this time of the year. Food was stored in preparation for the winter and the house was snug and warm. The cold, envious ghosts were outside, and people who went out after dark often wore masks to keep from being recognised.

Pumpkin Facts

• In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding "gros melons." The name was translated into English as "pompions," which has since evolved into the modern "pumpkin."
• Pumpkins have been grown in North America for five thousand years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere.
• Pumpkins are fruits. A pumpkin is a type of squash and is a member of the gourd family (Cucurbitacae), which include squash, cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.
• Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in colour. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.
• 2007 New World Record! In what has become an annual event, the world record has fallen once more. The largest pumpkin ever grown stands at 1,680 pounds. It was grown by Joe Jutras of Rhode Island. It was weighed in on October 7, 2007 at the Rhode Island Weigh-off. Will the record fall again in 2008? I will let you know

EnJoY!

Source halloweenishere.com Image factoidz.com

Language

"Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation."
~ Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky

born December 07, 1928 in Philadelphia.
website http://www.chomsky.info/

American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer.
Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar
Helped spark the cognitive revolution in psychology through his review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behaviour

His naturalistic approach to the study of language has affected the philosophy of language and mind.

Beginning with his critique of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Chomsky has become more widely known for his media criticism and political activism, and for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States and other governments.

Cited as a source more often than any other living scholar during the 1980–1992 time period, and was the eighth-most cited scholar in any time period.

source goodreads.com image goodreads.com/Noam_Chomsky

Are you a Cynic?

Cynicism - “a sceptical, scornful or pessimistic attitude; an emotion of jaded negativity, or a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of other people”  ~ en.wiktionary.org

Cynics suck the energy from others because they feel that they haven't the ability to generate their own and cynics generalise so there is no real opportunity to respond to them.

Having said that, they preserve the balance in life.

A (generalised) viewpoint
What's yours?

‘CYNICISM - The cure for bliss’ T-shirt available from zazzle.co.uk

Fred’s Note

Ol' Fred had been a religious man who was in the hospital, near death. The family called their preacher to stand with them. As the preacher stood next to the bed, Ol' Fred's condition appeared to deteriorate and he motioned frantically for something to write on.
The pastor lovingly handed him a pen and a piece of paper, and Ol' Fred used his last bit of energy to scribble a note, then he died. The preacher thought it best not to look at the note at that time, so he placed it in his jacket pocket.
At the funeral, as he was finishing the message, he realised that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing when Ol' Fred died.
He said, "You know, Ol' Fred handed me a note just before he died. I haven't looked at it, but knowing Fred, I'm sure there's a word of inspiration there for us all."
He opened the note, and read out loud, "Hey, you're standing on my oxygen tube?"

source thejokeyard.com image sodahead.com

Belief

 "A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind" ~ Robert Oxton Bolton

“Robert Oxton Bolton wrote: "A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses, it is an idea that possesses the mind." I learnt this, not studying philosophy or literature at Harvard or Oxford, or listening to Melvyn Bragg on Radio 4. No, I learnt it from watching Criminal Minds, Living TV's current, classic cop show. How great is that?….”
~ Jim Shelley The Guardian, Saturday 6 May 2006

Dr Richard Bandler and John LaValle bring their leading edge training to Brighton | AyPee's Blog

http://aypee.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/drrb_jlv_brighton10/

These events are happening really soon but there is still the opportunity to join and receive bonus DVDs



http://bit.ly/AyPeeDHEB10

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/e03b

The Power of the Mastergroup

This article was originally posted on September 23, 2010 at thgblog. In it, is a video of Cory Boatright explaining “The 3 M’s for Successful Business”.

“Mastergroup” was mentioned in Napoleon Hill’s famous book “Think and Grow Rich”

Posted on September 23, 2010 by thgblog

Today I attended a webinar with Cory Boatright, organised by James Schramko, and I learnt heaps.  One tip for me was social networking as humble and as marvellous as Charlotte’s web and a great opportunity to participate and add value as part of a community.  Another masterminding, James often talks about the mastergroup he belongs to, Cory Boatright, who is an internet marketer, writer and author, discussed the power of the mastermind group and offered a mastermind servant course to FWF followers.  (He also joined James at FWF2 and the workshop videos are out now and being snapped up). Here is video from Google where he talks about mastermind mindset inspired by Napoleon Hill.

My Hamster Just Died

My hamster just died apparently from a lack of exercise. He lost the wheel to live!!!!!!

(thanks to John Howard)

image coolest-gadgets.com

Be A Yes Man « Raising Your Game

From my friend, Joe's blog

http://raisingyourgame.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/be-a-yes-man/

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ahQykm

Be A Yes Man

One of the key steps in raising my game was when I watched The Yes Man on a flight to America last summer. The power of saying yes to life was imbued throughout the film.

‘Say Yes More’

It is a little Hollywood-y and over the top. For instance, the event that changed Danny Wallace, author of the book, was a conversation with a stranger on a bus who told him to “say yes more.” In the film, it’s a huge, ostentatious seminar. All the same, it made me think a lot about how just “Say[ing] yes more,” as the Amazon blurb for the book says, can change a lot of things.

Now granted, I was on the way to work at a summer camp in America at the time so I was already excited. But it still resonated with me. I had been on a back burner in my life for a long time. I’d just come out of my first long term relationship, and I took it worse than I thought I would. I went very much inside myself.

Watching that film changed my experience at camp.

I should qualify that. I strongly believe in the whole, one life philosophy, so there’s no way of knowing if my experience at camp would have been any different. But in this instance, I can categorically say that my experience was different and better because of saying yes.

The biggest change that happened was that I met the girl who eventually became my wife. But saying yes to a lot of opportunities meant that I got to do awesome stuff while I was there. I don’t recall saying no to anything last year. And my life is better as a result.

Yes is a powerful word.

Sometimes It’s Scary

I tried to keep this up throughout this year. Sometimes it’s scary. That’s something that’s addressed in the film. Eventually, I would love to read the book too, but I have a lot of other stuff to read at the moment.

While it might be scary, confidence comes from doing things that take you out of your comfort zone. Confidence comes even from making a decision to do something. And starting is an important step. One of the books in the blog’s Amazon store is Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont’s work on the work of writing. I have only read 50 pages or so of it, so far, but one of the most important lessons that she has is to think about writing through a “One Inch Picture Frame.”

Anything is daunting if you try to conceive of all of it at once. But if you take it in small chunks, anything is achievable!

What do you do to overcome apprehensions about starting something new?

Try to be better than yourself

I am a keen fan of Criminal Minds and for those that know this TV series, then you will know that each episode starts with and ends with a quotation.
Here is the ending quote from the episode called “Compulsion”, from series 1:

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself”

~ William Faulkner
Winner The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949

Biography

Born 1897. Died 1962.
Came from an old southern family, grew up in Oxford, Mississippi.
He joined the Canadian Air Force and  later the  Royal Air Force during World War 1.
Studied at the University of Mississippi. Worked for a bookstore in New York and a newspaper , in New Orleans
Travelled to Europe and Asia and worked as a Scriptwriter in Hollywood.
Most of his novels and short stories were written on a farm in Oxford.

source quote criminalmindsfanwiki.com bio nobelprize.org

While You Sleep, Your Brain Keeps Working

We all know that sleep keeps our bodies healthy but did you know the impact it has on our minds and our memories?

This article is taken from psychcentral.com, first published on 3rd August, 2008 was written by By John M Grohol PsyD.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You think when you go to sleep, you just, well, sleep?

Sleep, as it turns out, is far more complicated than we thought. And the brain not only doesn’t turn off, but appears to help keep itself healthy.
We’ve all heard of REM — rapid eye movement — discovered by the late physiologists Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman at the University of Chicago in 1953. Scientific American has the story:

During REM sleep, our brain waves—the oscillating electromagnetic signals that result from large-scale brain activity—look similar to those produced while we are awake. And in subsequent decades, the late Mircea Steriade of Laval University in Quebec and other neuroscientists discovered that individual collections of neurons were independently firing in between these REM phases, during periods known as slow-wave sleep, when large populations of brain cells fire synchronously in a steady rhythm of one to four beats each second. So it became clear that the sleeping brain was not merely “resting,” either in REM sleep or in slow-wave sleep. Sleep was doing something different. Something active.

Discovering REM sleep was the first clue that sleep didn’t just help keep our bodies healthy, but our minds as well. And while many studies have been conducted on sleep since 1953, it’s only been in the last decade where we’ve begun to appreciate the complexity and importance of sleep for our minds. In 2000, researchers discovered that people that received more than 6 hours of sleep during an experiment helped improve their performance on tasks designed to tax the memory.

The key came in the discovery that participants didn’t just require REM sleep to improve their performance — they needed all that other sleep time too (what scientists call ’slow-wave’ sleep).
The long article also provides a nice description of our current understanding of how memory works:

To understand how that could be so, it helps to review a few memory basics. When we “encode” information in our brain, the newly minted memory is actually just beginning a long journey during which it will be stabilized, enhanced and qualitatively altered, until it bears only faint resemblance to its original form. Over the first few hours, a memory can become more stable, resistant to interference from competing memories. But over longer periods, the brain seems to decide what is important to remember and what is not—and a detailed memory evolves into something more like a story.

The researchers also discovered that sleep helps stabilize memories — sleep changes our memory, “making it robust and more resistant to interference in the coming day,” as the article notes.
But wait, sleep does more! It may not just stabilize our memories, it may actually help our brains process the memories, keeping the bits we need for long-term memories (especially the emotional components), and dropping the extraneous details that would clog our limited storage capacity:

Over just the past few years, a number of studies have demonstrated the sophistication of the memory processing that happens during slumber. In fact, it appears that as we sleep, the brain might even be dissecting our memories and retaining only the most salient details. [...] Instead of deteriorating, memories for the emotional objects actually seemed to improve by a few percent overnight, showing about a 15 percent improvement relative to the deteriorating backgrounds. After a few more nights, one could imagine that little but the emotional objects would be left. We know this culling happens over time with real-life events, but now it appears that sleep may play a crucial role in this evolution of emotional memories.

But wait, sleep does even more!
Even more recent research suggests that sleep helps our brain to process the information of the day and solve problems.
The upshot is that sleep is far, far more important than most of us realize and few of us appreciate. We miss it and think nothing of chopping off a few hours here or there. But the emerging research suggests that when we cut out sleep, we may be actually harming our formation of new memories for the recent past, and our ability to perform up to our usual standards. The researchers sum it up best:

As exciting findings such as these come in more and more rapidly, we are becoming sure of one thing: while we sleep, our brain is anything but inactive. It is now clear that sleep can consolidate memories by enhancing and stabilizing them and by finding patterns within studied material even when we do not know that patterns might be there. It is also obvious that skimping on sleep stymies these crucial cognitive processes: some aspects of memory consolidation only happen with more than six hours of sleep. Miss a night, and the day’s memories might be compromised—an unsettling thought in our fast-paced, sleep-deprived society.

Read the full (albeit long) article at Scientific American: Sleep on It: How Snoozing Makes You Smarter

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behaviour, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.

Perfect Partner

A golfer stands over his tee shot for what seems an eternity to his partner. He looks up, looks down, measures the distance and figures the wind direction and speed. The longer he takes, the more his partner fidgets.

Finally his exasperated partner says, "What's taking so long? Hit the blasted ball."

The guy answers, "My wife is up there watching me from the clubhouse. I want to make this a perfect shot."

"Forget it, man," the partner says. "You'll never hit her from here."

source joke-pages.com image seatoskygolf.ca

Decisions

“Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right”
~ Dr. Phil McGraw

Source allgreatquotes.com image blog.newsok.com

The Art of Conversation

This article was written by my Joint Venturer, Alex Pilz on July 20th in his blog and as you can see it is about Conversations and the traps one can encounter.

The Art of Conversation

In their quest for success, professional sports organisations increasingly develop home grown talent through an academy system.  Alternatively they can buy the ready made product from abroad or the club next door.  When current performance, long term development and profit are advanced, different pathways to success can be achieved.  There is evidence, for example in the EPL (English premiere league), that current and short-term success has been pursued at the expense of a sustainable business model.  The LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) presents another variation of trying to get this balance right.  Possible success stories include home grown talent being sold for profit (with an elaborate contract) or graduating into a starting line-up direct.  Similarly, success for an Olympic team may imply securing and maintaining sponsorship to compete in the once a life time spectacle.

Within the ambit of developing young talent there is a conversational trap that athletes easily fall into.  Falling into a conversational trap is a powerful unseen killer of access to goal-directed effort.

Have you given advice and offered ideas that have not been implemented?  How has this impacted your ability to keep your athletes goal directed and motivated.

The conversational trap is the disconnect between, on the one hand our experiences, memories and points of view and, on the other hand the action that we take in the here and now.  Our experiences, memories and points of view show themselves in the conversations we have with ourselves [and others].  These conversations become major determinants in producing our behaviour.  As soon as we act it is reassigned to our library of experiences and memories creating and reinforcing our points of view.  We are always in conversation, that is, with ourselves (for example, dreaming can also be a form of conversation).  Participating in inner conversations is what may be called a sergeant major or a journalist.  The role of the sergeant major/journalist is to be right – barking instructions or passing endless judgements.  These contributions are certainly always destructive.  Important is that the sergeant major/journalist is too wily to be dethroned by a simple instruction (a conversation), issued by a coach or the self saying, for example “don’t think of red bears”.

The conversational trap described is a performance driver often overlooked which can bring the process of achieving desired results to a grinding halt.  Coaches and managers may not be privy to the inner conversations of athletes.  However, let’s face it all action produce results.  The question is are the results desirable or undesirable.

Compounding this conversational trap is the phenomenon where an individual says “yes” or “no” implying “depends on” or “maybe”.   The result of which may leave coaches thinking their instructions or strategic ideas fall on deaf ears.

I will train and teach conversational techniques and skills for both athletes and coaches to help athletes produce desired performances and, for coaches to have increased confidence in their ability to influence and mobilise goal directed effort.

Glass

A man saw a sign in a clothing store which said "We sell everything!" The guy walked up to the clerk and asked her for some glass pants.

The woman replied, "Sorry sir we don't sell those."

The man argued that the sign stated that the store sold everything.

The woman remarked that glass pants did not even exist.

The man went to his home, and came back to the store wearing a pair of glass pants. The man said triumphantly, "See, I told you that they existed!"

The woman said, "At first I thought you were crazy... but now I see you're nuts!"

source unwind.com image sangrea.net

Historic Sayings of AyPee

 
“Never before, in the history of mankind, has there been so much history” ~ Arthur Partridge

What is your story?

What About Ear Worms?

Please  see my blog posts “Get That Song Out My Head! University Of Montreal Study On Those Pesky Earworms”, dated 28th May and “More Earworms”, dated 29th May, 2010.
The following has to be a REAL EARWORM!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRH0q-XVh1w

I thought I would showcase some of the work of  Bryant Oden of Songdrops.com, who has received some 30 million views of his videos ..who has received some 30 million views of his videos… who has received some 30 million views of his videos….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjaAbuUkfRo

Among his repertoire as such classics as “Please don't Pee in the Pool” and
“I Got a Pea” (No reference to Forrest Gump!)

Enjoy and DO try NOT to SING THESE SONGS ALL DAY!

Source songdrops.com

High Water

  One night, a torrential rain soaked South Louisiana; the next morning the resulting floodwaters came up about 6 feet into most of the homes there.

Mrs. Boudreaux was sitting on her roof with her neighbour, Mrs. Thibodaux, waiting for help to come.

Mrs. Thibodaux noticed a lone baseball cap floating near the house. Then she saw it float far out into the front yard, then float all the way back to the house; it kept floating away from the house, then back in.

Her curiosity got the best of her, so she asked Mrs. Boudreaux, "Do you see that baseball cap floating away from the house, then back again?"

Mrs. Boudreaux said, "Oh yes, that's my husband; I told him he was going to cut the grass today come Hell or high water!"

source joke-pages.com 

How do you choose your friends?

I am not sure I agree with this one

"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects."~ Oscar Wilde

 Image from Wikipedia

What do you think?

This article was first published by Karen Goddard in her lifestarts blog on 23 Jun 2010

I have also written about customer service in Retail(ers Therapy) on my own website arthurpartridge.com, in an article entitled “Retailers is this a little mistake that is costing you thousands each year?”.

 

Is your customer service killing your business?

by Karen Goddard

Customer service
..to me ..is one of the key things that is important to me

Don’t you hate it when you buy something and then get really bad customer service when you need some help ?
Or even …when you are LOOKING TO BUY ..and the service is either rude and unhelpful or just totally ignores you
..hey ..forget it ..I am out of there ..sale lost!

I remember a story from years ago about a really scruffy looking guy who turned up at a BMW garage in a beat up escort, got out of the car and was meet with the look of disdain by the sales man …he got back into his car ..drove to the next town that also had a BMW dealership and got a warm, chatty reception from the guy there, really friendly but respectful. The sales guy let the man go for a test drive and try all the whistles and gadgets to his hearts content.
,,,the result ..the guy ordered 5 top of the range BMW’s for his executive staff and the friendly salesman made a nice big bonus! ..the guy also told the salesman about the other dealership who he had been to first ..result ..the salesman phoned the first dealership and thanked them for their lack of insight!!

Or ladies, do you remember the scene in Pretty Woman when she has to go shopping for a new outfit and the snobby shop assistants take one look at her and assume who & what she is…big mistake!
(one of my favourite films…had to mention it!)

There is so much competition out there these days ..people do not have to buy from you but they will buy from someone.
Yes, first impressions count ..but they can also be deceiving ..treat everyone as royalty!

What makes me buy ?
I would much rather buy from someone that:
I trust
I like
Who has been recommended to me
Who has guarantees
Who makes me feel special
Who isn’t all hype and no action
Who walks the walk

Now I know when a business is new it can be difficult, but
it takes just one or two references /testimonials from happy customers,
it takes a happy helpful person to be the sales person, who excepts that you are having a bad hair day and just come from the gym or you borrowed your friends car
It just takes a well thought out campaign to confirm what guarantees you have in place

A great tip that I had given to me ..was test your customer services out yourself …be a mystery customer of your own.
My friend was outsourcing his customer services queries for his business, he phoned up and was shocked at the response (dull and un-inviting) he then asked a slightly awkward question and he was again disappointed at the response …how many customers and potential customers had his outsourcing cost him? He now has a new company helping him and regularly checks what they are up to !

Don’t get complacent ..check that your customers are happy with the service, ask for feedback, ask for referrals, ask for testimonials, check yourself

Your customers happiness is paramount to your business and as the world becomes more and more connected and social media is becoming the key referral point ..then you need to ensure your utmost to give the best customer service you can.

Source http://lifestarts.wordpress.com/ 
Image Facebook

Articles About Happy News, Sex Shared More on Facebook - Digits - WSJ

URL:  http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/03/articles-about-h...

I found it interesting that there was a surprise that there were more positive items than negative ones - we are a happy bunch after all .... aren't we?

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aVBg7q

Old Jews Telling Jokes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_qbcFPo96M

Environment: Britain can be Zero Carbon by 2030

URL:  http://www.positivenews.org.uk/artman/publish/article_2...

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9qwz80

You Got to Believe in Yourself

“You got to believe in yourself. Hell, I believe I'm the best-looking guy in the world & I might be right”

~ Charles Barkley (‘Sir Charles’)

source quoteland.com Image revolutionmyspace.com/

Look to The Past to See The Future

Someone was asking at quoteland.com, who said “Look to the past to See the Future”?

I don’t know the answer but what struck me is how many people believe that statement to be true.

 The statement can not be true because it pre supposes that by looking at the past will let us see the future. We cant see unless we get some magical spectacles and since we can’t go to the past, we will never get to try on the wonder glasses anyway!

 Dr Phil McGraw says “The past is the best predictor we have for the future”, which is probably closer to the truth but personally I do not believe the past predicts the future at all!  What it does for the future, is to provide experience and resources that can be used to influence the present moment. It is what we DO NOW that impacts on, if not creates, the future.

In my own personal coaching model, I disassociate my clients from their pasts, so that it is complete and cannot get in the way of the future that they want to create.
More accurately, I like to separate them from their story ……
……“I mess everything up” …… “No! You messed things up. You have absolutely no proof that you mess EVERYTHING up!”
…… “I can’t stop doing it” …… “No! You didn’t stop doing it. That doesn’t mean that you can’t stop. DOES IT? You’re not doing it right now, are you?  By the way, why did you do it, then?” ……

 In my blog post ‘While You Sleep, Your Brain Keeps Working’, posted on 17th September, John M Grohol, reports that “the brain seems to decide what is important to remember and what is not—and a detailed memory evolves into something more like a story”

So let’s put the past where it belongs ……
…… it does not belong in the present and it does not belong in the future. The main reason it doesn’t exist in the future is that the Future DOES NOT EXIST and never has done and the reason that it does not exist in the Past is that DOES NOT EXIST either and also never has done

It is always now and always will be.
What you DO NOW will help determine the future. More importantly,
how you ARE NOW will determine what you do now

Further References

• AyPee’s Blog article "Life Just Is"  dated 5th July, 2010

• The Power of the Present Moment!  onepowerfulword.com

Let’s Meet by The River

The Reverend Lewis was completing a temperance sermon and with great expression he said, 'If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'

With even greater emphasis he added, 'And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'

Finally, the Reverend Lewis said, 'And if I had all the whisky in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river.'

He sat down.

The Curate, Roger Marples, then stood up very cautiously and announced with a smile, 'For our closing hymn let's sing number 365, "Shall We Gather at the River."

source guy-sports.com image cartoonstock.com

John Lennon: Fans Mark What Would Have Been The Ex-Beatles' 70th Birthday. Yoko Ono Sends Message | Showbiz News | Sky News

URL:  http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/John-Lenn...

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

What a waste

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9snTTi

Oldest duck in UK dies at age 22

Edwina - the UKs oldest duck

URL:  http://www.bizarrenews.org/content/view/135/1/

Does anyone know how many human years equates to one duck year?

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cvytOP

That Napoleon Knew a Thing or Two

There are two levers for moving men -- interest and fear

~ Napoleon Bonaparte

source quoteland.com

Toddler walks two blocks to reach medical help for her father

URL:  http://goodnewsdaily.com/show_story.php?ID=10156

3 year old Alesaundra Tafoya walks 2 blocks to reach Fire Station 243, a firehouse the family passes daily to tell firefighters that her dad was "frozen" and wouldn't wake up.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cv8uma

Attitude NOT Talent

The incredible story of Ben Underwood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLziFMF4DHA