Pondering the year past 30, 12, 06
Well, as I sit and nurse the sprained ankle I got yesterday, I’m pondering the last year. What I’ve done, learned, and discovered about myself. How I’ve grown in some areas, and forgotten about others. Including exercise, sadly. Well, organized exercise I mean. But I was thinking on failed friendships, and things said, in the heat of the moment of anger. How, maybe somebody who takes their life just forgets that there are positives. Maybe this does happen overwhelmingly, to them. I’m thinking in particular of Paul Hester, the Crowded House, and Split Enz drummer who took his life. Why? Did it all just overwhelm him, you wonder? Did he find it all too much to deal with? Did he feel there was no one to turn to any more? You can’t help but wonder how he felt. I don’t feel like that, but I can empathize with someone who feels that low and that bad. I’ve been there, and felt that, sadly.
But 2007 is going to be a good year, I know. I have faith it will be. Let’s hope I’m right.
Holiday CD’s 17, 12, 06
Do you ever find that you have way too many Holiday CD’s and never get a chance to listen to them all? LOL, that’s my problem. At last count I’ve got 16 different ones. Harry Connick, Sarah McLachlan’s new one Wintersong, Celine Dion’s “These are Special Times”, and Jewel’s “A Holiday Collection” are all favourites. But I’ve got Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas”, a “Celtic Christmas”, Rosie O’Donnell’s CD. Etc. Etc. Way too many. Anyways, I’ve been making a holiday playlist and have shuffled it. That’s fun to do. Yes, I do prefer to have CD’s to rip onto my computer. Not a big deal then.
Today was the Christmas pageant at my church. The kids were so cute. It was great to see them. Sarah was a cute “Mary” holding the baby doll that was Jesus. Victoria was a darling little angel, along with the others. SOOOOO cute up at the front of the church.
Only 1 week left before Christmas. YAY!
A passage from Philippians 2 16, 12, 06
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
If each of us could live to that standard we’d be doing all of the other people in our lives a great deal of good. I guess this is what a Christian is supposed to do. To strive to follow the word set down. See, I’m still learning. Not there yet. But I’m getting there, and understanding more, and opening my heart more.
I forgive all of those who’ve hurt me, in some way. In saying that I want to forget the pain, move past it, and heal. It’s time.
Why wait for sex until after marriage? 16, 12, 06
Yeah, a SEX topic, for you. It’s not gross, but just thoughts…
For those who’ve never had sex, here are my reasons why to wait. Of course, YMMV, these are only my thoughts, of course. Wait because it’s special. It’s an incredible gift to lie there afterwards with this person you love, and say softly, “you’re my first, my only one, and I love you”. I can just see myself saying that, if only I could have. I won’t go into why I can’t. But the emotion is so there, in the dream I have. The upswelling of tears right there, at the brink, and the satisfaction right there, too. Think about what it’s like for a guy. He’s just said, in physical terms, “I’m a man, and I’ve shown that”. For a woman, with the right set of emotions of love, and trust, and desire, she’s opened herself in the broadest sense a woman can. You can’t be more open than that.
Yes, sex is so open these days with birth control, and easy access. It’s portrayed as an easy attitude to it in the movies, and on television. But in the bedroom, there is a trust there. As you lie there, and your lips meet, there is a reaffirmation of the bond, beyond your comprehension, that continues when you make love to the same person year after year. How does it not get boring? Because it’s always good, if you work at it. If you try fun things like new positions. Yeah, there are a lot of variations, believe me….. LOL
But seriously, don’t believe the movies. They aren’t real. Think of a book turned into a movie. How much more detail does the book have than the movie? A lot, generally. So much more of the back story is told in the book. It’s like that with sex between two people who love each other. There’s a history there that you draw on. Every time you make love it’s just building on that.
So, a quickie, that’s meaningless has no history. It’s got no real meaning to it. That is why it’s empty calories, like junky fast-food meals. It’s sex yes. But satisfying? Not at all. Whereas making love, which I’m saying is a sub-set of sex, is a gourmet meal, with all the stops. It can be a quick gourmet meal, or one with many courses. But it satisfies that deep hunger inside you to feel filled up if you’re a woman. Yes, as I said to my husband, it does fill me up, both literally, and figuratively. He doesn’t understand that feeling at all, but then again I don’t completely understand the affirmation of his manhood every time, either. But we can appreciate it. Oh, how we can appreciate it *wink*
New species under the ice 12, 12, 06
Here is proof that I knew was true. We don’t even know how many species are under the ice of the Antarctic. Yeah, isn’t that the truth. So many animals and plants, and species of things that we know nothing about, and don’t even know exist! Think about how much of our blue planet is covered in water. That’s about 80%. Then extrapolate from there. It’s mind boggling how much we DON’T know. Here is an article from the Globe and Mail Canada.
In the dark ocean beneath the Antarctic ice, researchers have found scores of species they’ve never seen before, including strange jellyfish and other gelatinous organisms that thrive without light.
It is too early to say exactly how many new species were discovered in the Antarctic, many in the Weddell Sea, where ice crushed the ship of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1915.
The scientists saw more strange creatures than familiar ones, says Ron O’Dor, an expert in octopuses and squid from Halifax’s Dalhousie University and the chief scientist in charge of producing the first marine life census of the planet by 2010.
I hope that they find more good news despite the fact that 90% of species seem to have declined. That’s a sad number to hear.
Jaws under the ice 09, 12, 06
Wow, one has to wonder why a marine biologist would dive in the St. Lawrence. Brrrr! But Arctic sharks are the reason.
is interesting to read about. Did you know that I’d never even heard of this fish before?
In the frigid, murky waters of the St. Lawrence River in Québec, UBC marine biologist and veterinarian Chris Harvey-Clark is painting a clearer picture of a mysterious predator that could be the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet.
The Greenland shark typically inhabits the deep, dark waters between Greenland and the polar ice cap. At over six metres long and weighing up to 2,000 kilograms, it is the largest shark in the North Atlantic and the only shark in the world that lives under Arctic ice. Once heavily harvested for its vitamin A-rich oil — as many as 50,000 were caught annually according to a 1948 estimate — little is known about the animal.
Wow, interesting stuff, for sure. I hope they find out more about it.
Short bursts of exercise good for Blood pressure 04, 12, 06
According to this website
short, 10 minute long walks 4 to 5 times per day may be better for lowing blood pressure than one 40 min walk. Interesting thought, isn’t it?
People who exercise to control blood pressure can do their workouts in small doses.
Indiana University researchers reported in September’s Journal of Hypertension that people in their study who took four 10-minute walks over several hours reduced their blood pressure for 10 to 11 hours, about three hours longer than did those who walked nonstop for 40 minutes.
“Not only can blood pressure be lowered by short bouts of exercise, it can also occur after low-intensity exercise,” says the University of Connecticut’s Linda Pescatello, an exercise physiologist whose own research has also shown that a 15-minute exertion can reduce blood pressure nearly as much as a 30-minute effort.
So, another study that I can’t find on the internet, but have read about in the Oprah magazine, that said that having a dog reduced the incidence of heart attacks in older women, may well be borne out by this research, as well. It tracked older women who had had heart attacks, and the half with dogs had much less incidence of heart attacks than the control group.
Makes getting out on a cold morning for a brisk 10 to 15 minute walk seem that much more sensible, doesn’t it?
Email Etiquette 02, 12, 06
Did you know that there is an article here on just that subject? About the “SAP’s”, and the “SOP’s”? SAP = Sought After People, and SOP = Silent Other People Yes, for some it is saturation of emails. Who, after working a 40 hour week on the computer, wants to have dozens of emails to read, and respond to? Not many, because it’s not fun, at all.
It’s really not fun. I’m guilty of being a drain on my friends (some of them) when it comes to over-saturation of email. It becomes a real drag to them to get out a reply because as they are thinking of one, another one, with new ideas and words arrives. What to do now? Delay more, and digest the new info, or ignore the new one, and just continue with the thoughts?
I guess it’s like face-to-face communication where you can’t over telephone someone. One phonecall is lovely, two is a bit overboard but ten phonecalls in a day or a week? That’s absurd. Same idea, however. See, I’ve reinforced some learning. Putting myself in others shoes.
Excerpt from the article below.
A great divide is growing between the people who receive large amounts of email and those who don’t. The increase in email volume particularly affects famous people, politicians, and professionals who provide helpful information on the Internet, including computer techs. To make things easy, let’s call them “the sought-after people”(“SAPs”) as opposed to everyone else, the “silent other people” (“SOPs”) who surf the Internet in relative anonymity. SAPs are finding that increasingly their free time is spent reading and responding to emails, and they are having a difficult time figuring out how to juggle emails. Whereas SOPs do not comprehend this new phenomenon, resulting in needless feelings that they are being snubbed or ignored. It has created more suspicion in marriages that spouses are purposely ignoring each other – when it’s nothing more than email saturation.
Before email, in order to contact someone famous, particularly if they did not live in your town, it was necessary to call 411 or other phone directory service and hope that the person didn’t have an unpublished number. Or, if they were listed, print out a letter and mail it to them. The only other option was to send a letter to the company or organization the person was affiliated with. Most people didn’t make the effort to do any of that.
Now, anyone famous can be found with a simple Internet search from a home computer, and an email can be sent off within seconds. Famous people are flooded with emails from people all over the world on every subject fathomable – requesting their time at an event or interview, asking for a contribution to a charitable or political cause, requesting their advice, proposing business deals, asking them to put something on their website, long-lost relatives contacting them, fans or enemies harassing them, etc.
There is simply not enough time in the day for one person to respond to hundreds of emails. Most people work 40+ hours a week, and have barely enough time outside of work during the workweek to get much done except make dinner and watch the news, or maybe take the kids to an event or go out to dinner with friends. On the weekends, most people like to work on home improvements and get out of the house to do errands, attend church, or engage in leisure activities like boating. Increasingly, more people have jobs requiring them to sit in front of a computer screen all week long. The last thing they want to do is spend their entire weekend in front of a computer. The number of people suffering backaches from sitting at work too long in front of their computers has been increasing. Consequently, one way that is emerging to distinguish SOPs from SAPs is the presence of back pain.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away – Henry David Thoreau
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Just another Hello World post! 06, 11, 06
Like I need another blog like I need a hole in the head. But hey, they’re fun to have.
