Happy birthday Dial ...
Google and blogger.com rock even more so now that Australian and French researchers are claiming that watching TV will increase the risk of you dying young.
iMrich (Meaning, if you own it, you have enough dough for yet another gadgetiMrich (Meaning, if you own it, you have enough dough for yet another gadget
Robert Hughes once wrote: I feel guilty when I'm not writing and when I'm writing I feel guilty I'm not writing well enough ...
Radical mazement of Memoirs Down Under
What do Mick Gatto, Roger Rogerson, Mark “Chopper” Read, Graham “Abo” Henry and Arthur “Neddy” Smith have in common? That’s right. They’re all published authors.
There is a view that these books are little more than crime pornography. I must admit to a certain fascination. In fact I possess a substantial True Crime library. “I, Mick Gatto” and Rogerson’s book will shortly be added to it.
I’m not bothered by the assertions that these books contribute to the phenomenon of the celebrity gangster. It’s just that if I were a crook, I’m not sure that penning an autobiography would be all that good for business.
The American Mafia hid its light under a bushel so effectively that until 1957 their very existence was dismissed as a nasty rumour.
At that time a particularly diligent state trooper in upstate New York noticed an unusually large number of limousines parked outside the summer residence of Italian-American, Joseph Barbaro. The trooper took down the registration numbers and discovered that all of the vehicles were registered to a John Doe of Hoboken, New Jersey.
• Underbelly [Winning awards is something every media dragon loves to do Red Carpet Treatment ; When writing first drafts you look for the rhythm and the energy. But mostly it’s a matter of feeling a way forward. On Cold Rivers and other places]
• · In recent years a large number of best-selling books have been victims' tales of suffering at the hands of adults. A whole new genre – the misery memoir – established itself. Several of these books have been contested by family members and some cases have gone to court. The most high-profile was that of Constance Briscoe, the barrister who claimed to have been viciously abused by her British Jamaican mother. The mother sued her and lost. The weight of silence is the gravity of all the unsaids, the unseens, and how they shape our lives unforgettable story of of remembering, forgetting, pretending, of becoming who you are; Franz Kafka's manuscripts are the subject of a protracted legal battle that one can only describe as, well, Kafkaesque. Kafka left his papers to Max Brod to burn them. After that the plot picks up, explains Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa explains in his latest syndicated column. Brod published most of the papers, making Kafka a literary icon. After Brod fled Nazi Germany for Tel Aviv, he gave some of the remaining papers to his secretary and companion Esther Hoffe, who bequeathed them to her daughters, who then sold some and kept the rest--in what is now a smelly, damp animal shelter hardly conducive to preserving the old works. Kafka’s Ordeal
• · · Getting things done is not the same as making things happen. You can reply to emails, pay the bills, cross off the to-do’s, fulfill your obligation, repeat what you heard, go with the flow, anticipate roadblocks, aim for “good enough.” Or you can organize a community, take a risk, set ambitious goals, give more than you take, change perceptions, forge a new path, create possibility, demand excellence. Don’t worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MEDIA DRAGONS; How Official Unemployment Stats Mislead Fuzzy unemployment math
• · · · Inside my body aches,
pain from cold rivers
Turns to lakes
Like a bonfire, flames to dust,
To give to take, Slumber dreams
To nightmare wakes
Pure love can turn to lust,
Everything turns to rust
We start to die as we are born,
Dusk comes quickly after dawn
Dawn awakes after dusk,
Everything turns to rust
Life in this world is inherently paradoxical: Everything passes and everything matters; everything turns to dust and everything is of infinite value and importance.
What I know is that everything I touch just turns to dust.
Pure love will turn to lust,. Everything turns to dust
Pure love will turn to lust,. Everything turns to dust; Trials, tragedies, triumphs
In a chapter titled, "To Be Amazed", Louv talks about a time when a rabbi, a Protestant Minister, a Catholic priest and an imam met in his living room to discuss parenting. Rabbi Martin Levin, of Congregation Beth-El, offered a wonderful description of "spirituality", quoted from a Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel.
"to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed. Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. Heschel would encourage his students to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed."
When I look into the eyes of my two children, I'm sometimes reminded of a quote from Abraham Heschel: Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. To get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.... Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be filled with wonder. Indeed, nothing is trivial. There are no inconsequential moments of life. Every thought, feeling, and decision we make is an As it is written, "We live once, and then we face judgment"
Life in this world is inherently paradoxical: Everything passes and everything matters; everything turns to dust everything is of infinite value and importance.
An old chassidic tale says that every person should walk through life with two notes, one in each pocket. On one note should be the words, I am but dust and ashes; On the other note should be the words - For my sake was this world created.
Maybe it's because I am examining my 30 years in Australia my new home, my exile, my strange exisistence, but I've become more and more conscious of the fragility and glory of life. Each of us is given the choice to graciously accept the inevitable passage of time or confront life with inner protest and despair. everything passes.
• · · · · Why constitutional coffee break is important for physical and even (mental) wellbeing ;-)Office workers are being encouraged to get up and out of their chairs more often, as new research suggests too much sitting down is literally killing us. The human body was designed to move, his report concluded, which also found the increased mortality rate affected both the healthy and unfit. Offices make a stand against sitting Some companies make internal email-free time; Playscripts “consider how a company could succeed by reinventing its role as reality changes.” His method involves characters and their roles, storylines and connections, links and rules, plots and subplots. More fun than the usual approach to strategy planning! Strategy Tools for a Shifting Landscape
• · · · · · 'Banking' is a necessary public good that all Australians require access to in order to make their way in life.Establishing a People’s Bank; People in richer nations are more likely to feel enjoyment and love, and less likely to undergo pain, boredom, depression or anger. Money can buy you love