Quotes

If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.
~ Arabian Proverb

Your Daily Dose of Random

I just heard that if you boil an egg and sing all five verses of "Onward Christian Soldier" you'll have a perfectly cooked egg at the end.  Anyone want to give this a try? :)

I'm Baaaaack...

Well, I'd originally sat down to write but I got caught up in Pinterest and, well, 45 min later.. here I am.  Gah, it's such a fabulous time-waster.  So. Many. Pretty. Things.  I was pinning all things steampunk (which finally gives a name to a secret fetish I've had for all things of said decor, jewelry, art, artifacts, etc).  Victorian meets future, meets sci-fi, meets industrial, meets western; how awesome is that?  No, my question to you should be, how can you NOT like it?

Gah!  I just got sidetracked again!  Another 15 minutes lost.  Good heavens.  My coffee's gone, I haven't even had breakfast yet, my back and butt are sore from sitting here... and I haven't even started to write what I wanted to write to you about, yet!!  *takes you by the shoulders and shakes you* THE STEAMPUNK OBSESSION MUST STOP!!  Okay, maybe not stop, but put on a brief pause.

... *pauses* ...  *makes pancakes in honour of Pancake Tuesday*...

.. *comes back to answer email, gets sidetracked AGAIN*... *forces self back to kitchen*...

I had some pancakes.  I got up to get something and this happened...

He totally took over my chair!  Silly Babu.

So.. today is Shrove/Pancake Tuesday; the Tuesday proceeding Ash Wednesday, the mark on the calendar when Christians begin to acknowledge Jesus' death (who rises on Easter as Christ) and the beginning of Lent.  I'd been thinking and thinking of what I want to give up for Lent this year and having a difficult time of it.  I'm giving up my usual 'no swearing' crusade (a feat often attempted but never successful), but I always give up something else in addition to that.  But.. this morning I felt different, thanks to a conversation from a friend last night (thanks MK).  Something occurred to me.  You know what?  No.  Hell no.  I've suffered enough the past year, thankyouverymuch, and I'm not going to do anymore than I need to for the next little while.  So you know what?  I'm going to take the alternative; I'm going to add something.  Thing is, I'm not quite sure what yet.  Prayer (meal time? bedtime? morning?)?  Volunteering of time?  No, I'm not ready to expend that energy yet.  Maybe there are other sorts of forms of charity; RM, you're good with this, what do you suggest?  I'll take suggestions from anyone.  Maybe something food-related.  If it keeps me in the kitchen, I'm happy; it's good therapy for me.  Maybe baking for friends, based on their food preferences/wishes/health issues.  Hmm.. that's not a bad idea.  I just baked up my third batch of GF brownies and people are amazed; I've proven (well, thanks to the author) that GF doesn't have to be boring  and I LOVE this.  Okay - so if you would like baked-goods (or non-baked goods.. could be meals), sign up below.  I will deliver! (if you're local, post mail if you're not.)  Okay, so I've picked up an act of charity for Lent.  There you go.

I've been learning more Italian on the side.  It's going very well.  I'm learning basic words pertaining to what I can use at work/in a restaurant (plate, dish, glass, cutlery, etc, etc) and shocker - I'm retaining them!  Mostly.

I'm reading Carl Jung's essay (in small book form) on Synchronicity.  It's fantastic.  I hope to give excerpts on it later.

I'm feeling a bit better today.  A bit lighter.  A little bit... released.  That's what happens when you finally shed 160lbs.  /cryptic

*looks out the window*  Dude, where'd this snow come from?  This is a funny winter.

Alright, I gotta have some attempt at lunch and get to an appointment.  Hope y'all are having a good day.

Quote

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
~ C.S Lewis

One Little Sentence

Pray without ceasing.
~ 1 Thessalonians, 5:17

Rants

I really shouldn't watch the news in the morning.

There's this guy on that has a book, "The Science of Yoga" and claims yoga is bad for you.  He says you're tearing this, or over-stretching that which forms blood clots, blah blah blah.  Listen, if you're getting these injuries means you're doing it wrong.  If you're doing it wrong, you're rather a) being taught wrong or b) you're not listening to your body and you're over-stretching to a point past uncomfortableness, which is incorrect.  I don't think some jackass in 2012 can argue with CENTURIES worth of exercise.  Just sayin'.

There was a commercial on for Giftopia (giftopia.com - a gift registry for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc).  Have you seen this?  It shows you the "before" of someone having an account with Giftopia, receiving odd or awkward gifts, not happy from receiving said gift.  Then it shows the "after" of someone having created an account on Giftopia and receiving the 'perfect' gift and everyone's happy.  Hey.. how about you MAKE THE EFFORT TO GET TO KNOW YOUR RECIPIENT BEFORE GIVING THEM A GIFT. Novel idea, I know, but try it.  Another example of how technology is hampering our face-time or get-to-know-you mentality.

Oh right, the third rant.  This one cracks me up.  There's a Catholic church in Montreal asking the parishioners to pray for the Habs to win their games (they even went so far as to place an ad in the local paper).  They're basically showing even the faith has a sense of humour, and really, whythehellnot.  Then they get some theologian on saying the Church is just doing this to get people in to ask for money.  ROFL!  Are you joking?!  You couldn't come up with anything more original than that?!  "The Church" does very well to get along on it's own, thankyouverymuch, and using ploys like getting people to come to church to pray for a hockey team "for money" is.. just outright outlandish.  Crazy.  Crazy, I tell you!  Pfft.

For non-rant news, we discovered we were on the wrong track searching for ovarian cancer, like, the entire time.  Where they thought it originated in the ovaries, actually comes with much sooner (non-gynecological) symptoms and starts in the fallopian tubes.  Yup.  Not gonna be a silent killer no more.  No siree Bob.

Also, zebras are patterned because of horseflys.  /random tip of the day

And that's all I have to say for today.

This is what happens when I don't write for a while.

Poem

Friendship 

A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,
And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again, -
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red,
All things through thee take nobler form
And look beyond the earth,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in my worth.
Me too thy nobleness has taught
to master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
          From the book, The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Twelve Volumes, Volume II, Copyright 1865, leatherbound

Mini-break

Hey all, I'm taking a small hiatus from writing to deal with some personal stuff, so bear with me in this small break.  I'll do my best to come and post quotes now and then (I can't let those go so easily and I find some now and then I'd like to share) but otherwise will be laying low.  Hope you understand.  Hopefully it won't be too long :)

Be good ;)