Poets' Respite: Anger (click on image to enlarge).

Jumbo's Quotes of the Day

“Give me AMBIGUITY or give me

something else...”

~Anonymous~

“If I take refuge in ambiguity, I assure you it's quite conscious”

~Kingman Brewster Jr.~

Mahatma Gandhi: Views on Violence vs. Cowardice.

In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that anyone else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force. And so I receive anonymous letters advising me that I must not interfere with the progress of non-cooperation even though popular violence may break out. Others come to me and, assuming that secretly I must be plotting violence, inquire when the happy moment for declaring open violence will arrive. They assure me that the English will never yield to anything but violence, secret or open. Yet others, I am informed, believe that I am the most rascally person living in India because I never give out my real intention and that they have not a shadow of a doubt that I believe in violence just as much as most people do.

Such being the hold that the doctrine of the sword has on the majority of mankind, and as success of non-cooperation depends principally on absence of violence during its pendancy, and as my views in this matter affect the conduct of a large number of people, I am anxious to state them as clearly as possible.

I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me even by using violence. Hence it was that I took part in the Boer War, the so-called Zulu rebellion and the late War.* Hence also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.

* Boer War -- War in South Africa, 1899-1902, in which Great Britain defeated the settlers of Dutch ancestry (Boers).
Zulu rebellion -- Clash in 1904 in the South African province of Natal between Zulu tribesmen and the white government. Gandhi led an ambulance corps for the British.

Just for Laughs: Jeff Allen

Poets' Respite: The Sins of Omission (click on image to enlarge).

Fats Domino for the Music Lover

Comparing Jane

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen's " Pride and Prejudice"

I am an unabashed Jane Austen fan and my favorite novel of her's is Pride and Prejudice. I've read it about 6 times and I've watched the 1995 BBC film version of it at least once a year.

Earlier, Sarah posted alerting folks of the upcoming Masterpiece Theater showing of "Emma" (another favorite) and I was so looking forward to seeing it, but we were terribly disappointed. So much so that we didn't watch the whole episode.

Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller as Emma Woodhouse and George Knightly in "Emma"

I think in an effort to be original, since there are so many film versions of the story that stay pretty close to the author's words, the screen writers felt a need to shake things up a bit. The film begins in an odd, disjointed fashion. Highlighting at the start, mini-plots from the story that where only given a cursory glance further on in the book. This tactic displaces the genteel tale telling typical of Austen's writing style with a blunt, modern almost crass format that isn't appropriate for the era or this author's offering. There were other issues with the film, like mediocre acting and the character's personas were written in such a way as to almost be unrecognizable. Tisk tisk.

Well, it's a known fact that the only way to remedy the after-burn of watching a bad film is to immediately (if not sooner :) watch a known good film. Since I happened to have a bunch of needle work to do anyway, the girls and I settled down for a good purging...can you guess? That's right! Our yearly dose of P & P came early as I stitched away at canvas fronts for a new jacket. Aaahhh...I feel better now :)

Angela

A tale of four Kingdoms.

Recently I finished my first novel; "A tale of four Kingdoms". With some editing help from my grandmother my novel is now comprehendible to most normal humans.

I decide that my first novel deserved more than the standard issue of very simple and very boring manuscript format.

For a fun project I am going to print out my novel and bind it into an elaborate and pretty book...after I finish with the illustrations of course. I'll post later with pictures of the process.


Sarah :D

Jumbo's Quote of the Day

“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior,

another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.”

~Henry C Link~

TRUE GOODNESS IS ONLY REACHED BY ABANDONMENT

Evil circumstances are changed into good when they are received with an enduring trust in the love of God, while good circumstances may be changed into evil when we become attached to them through the love of self. Nothing in us or around us is truly good until we become detached from the world and totally abandoned to God. So, even though you are now in these bad circumstances, put yourself confidently and without reserve into His hand. I would give anything to see you in better circumstances. But if evil circumstances have taught you to be sick of the love of the world, then that is good. That love of self which the world advocates, is a thousand times more dangerous than any poison. I pray for you with all my heart.

Fénelon

What Have We Done Today? (click on image to enlarge)

A drop of kindess :)

Yesterday the tires were stolen off of my bike at school while I was in class doing homework. I felt some what miserable for the rest of the day and part of this morning.

Today this old man payed my bus fare for no other reason other then he had a special bus pass that allowed two people to ride for free :D

It was a small gesture of kindness but it was just the sort of boost needed to reverse the bummed mood I'd let myself settle into.

~Olivia

Morning Jog

Andrew here.

I was jogging this morning, which turned out very well. Usually I wake up at 5 in the morning to get ready and get to work by 6; this tended to kink my days off. Since I, being like many young adults, have a tendency to sleep in, I only occasionally got out of bed before 8:30. The part with the kinks involves my circadian rhythm, the roughly twenty four hour cycle of a human being.
One of my main zeitgebers (German for "time giver") is the sun, which I don't usually see until about 10 or 10:30, when I have my lunch at work. Being at work for five days out of the week, my days off seem wasted if I wake up after the sun; it just feels like I've slept through work all the way through lunch.
Jogging this morning helped alleviate this feeling. I woke up at 5 am as if I were going to work, and Matt and I went down to the park and warmed up. Matt jogged two laps to my half a lap jogged and half walked. Around Matt's third lap Amie and her grandmother came down. That lady can move. So, I jogged another lap and a half, and Amie, her grandmother, and I all hit the machines while Matt went home, something about gloves.
At 8:07 am pacific time, I still feel like it's 11-ish. I do feel like I've accomplished something, though.
Also, last night I picked up a 55 gallon plastic barrel!! I'm going to clean it out today to get it ready for Tuesday's predicted rain.

So, I leave you with a promise for more posts soon. I'm working a series on Water, the quality and safety of. It is long, so this may take some time. Until then, here's a song from Bedouin Soundclash. I find it relaxing to jog/workout to.

How does laughter improve your health? (click on image to enlarge).

It's not for nothing that they say "laughter is the best medicine." There are several ways laughing affects your body. First, it increases blood flow and circulation, helping to decrease the risk of cardiovascular problems. Second, when you laugh, you work stomach, legs, arms and face muscles--a good round of laughter is a great aerobic workout! And, after the workout, muscles remain relaxed for up to an hour. Third, laughing improves your resistance to disease by decreasing stress hormones and increasing immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies. Fourth, it releases endorphins which make us feel good and help to relieve pain. Today is "Belly Laugh Day." Burst out laughing and feel better all over!

Article taken from Answers.com--Today's Highlights

S and O Pruductions Sports Beautiful New Banner

S and O Productions has a lovely new banner. You can visit S and O's blog, if you haven't already, by clicking on the widget with S and O Productions written across the picture of milk and cookies located on the sidebar (or just click here on S & O). The girls have a delightful blog and are followed by nearly four hundred viewers.

It's a lot of work to but keep up a blog, but its definitely worth the effort. The theme of their blog has been mainly highlighting fellow crafters, sharing recipes, and staying in touch with, and highlighting, their chic-ish, cheery, and feminine styles.

Guys, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy their blogs--au contraire--there is much to appreciate for the men-folk as well (although, we are a bit out numbered).

Enjoy!!

Ruben

Poets' Respite (click on image to enlarge)

Mr. Cool Gets Hot

Barack Obama is not unfamiliar with delivering big-stakes, high-pressure, bet-the-farm speeches—but the challenges presented by Wednesday’s State of the Union are of a different kind and order of magnitude than he has ever confronted before. In the wake of the smack-upside-the-head loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat last week in Massachusetts, with its dire implications for health-care reform and dark portents for November’s midterm elections, Democrats in Washington and around the nation will be looking for more from Obama than mere eloquence or even passion and conviction. They will be studying him to see if he grasps the magnitude of his and his party’s peril, and trying to discern what he intends to do about it.

...During the campaign, Obama was fond of saying to Axelrod, “This s--t would be really interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.” He’s even deeper in it today. Unless he finds a way to rise above the Washington cesspool he was elected to drain, and soon, the dung will surely drown him.

Taken from NY Magazine. ~~By John Heilemann

Jumbo's Lyric of the Day

"Seems it never rains in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California
But girl, don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours."

~~Albert Hammond~~

The Man Song

Head of Climate Change Panel Changes His Story: There could be more errors in report

From The Times
Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position yesterday even as further errors were identified in the panel's assessment of Himalayan glaciers.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

But he admitted that there may have been other errors in the same section of the report, and said that he was considering whether to take action against those responsible.

“I know a lot of climate skeptics are after my blood, but I’m in no mood to oblige them,” he told The Times in an interview. “It was a collective failure by a number of people,” he said. “I need to consider what action to take, but that will take several weeks. It’s best to think with a cool head, rather than shoot from the hip.”

To-do list

I haven't had a lot of time to do my usual experimenting with foods, crafts, or even blog much, since I signed up for math boot-camp.
The class itself is great. I'm having loads of fun but it's also very time consuming -- any free time I get away from class these days, is spent working on the huge amounts of homework they give out, then it's back to class for more.
But now that the boot-camp is coming to an end in a few short weeks I've started to put together lists of the things I'm going to do when class is over:)

Here is some of it...

1. Make Sarah a quilt.
We selected some of the cutest prints for her quilt; little duckies, bunnies and polka dots, it's going to be really pretty when I finish it :)

2. try these recipes...yum!

Bakalava
Apple turnovers

I'm going to make this cake for Andrew's birthday, it's a carrot cake, which I'm turning into a carrot apple, coconut cake:)
Find the recipe here.

3. learn new cable stitches...cable stitches are my favorite stitch to use when knitting -- the more complex the pattern, the better.

4. finish my t-shirt patterns, skirt patterns and test out my jacket pattern.

5. make cute potholders for cooking expeditions.

6. work more on both blogs, family and S & O :D


7. get some new teddy bears in my shop for Valentines day.

And that's about all I can think of for the moment. It's a long list and getting longer.

~Olivia

Color Changing Cards :-)

Jumbo's Quote Of The Day

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

~Mark Twain~

---

Rediscovering Lost Values

This thing that we need in the world today, is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they're never caught up with. Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.

All I'm trying to say is, our world hinges on moral foundations. God has made it so! God has made the universe to be based on a moral law...

This universe hinges on moral foundations. There is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying, "No lie can live forever."

The is something in this universe that justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying, "Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again."

There is something in this universe that justifies James Russell Lowell in saying,

"Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
With that scaffold sways the future,
Behind the dim unknown stands God,
Within the shadow keeping watch above this own."

There is something in this universe that justifies the biblical writer in saying, "You shall reap what you sow."

As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I'm not going to put my ultimate faith in the little gods that can be destroyed in an atomic age, but the God who had been our help in ages past, and our hope for years to come, and our shelter in the time of storm, and our eternal home. That's the God that I'm putting my ultimate faith in... The God that I'm talking about this morning is the God of the universe and the God that will last through the ages. If we are to go forward this morning, we've got to go back and find that God. That is the God that demands and commands our ultimate allegiance.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values--that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Precious Lord, Take My Hand" By Sherman Andrus/Jeff Easter for the Music Lover (MLK's favorite hymn).

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Richard Nixon was the first political figure to bring Martin Luther King to Washington in the fifties.

Big Political News on the Horizon

Massachusetts: 'Bottom has fallen out' of Coakley's polls; Dems prepare to explain defeat, protect Obama

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
01/15/10 7:10 AM EST

Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Here in Massachusetts, as well as in Washington, a growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley. "I have heard that in the last two days the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers," says one well-connected Democratic strategist. In her own polling, Coakley is said to be around five points behind Republican Scott Brown. "If she's not six or eight ahead going into the election, all the intensity is on the other side in terms of turnout," the Democrat says. "So right now, she is destined to lose."

Intensifying the gloom, the Democrat says, is the fact that the same polls showing Coakley falling behind also show President Obama with a healthy approval rating in the state. "With Obama at 60 percent in Massachusetts, this shouldn't be happening, but it is," the Democrat says.

Given those numbers, some Democrats, eager to distance Obama from any electoral failure, are beginning to compare Coakley to Creigh Deeds, the losing Democratic candidate in the Virginia governor's race last year. Deeds ran such a lackluster campaign, Democrats say, that his defeat could be solely attributed to his own shortcomings, and should not be seen as a referendum on President Obama's policies or those of the national Democratic party.

The same sort of thinking is emerging in Massachusetts. "This is a Creigh Deeds situation," the Democrat says. "I don't think it says that the Obama agenda is a problem. I think it says, 1) that she's a terrible candidate, 2) that she ran a terrible campaign, 3) that the climate is difficult but she should have been able to overcome it, and 4) that Democrats beware -- you better run good campaigns, or you're going to lose."

With the election still four days away, Democrats are still hoping that "something could happen" to change the dynamics of the race. But until that thing happens, the situation as it exists today explains Barack Obama's decision not to travel to Massachusetts to campaign for Coakley. "If the White House thinks she can win, Obama will be there," the Democrat says. "If they don't think she can win, he won't be there." For national Democrats, the task is now to insulate Obama against any suggestion that a Coakley defeat would be a judgment on the president's agenda and performance in office.

The private talk among Democrats is also reflected in some public polling on the race. Late Thursday, we learned the results of a Suffolk University poll showing Brown in the lead by four points, 50 percent to 46 percent. That poll showed Obama with a 55 percent approval rating. Also on Thursday, two of Washington's leading political analysts, Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook, each changed their assessment of the Brown/Coakley race from a narrow advantage for Coakley to a toss-up.

-- Beltway Confidential

Washington Examiner

On The Metro
After a few years of construction and traffic congestion, the new extension of the Metro Gold line running into my community has been completed. At first I didn't see the point in having a rail from Union Station to my side of town, but I am happy to have it now. It cuts about 7 minutes out of my daily commute to work and go sighting seeing. For example, yesterday I went to see the historic Union Station. Its a lot more spacious then what I imagined or have seen in the movies. Out side the architecture of the venerable edifice is a mixture of mission revival and streamline modern, which was popular at the time of construction in the 1930s.


I also visited the Cathedral of our lady of the Angels which is amazing!



The cathedral center features a series of obtuse and acute angles, there are no right angles on this building. There are a few statues and appointments; notably the huge (and I mean huge!) bronze doors and bronze statue of the Virgin Mary above the doors welcoming visitors. It is really awe struck when I went inside. The first thing I noticed was how quite it was inside despite being in the middle of downtown traffic noise, the inside is sound proof. I made my way past statues and paintings of different biblical scenes into the nave (which is the Latin word for ship, a cathedral is symbolically a ship carrying God's people through the storms of life).
The nave can seat 3,000 people. the ceiling is twelve stories up, off to a far corner reaching to the ceiling is an Organ with some of the pipes easily twice my size.
What I really like about Our lady of Angels is that you can hear your thoughts as loud as if some one were reading them to you, I was really able to think and straighten some clutter that is in my mind. Anyway back outside I went to see the garden which features stone animals and a walk way that is a stone snake. That tickled me a little as I walked around remembering That God had told Eve she was to have kids and that these kids would walk on and crush the snake, that part came true yesterday =).

I ended up at the end of the line in Pasadena later on, I walked around to a Starbucks then headed back home.
If you live in Los Anglese or plan on visiting, I highly suggest that you check out these historic landmarks, I really enjoyed just walking around exploring and I am sure that you will too!

Signing Off

Matthew

Jumbo's Quote of the Day

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

~Abraham Lincoln~

DUI Video to Make You Smile :-)

For all you Jane Austen lovers out there

I was shopping in the super market and as I picked up the latest TV guide and skimmed through the pages to see if there was anything worth watching these day's and to my delight I found that my favorite program Masterpiece had returned.


And I just wanted to remind all you Jane Austen lovers out there (i.e mom) that January 24th is the national-sit-in-front-of-your-TV-and-watch-the-PBS-production-of-Emma-starring-Romola Garai-day.


Don't forget to tune in!
Sarah :D

Sarah Chang - Chopin Nocturne for the Music Lover

Prayers Are Answered as 2 year old Haitian Boy, trapped under rubble for 3 days, is brought out to safety (and smiles when he sees his mother).

(Click on image to enlarge)

The following article was taken from MailOnline World News
For the international rescue teams operating in the heart of the broken Haiti capital Port-au-Prince it was a moment of relief and achievement as they worked, often in wreckage containing bodies, in a race against time to find those still alive.

But then came the moment they had prayed for but feared they would never see as specialist Belgian and Spanish rescue workers, burrowing deep into the rubble, head torches picking out their route, edged their way to the young boy.

A human chain of rescue workers passed Redjeson forward, his head scarred by dried blood and face pitted with flesh wounds.

He looked bewildered until the moment his face saw his mother. Then, his eyes lit up and face creased with a smile as she reached forward to cuddle him.

Happy Birthday Dear Grandma Beatriz!!!

Happy Birthday to my Dearly Beloved Late Grandmother Beatriz!!!
She will be celebrating her special day with the angels...

I was truly blessed to know her for as long as I did, and I thank God for it!

{My Grandparents on their wedding day}

{My Paternal Grandparents}

♥ Happy Birthday Grandma ♥

~Olivia

Patsy Cline

If I were forced to choose which two Patsy Cline songs were my absolute favorites...I'd have to say it's these:

Her voice was simply gorgeous!

enjoy!
Olivia

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader

Dear Grandma...

Jeff Dunham & Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Fox, Tiger, and Christianity:

Here's a link to an article posted on Politics Daily, by Carl M. Cannon, that highlights the censorship that exist in today's secular culture.

'Bruddah IZ' (memorial) for the music lover

Jumbo's Thought of the Day

No horse gets anywhere until he's harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagra is ever turned into light until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick~

Prayer and the Principal Exercises of Piety

True prayer is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words--"for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then is to desire--but to desire what God would have us desire. Those who ask for what is not from the bottom of their heart's desire are mistaken in thinking that they pray. Let them spend days in reciting prayers, in meditation, or in inciting themselves to pious exercises; they do not once pray truly if they do not really desire the things for which they ask.

Oh, how few there are who pray! For there are few who desire what is truly good! Crosses, external and internal humiliation, renouncement of our own wills, the death of self, and the establishment of God's throne upon the ruins of self love, these are [the things that are] indeed good. Not to desire these is not to pray. To desire them seriously, soberly, constantly, and with reference to all the details of life, this is true prayer. Not to desire them, and yet to suppose we pray, is an illusion like that of the wretched who dream themselves happy.

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The above excerpts were taken from Francois Fénelon's "Christian Counsel on Various Matters Pertaining to the Inner Life".

Jumbo's Quote of the Day

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

~Winston Churchill~

Perpetual Motion Generator

Hello,

After my conversation with Matthew the other day about his wind generator project, I've got a client who is selling instructions for how to build your own perpetual motion generator. Here's a video that he might find interesting--unless he's already seen it. ;-)



Evelyn
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I have discovered the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no more hurt only more love. --Mother Teresa

Aaawwwww, Thanks!

Image Source


Yesterday was my birthday. Hugs and kisses to everyone who sent birthday wishes to little ol' me. My mom sent me a lovely card with a warm and fuzzy note that made me smile. A dinner date with me hubby at one of our fav Mexican restaurants. My daughters gave me a surprise, banana cupcake breakfast with a candle and because it was my BD the muffin was calorie free!!!

My sister Evelyn sent me a beautiful E-card and from sister-in-law Delia a gorgeous, musical card. The rib cracking bear hug from Matthew made me appreciate the less painful but equally as heartfelt smile and "Happy Birthday Auntie" from Andrew. A call from a friend, Malcom: sorry you got my voice mail but you did remember my age correctly as (ahem) 29...again :)

And because S and O let the cat out of the bag, I even heard from fellow celebrators that I've not yet met. I feel so special...

Very grateful to have lived another year and looking forward to many more; growing younger and wiser with each one!

Cheers everyone,
Angela