Improve your Memory with a good night's Sleep.....

Sleep is essential for memory consolidation as well as overall health. Research suggests that six to eight hours of sleep a night is ideal for most people. Perhaps even more important than the amount of sleep is the quality of sleep. For better sleep and memory, try the following:
‧ Establish and maintain a consistent sleep schedule and routine. Go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning.
‧ Plan to do your most vigorous exercise early in the day. Exercising in the hours immediately before bedtime causes physiological changes that interfere with sleep.
‧ Avoid coffee and other sources of caffeine (e.g., chocolate, many soft drinks, some brands of aspirin, many types of tea) after midmorning, because caffeine is a stimulant that can keep you awake for hours afterward.
‧ Avoid napping during the daytime. Napping can disrupt your natural sleep cycle and prevent you from feeling tired enough to fall asleep at night.
‧ Don't take sleeping pills unless nothing else works. If you do take a prescription sleep medicine, work with your doctor to use it effectively but only on a short-term basis.
‧ Don't try to sleep if you're not tired; otherwise you'll set yourself up for tossing and turning. If you're still awake after about 20 minutes in bed, get up and read awhile to relax.

10 Strategies to Improve Memory

Normal age-related changes in the brain can slow some cognitive processes, making it a bit harder to learn new things quickly or to ward off distractions. The good news is that, thanks to decades of research, most of us can sharpen our minds with proven, do-it-yourself strategies. Here are some ways to boost your ability to remember as you age.

1. Believe in Yourself.Myths about aging can contribute to a failing memory. Middle-aged and older learners do worse on memory tasks when exposed to negative stereotypes about aging and memory, and better if exposed to messages about memory preservation into old age.
2. Economize your Brain use. Take advantage of calendars and planners, maps, shopping lists, file folders, and address books to keep routine information accessible. Designate a place at home for your glasses, keys, and other items you use frequently.
3. Organize your Thoughts.New information that's broken into smaller chunks, such as the hyphenated sections of a phone number or social security number, is easier to remember than a single long list, such as financial account numbers or the name of everyone in a classroom.
4. Use all your Senses. The more senses you use when you learn something, the more of your brain will be involved in retaining the memory. For example, odors are famous for conjuring memories from the distant past, especially those with strong emotional content, such as the scent of your grandmother's freshly baked cookies.
5. Expand your Brain.Widen the brain regions involved in learning by reading aloud, drawing a picture, or writing down the information you want to learn (even if you never look back at your notes). Just forming a visual image of something makes it easier to remember and understand; it forces you to make the information more precise.
6. Repeat after me. When you want to remember something you have just heard or thought about, repeat it out loud. For example, if you've just been told someone's name, use it when you speak with him or her: "So, John, where did you meet Camille?"
7. Space it out.Instead of repeating something many times in a short period, as if you were cramming for an exam, re-study the essentials after increasingly longer periods of time — once an hour, then every few hours, then every day. Spacing out periods of study is particularly valuable when you are trying to master complicated information.
8. Make a mnemonic. Mnemonic devices are creative ways to remember lists. They can take the form of acronyms — such as the classic "Every good boy does fine," to remember the musical notes E, G, B, D, and F on the lines of the treble clef. For older learners, a particularly helpful system is a story mnemonic — that is, a brief narrative in which each item cues you to remember the next one.
9. Challenge Yourself.Engaging in activities that require you to concentrate and tax your memory will help you maintain skills as you age. Discuss books, do crossword puzzles, try new recipes, travel, and undertake projects or hobbies that require skills you aren't familiar or comfortable with.
10. Take a Course. Memory-improvement courses are becoming more popular. If you decide to try one, choose a program run by health professionals or experts in psychology or cognitive rehabilitation. Stay away from courses that center on computer or concentration games, which generally won't help you with real-life memory problems. Select a course that focuses on practical ways to manage everyday challenges.

Living in 2007

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 when...
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played Solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't#9 on this list

AND NOW YOU ARE LAUGHING at yourself.

TAX STRUCTURE IN INDIA

1) Qus. : What are you doing?

Ans.: Business.

Tax: PAY PROFESSIONAL TAX!

2) Qus. : What are you doing in Business?

Ans.: Selling the Goods.

Tax: PAY SALES TAX!!

3) Qus. : From where are you getting Goods?

Ans.: From other State/Abroad

Tax: PAY CENTRAL SALES TAX, CUSTOM DUTY & OCTROI!

4) Qus. : What are you getting in Selling Goods?

Ans.: Profit.

Tax: PAY INCOME TAX!

5) Qus. : Where you Manufacturing the Goods?

Ans.: Factory.

Tax: PAY EXCISE DUTY!

6) Qus. : Do you have Office / Warehouse/ Factory?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY MUNICIPAL & FIRE TAX!

7) Qus. : Do you have Staff?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY STAFF PROFESSIONAL TAX!

8) Qus. : Doing business in Millions?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY TURNOVER TAX!

9) Qus. : Are you taking out over 25,000 Cash from Bank?

Ans.: Yes, for Salary.

Tax: PAY CASH HANDLING TAX!

10) Qus. : Where are you taking your client for Lunch & Dinner?

Ans.: Hotel

Tax: PAY FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT TAX!

11) Qus. : Are you going Out of Station for Business?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY FRINGE BENEFIT TAX!

12) Qus. : Have you taken or given any Service/s?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY SERVICE TAX!

13) Qus. : How come you got such a Big Amount?

Ans.: Gift on birthday.

Tax: PAY GIFT TAX!

14) Qus. : Do you have any Wealth?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY WEALTH TAX!

15) Qus. : To reduce Tension, for entertainment, where are you going?

Ans.: Cinema or Resort.

Tax: PAY ENTERTAINMENT TAX!

16) Qus. : Have you purchased House?

Ans.: Yes

Tax : PAY STAMP DUTY & REGISTRATION FEE !

17) Qus. : How you Travel?

Ans.: Bus

Tax: PAY SURCHARGE!

18) Qus. : Any Additional Tax?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY EDUCATIONAL, ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL & SURCHARGE ON ALL THE CENTRAL GOVT.'s TAX !!!

19) Qus. : Delayed any time Paying Any Tax?

Ans.: Yes

Tax: PAY INTEREST & PENALTY

I BELEIVE

1. I believe that life is there to enjoy.

2. I believe crushes are there to crush hearts.

3. I believe true love is there from the start.

4. I believe you should give people chances.

5. I believe you should treat people the same because you never know what they will do for you in the future.



6. I believe that good things will come to people who work hard.

7. I believe great things come to people who never give up.

8. I believe silence will teach you something if you listen hard.

9. I believe that the heart leads you in the right direction if you follow it.

10. I believe friends are needed no matter who you are.

11. I believe family should stick by your side.

12. I believe God will help you if you believe in him and trust him.

13. I believe drugs destroy.

14. I believe sleep calms the soul.

15. I believe the heart and soul are more important than looks.

16. I believe trust helps the world go round.

17. I believe love brings great things.

18. I believe kids could teach adults a lot if adults would just listen.

19.I believe pets are great because they listen and love you no matter what you look like.

20. I believe you should always chase your dreams.

21. I believe hope is something everyone needs.

22. I believe you need to make time for fun.

23. I believe music soothes the soul.

24. I believe that money cannot buy happiness.

25. I believe books can take you anywhere.

26. I believe jokes have to be there to keep people sane.

27. I believe people are special the way they are.

28. I believe that true friends will last a lifetime.

29. I believe that enjoying what you do will help you enjoy life more.

30. I believe parents are more important than you think.

31. I believe the sky is the limit.

32. I believe you should shoot for the stars.

33. I believe being loved and loving are two totally different things.

34. I believe that you have to love yourself before you can love others.

35. I believe records are made to be broken.

36. I believe promises should be kept.

37. I believe brothers and sisters are made to teach.

38. I believe a simple smile can make anybody's day better.

39. I believe that being popular is not the key to life.

40. I believe in being nice to nerds because you might grow up and have to work for one.

HOPE,TRUST,CONFIDENCE

CONFIDENCE:

1 Day all villagers decided to pray for rain.On the day of prayer all people gathered & only one boy come with umbrella. THATS CONFIDENCE.

TRUST:

Trust should be like feeling of a 1 year old baby, when you throw him in tha air, he laughs....Because he know you will catch him...

HOPE:

Every night we go to bed, have no assurance to get up alive in the next morning But still we have many plans for coming day...

KEEP CONFIDENCE, TRUST IN GOD AND NEVER LOSE HOPE...

Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works

By Melinda Wenner , Special to LiveScience
posted: 29 June 2007 09:08 am ET

If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.
Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation's purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to "let them go."
Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.
UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.
They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as "angry" or "fearful"—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.
When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.
By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
"In the same way you hit the brake when you're driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses," Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how "mindful" they are.
Meditation and other "mindfulness" techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to "let them go."
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.
"These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health," said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.

Must Read - Abdul Kalam's Speech

Please read this article by sparing 10 minutes from your busy life. Its about us, after all...

The President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 's Speech in Hyderabad ..

Why is the media here so negative?Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, ourachievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?We are the first in milk production.We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.We are the second largest producer of wheat.We are the second largest producer of rice.Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into aself-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievementsbut our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize thatself-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving thislecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India ..For her, you and I will have to build this developed India .. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice isyours.YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?Take a person on his way to Singapore .. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai . YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchangein London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop,'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son.
Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand .Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU useexamination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are stilltalking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ?Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr.Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on thestreets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame theauthorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan . Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England .. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy 's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIAAND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'Lets do what India needs from us.

Thank you,

Dr. Abdul Kalaam

A salty story ...

He met her in a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal, nobody paid attention to him.

At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she was surprised, but due to being polite, she promised. They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, she thought, please, let me go home.. Suddenly he asked the waiter:

"Would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee."

Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it.She asked him curiously:

why you have this hobby?

He replied: "when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there".

While saying that tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched.That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart.

A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home..

Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story. They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him!Thanks to his salty coffee!

Then the story was just like every beautiful love story, the princess married to the prince, then they were living the happy life... And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that's the way he liked it.fter 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said:

"My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life lie. This was the only lie I said to you---the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything.Now I'm dying, I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth: I don't like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste.. But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again".

Her tears made the letter totally wet.

Someday, someone asked her:

what's the taste of salty coffee? It's sweet. She replied.

Love is not to forget but to forgive

Not to see but to understand

Not to hear but to listen

Not to let go but to HOLD ON!!!!

God doesn't exist - A nice story

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."" Why do you say that?"asked the customer."Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.

Tell me, if God exists,would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist."" How can you say that?"asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber.And I just worked on you!""No!" the customer exclaimed.

"Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."

"Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.""Exactly !"- affirmed the customer.

"That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

We Feel Fine

Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs.

Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling".
When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence.

The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day.

We Feel Fine - An exploration of human emotion, in six movements by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar.

50 Quotes on Mother

# "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."
-- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
# "I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."
-- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
# "A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."
-- Agatha Christie
# "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."
-- Albert Einstein
# "By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
# "Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own."
-- Aristotle
# "Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like."
-- Arnold Bennett
# "A mother is she who can take the place of all others butwhose place no one else can take."
-- Cardinal Mermillod
# "A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary."
-- Dorothy Canfield Fisher
# "I really learned it all from mothers."
-- Dr. Benjamin Spock
# "If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylum would be filled with mothers."
-- Edgar Watson Howe
# "My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."
-- George Washington (1732-1799)
# "The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom."
-- Henry Ward Beecher
# "What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin."
-- Henry Ward Beecher
# "The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness."
-- Honore' de Balzac
# "Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character."
-- Hosea Ballou
# "Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not."
-- James Joyce
# "The best academy, a mother's knee."
-- James Russell Lowell
# "The phrase "working mother" is redundant."
-- Jane Sellman
# "God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers."
-- Jewish proverb
# "Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
# "A boy's best friend is his mother."
-- Joseph Stefano
# "Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers, and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world."
-- Kate Douglas Wiggin
# "Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."
-- Lin Yutang
# "My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it."
-- Mark Twain
# "Motherhood is like Albania-- you can't trust the descriptions in the books, you have to go there."
-- Marni Jackson
# "We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth."
-- Mary Antin
# "To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power."
-- Maya Angelou
# "Over the years I have learned that motherhood is much like an austere religious order, the joining of which obligates one to relinquish all claims to personal possessions."
-- Nancy Stahl
# "Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1775-1817)
# "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."
-- Oscar Wilde
# "When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk you'll end up as the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."
-- Pablo Picasso
# "A mother's hardest to forgive. Life is the fruit she longs to hand you, Ripe on a plate. And while you live, Relentlessly she understands you."
-- Phyllis McGinley
# "Men are what their mothers made them."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
# "There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
# "A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive."
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
# "People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally 'being lived.' They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates, and society."
-- Stephen R. Covey
# "Never say anything on the phone that you wouldn't want your mother to hear at your trial."
-- Sydney Biddle Barrows
# "The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother-which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician."
-- Sydney J. Harris
# "An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest."
-- Spanish proverb
# "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."
-- Theodore Hesburgh
# "A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy, the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first born babe, and assures it of a mother's love."
-- Thomas C. Haliburton
# "Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don't mean a thing."
-- Toni Morrison
# "Children are the sum of what mothers contribute to their lives."
-- Unknown
# "A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them."
-- Victor Hugo
# "A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us when adversity takes the place of prosperity when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."
--Washington Irving
# "The only thing a lawyer won't question is the legitimacy of his mother."
-- W. C. Fields
# "A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it's too late to let her know that he sees it."
-- W. D. Howells
# "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children."
--William Makepeace Thackeray
# "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world."
-- William Ross Wallace

Email to the Future

Here's the story: Two fellas started this so that you could write yourself a letter to be delivered at a later date. we've all had to do them in high school and college. it's sorta cool to receive a letter from yourself about where you thought you'd be a year (two years? more?) later. FutureMe.org is based on the principle that memories are less accurate than emails. we strive for accuracy.

111614 letters written to the future and counting...Email to the Future: FutureMe

The A - Z of Friendship

A Friend ...

Accepts you as you are.

Believes in you.

Calls you just to say "hi."

Doesn't give up on you.

Envisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts).

Forgives your mistakes.

Gives unconditionally.

Helps you.

Invites you over.

Just likes being with you.

Keeps you close at heart.

Loves you for who you are.

Makes a difference in your life.

Never judges you.

Offers support.

Picks you up.

Quiets your fears.

Raises your spirits.

Says nice things about you.

Tells you the truth when you need to hear it.

Understands you.

Values you.

Walks beside you.

X-plains things you don't understand.

Yells when you won't listen.

Zaps you back to reality.

See the creativity

Effective Anti-Smoking Ads

As if you needed any more reason to quit/not smoke, these ads should suffice.

The Angry Boss

On walking into the factory, the MD noticed a young guy leaning against the wall, doing nothing. He approached the young man and calmly said to him, How much do you earn?" The young man was quite amazed that he was asked such a personal question, he replied, none the less, "I earn $ 2000 a month, Sir. Why?"
Without answering, the MD took out his wallet and removed $ 6000 cash and gave it to the young man and said, "Around here I pay people for working, not for standing around looking pretty! Here is 3 months' salary, now GET OUT and don't come back".

The young man turned around and was quickly out of sight. Noticing a Few onlookers, the MD said in a very upset manner, "And that applies for everybody in this company". He approached one of the onlookers and asked him, "Who's the young man that I just fired?" To which an amazing reply came of, "He was the pizza delivery man, Sir...!!!"

Useless Facts

The 3 most valuable brand names on earth are:- Marlboro, Coca-Cola and Budweiser - in that order.

Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

No word in the English dictionary rhymes with month, orange, silver and purple.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no-one knows why.

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched.

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

A pack-a-day smoker will on average lose 2 teeth, every 10 years.

When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop...even your heart.

Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than the rest of the day.

11 Things That School Doesn't Teach You

Bill Gates used these eleven rules for a high school speech. His honesty is commendable.

Rule 1 Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule 2 The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.

Rule 4 If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

Rule 5 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

Rule 6 If you mess up,it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Bill Gates spoke before a group of high school students and gave them his eleven rules of life. The rules are taken from the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by educator Charles Sykes. It is a list of eleven things you did not learn in school and directed at high school and college grads.

Opposite Proverbs

I always am annoyed when older people or wannabe smart people tell me some proverb and shake their head. now i finally can have a witty response to them.

A collection of opposite proverbs:

All good things come to those who wait. /\ Time and tide wait for no man.

The pen is mightier than the sword. /\ Actions speak louder than words.

Wise men think alike. /\ Fools seldom differ.

The best things in life are free. /\ There’s no such thing as a free lunch .

Slow and steady wins the race. /\ Time waits for no man .

Look before you leap. /\ Strike while the iron is hot .

Do it well, or not at all. /\ Half a loaf is better than none.

Birds of a feather flock together. /\ Opposites attract.

Don’t cross your bri dg es before you come to them. /\ Forewarned is forearmed.

Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. /\ Faith will move mountains.

Great starts make great finishes. /\ It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

Practice makes perfect. /\ All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Silence is golden. /\ The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

You’re never too old to learn. /\ You can’t teach an old dog new tricks .

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. /\ One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. /\ Out of sight, out of mind.

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors. /\ Wise men make proverbs and fools repeat them.