Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sunday 160 - I couldn’t have done that if I'd tried

How is it we can hit a target without trying;
yet when we try we can miss by a mile?


How my metatarsophalangeal joint would have loved being missed by that rock.



Monkey Man   hosts the 160 Character Challenge




Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sunday 160 - lyrical remix

Okay so I've been busy... but today, by chance, I happened to catch a re-run of the Grammy's. Clearly I'm behind the times in who's who and what's what in the world of music so my offering for today is per kind favour of two bands who I had never heard before. Lovely sounds.....



If the darkness has robbed you of your sight

hold on to what you believe in the light

If you love yourself you're never rejected

Decide what to be and go be it!


Extracted (with a few minor alterations) from:
Head full of doubt/Road full of Promise- The Avett Brothers
Hold on to What you believe - Mumford and Sons



Monkey Man . hosts the 160 Character Challenge

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sunday 160 - run for your life

On your marks..

Get set..



Wait!



What is that chubby toddler doing on the track?

And why is he carrying a bow and arrow?

SOMEONE DIAL 911!


Oh my god, he’s taking aim..

 
 
 
Monkey Man hosts the 160 Character Challenge

Saturday, February 5, 2011

a snigger for the day

How the Internet started!

A revelation with an Incredibly Big Message (IBM)

Well, you might have thought that you knew how the Internet started, but here's the TRUE story ...



In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband: "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"
And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said: "How, dear?"
And Dot replied: "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.

To prevent neighbouring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP)

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted - for insider trading.
And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS. And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.
And Dot did say: "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel , or eBay as it came to be known.
He said: "We need a name that reflects what we are."
And Dot replied: "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham.

And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.



Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE)



And that is how it all began.





Friday, February 4, 2011

option A, B, C ....or D.. all of the above?


I was tidying up my inbox and found this tale in an old email; a mail that I was reluctant to delete since it had packed such a punch on its first, and subsequent, reading. I really hope its author is aware of how well travelled this is; but perhaps that's the purpose of a parable..?

"A young woman journeyed to see her mother. When she arrived, she shared with her mother how hard life had become for her. She was tired of fighting and struggling. She told her mother about her life.
“When one problem is solved, a new one arises,” she lamented.
She could no longer cope.

Her Mother led her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water. She placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. Into the first she dropped carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she released ground coffee beans. The Mother let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She scooped out the carrots and placed them in a bowl. She pulled out the eggs and placed them in another bowl. Then she ladled out the coffee and placed it in a third bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?”
 
“Carrots, eggs and coffee,” the daughter replied.

Her Mother asked her to feel the carrots. The young woman noted that they were so soft that they were almost falling apart.
The Mother then asked her daughter to take one of the eggs and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed that the egg was hard.
Finally the Mother asked the daughter to touch the coffee beans. They hadn’t changed much, but the young woman couldn’t resist the aroma of the coffee, and she took a sip. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

”Each of these has faced the same adversity,” the mother said, “boiling water”. Each has reacted differently.
The carrot went in firm, and after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg was fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after being boiled in water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they changed the water.”
Looking at her daughter the mother asked, “Which do you want to be? When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”
Anonymous



Which do you believe yourself to be?

A carrot
■When confronted by challenges, pain and adversity do you wilt, become soft and lose your strength?

An egg
■Do you have a fluid spirit, but after a death, breakup or financial hardship or some other less-than-pleasing life event, become hardened and stiff?

A Coffee bean
■When you experience an adversarial life event do you change the environment around you? When the water gets hot, the bean actually releases its underlying fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are less than pleasing, you change the situation.

Now if I had to answer the question I would ask,
 "Is it possible to be all three?"
It has been said that resilience is a dynamic process which speaks to our innate ability to bounce back from significant incidents of adversity, trauma, tragedy and physical or emotional threat. But depending on the situation I've found myself at times weak and feeling hopeless like the limp carrot. Other things have left me feeling like the egg, hardened and even somewhat bitter. And yet at other times I would like to think I've been like the coffee bean with its ability to change 'the water'.

Yep, I think it will have to be a good balanced "all of the above" for me.