Wednesday, March 31

Drunk Man Tries to Revive Dead Opossum - Road Kill CPR



Crime Beat Pa. - A man from Pennsylvania has been charged with public drunkenness after he was seen trying to resuscitate a long-dead opossum along a highway. (I mean look at him isn't that the face of something you want to give mouth to mouth too? Can we really blame him?)

Donald Wolfe, a 55-year old man, is the lead character in the odd case of road kill CPR that was witnessed by several people passing by the rural highway scene, according to an Associated Press report.

***

The item for the odd ball report cites State police Trooper Jamie Levier who "says one person saw Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a séance."

Another witness told authorities the drunk man actually tried to give the dead critter mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The attempt failed. The animal was long dead, according to the report.

Tuesday, March 23

Quote for Today

This is truly one of my favorite quotes.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." ~Helen Keller


Well stop being so silly look around there are open doors that lead to incredible things and no that door will not open up again, forget it, see what else there is. God knows what he is doing a whole lot better than we do so go with the open door and stop being so pathetic at trying to open that one, it is closed for a reason there is nothing good inside.

Monday, March 22

Congress approves historic health care bill



Click the title to watch a video

WASHINGTON (AP) — Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote, with Republicans unanimous in opposition.

Congressional officials said they expected Obama to sign the bill as early as Tuesday.

A second measure — making changes in the first — was lined up for passage later in the evening. That measure would go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they had the votes to pass it.

Crowds of protesters outside the Capitol shouted “just vote no” in a futile attempt to stop the historic vote taking place inside a House packed with lawmakers and ringed with spectators in the galleries above.

Across hours of debate, House Democrats predicted the central bill, costing $940 billion over a decade, would rank with other great social legislation of recent decades.

“We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, health care for all Americans, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, partner to Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the grueling campaign to pass the legislation.

“This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” added Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the top-ranking black member of the House.

Sunday, March 21

To God Alone

Can You take me by the hand
Can You use me as I am
Break me into who You want me to be

When the time is finally right
Will You open up my eyes
Show me everything You want me to see

This life is not my own

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone
Yours alone

Take the offering I bring
You want more than what I sing
Can I give You ever part of me

Turn these pennies into gold
Take this life I call my own
Until I'm running after Your heart

I'm needing to let go

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone

We will rise, and we will fall
But You remain after all
You're glorious and beautiful
You're beautiful

To God alone be the glory
To God alone be the praise
Everything I say and do
Let it be all for You
The glory is Yours alone
The glory is Yours alone
Yours alone
Yours alone

98% Chimp


Did you know that the average human shares 98% of the genetic information with the average Chimp. And in fact in some ways certain humans are more similar to chimps then to other humans.

Quote for Today

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."
~Norman Vincent Peale

If there is only thing I have learn in my nearly 22 years of living it is that people are far more likely to believe in you if you first believe in yourself. So what are you waiting for... if you can't do it why would you expect anyone else to?

Christianity is not about Religion

So I felt compelled to share about how Christianity and the faith I have in God is not religion although it commonly gets portrayed as being such. In saying this I am not saying that religion is in anyway a bad thing and in fact there is a lot about religion that I really enjoy and find really meaningful. However that is not the point of Christianity and you can't get buy simply being religious. In thinking otherwise you are mistaken.

There is a clear and distinct difference between being a faithful Christian and being religious. Yes it is possible to be both, but they are not in anyway synonymous. Far and away the clearest delineation between "religion" and Christianity can be see in the statement "the revelation of God is the abolition of religion." Now let me clarify that quote as it does not mean religions is all wrong it means that God wants to abolish then need and reliance and focus of religious activities and the focus on being righteous and focus instead on forming a relationship and having faith. God came to alter our focus on religion and place it on him where it rightfully belongs. For anyone can engage in religion as you don't need faith you don't need to belief to have religion. This is not Christianity. Christianity is about belief and about faith not about actions. Our actions then follow this faith not preceed it.

"What is the purpose of the universal attempt of religions but to anticipate God, to foist a human product into the place of His word, to make our own images of the One who is known only where He gives Himself to be known." If this is what religion is in the way it is done then certainly religion is not Christianity but the very opposite. Christianity is to be done in service of God and in seeking him not attempting merely to display it. We are called to believe it and seek God.

"Almost all people, inside as well as outside the church, find that the notion of grace stands in contradiction to everything they understand by religion." God is extreemly gracious and nothing we do or ever will do will change that. This is a key point of faith and Christianity that can not be see in merely practicing religion.

"I want you to set aside the notion of the Christian religion, because it's a contradiction in terms. You won't learn anything positive about religion from Christianity, and if you look for Christianity in religion, you'll never find it. To be sure, Christianity uses the forms of religion, and, to be dismally honest, too many of its adherents act as if it were a religion; but it isn't one, and that's that. The church is not in the religion business; it is in the Gospel-proclaiming business. And the gospel is the good news that all man's fuss and feathers over his relationship with God is unnecessary because God, in the mystery of the Word who is Jesus, has gone and fixed it up Himself. So let that pass."


A brief study of the etymology of our English word "religion" will reveal that we might not want to allow the word "religion" to be associated with Christianity. There are several Latin words which may have served as the origin of our English word "religion." The Latin word religo meant "to tie or fasten." A similar word, religio, was used to refer to "respect, devotion or superstition." Religio was a recognition that men are often tied or bound to God in reverence or devotion. It can also convey the meaning of being bound or tied to a set of rules and regulations, to rituals of devotion, to a creedal belief-system, or to a cause, ideology, or routine. Some have suggested that "religion" may be derived from the Latin word relegere, which refers to re-reading. There is no doubt that "religion" is often associated with repetitious rites of liturgy and litany, and the reproduction of creedal formulas and expressions. Most etymologists, however, regard the English word "religion" to be derived from the Latin word religare which is closely aligned with the root word religo. The prefix re- means "back" or "again," and the word ligare refers to "binding, tying or attaching." Other English words such as "ligature," referring to "something that is used to bind," and "ligament" which "binds things together," evidence the same root in the Latin word ligare. The Latin word religare, from which our English word "religion" is most likely derived, meant "to tie back" or "to bind up."

Jesus certainly did not intend to "bind us" or "tie us" no he wanted to bring freedom and send us out. "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17). Jesus also did not say, "I came that you might have religion, and practice it more faithfully," or "I came that you might have religion, and adhere to it more commitedly," no Jesus said, "I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). The life that He came to bring and express within us and through us is His life. "I AM the way, the truth and the life," declared Jesus to His disciples (John 14:6). Christianity is not "religion," but the life of Jesus Christ expressed in receptive humanity.

A closer look at the biblical usage of the word "religion" will demonstrate that the word is seldom used with any positive implication, but generally has a negative connotation. "Why do you submit yourself to decrees, such as 'Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!'? These are matters which have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence" (Col. 2:20-23). Paul denies the veracity of such thinking, regarding such as mere "self-made religion," and of no benefit against the selfish patterns of fleshly indulgence. James explains that, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless" (James 1:26,27).

There are many religions in the world, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Mohammed-anism (Islam), and Judaism. The ideologies of humanism and communism have also been identified as religions, as well as the individualism of "The American religion." The tenets of Christianity can also be incorporated into a religion of "Christianism," or the "Christian religion" as we are referring to this phenomenon within this study. Yet Christianity cannot legitimately be compared to any of these religions. Because in many ways religion and Christianity are opponets. Christianity is unique, it is the singular reality of God's activity to restore mankind from their fallen condition through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christianity is not the propagation of a philosophy. It is not the performance of religious procedures. It is not the perpetuation of an organizational program. Christianity is the reception of a Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God Himself, into one's being and behavior.

In all of the world's religions, you can take away the founder and still have the religion. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and still have the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. You can take Mohammed out of Islam, and still have the Five Pillars of Action and the Six Articles of Belief. And yes, tragically, you can take Christ out of that misnomer of "Christian religion," and still have the doctrines and the programs and the organizational machinery that masquerade as the "church." Liberal theologians within the "Christian religion" have indicated that it does not matter whether there was ever an "historical Jesus," as long as the "religion" benefits a person psychologically and ethically. On that premise of subjective religious impact being the existential essence of the "Christian religion," they go about "demythologizing" the New Testament scriptures to reduce them to psychological and ethical tenets.

Genuine Christianity, on the other hand, requires the presence and function of the life and person of the living Lord Jesus. Christianity is Christ! Jesus Christ is not just the historical founder of a "Christian religion;" rather He is the vital spiritual essence of Christianity which is His dynamic ontological function within receptive humanity.

Jesus and the early church, on the other hand, proclaimed the gospel by contrasting the grace of God in Jesus Christ with the premises and methodology of religion. They exposed the self-serving practices of religion by manifesting and explaining God's desire to restore all men in Jesus Christ. Does it not seem self-evident that the ineffectual efforts of evangelism engaged in by "Christian religion" through these many centuries are a result of proclaiming a belief-system to be assented to and advocating a morality to be adhered to, rather than offering the life of Jesus Christ to be received by faith? "Christian religion" has become so thoroughly religionized that it is unable to perceive the contrast between Christianity and religion. They engage in the religious methodology of recruitment by propaganda in order to "bind, tie and attach" increasing numbers of people to the propositional ideology, the activistic cause, and the sociological organization they represent. Genuine evangelism is witnessing to the "good news" of the life of Jesus Christ as He comes to indwell us by His Spirit and live out the divine character in our behavior in contrast to the performance of religion.

Is it any wonder that many of the people of the world speak derisively of religion? They have read their history books and have heard of the atrocities perpetrated in the name of "religion." They hear of the vast gold reserves and corporate holdings of religious conglomerates gained through tax-exemptions and unfair advantage. They can see the exploitation of the populace through superstition and fear. They see through the ecclesiastic politicizing and cultural manipulation. They see the people going through their meaningless motions of religious ritual to try to appease God. Often they have come to the conclusion that they do not want anything to do with "religion," and I, for one, do not blame them! The world has a right, even an intellectual obligation, to reject the religious folderol that is so prevalent, and to demand reality.

Religion emphasizes precepts, propositions, performance, production, programs, promotion, percentages, etc. Christianity emphasizes the Person of Jesus Christ, and His life lived out through the receptive Christian believer. Christianity is not religion! Christianity is Christ! Christianity is "Christ-in-you-ity." Jesus Christ did not found a religion to remember and reiterate His teaching. Christianity is the personal, spiritual presence of the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ, manifesting His life and character in Christians, i.e. "Christ-ones." Paul explained, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20).

That is what faith can do....

This song really spoke to me today God is incredible and faith really can do anything and pull you through no matter what you are going through trust me I have experienced this time and time again... click the title of this post to hear it your self... or read below. Never give up there is hope incredible hope in God and he will pull us through and get you to the point you are supposed to be at. Sometimes that means closing doors, but in the end it is what is needed.

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That's what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

Saturday, March 20

Happy Spring


Today is offically the first day of Spring so Happy Spring Everyone. I know I am supper exicted for it, glad the weather had been spring for a while but glad to mark it as official! :-) Enjoy your Spring. And anyone in civilization make sure you get your free regular size Italian Ice at Rita's!!! Click the title of this post to find the nearest Rita's.

Boo Boo Bling



So as you may have realize just about everything is now dec out in gems from your jeans to your shirts to your neck ties, but it had now been taken to the next level as even Band Aids are now decked out in gems. Behold the Bling Band Aid, for when an ordinary, peeling, dirty band aid just isn’t going to cut it. Comes studded with four Swarovski crystals which apparently now have healing powers. Miraculously they’re currently sold out. US$12 when they’re not. What’s next, Swarovski encrusted aspirin? Check out the link by clicking the title of this post if you don't belive me it is offical the Boo Boo Bling is now a reality. Also found at .

Dependance on You

This is the life I’ve always wanted
To know the prince of peace
To feel my faith restored
As your grace surrounds me

This is the day of new beginnings
This is where my freedom starts
And now death has lost its sting
And Jesus how can I thank you?

Just to know, just to know that you love me
Gives me hope to carry on
What can this world do to me? No, no
Just to know, just to know that you’re with me
On all these roads I traveled on
When all I have is gone
I confess my dependence on you

There is a lightness in my laughter
There is a joy inside my soul
My heart is overwhelmed
And Jesus how can I thank you?

Just to know, just to know that you love me
Gives me hope to carry on
What can this world do to me? No, no
Just to know, just to know that you’re with me
On all these roads I traveled on
When all I have is gone
I confess my dependence on you
Dependence on you

Just to know, just to know that you love me
It gives me hope to carry on
You’re the one thing that I can turn to
Just to know, just to know that you’re with me
On all these roads I traveled on
You’re the one thing that I can turn to
Just to know, just to know that you love me
It gives me hope to carry on
There’s nothing this world can do
I confess my dependence on you
Lord, I confess my dependence on you
Dependence on you

Wednesday, March 17

Happy St. Patty's Day


Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! It surely is a wonderful one with me I have no classes and it is beautiful, now just don't be too bad, and enjoy the day!!

Monday, March 15

Quote for Today

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results." - Willie Nelson

So start replacing ... I find this works best with God in fact it only works with God's help....for me anyways.

Sunday, March 14

Quote for Today

"As long as I see any thing to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end!" - David Brainerd

Water Glasses


So I found this really fascinating article that I thought I would share with you being basically blind myself I have always greatly appreciated the ability to see. And I can still remember the first day in 3rd grade that I could see after getting my first pair of glasses it was so incredible just staring at everything I no longer had to walk up next to things as I could tell what they were long before. It was so amazing. Now I often take my sight for granted and yet I still am so so blind. God can see and I only think I can see just like before I got glasses I had such a twisted prescription of the world as I was blind but I just thought that was how the world was. Each day I am reminded of my blindness and I am so grateful for that as I realize that only God sees everything and what I see is just a blurred and often warped image. I want to thank God so much for my sight and for glasses to see this world and I am humbled to know how blind I remain and remember to seek him all the more for truth about what I am seeing and what I can not see.

So this isn't exactly about what I just commented on but have you ever imagined what it would be like without the ability to own glasses and see in the physical since for some of us that might not be all the bad but I know for me I would hardly be able to function. So what about the millions of people that don't even have money for food how do they see. Listen to the newest way to address this issue.


What if it were possible, he thought, to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision? Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them?


More than two decades after posing that question, Silver now feels he has the answer. The British inventor has embarked on a quest that is breathtakingly ambitious, but which he insists is achievable - to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020.

Some 30,000 pairs of his spectacles have already been distributed in 15 countries, but to Silver that is very small beer. Within the next year the now-retired professor and his team plan to launch a trial in India which will, they hope, distribute 1 million pairs of glasses.

The target, within a few years, is 100 million pairs annually. With the global need for basic sight-correction, by his own detailed research, estimated at more than half the world's population, Silver sees no reason to stop at a billion.

If the scale of his ambition is dazzling, at the heart of his plan is an invention which is engagingly simple.

Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

Silver calls his flash of insight a "tremendous glimpse of the obvious" - namely that opticians weren't necessary to provide glasses. This is a crucial factor in the developing world where trained specialists are desperately in demand: in Britain there is one optometrist for every 4,500 people, in sub-Saharan Africa the ratio is 1:1,000,000.

The implications of bringing glasses within the reach of poor communities are enormous, says the scientist. Literacy rates improve hugely, fishermen are able to mend their nets, women to weave clothing. During an early field trial, funded by the British government, in Ghana, Silver met a man called Henry Adjei-Mensah, whose sight had deteriorated with age, as all human sight does, and who had been forced to retire as a tailor because he could no longer see to thread the needle of his sewing machine. "So he retires. He was about 35. He could have worked for at least another 20 years. We put these specs on him, and he smiled, and threaded his needle, and sped up with this sewing machine. He can work now. He can see."

"The reaction is universal," says Major Kevin White, formerly of the US military's humanitarian programme, who organised the distribution of thousands of pairs around the world after discovering Silver's glasses on Google. "People put them on, and smile. They all say, 'Look, I can read those tiny little letters.'"

Making and distributing a billion pairs of spectacles is no small task, of course - even at a dollar each (the target cost), and without Silver taking any profit, the cost is eye-watering.

This is what Silver calls "the challenge of scaling up".

For the Indian project he has joined forces with Mehmood Khan, a businessman whose family trust runs a humanitarian programme based in 500 villages in the northern state of Haryana, from where he originates.

There will be no shortage of takers in the region, Khan says. "One million in one year is straightaway peanuts for me. In the districts where we are working, one district alone will have half a million people [who need the technology]." Khan's day job is as Global Leader of Innovation for Unilever, and though his employer will have no direct connection with the scheme, having contact with 150m consumers a day, as he points out, means he is used to dealing with large numbers.

But surely finding funding on this scale will be impossible? "I share a vision with Josh," says Khan. "A thing like this, once it works, you create awareness, you enrol governments and the UN, and the model becomes scaleable. People begin to believe." And from a business point of view, he notes wryly, when poor people become more economically developed they also become potential customers.

In addition to the enormous manufacturing and distribution challenges, Silver has one other pressing problem, namely addressing the sole complaint about the glasses - their rather clunky size and design.

"Work is going on on several new designs, and further work will be required to get the costs down. The truth is that there is, at the moment, no device that can be made for a dollar in volumes of 100 million.

"But I am entirely confident that we can do that."

Such is his determination, you wouldn't bet against it. Oxford University, at his instigation, has agreed to host a Centre for Vision in the Developing World, which is about to begin working on a World Bank-funded project with scientists from the US, China, Hong Kong and South Africa. "Things are never simple. But I will solve this problem if I can. And I won't really let people stand in my way."
Big ideas

Happy Pi Day



Happy Pi day everyone. For anyone that is unaware of this rather significant day it is the day to eat lots it of Pie and pass it off as being a Math geek. For those that don't know Pi, is the Greek letter (π), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…

With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational and transcendental number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi was first used in 1706 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

For yet another reason to celebrate this day is that it is Albert Einstein's Birthday he would be 131 years old had he never died that is pretty old. Have a great Pi day everyone and eat lots of pi!!

For an extra special treat of the first million digits of Pi click on the title of this link bet you can't memorize that.

Spring Forward

Hey guys I just wanted to spread the word to make sure you turn those clocks ahead an hour, don't end up being the guy that goes to church an hour late. Hehe. Good-luck and enjoy the lack of sleep from time flying bye.

Friday, March 12

Procrastination

So I tend to be a big procrastinator and am doing so as we speek by taking more quizzes instead of doing one of many assignments that have been long over do. Procrastination is a strange phenomenon. Experts define it as an intention to do something, but acting contrary to the intention by postponing it or doing something else. It often seems to be a good solution for making life more enjoyable (by delaying unpleasant responsibilities), but procrastination almost always makes things more difficult and stressful. It may provide temporary relief, but that looming deadline, those extra pounds that need to be taken off, or that annoying visit to your Great Aunt Janice, can't be put off forever. Many people struggle for years to free themselves from its chains in order to forge ahead towards academic success, fulfilling relationships, a clean house, or a healthy body.

Although it may seem as though putting something off until later isn't a big deal, studies have shown that it can turn into a serious habit. Not only can it pervade into all areas of your life, but it can result in lost opportunities, career troubles, unnecessary expenses (e.g. late fees) and even health problems. The tendency to procrastinate may also be the sign of a deeper issue, often linked to Depression, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Anxiety.
Perhaps this is my problem - Anxiety Depresssion hmmm sounds a lot like me ....oh well I will worry about that tomorrow....hehe... here are my results in case you are wondering....and do try for yourself just click the title of this post.


Overall results
61

According to your results, you tend to procrastinate in many areas of your life. When it comes to unpleasant tasks, your will often do whatever you can (consciously or not) to avoid them. You may also be the type who of person who will make excuses not to do something, or wait until the last minute to complete it. This may become a serious problem if not addressed.


Yeah I do indeed avoid things I don't like as much as possible I think this is why none of my papers ever get written. Anyone have any ideas how to adress my potenital serious problem?

Thursday, March 11

My Mental Speed

Here is more quiz results for you today's challage was on Mental speed, to compare your own results click on the title of this post and test away it is a lot tricker then it seems I know I made a few mistakes....hehe.

In case you are wondering Mental speed refers to how quickly you can process information and make decisions based upon the facts available. Being able to think on your feet is an asset in a wide variety of situations, as even the best laid-out plans do not account for all problems and obstacles we encounter at work or in everyday life. Therefore, the ability to come up with a quick solution can really come in handy! Even if you did not score well on this test, the good news is that mental speed is a skill that can be trained with time and practice.

On this test my results were as follows....

Accuracy percentage: 82

Your accuracy on this test was excellent - you were able to keep your focus throughout the test. With practice you can improve even more, especially if your timing wasn't as good.


Completion time:
You must have had your coffee today, because you finished this test in record time! Combined with a high accuracy rate, this is a good skill to have. Mental speed is an asset in many situations, and definitely puts you at an advantage under circumstances where split second actions or decisions are required.


All in all I think 82 is pretty good and if I hadn't buzzed through it I would have done a lot better, but I was proud and this made me happy hope it does for you as well.

Monday, March 8

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is something I have unfortunately had to face and think about a lot this year. In doing so, I finally come to realize what everyone means when they say they hate goodbyes, or that goodbyes are so hard. I guess I always knew that but I never really had to so goodbye so much or in such drastic situations until very recently and now it is as if it is all coming at me at once. I mean growing up there was always the goodbye when you left for vacation and then again when you left to go back home and yes those were especially hard coming back from our beach houses when I was little and they where so huge and exciting, I never wanted to go home. There was also the goodbyes we said when going to school or going to a friends house, but I always knew my parents would be back and most likely a whole lot quicker than I wanted them too. Then there was saying goodbye to my friends this I admit was a little harder but I always knew it was only very temporary. Even when I moved several times although I hated it, there really was no really feeling of goodbye for me none that seemed like I was missing something I wasn't moving very far and I knew my friends are just a drive or a phone call away. As I grew up many of my friends and I then parted ways but there where still no goodbyes we just kinda gradually drifted to the point that when it came time for me to move I really had nothing to say goodbye to and was frankly happy to be leaving. Yeah up until my senior year of high school I had never had to say any real goodbyes. I had never had a boy friend so there was no one to have to break up with, I never moved very far or lost any of my close friends, apart from one in fifth grade but it was not all that traumatic and least that I can recall, I never had anyone really close to me die there was my great Aunt but mostly I just remembered her from Christmas gatherings and had not really known her neither did I really know my great grandpa when he die when I was really young, nor would I have understood all that well. So in many ways I can most assuredly say I had a very blessed childhood free of the bad kind of goodbyes. Back then a goodbye was simply what you said at the end of the day or at the end of a phone call to someone you would likely see the next day or in a few hours.
Looking back it really seems as if things were so much simpler back then and I was so naive to what would soon come. Now as a senior after four years at Houghton I have had to experience a lot more goodbyes that were not nearly as easy as ending a conversation. And if there has been one thing I have learned in the process it is that goodbyes make you think, they make you realize what you've had, what you've lost and what you've taken for granted. My journey to experience what it really means to have to say goodbye began in the summer of 2006. First I had to say goodbye to High school and everyone there. This for me was not all that hard as I had never really fit in all that well anyways but it was still a goodbye for me as it meant that I was soon to leave home and begin the next chapter of my live no longer having the comforts of a High School to go to but rather would have to go to college. Yet before venturing off I had to say goodbye to my parents and loved ones and my country as I ventured off on my first missions trip to Guyana South America, of course I had been on many retreats before but this was the longest I had ever been away from home and certainly a lot farther than I had ever been. It wasn't too hard for me to say goodbye but I know it was for much of my family terrified of what might happen. But what was really hard was saying goodbye when it came time to come home. During my time in Guyana I had fallen in love with everyone there and felt so at home and so much a part of them as if I belonged there and it was heart breaking to have to go and leave all of those kids and everyone we meet behind as well as having to leave my new found home land beyond. Lets just say that was the longest flight I will every have experienced as I kept hoping that somehow we would turn around and just be stuck there forever. This was my first time experiencing what it felt like to have to say goodbye. Nothing could have been worse I cried for a long time and really longed to go back and made it my goal, but it was still possible to go back so that made the goodbye so much easier and I could still write and I did write and call on rare occasions and it made that goodbye not so bad.

But then 5 days after returning I had to face the biggest goodbye of my life going to college where I would spend the next four years and leaving my home and family behind. Granted there was a part of me that was very excited about this prospect but a even bigger part of me was terrified. Up until Guyana I was always very reserved and very rarely did anything a part from my family and I had no idea what I would do with out then being there 24 seven and worse yet my mom was losing it as I was her first and she was not at all prepared to see me go. So that was really hard but nothing really like a goodbye with no hope as there was still all the Hellos to look forward too all the people I would meet and there was at least some excitement and hope of what was to come for me. So no I still had not experienced my first goodbye. And then came college life where I soon would have to learn a new kind of goodbye where my friends would move and transfer one by one begging with my roommate Holly, then Tali, and Rissia and Allision, and many others. Saying goodbye was always hard especially when I would come back the next semester and see them gone. There were also all my senior friends that would graduate and move on which was always really hard. There were also those that moved away from back home and my bosses that would have to move as well, which was always sad. Yet on the brighter side it was always some what expected and we were just an e-mail, facebook message, im, drive, or phone call away. So that too although hard was nothing I couldn't handle.
Then came the challenge the goodbye no one ever wants to make within a week of the last summer two of my friends were killed in accidents. Although they were not my closest friends I did know them well and it really came to a shock to me how friends my age could be dying and I was not at all prepared to say goodbye to them or let them out of my life. It was then that I hard to learn first of all the reality of death and that I needed to get my life together as I may end up like them but more so that I may not have forever with those I love so it was time I put them and treated them and did all the things I wish I could with them now will I still could. I also learned that good-byes will always hurt, pictures can never replace being there, memories forget the hard times, words can never replace feelings, and heroes often go unsung. Perhaps it is that some people just aren't meant to be in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. Its like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn, and that's why they're here. It is so hard to think like this and in this positive light when you have lost someone or had to say goodbye. But now I know I will always have the gift that the people I have had to say goodbye to have brought into my life and I will never give that up. I am so grateful for all those that have been a part of my life and although I wish I could have more time and maybe still can I will never forget the gift and the good times I have had. One of my favorite quotes is that "You never leave someone behind, you take a part of them with you and leave a part of yourself behind." I have found this to be so true for all the hard goodbyes I have had to make as I have left some of me behind but carried some of them with me.

Perhaps and even harder goodbye came for me this January as I had to say goodbye to my first love who I had thought I was to marry my now ex fiancee, Pat. Break-ups as I hear are never easy and mine sure was not an exception. It was the messiest and hardest thing I ever have had to do and I have to do it just a bout a million times everyday. What is hardest is not saying goodbye to the hope of our future and the dream of our wedding and our family and our house and all of that which hurts so much and is so hard to say goodbye too. But what is hardest is having to say goodbye to my best friend on top of all of that and having to lose him and no longer have anyone to talk to all through the night no longer have someone to call crying about my bad day. Pat was that for me I have never really had that with anyone else so it is so hard to have to say goodbye to someone I love so much and someone I shared every one of my deepest darkest secrets too. In was then I realized how hard goodbyes are and how much I can hate them. It is a if when you say goodbye that you forget to tell your heart how to live without them. Or at least that is something I am still trying to learn. I have learned to laugh and I sure have learned to cry but I donno that I will ever master the art of saying goodbye.

As graduation lurks around the corner I hate to face it but there is bound to be many many more goodbyes of so many awesome friends and of Houghton which as much as I may hate to admit I will surely surely miss especially when the bills start piling up and I am out on the street with no friends and no job. Well hopefully that won't happen but I am in many ways dreading graduation as much as I am longing to be done. As so many of those I have come to love will be moving on getting married and living there own lives and moving far away that although we may promise to keep in touch I know it will never quite be the same. I am so sad to see it all come to a close and it is so saddening to think of all the things I will miss all the mouse noises late at night the fact that our celling is caving in, the trips to Letchworth Pines, Angelica, the Maple Tree Inn and the truck stop. Yes I know I will miss it all the fact that McDonald's or Walmart are over a half hour a way and that it is freezing all year round, and chapels and yes even the crazy freshman couples. I will miss it I know. But more importantly I will miss all my friends all the late nights all the laughs, all the crazy parting, oh yeah I will miss all our talks all our laughs and memories. But this time as I say goodbye I am going to take what I have had to learn over my last four years with me. And that is saying goodbye is so much easier when you find the good in it. There is aways something good in it. I know that my time here at Houghton and my time with each and everyone here was a tremendous and incredible gift that I will take with me and cherish forever. And I am so grateful for me. I have also learned in saying goodbye that God knows best and that he has something far greater in mind for me and that this is only a small part of the picture and that there is so much more to say hello to and be exacted for what is to come rather than saddened by what has come to pass.


In closing I want you all to know that there is no need to be dismayed at goodbyes, for goodbyes although they never feel good they are in fact necessary before we can meet again and meeting again, after moments or a lifetime if it be, is certain worth it for the chance to say Hello again. Know that with every goodbye God will offer a new Hello. So Hello world it is good too meet you and it will surly be exciting what else you have in store. Although I will always miss that which I have had to and will have to say goodbye to I will always be grateful to know I have things to say goodbye to and even better things too say Hello too.

Sunday, March 7

Learning Patience

Today's word for the day task for the day and quote for today all in one. Enjoy today the job is to be and learn patience, that means with everyone, not always so easy.

But here is a inspiring quote "Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith."~ Adel Bestavros

So lets try to be patient with others today as well as with ourselves and especially with God, which I admit is often the hardest for me.

Patience in Finnish is kärsivällisyydestäsi so take the challenge and practice you kärsivällisyydestäsi today.

For me this meant having to wait in a very long line in the cold for some pancakes for an hour and not get mad at some people seeking to the front of the line. This also meant in an unrelated example being patient with God as I try to figure out what I am supposed to be doing with my life.

Wednesday, March 3

Shamrock Shakes


Between my last three visits off campus I have now had 22 delicious Shamrock Shakes!! I just wanted to tell you to hurry and go to McDonald's to get yours the season is closing in. Also for all you Houghtonites you can make something really similar to a Shamrock shake in the cafeteria no less here is how, take some vanilla soft serve ice cream but it in a cup them take a fair portion of the cream de mint flavoring and dump it in and then add just a tad of Fat free milk and va la....it isn't green but it will at least hold you over until you can make it to McDonald's or in the off season. Any fellow Shamrock Shake addicts out there? If so lets petition that they be sold all year long three months is no where near enough.


As an added bonus check out the You-Tube video commercial by clicking the title of this post. Enjoy.

Tuesday, March 2

Today's Quote

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ~ Will Rogers

Move silly.

Monday, March 1

How about some more ASL?



Today's word for the day is "thank you" is made by starting with the fingers of your dominant hand near your lips. Your hand should be a "flat hand." Move your hand forward and a bit down in the direction of the person you are thanking. And don't forget to Smile :-).

Note: If you use two hands with this sign it means you are "very" grateful. This sign can also be interpreted to mean "good."

Try to think of it like blowing a kiss to the person you are thanking, just don't pucker up.

Now you can be grateful and let others know it.

Today's Quote

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." ~Theodore Roosevelt