Age Really is in the Eye of the Beholder

Here is a bit of weird news for you. Have you ever wondered how a true master of disguise can do it? Portray themselves as 10 different people. Some of the best I ever saw was on a stupid reality TV episode of Top Model. The models were made up into other ethnic races. They were completely believable. I often wondered how the great masters Sherlock Holmes and others could have possibly lived for months even years in disguise (Fiction or not). I guess the trick is to find one that works and stick to it. Ms. Barbora Skrlova, 33, tricked the Norwegian police, classmates, child care workers and teachers for four months into believing she was a 13 year old teenage boy named "Adam". She went to school, spoke, played and interacted with students and teachers. The kids in "his" classroom thought the boy was a "little strange", yet chalked it up to cultural differences. Barbora claims she was trying to escape witnessing in a child abuse scandal in the Czech Republic.

If this seems hard to believe just wait....the plot thickens Barbora was found at a house in the Czech Republic a year ago during a raid by police investigating the child sex abuse case. That time she quite successfully posed as a 13-year-old girl called Anicka. Can you believe it...this is insane. At this time they adults in the house were found to be members of the The The Grail Movement. To think she could get away with it twice....spooky especially since she is involved in child abuse and was biding time in a school....Ewww. Tolerant or Ambivalent or Oblivious? That is the question!

Most Common Dreams...Do you agree?

Some of us would love to blame Freud and Jung for dream interpretations and psychoanalysis...but really its our ancestors fault. The Lakota Sioux believe that dreams are important modes of the communication between the spiritworld and the present world. The Aborigines believe dreamtime...the Dreaming is at once both the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of Dreaming. So we are only the happy recipients of a long history of Dream interpretation.So Here is a little of the Psycho babble of modern day Freudians, Jungians and Courtney. Concerning the Common Dreams of today:

1. Falling through space or jumping off a cliff. (I have this one...alot of the time)
Expert: could be a body reaction to "falling asleep" especially in light sleep - legs may jerk in a reflex action may indicate loss of control in a situation
My Opinion: In mid air...you feel as light as a feather...therefore its a weight loss dream

2. Large waves and water. (Use to dream about this once in awhile)
Expert: tidal waves can represent strong feelings or emotions, or a sense of being swamped
My Opinion: The Beach is dangerous...Water...is more dangerous...Water at the Beach Very Dangerous, repressed childhood memory...from when a wave knocked you over at the beach and drug you under...been there.

3. Chased by monsters. (Never)
Experts: events are catching up with you trying to run away from something
My Opinion: Don't be afraid of the dark...only what is in the dark

4. Going to toilet. (Never again)
Experts: might need to go! getting rid of old attitudes
My Opinion: Weird!

5. Fully or partially naked. (I have an attachment to always been clothed...so never)
Experts: feeling exposed or vulnerable
My Opinion: Time to buy a new wardrobe or go to the laundry

6. Flying (Never)
Experts: rising above daily problems seeing things in a new way
My Opinion: You watched too many superhero television shows or you need to think about a career in piloting or birdwatching.

7. Sex (Never...I am far too...vanilla for this)
Experts: release of sexual feelings integration of new/different ideas or characteristics represented by the partner
My Opinion: Humans are dirty fleshly creatures....

8. In a house with rooms and doors. (Several times)
Experts: rooms represent different aspects of the dreamer doors represent opportunities
My Opinion: You need a smaller house...or you got lost as a child in a large house...repressed childhood memory.

9. Traveling. (Frequently)
Experts: current direction or path in life
My Opinion: Travel...you need to

10. Death. (Never...life is just too much fun)
Experts: new beginnings out with the old - in with the new
My Opinion: Either a premonition of your own death or your looking for a change

(Source: Dee, Nerys (1990) Discover Dreams: A Complete Guide to Understanding and Interpreting Dreams London: Harper Collins)

10 things you don't know about me...

Lets call it 10 for 10. I charge Mr. Stark, Kathleen and Maxxo with having to tell all of the Blogging cyberspace 10 things about them. I find them to have 3 of the most incredible blogs out there. Here are 10 things about me you didn't know....and maybe you didn't want to know:

1. I drop everything to listen to NPR The Thistle and Shamrock radio Show
2. I have 3 parrot cichlids in an aquarium in my bedroom
3. I respect my grandfather more than any man on earth
4. My biggest fear is loosing my teeth and then going bald
5. I walk a different route back to my car every night after dark (when at college)
6. I use antibacterial hand gel every after I wash my hands every time
7. I write to a 73 year old pen pal in Florida
8. My Favorite soda is Diet Doctor Pepper
9. My favorite fresh squeezed juice is Grapefruit
10. I despise the movie Laura....who falls in love with a woman in a Portrait

My, My What a weird person I am....Goodnight Cyberspace

Have you ever felt...Have you ever...wait

I sometimes feel as though I live in a constant state of deja vu...and not the good kind. Each day I live seems to resemble the one before...until they mesh into an intricate pattern of mediocrity. I use to question why people spent weekend after weekend getting drunk or high even more I wondered why they got tattoos, piercings or dyed their hair wild colors. Yet, not anymore, I find I understand in some remote fashion it might be an attempt to break the endless cycle of mediocre life hood. We are on a journey in life. With the same end death...yet where we can be creative is in life. So we seek out options of creativity changing our bodies, minds and consciousness to find something other than the daily grind. The cheapest ways to elevate the self away from our box lives of ant machinery is to tattoo, dye, pierce, drink, smoke, and shop. Although they tend to be quite expensively materially and eventually there is no more space to tattoo, no more areas to wear jewelry and no more space in the closet. The Hardest and Most Expensive ways are through making friendships, helping others, and discovering the world. I wonder, how far am I willing to go so that I can look back on my life and say each day I learned something new, I did something different and I am an individual because I lived.
Goodnight Cyberspace, Be Kind, Be Gentle, and Be Softhearted!

A Blessing in Disguise?

Stress made me do it....Instead of screaming...I feel terrible for posting this...because it shows how selfish even a softhearted individual can be sometimes. This weekend...or I mean last weekend I had 5 Essays due Wed. the 23rd for my University classes...I spent all weekend writing the essays, pouring forth bitter gaul, blood, soul and spirit...metaphorically speaking. Yet, even in my many depressions, epiphanies, and brain itchings I still could not finish all 5. I tried chocolate to boost my mental capacity, I tried caffeine to stay awake...yet I still failed...the story of my life...the story of a writer...ha ha.

Yet, providence had other ideas. I open my email at 11 tonight and what do I find? An email from the professor of the RS 301 class. He is sick with a 103 fever. He canceled class....The 5th essay is postponed till Friday! Can you imagine? Me...a blessing in disguise.....yet...at what cost. The poor man is sick and barely hanging on. Forgive me...Ora pro mei nunc et ad horan mortis mei. ("Pray for me now and at the hour of my death," a Roman Catholic prayer.) This I offer to you Dr. Vivian...I will pray for you...and I will take what providence offers...

P.S...I wonder if this means I will get sick...for being so selfish and self-interested....maybe this will help me out: AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. (Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now,and at the hour of death. Amen.)

*No offense intended--to any one with other religious beliefs...or someone who might take this as poking fun at a truly serious issue*

Give The Man His Due Props...

No need to introduce or bolster with commentary...Let him and his words stand alone!
It may be long...but its well worth the reading time...always and forever!
Thank God, he had a dream !

Martin Luther King, Jr :

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.

Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.

This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy....Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."² This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³"

Read all of the best speech in history at (
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm)

Its been a long long long long long long time!

To answer Mr. Stark's question: I have been to the depths of despair and rose to the surface with only my self to blame. Yet, I am alive with new light, life and purpose. Another year begins and all the bad of the past, slinks away to hide for posterity. I almost lost my job, had trouble with college financing, lost a hope, and regained order from the chaos. I AM BACK ! Look for new posts, soon. I think...don't quote me on this, but I have finally figured out college and am enrolled in classes. I didn't even fail the first assignment. Hope all my cyberspace blogfellows are well, happy, and healthy. I can't wait to check out all the new posts.

Here are some very interesting statistics about how we university students spend our money. The average person drinks 3 cups of coffee. I did a little math to add up what Starbucks brings in from the average Starbuckian a year:
$4 a venti latte(x)
2 times a day(x)
7 days a week(x)
52 weeks a year
=$2912 per year
Now, lets just take it a bit farther:
110 million adult US consumers(x)
$2912
=$320,320,000,000

Lets just say....its no wonder coffee is hot!
By the way...just think of what we could do if we gave up just one of those cups of coffee a day and gave that money to a worthy cause. End childhood cancer? Find a cure for Alzheimer's disease? End the AIDS epidemic? Save Darfur? Bring real equality to people? End poverty?