Dance Like No One's Watching We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby and then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough, and we'll be more content when they are. After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alred D. Souza. He said, "For along time it had seemed to be that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend time -- and remember that time waits for no one. So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or the fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you die to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Thought For The Day: Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt, And Dance like no one's watching *** I am studying "Essays In Zen Buddhism" by D.T. Suzuki: Buying on a day like today: "The Buddha's psychological experience of life as pain and suffering was intensely real and moved him to the very depths of his being, and in consequence the emotional reaction he experienced at the time of Enlightenment was in proportion to this intensity of feeling. All the more evident, therefore, it is that he could not rest satisfied with an intellectual glancing or surveying of the facts of life.In order to bring a perfect state of tranquility over the waves of turmoil surging in his heart, he had to have recourse to something more deeply and vitally concerned with his inmost being. For all we can say of it, the intellect is after all, a spectator, and when it does some work it is as a hireling for better or for worse." *** From ernest@drernie.com Sun Jan 3 08:49:33 1999 New Year's Resolutions .. that I've (mostly) managed to keep so far Ernest Prabhakar January 2nd, 1999 I will buy any book that interests me, if I know I will read it more than once I will ride my bike to farther places I will call waitresses by name I will dance whenever I have the chance I will go out to dinner with God more often I will give clothes to Goodwill sooner (improving both their wardrobe and mine) I will worry less about what women think of me, and more about what I think of them I will wear patterned socks I will enjoy fruit I will takes naps if I need to, and get up early if I can (rather than vice versa) I will trust that God has something better for me when I don't get what I want I will not be afraid of doing what nobody else would do I will worry less about what things cost, and more about what they're worth I will remember that time --like frequent flyer miles -- is meant to be spent, not hoarded I will choose to believe that I am a valuable (even if flawed) human being, and that it is other people's problem if they don't treat me that way. Especially cute women. I will smile at people more, and believe I can brighten up their day by doing so I will get away from work I will help little old ladies carry their bags I will eat what I want, but only when I'm hungry I will share my life with people I care about I will treat today as chance to build upon yesterday and invest (in myself) for tomorrow I will be happy to see people, even if I don't always enjoy them ------------------------------------- Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. ernest@drernie.com http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~ernest *** NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS MADE BY PETS a. Have a torrid one-night stand with a street mutt. b. Try to understand that the cat is from Venus and I am from Mars. c. I will no longer be beholden to the sound of the can opener. d. Circulate petition that Leg Humping be a juried competition in major dog shows. e. Call PETA and tell them what that surgical mask-wearing freak does to us when no one is around. f. Take time from busy schedule to stop and smell the behinds. g. Hamster: Don't let them figure out I'm just a rat on steroids, or they'll flush my ass. h. Always scoot before licking. i. Grow opposable thumb; break into pantry; decide for MYSELF how much food is TOO much. j. Get out of the castle more, maybe swim counter-clockwise this year. k. Jan. 1: Kill the sock! Must kill the sock! Jan. 2 - Dec. 31: Re-live victory over sock. l. I will NOT chase the damned stick unless I see it LEAVE HIS HAND. *** 1) Arachnoleptic fit (n.) The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. 2) Beelzebug (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 in the morning and cannot be cast out. 3) Bozone (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 4) Cashtration (n.) The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period. 5) Caterpallor (n.) The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating. 6) Decafalon (n.) The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. 7) Dopelar effect (n.) The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when you come at them rapidly. 8) Extraterrestaurant (n.) An eating place where you feel you've been abducted and experimented upon. Also known as an E-T-ry. 9) Faunacated (adj.) How wildlife ends up when its environment is destroyed. Hence faunacatering (v.), which has made a meal of many species. 10) Foreploy (n.) Any misrepresentation or outright lie about yourself that leads to sex. 11) Grantartica (n.) The cold, isolated place where art companies dwell without funding. 12) Hemaglobe (n.) The bloody state of the world. 13) Intaxication (n.) Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 14) Kinstirpation (n.) A painful inability to move relatives who come to visit. 15) Lullabuoy (n.) An idea that keeps floating into your head and prevents you from drifting off to sleep. 16) Audioptics: Turning the car radio down when looking for an address in an unknown neighbourhood. 17) Fecalish grin: The distorsion of the face after stepping on hot dog poo barefoot. 18) Discratchtion: The unreacheable itchy spot on your back. *** The very commonness of the pencil, the characteristic of it that renders it all but invisible and seemingly valueless, is really the first feature of successful engineering. Good engineering blends into the environment, becomes a part of society and culture so naturallly that a special effort is required to notice it. By looking closely at the origins and development of something so ubiquitous as the pencil, we are better able to appreciate the achievement of a great bridge or efficient automobile. And we can do so without having to needing the detailed esoteric knowledge of the structural or automotive engineer. We can know that the bridge or the automobile was conceived first by a human mind and given its first embodiment as a concept in a human mind or in a sketch done by a human hand and not as a bunch of numbers given by equations in a computer. We can know that a natural gas supply system or a can of soda delivers energy or refreshment on demand without exploding in our faces because some engineers worried about how their design might go wrong. But we can also know that these things are not perfect, because no artifact is perfect." -- Henry Petroski, "The Pencil", page 334, Knopf 1990 *** An April 1992 IEEE Potentials article on 'creativity': Research shows that the most creatively productive workers (the top 10%) account for about half of the contri- butions in their field. Also according to Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology, "empirical research has shown that quality tends to the be consequence of quantity when it comes to creativity...Those who produce more master- works also produce more rubbish." Obviously being itel- ligent doesn't hurt. But Simonton notes there are times - in particular, when telling others about an idea - when an ex- traordinary intellect can actually do more harm than good. Creative people enjoy problem solving, even when the procedure is frustrating. The lessons learned act as partial compensation. Obstacles are challenges. The teach the creative person that to suceed: risks must be taken, errors will be made and wallowing through ambiguity is a required part of the process. As a result, the creative individual is more likely to suceed. Creativity has been said to be "the juxtaposition of formerly unrelated ideas to product new ideas" (The Journal of NIH Research). To get there requires an open mind, a diverse range of sources, th etime to mull options (leaping to the brain's first conclusion, unlike when taking a multiple choice test, is usually unwise) and the ability to unite imaginative thought with rational logic. According to Moshe R. Rubenstein, a professor of engineering and applied science, its "the capacity to recognize higher orders that unify diverse phenomena and make complex situations more simple. This is the essence of creative and productve thinking and problem solving." *** She smiled at a sorrowful stranger. The smile seemed to make him feel better. He remembered past kindnesses of a friend and wrote him a thank-you letter. The friend was so pleased with the thank-you that he left a large tip after lunch. The waitress, surprised by the size of the tip, bet the whole thing on a hunch. The next day she picked up her winnings, and gave part to a man on the street. The man on the street was grateful; for two days he'd had nothing to eat. After he finished his dinner, he left for his small dingy room. (He didn't know at that moment that he might be facing his doom.) On the way he picked up a shivering puppy and took him home to get warm. The puppy was very grateful to be in out of the storm. That night the house caught on fire. The puppy barked the alarm. He barked 'til he woke the whole household and saved everybody from harm. One of the boys that he rescued grew up to be President. All this because of a simple smile that hadn't cost a cent. By Barbara Hauck, age 13 from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul Copyright 1997 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger *** found at: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html English Pronunciation Test While most of you non-native speakers of English speak English quite well, there is always room for improvement (of course, the same could be said for every person for any subject, but that is another matter). To that end, I'd like to offer you a poem. Once you've learned to correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. If you find it tough going, do not despair, you are not alone: Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters near Paris found English to be an easy language ... until they tried to pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, the verses below were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months at hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself. English is Tough Stuff Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation -- think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!! -- Author Unknown *** Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge (BOOK) Announcing a new device: Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge (BOOK) The BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: No wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover! Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere (even sitting in an armchair by the fire) yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc. Here's how it works... Each BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit process called binding which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half. Experts are divided concerning the prospects for further increases in information density; for now BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. This makes them thick and hard to carry--a criticism from the mobile computing crowd. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The BOOK never crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices it can become unusable if dropped overboard. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval. An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session---even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous bookmarkers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK. You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus (PENCIL). Portable, durable, and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the entertainment wave of the future. The BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform. Look for a flood of new titles soon. *** My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer. For seven years this number has followed me around, has intruded in my most private data, and has assaulted me from the pages of our most public journals. This number assumes a variety of disguises, being sometimes a little larger and sometimes a little smaller than usual, but never changing so much as to be unrecognizable. The persistence with which this number plagues me is far more than a random accident. There is, to quote a famous senator, a design behind it, some pattern governing its appearances. Either there really is something unusual about the number or else I am suffering from delusions of persecution." -- George A. Miller, The Psychological Review, 1956, vol. 63, pp. 81-97. "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" *** Mahatma Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere, and as a result the soles of his feet became extremely thick and hard. Even when he was not on a hunger strike, he ate little and became quite thin and frail. And we all know he was a spiritual person. Futhermore, due to his diet, he suffered from extremely bad breath. Therefore, he became known as: "Super calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis." *** INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE 1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. 2. Memorize your favorite poem. 3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. 4. When you say, "I love you," mean it. 5. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye. 6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married. 7. Believe in love at first sight. 8. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. 9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely. 10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling. 11. Don't judge people by their relatives. 12. Talk slowly but think quickly. 13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?" 14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk. 15. Call your mom. 16. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze. 17. When you lose, don't lose the lesson. 18. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; Responsibility for all your actions. 19. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship. 20. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. 21. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice. 22. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other. 23. Spend some time alone. 24. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values. 25. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. 26. Read more books and watch less TV. 27. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll get to enjoy it a second time. 28. Trust in God but lock your car. 29. A loving atmosphere in your home is so important. Do all you can to create a tranquil, harmonious home. 30. In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation. Don't bring up the past. 31. Read between the lines. 32. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality. 33. Be gentle with the earth. 34. Pray. There's immeasurable power in it. 35. Never interrupt when you are being flattered. 36. Mind your own business. 37. Don't trust a man/woman who doesn't close his/her eyes when you kiss. 38. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before. 39. If you make a lot of money, put it to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth's greatest satisfaction. 40. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck. 41. Learn the rules then break some. 42. Remember that the best relationship is one where your love for each other is greater than your need for each other. 43. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. 44. Remember that your character is your destiny. 45. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon *** A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to your eye, and it puts everything out of focus. Hold it at proper viewing distance, and it can be examined and classified. Throw it at your feet, and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway to eternity. -- Celia Luce *** Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson *** From qotd-request@ensu.ucalgary.ca Tue Mar 30 10:38:32 1999 To: qotd@ensu.ucalgary.ca (Quote of the day mailing list) Subject: Quote of the day X-Qotd-Incoming: 3289 Content-Length: 870 "It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations." - Albert Einstein, speech at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, February 16, 1931. Submitted by: "Anita Kilgour" Feb. 23, 1999 -------------------------------------------------------------- Send quotation submissions to qotd@ensu.ucalgary.ca Send list changes or requests to qotd-request@ensu.ucalgary.ca