Email Chain Letters

It amazes me how many people participate in the email chain letters.   Some statement that if you send this letter to five or seven of your friends you will acrue the luck of whatever is written.  As a rule of thumb, I never forward these letters - regardless of the message. 

However it is nice to receive an email from someone who was touched by a message of sprituality, good. or humor (I'm on the fence about political emails).  These emails indicate someone is thinking of you when they read the email.

Susan sent me this "gift" today - worth sharing.

Eight Gifts That Do Not Cost a Cent

By: Author Unknown

1. THE GIFT OF LISTENING..

   But you must REALLY listen. No interrupting, no

   daydreaming, no planning your response. Just listening.

2. THE GIFT OF AFFECTION...

   Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the

   back and holds. Let these small actions demonstrate the

   love you have for family and friends.

3. THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER...

   Clip cartoons. Share articles and funny stories. Your

   gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."

4. THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE...

   It can be a simple "Thanks for the help" note or a full

   sonnet. A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for

   a lifetime, and may even change a life.

5. THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT...

   A simple and sincere, "You look great in red," "You did

   a super job" or "That was a wonderful meal" can make

   someone's day.

6. THE GIFT OF A FAVOR...

   Every day, go out of your way to do something kind.

7. THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE...

   There are times when we want nothing better than to be

   left alone. Be sensitive to those times and give the

   gift of solitude to others.

8. THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION...

   The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word

   to someone, really it's not that hard to say, Hello or

   Thank You.

Chicken

As the August 2nd debt ceiling deadline approaches, I have started watching the House and Senate debates on C-SPAN.  With cameo appearances by President Obama each participant (now four with the informal Tea Party group) attempts to play chicken. 

In a two party game of chicken  each player is in a car on a collision course driving on a one lane road with a bridge.  Once you enter the bridge ramp there can be two outcomes -  crash head on or divert into the water (also considered fatal).  Sucess only occurs if one of the parties swerves before the bridge (one win and one loss) or both swerve before entering the bridge ( a tie). 

In this negotiation, Obama and the Democrats are in one car and the Tea Party and Republicans are in the other car.  It is hard to determine who has their hands on the steering wheel. 

My belief in watching the proceedings is that they are already on the bridge.  The real question is whether the crash is head on or one of the parties still diverts and crashes into the water. 

Or - who will jump out of the car hoping to save themselves?  

Heat to Death

Yesterday I said "I don't worry that much about the heat,  freeze to death - yes; but not the heat"  In fact, I said we are a nation of wimps.  I can remember the hot summers without airconditioning.  That was what fans, sprinklers, and airconditioned movie theaters are for. 

So I was shocked this morning to hear on NPR the New York Health Commissioner Tom Farley say, "More people die from heat each year than from all other natural disasters".  WHAT - the data skeptic in me doesn't believe that!

So a quick search on the internet yielded the following table and equally skeptic researcher:

So even though my point appears correct about the risk of cold - excessive heat is a close second.

Screen Savers and Themes

What is on the screen of your computer when you are not busy in a window blogging?  What theme? and during the pause in "computering" (that's my new word) what screen saver appears?  There are pictures all around us - in fact we put them there.  Framed shots of love ones on the desk; pretty scenes or artwork we enjoy on the walls; and the selected theme/screen saver picture on our computer.

The new Microsoft search engine - Bing always has very intriguing high definition/high quality pictures on it's search screen - versus Google's white space and search bar.  But even with the beauty of the picture, it is not the home page for my Explorer startup. 

And how often do you change your theme and/or screen saver?   Ellen is notorious for placing new scenes and pictures on Susan or my computers when unattended.  It is always a treat to be surprised with a new picture.  In fact, I think a killer app would be an automatic changing of themes and screen savers weekly based on "best guess" software and recent browsing history.  Like the stealth way cookies in your computer tell web sites what advertising you should be looking at (that should be a project I research someday).

Jenna showed me her Mac screen that fills with virtual water and on movement of the computer the water jostles back and forth.  There is always someone inventing a new innovative desktop. 

Interesting ways to keep our computer always on --- awaitng our activity.

Rollin on the River

Last night we celebrated the final quarter grades for Jenna, Paul and Ellen by booking a river dinner cruise on the Cincinnati Belle.  What a lovely evening.  The Reds were playing so the lights were on, the crowd was cheering, and the jumbo-tron in high definition as we approached the final docking at 9pm. 

The Disc Jocky on board announced the various celebrations as we traveled upstream - 50th Anniversaries, 23rd Birthday, return from Afganistan, recent engagements ...   As we stood on the bow headed into the evening breeze, Susan and I couldn't help but reminisce about the various river cruises we have taken on the Rhine, and the Danube.  We both agreed that future cruises would be in our plan.

There were many boaters on the Ohio this Friday night.  As the various types of boats passed by, it was instinctual for everyone to give the boater wave.  Even the shoreline fishing parties would give their greetings. Everyone happy to be Rollin on the River.

"If you come down to the river
I bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry if you got no money
People on the river are happy to give"  Creedence Clearwater Revival

Infinite Infinities

As a kid, I was fancinated with infinity which probably is why I got an extra degree in Mathematics.  Pondering infinity can lead some into an uncomfortable zone of a great spiral of never ending logic.  In fact, it takes discipline to pause in the journey of pondering infinity.

Infinite series were intriguing in mathematics.  I remember my first revelation of "different sizes" of infinities when a professor asked the class which infinite set was larger?  The number of irrational numbers (fractions) between zero and one OR the number of positive integers from 0 to infinity.  My response - you can't quantify infinity.  Wrong (sort of).

Using the principle of matching -  match each integer ....  2, 3 ,4, 5 ...   with the following fractions  1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 .......    Consequently you have matched every number (integer) in the infinite set of integers with specific fractions in the infinite set of fractions between zero and one.  YET  you still have all the other fractions between 1/2 and 1 available (e.g.  2/3, 3/4, 4/5 etc.).  SO the infinite set of irrational numbers is a larger infinity - in fact infinitely larger. :)

Just think there are an infinite number of small and large infinities.

PS -  For the astute - I forgot  something.  You first need to match THE ONE in each set.

Well Spent Moments

I'm reading the book "Peace and Plenty" by Sarah Ban Breathnach that is all about Financial Serenity (and written primarily for a female audience).  It is a wealth of advice in the two most challenging things in life - managing time and money.  I liked her comment about the relationship between the two - "Not having money doesn't mean we can't have well spent moments everyday...  We really spend very little [TIME OR MONEY - my insertion] on the things that make us truly content. The things that matter most are priceless".

She uses the word "things" purposely - and then follows up with time related activities to explain - moments of connection, kindness, laughter, encouragement, inspiration, coincidences, ..... and I will add blogging :)