THE RED ROSE

The Red Rose

a classic work of art
romantic sentiment
lover's rose
mystique
a message of fire
immeasurable inspiration
deep emotion
love and fidelity!

LAMP UNTO MY FEET, AND A LIGHT UNTO MY PATH

Just read a very interesting and revealing article about our many choices in life, the consequences of wrong turns, and the necessity of a light, a map, signposts, and teammates.

The rest of our life is just like a maze; we face many decision points where we will have to decide whether to go left, right, or straight ahead. Day after day, we are faced with so many options, decision after decision, reversing course and starting all over again, backtracking and wasting a great deal of time and energy, getting frustrated and not knowing what to do. Making wrong choices and choosing the wrong paths will waste parts of our lives, lose joy and peace, and getting frustrated and not knowing what to do at the end.

Who do we go to when we are lost in the maze of life? We have the Word of God, which is the lamp for our feet and the light for our paths.

TO LIKE IS TO LOVE

To like or love someone means that we enjoy that particular individual for certain unique qualities that fit with our interests and needs. It means, too, that we have, not just an opinion, but a feeling about that person.

Oftentimes, we hear people say, "it's not easy for me to make friends." Even though we may enjoy and need to be alone now and then, we are basically social animals who need the company and cooperation of others. We need to make friends, to like and be liked, and to form loving relationships with at least a few people who are in some ways special to us.

To understand the relationships that people form, it is important to realize that we are not focusing on individual behavior. Instead, we keep meaning to understand behavior between pairs of human beings and the reasons people like and love those they do.

MAGENTA, A FLASHY COLOR

The printer's color display was flashing "order color magenta." Almost instantly, I was reminded of one of the fiercest battles in history, the bloody battle of Magenta in Northern Italy between a combined Franco-Sardinia army and an Austrian army in 1859, and gave its name to the beautiful red-purple dye and color synthesized by French chemists shortly after the battle--magenta, the color of blood.

I was also reminded of the excellent climbing varieties of philodendrons in my garden, especially the philodendron maxicanum. The leaves are magenta to maroon on the underside of the blades.

Not a fav color, but Magenta will always be an extra spectral color.

SONG OF THE OLD MAN

Although the song "Auld Lang Syne" is usually attributed to Robert Burns, it was known at least century before he published it in 1796. One of his letters says, "It is the old song of the olden times, which has never been in print. I took it down from an old man's singing."

A BLIND SPOT?

How can we influence attitudes? How can we improve people's perception of one another? How can we help modify behavior toward actions and values that are more just and humane? Can social structures be changed for the better?

The tendency to categorize people, places, or things on the basis of generalized attitudes is one reason we are all prejudiced against something. Some of us are against certain foods we have never tasted, countries we have never visited, people we have never met, or political systems that we have only heard about.


Prejudice, an attitude with a blind spot? Psychologists say, that prejudice is an attitude that is unsupported by reasonable evidence, that persists over time, and is based on an emotional feeling about the person or group being judged. It usually implies that the other person or group is some way inferior to your own group.

Prejudice gives root to discrimination. The unfortunate consequences affect most of us--those discriminated against, those who discriminate, and those who stand by, silently, and let discrimination continue.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - PREJUDICE

"When dealing with people,
remember you are not dealing with
creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion,
creatures bristling with prejudice,
and motivated by pride
and vanity."

Dale Carnegie

APPRECIATION

In the workplace, appreciating employee contribution will encourage a positive mindset and increase the feel good factor. Appreciation motivates employees to work harder and produce better work. Praise impacts an increase in productivity and helps acquire better quality and quantity of work output. When a person does a job well, praise him immediately. Never delay in praising.

In family setting, always devote more time with your dear ones who keep meaning to appreciate the efforts you exert to give them a genuine feeling of importance, tremendous love, support and care.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Self efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations. If efficacy beliefs always reflected only what people can do routinely they would rarely fall but they would not set aspirations beyond their immediate reach nor mount the extra effort needed to surpass their ordinary performances. People who regard themselves as highly efficacious act, think, and feel differently from those who perceive themselves as inefficacious. They produce their own future, rather than simply foretell it.

Ref: Social Foundations of Thought and Action

MAKING BAD DECISION

A bad decision can often prove costly. It can affect our career, image and work relations. Change in perspective is required to overcome this obstacle. Remember that we will never learn if we do not make an attempt. We cannot prevent the situation for a long time and some day we have to face the situation. So let us do it now. Decision is a choice; it’s either you make it right, or resent the outcome. All of us are making decisions everyday. Even young children are no exceptions.

VANITY IN DAILY LIFE

It is vanity to strive too intently for perishable riches and to fix your homes on them. It is vanity also to be over-eager for honors, or to consider yourself better than the others. It is vanity to follow blindly the desires of the flesh and to want things which will bring penalty later on.

It is vanity to wish for a long life while caring little about living a good life. It is vanity to give your entire attention to the present life without thinking of the life which will come later. It is vanity to love only what is speedily passing away, instead of fixing your heart on heaven–the home of endless joy.

HEARING GOD'S VOICE

Hearing God’s voice is something we all long for, but did you know that it is not hard to do? God wants us to hear His voice! He does not speak to us through a quiver in our liver or through vibes or mediums. Hearing the voice of God is as natural as hearing your best friend talk to you. What is more, we can hear Him everyday and not just on special occasions or by chanting special incantations. He speaks to us in the natural moments of life.

Do you want to hear God’s voice? Then, you must be ready to listen.

PERSUASION

The art of positive persuasion involves people, excellent communication and presentation skills. Good persuaders coax people to their way of thinking without thrusting their ideas on them. They can sway decisions in meetings, negotiations, or presentations.

Persuasion is all about convincing people to support your ideas. Therefore, the persuader should focus on creating a connection between himself and the audience. Respecting the opinions and judgment of others is necessary because only then will they be open to listen to your suggestions.

PATIENCE AND HUMILITY

Patience will help us keep calm in times of troubles and difficulties. It will help us think more clearly. As a result, we shall find it easier to turn to God when we need Him. Humility will help us admit our weakness and nothingness. It will make us less irritable and resentful of our distasteful experiences. These two virtues will help us have peace in the middle of our troubles. With a definite plan in mind, we can proceed against our faults and conquer our temptations.

THE GIFT OF INNER PEACE

Regardless of feelings, moods, prejudices, or preferences, strive to maintain a right intention at all times. As soon as your natural desires contradict God’s will, check them as you would check any other foolish intention.

Do not let life’s daily events disturb nor affect you too much. Seek to know His will and to accept it in all things. With this pure intention, you will have a deep interior peace. This is God’s gift to those who let Him govern their lives.

Our intentions tend to become dim as we proceed through our daily occupations. Gradually we are influenced more by pleasure or self-satisfaction. Therefore, let us renew our pure intentions at different times during the day.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - IGNORANCE

"Ignorance is the necessary
condition of life itself.
If we knew everything we could
not endure existence
for a single hour."


Anatole France

WHAT INFLUENCE CREATIVITY

Many psychologists believe that a truly creative person does not wait to be told or rewarded. They start the creative act himself or herself. They said, that this inner, self-determined creativity is spontaneous. The act of creation is its own reward.

There are many important factors in the development of creativity. The freedom to think, to explore, to experiment, to develop one's own approach to problems are likely to result in a creative and meaningful solutions. Motivation is another important factor in creativity. To be creative, we need incentive, or reason to create. Under certain conditions, positive reinforcement brings out certain creative abilities in people.

Situational factor is thought to be important in developing creativity, too.

ENERGY CONSERVATION

Unless everybody makes an effort to conserve energy, time may come when energy supplies may not be enough to meet our demands.

Conservation does not mean non-use. It simply means wise and efficient use of energy. A large amount of heat is used when fuel is produced and used. This heat could be put to use in industries. Waste heat can also be minimized by improved industrial process and engine designs.

A large amount of energy is used in transportation. Car pooling practices, recreational driving, use of public transport, such as buses, light railway transit, and better vehicle design could substantially reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation requires the combined efforts of industries and government agencies and individuals.

As end-users, what do we do to help conserve energy?

COME BACK TOMORROW!

Strange news from abroad!

An old man happily married for 60 years was left in shock after being told at a government office that he had separated from his wife 17 years ago.

The old man went to the government office to get a copy of his identification card where an official told him that he was separated. The man's son, who had accompanied his father, was also shocked on hearing this from the official and asked his father whether it was true. The man denied that there was any separation and expressed his resentment at the mistake. He was left in a further conundrum when he tried to rectify the mistake. Having visited the offices on several occasions to rectify the mistake, the officials keep telling him to "come back tomorrow."

MELBA PEACH vs CHICKEN TETRAZZINI!

Dame Nellie Melba and Luisa Tetrazzini

vs

Chicken Tetrazzini and Melba Peach

What are Chicken Tetrazzini and Melba Peach?

They are actually two different things; one is a dish, the other is a summer dessert.

Why Melba Peach? Why Chicken Tetrazzini?

Well, these two contrasting food items were named after two of my favorite long-ago opera prima donnas; Dame Nellie Melba, Australian nightingale, and Luisa Tetrazzini, Italian-born opera star. The rivalry between the two well-reknown sopranos even extended to the invention of the famous dish and dessert.

It is widely believed that Chicken Tetrazzini dish was to have been invented in 1908 by Ernest Arbogast then chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California, where Luisa Tetrazzini was a long time resident. Melba Peach, on the other hand, is a classic dessert invented in 1892 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London.

Melba Peach is a combination of two summer fruits: peaches and raspberry sauce accompanying vanilla ice cream. The chef heard the performance of Dame Melba at the Covent Garden and was inspired to create a dessert just for her.

Chicken Tetrazzini usually involves a non-red meat, mushrooms, almonds in butter or cream and parmesan sauce flavored with wine or sherry, over spaghetti. More specifically, it tends to include diced fowl, seafood, or another non-red meat, served with mushrooms over spaghetti or another thin pasta, with a thickened butter and cream-based sauce. The sauce is generally flavored with wine or sherry and well-cooked stock vegetables, such as onions, celery, and carrots. It is served hot, often garnished with lemon or parsley, topped with almonds and/or parmesan cheese.

I haven't tried Melba Peach; Chicken Terazzini, well, I enjoyed a plateful at a despedida party of a lady friend last night.

CURSIVE WRITING?

My colleagues always say that my handwriting is really so cool and artistic. I don't know about that. It was probably the result of the so many writing exercises I did when I was in the elementary grade. My teacher would require us to practice writing each letter of the alphabet several times everyday following patterns... "capital letter A, small letter a","capital letter B, small letter b," and so on. It paid off! Where did this cursive writing originate?

The practice of linking characters of the alphabet to produce the small letters used today in writing originated in the monasteries of the Middle Ages. Scribes found it earlier to write whole words without lifting their pens from the paper. They connected the individual characters instead of writing a space, lifting their pen, and writing another character.

TRIVIA - MILLION

Did you know that the word million didn't come into being until around 1300. Until then, the largest number word was "myriad," which was Greek for 10,000. Archimedes, in calculating the number of poppy seeds in the entire universe as he knew it, used expressions meaning "myriads of myriads of myriads..."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - NATURE

"Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave
a trail."



Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist, philosopher, poet, and
leader of transcendentalist movement in the early
19th century.

WHAT IS YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NAME? - SECRET!!!

Yam Bank, Papua New Guinea

Natives of Papua New Guinea, who deposit their money in the bank at Port Moresby don't get numbered accounts. Instead, they are identified by the names of fish and birds or other natural objects. One bank customer is called sawfish for instance; another, hornbill. Each depositor keeps his symbol secret.

My bank account name is damselfly!

AND LIFE GOES ON!

Even criminals should follow certain work ethics or else they will be thrown out of work and put behind bars. This is what happened to two smugglers and six illegal foreign workers, a local daily reported. The two smuggled the illegal workers out of a southern border town to the city. At the end of the journey, the illegal refused to pay a huge amount of money demanded by the smugglers. The smugglers took them to a building outside the city and locked them up saying they would not be freed until they paid the money. However, the smugglers permitted a hostage to call his friend to bring the money. But what he requested his friend in his native language was to inform police about them with a description of the location. And the police were very happy to arrest all the parties involved. The smuggling of illegal workers involved several thousands as fines and jail terms and the deportation of illegal immigrants.

In the area where I live, there are so many overstaying foreigners struggling to earn a living. Poverty, pain, and emotional stress make them even more stronger to survive each passing day. Life goes on and life is really what you make it!

A HERO AND A SAINT

In His name, I bear witness and acknowledge my faith!

True heroes are indeed rare, and such was the uniqueness of Edith Stein, who went to her death in Auschwitz wearing the Star of David on her nun's habit, after offering herself as a sacrifice in an effort to save others. She was born into a German Jewish family; became assistant to the philosopher Edmund Husserl, converted to Catholicism and took her vows as a Carmelite nun 12 years later. When the Nazis rounded up Jews for extermination, Edith Stein proudly identified herself as Christian and Jewish, and in 1942, was gassed. Twenty years after her death, the Vatican began the formal canonization procedure the St. Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, the name she took--which make her the first Jewish Catholic saint of our time.

THE NAME OF THE GAME IS CAT'S CRADLE

My grandson, Ruan, was so happy to share the news that he just learned some tricks using strings, but doesn't really know the name of the game. He was probably talking about the cat's cradle. This game reminds me of my childhood days. We only not used strings, but also rubber bands to form figures, like star, alpha letters, spider web, and others.


It is one of the most universal games in the world and played in almost every culture. What is somewhat a puzzle to ethnologists is that widely scattered peoples like the Maoris of New Zealand, the North American Indians, the Arctic Eskimos, and Africans, make figures of string between their hands that are exactly the same.

LOVE IS FOR THE TWO OF US!

Love is lovelier the second time around!

A woman has married a man whom she refused to marry 25 years ago. It was in 1983 that the man sought the hand in marriage, but she refused because her circumstances would now allow her to leave her parents. Later when conditions changed and she was ready for marriage, no suitor of her liking turned up. She confided in one of her friends that she wished her first suitor might come again. The man learned about the woman's sentiments only recently and was overcome by emotion. He proposed again to her and immediately agreed.

A very interesting love story indeed!

HOW DO I LOVE THEE? - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?

(Sonnet 43 from Sonnet Portuguese)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,

I shall love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - FRIENDSHIP

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow -
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead -
Just walk beside me and be my friend."

Unknown

THE MOON IS FALLING?

The moon is always falling. It has a sideways motion of its own that balances its falling motion. It, therefore, stays in a closed orbit about the earth, never falling altogether and never escaping altogether.

A BED MISTAKE!

Strange News from Abroad

A woman finds naked thief for company. She woke up to a real nightmare, discovering that the naked man who had slipped into her bed in the middle of the night was a thief, not her husband. She was asleep when the thief noticing that her husband was fast asleep on the couch, quietly stripped off and lay down beside her. The dozing woman's suspicions were raised when she spoke to him and his voice sounded strange. She then went to another room and found her husband on the couch. She screamed, causing the thief to flee by leaping out the window with the stolen items.

FUNNIEST SUPERSTAR

He was five when he started his show business career. His mother, a local music-hall performer lost her voice during the performance and had to leave the stage. He went on and sang a well-known song. Halfway through the song, a shower of money poured onto the stage. He stopped singing and told the audience he would pick up the money first and then finish the song. The audience laughed, the first of millions of laughs in Charlie Chaplin's fabulous career.