PAGES FROM THE PAST - MARCO POLO

If Marco Polo had not been captured by the Genoese and imprisoned for a year, the tales of his historic twenty-two year adventure in the Far and Middle East (at the end of the thirteenth century) might never have been collected and written down.

When he returned to Venice after his odyssey, he became a "gentleman commander" of a war vessel striving to hold off Genoese traders. In a battle off Curzold Island, his galley was captured and Marco was hauled off to Genoa and jailed. There he met a writer named Rustichello, who--hearing Marco's yams--insisted they be written down.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - GARDENING

"When weeding, the best way to make sure
you are removing a weed and not a valuable
plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the
ground easily, it is a valuable plant."

Author Unknown

REAPING THE HARVEST

At young age, we learned that planting a garden was important. It taught us a lot how plants grow and where we get our food from. We especially liked the planting process when we would dig up the dirt with a shovel and break it apart, to raking the dirt before planting the seeds, careful to follow the directions on the seed containers. It was a lot of work, but fun to watch the vegetables and flowers grow. We would have to care for it by watering it and hoeing around the plants to keep the weeds out. Then the produce could be gathered and eaten.



It is a share that many young people today, especially those in the city think that fruits and vegetables are made at the grocery store. We thank our parents for teaching us about how things grow and to reap the harvest.

A PRICELESS TREASURE

Do you give freely and generously?

And why do you give, for reward or for love?

What is the best investment you can make with your life?

The gospel presents us with a paradox: we lose what we keep, and we gain what we give away. When we lose our lives for Jesus Christ, we gain a priceless treasure and an inheritance which last forever. Whatever we give to God comes back a hundredfold. Generosity flows from a heart full of gratitude for the abundant mercy and grace which God grants.

JOKE TIME - THE BLIND MAN

A nun in the convent walked into the bathroom where mother superior was taking a shower.

"There is a blind man to see you," she says.

"Well, if he is a blind man, then it does not matter if I'm in the shower. Send him in."



The blind man walks into the bathroom, and mother superior starts to tell him how much she appreciates him working at the convent for them. She goes on and on and 10 minutes later the man interrupts: "That's nice and all, ma'am, but you can put your clothes on now. Where do you want me to put these blinds?

THE LATER YEARS

Suffering in silence!

The number of unwanted parents who struggle alone without anyone to help is in the increase. Neglecting one's aged parents, whatever the reason, is wrong. However, it is a relief that there are, on the other hand, people who care for the elderly.

Older people sometimes see themselves as no longer being productive members of society. They often feel they have been moved aside to make way for others. They miss the job satisfaction they had, and the economic security that went with it. Parents whose families are grown feel less needed than they once were. Because the nuclear family (parents and children) has largely replaced the extended family (three or more generations living together), many of the links between generations are broken. The views of grandparents are no longer sought in family management and, in some cases, are refused. The loss of role of director or adviser is especially hard for some older people.

For a number of reasons, old people turn inward and attend increasingly to their personal needs. They no longer actively attempt to change their environment, but adopt a passive attitude toward it. As they grow older, the feeling of displacement sets in.

Some old people talk about the past a lot. The joys of their life are relived in memory. Enjoying through what others do also becomes important.

OF SAYNS EN SEMBOLS

Made in China

... up and down you go, man!

... no... no... just before you get lost
file a missing person report at the police station!

... how dare you insult me, Screwdriver!

... der Gesang wird verboten!

... and fall down slowly!!!

... and keep the used tissue for memory's sake!

,.. preggy at 70?

???

... nothing big... just a little bump on the head!!!

... ja ja ja!!!

... and thank you for going!!!

... my pleasure to meet you, Mr. Products!

... and run for your life!!!

... better break the glass!!!

... they bite!!!

... sports and small people
with hairy feet section!!!

... you are welcome!!!

Q & A - HUSBAND AND WIFE

WIFE

What would you do if I died?
Would you get married again?

HUSBAND

Definitely not!

WIFE

Why not--don't you like being married?

HUSBAND

Of course, I do!

WIFE

Then, why wouldn't you remarry?

HUSBAND

Okay, I'd get married again!

WIFE

You would? (with hurtful look on her face)!

HUSBAND

(Makes audible groan).

WIFE

Would you live in our house?

HUSBAND

Why not, it's a great house!

WIFE

Would you sleep with her in our bed?

HUSBAND

Where else would we sleep?

WIFE

Would you let her drive my car?

HUSBAND

Probably, it is almost new.

WIFE

Would you replace my pictures with hers?

HUSBAND

That would seem like the proper thing to do.

WIFE

Would she use my golf clubs?

HUSBAND

No, she's left-handed.

WIFE

-- silence --

HUSBAND

F. . k!!!



Women.... women....
they always expect men to read their minds!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - WORK

"One machine can do the work
of 50 ordinary men. No machine can do
the work of one extraordinary man."

Anonymous

TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL

Recently, I was assigned to report on the common abuses taking place in our workstation. It took me sometime to figure out what to do. To be caught in between two conflicting thoughts was not easy. It was either cover up for your work friends, or be loyal to the company' whether to tell or not to tell.

Defining and addressing the problems greatly affecting work colleagues are not an easy task, especially when personal interests are at stake. Problems are inevitable part of the workplace whether it has something to do with organizational policies, interpersonal conflicts or employer-employee relations.

An unpleasant workplace can be a cause of major stress and unhappiness for workers. In addition to making the workweek unbearable, the inevitable thought of Saturday creeping closer can certainly follow stressed workers home over the weekend and ruin relaxation time.

An organization to be efficient, problems must not be ignored, but solved and an effective solution is found and implemented so that they do not recur. Finding the easiest solutions are not the answers to the problems in the workstation, but getting to the root of the issue because a minor problem could be the first sign of a major crisis.

RICH MEN, POOR MEN ... in battle!!!

Wealthy Roman armies

Even in the olden days in the battlefield, rich and poor were treated differently.

In the supreme Roman army--efficient, well trained, and usually well officered--equipment and role were one time determined by wealth. The richest men wore shield, breastplate, greaves (armor for the leg below the knee), helmet, and carried sword and spear. The less-wealthy men did not wear breastplates. Poor men were equipped with only a helmet. The poorest men had no armor at all, but carried spear and sword.



Poor Roman armies

WHERE WAS I?

"It's on the tip of my tongue!"

"I can't seem to recall a thing!"

"Sorry, I have a very short memory!"

"Where was I?"

If there is one fact about memory that all of us know, it is that we do not remember everything. In fact, there are times when it seems we can't remember anything. People's names, appointments, material crammed for an exam, telephone numbers--all escape us just when we need them most. At the same time, we often remember other things that don't strike us as being very important. Research has been done on this problem and psychologists have several theories to explain how and why we seem to forget material we have learned.

One explanation why we forget is the interference theory. We have all had the embarrassing experience of being interrupted in the middle of a conversation and not being able to pick up where we left off. We completely forget what we were talking about. Often, the people we were talking with will help out by giving us a cue.

"Where was I?" phenomenon illustrates the role of interference. It refers to the fact that new material gets in the way of old material. This type of interference is called retroactive, we remember the new information but forget the old information. We have been interrupted and the new experience interfered with our memory of the earlier discussion. The new material overpowers the older learned material and becomes stronger and more dominant n our memory. It causes the other knowledge to be unlearned--we forget old material so that we may learn new material more readily. This view suggests that there is limit to the amount stored in memory at any one time. As new information arrives, it pushes out things that are already in readily available locations. If no additional information comes in, then no forgetting will occur.

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AT ITS BEST

Chrysanthemum is considered one of the most showy perennial flowering plants, but did you know that the flower requires an uninterrupted period of approximately hours of darkness of an autumn night before it will flower.

Commercial flower growers, in order to delay the blossoming for a more profitable market, illuminate the plants briefly at night to break up the dark period.

THEY TREAT THEM AS SLAVES

This woman employer brutally abused her maid for a year and got 15 days jail sentence only! This is ridiculous. Is justice served right here? This employer should be given a dose of her own medicine by long years of incarceration. Where is the spirit of the law in this case? And this evil woman isn't even remorseful for her crime.

Thousands of other helpers have reported extensive maltreatment. There are three common types of psychological abuse that employers committed against domestic helpers: rejection, which could lead to isolation and depression; negative criticism; and the expectation of availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They treat workers like slaves. They do not consider them as humans.

There are some women not strong enough and would crack under such conditions, mostly if they are isolated from their families, which could lead to catastrophic results. A report on the treatment of domestic helpers revealed other forms of maltreatment, including sexual harassment, rape, withholding of wages, prolonged working hours and beatings, which sometimes led to death. When an employer does not want to pay his financial obligations, he claims the employee stole from him. When police discover she is an illegal resident, she gets deported without having the chance to claim her rights.

A domestic helper died from her injuries after she was thrown out of a balcony by her female employer. According to the employer, who is free on bail, she "fell from the balcony" after the two women fought over a mobile phone that belonged to the victim.

Each woman has a heart-wrenching story to tell. One said she has not been paid for months, another was physically assaulted and a third had her passports confiscated and was prevented from contacting her family.

Abuses, high or isolated should be addressed properly. Immediate and effective actions should be undertaken to alleviate the plights of these poor souls.

KNOWING YOURSELF

One day you will discover that you are no longer a child who constantly holds on to your mother's skirt. For years you have traveled through life and now you are approaching adolescence. You ask many questions to enable you to fully know yourself. In fact, knowing yourself will help you discover what lies ahead of you.

The key to that discovery lies in your willingness to enter fully into experiences that can be positive forces to enhance the shaping of your vision--of yourself. To know and appreciate the kind of person that you are will be both an invitation and a challenge. It is an invitation for you to look deeply into yourself, to learn how gifted you are. It is a challenge to make a personal decision to enhance these gifts and do something about your shortcomings.

It is when you accept these invitation and challenge that you allow to expand your consciousness of your true being. Only then can you say, "I love and appreciate the person that I am."

Life is a journey!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - KEEP YOUR BALANCE

"Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance, you must
keep moving."



Albert Einstein

LAUGHING SONG

by
William Blake



When the green woods laughs with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by,
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;

When the meadows laugh with lively green,
The grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,
When Mary and Susan and Emily
With their sweet round mouths sing 'ha, ha he!'

When the painted birds laugh in the shade,
Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:
Come live, and be merry, and join with me,
To sing the sweet chorus of 'ha, ha, he!'

TO ERROL

To Errol

Take time in equal stride, never exuberantly happy,
never too depressed! Balance your life!

Young as you are, you can be a backbone of a progressive community. Your life-style should be one that would make you an asset to your community. You should not only be a catalyst but also an initiator that can lead your community to progress.

Collectively productive, responsible, and self-reliant citizens could help transform a poor, struggling community into a progressive one, too. It means that for a community to survive progress, it has to have people who work hard and are committed to achieve this. A nation may have all the wealth in the world, but if its people do not have self-reliance, that nation will have a difficult road to progress.

The commitment of individual and the wise use of time and opportunities are important factors that help build the foundation for a better tomorrow.

Stretch your mind to the year 2010. Are you laying the foundation and framework for a productive community by being dynamic on whatever endeavor your are in now? Is your present life-style the kind that can assure a better future for you and others?

TRIVIA - CLEAN-SHAVING

Clean-shaving, when did it start? The custom of being clean-shaven is said to date back to Alexander the Great, who had a scanty beard in any case and set the fashion. He strongly encouraged the practice during his reign in the 4th century B.C. to avoid the dangerous beard-grabbing in combat. He also believed it looked tidier and neat.



Alexander the Great's
shaven image


A century later, shaving entered the Roman world in the West, and the Eastern world abandoned the custom.

WHAT'S IN A NAME SERIES

Thespian

This is an overworked word meaning an actor. Thespis is often called the Father of Greek tragedy. Until his time (about 535 B.C.), dramatic presentations in Greece consisted of singing by a chorus. He is supposed to have invented the role of the first actor by having a member of the chorus step out and carry on a dialogue with the rest of the chorus.


Thespis, the first actor

THE OLD GIRLS PARTY

Let's have some fun, ladies ...

Watch the hilarious, full of laughters
video of the

Old girls party!!!


Enjoy!!!

GREEN WORLD - DARWIN'S ORCHID

Darwin's orchid

When Darwin visited Madagascar during his voyage on the Beagle, he was intrigued by a large waxy white orchid with a nectar spur almost a foot long. How could such a flower be pollinated? He did not have the opportunity to find out by observation, but he guessed--correctly-- by an insect with a foot long proboscis. His theory was ridiculed. Twenty years later, a nocturnal moth was collected that had a wingspread of only 5-1/2 inches but a proboscis a foot lo ng . In honor of the fact that its existence had been predicted, it was named Xantophan morganii praedicta.




Xantophan morganii praedicta

THE KILLER CLAM!

Myth

The giant clam is a killer clam!

In the past, tridacna gigas, or traditionally, pa'ua, the largest living bivalve mollusk was known to have caused deaths.



Fact

Despite its reputation, the "man-eating" giant clam of the South Pacific Ocean, which grows to more than four feet across and can weigh a quarter-ton, feeds only on microscopic organisms that the tide washes into its maw.

Today, it is generally acknowledged that the giant clam is neither aggressive nor particularly dangerous.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - PATIENCE

"Let him that hath no power of patience
retire within himself, though even there he
will have to put up with himself."



Baltasar Gracian

PATIENCE AND HUMILITY

Patience will help us to keep calm in our 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.

"The sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us."

(Romans 8:18)

Humility will help us admit our weaknesses and nothingness. It will make us less irritable and resentful of our distasteful experiences.

These two virtues will us have peace in the middle of our troubles. Then with a definite plan in mind, we can proceed against our faults and conquer our temptations.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

There is an infinite number of numbers that have the same value whether added or multiplied. They follow this pattern:

3 + 1-1/2 = 3 x 1-1/2 = 4-1/2

4 + 1-1/3 = 4 x 1-1/3 = 5-1/3
5 + 1-1/4 = 5 x 1-1/4 = 6-1/4
...

1000 + 1=1/999 = 1000 x 1-1/999 = 1001-1/999
etc.

However, there is only one integer that can be added to itself and multiplied with itself with the same result:

2 + 2 = 4 and 2 x 2 = 4

A REWARD FROM GOD

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Matthew 6:19-20

Here is a young man, who is willing to donate his kidney for free to anyone who needs a kidney transplant. He said, he is unemployed but insisted that he does not want a financial reward for donating his kidney. His restricted financial situation has helped him realize that instead of being greedy, he should help those in need. The only reward he is seeking is God's blessing.

God is interested in our hearts, not just our actions. He promises to meet our needs and often rewards our generosity. However, he does not always reward us financially. Oftentimes, the refreshment He gives is spiritual--something much more precious than money.

NO BATH AT ALL?

Can you last a day without taking a bath?

Well, I have some work colleagues who can last a week without taking a bath or shower. You really don't want to know how they smell! Suffice it to say that you just don't want to cross their paths ja ja ja!!!

But there was an era in the Middle Ages, which has been referred to as "1,000 years without a bath." Bathing was rare in Europe at that time, largely because the Christian Church considered it a sin to expose the body, even to oneself. It was not until 1641 that soap was manufactured in England. Religion had become less oppressive, but government harassment in the form of restrictions and taxes on the soapmaking industry caused the soap business to develop slowly.

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS - SONGBIRDS

Male bullfinch and Canary

Many songbirds learn to sing by listening to adult birds of the same species. If separated from the adults, they develop unintelligible warbles rather than normal song patterns. But if taught the song of another species, a bird often can pass the foreign language on to its offspring. In one experiment, a male bullfinch raised by a female canary learned the canary's song to perfection. When it was later mated to a female bullfinch, its children and later its grandchildren could sing like a canary.

MASTER OF LIFE

What does the expression "serving two masters" and "being anxious" have in common? They both have the same root problem--being divided within oneself.

The root word for anxiety literally means being of two minds. An anxious person is often tossed to and fro and paralyzed by fear, indecision, and insecurity. Fear of some bad outcome cripples those afflicted with anxiety.

Who is the master in charge of your life? Our master is whatever governs our thought-life, shapes our ideals, and controls the desires of our heart and the values we choose to live by. We can be ruled by many different things--the love of money and possessions, the power of position and prestige, the glamor of wealth and fame, and the driving force of unruly passions, harmful desires, and addictive cravings. Ultimately, the choice of who is our master boils down to two: God or "mammon." What is mammon? Mammon stands for material wealth or possessions or whatever tends to control our appetites and desires.

Ref: Our Daily Bread

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - NEW LIFE

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,
but anyone can start today and make a new ending."

Maria Robinson