Thursday, June 30, 2011

Simple Life Lesson

 

Laugh when you can...

Apologize when you should...

Let go of what you can't change...

You have to take the good with the bad... 

Take chances and give your everything...

Life is too short to be anything but happy...

Love deeply and forgive quickly...

Love what you have...

Always remember what you had...

Forgive...

But don't forget...

Always remember...

Life goes on...

Seagull steals video camera

This is cool...a seagull steals this guys video camera while the camera is recording.


Picture this...?

INGENIOUS ANALOGIES


-The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.  
-The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
 
-He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually 
lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.  
-The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
 
-She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.  
-She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
 
-"Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.  
-Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like "Second Tall Man."
 
-The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.  
-The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
 
-She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.  
-Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.
 
-Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.  
-It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
 
-He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.  
-The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr on a Dr Pepper can.
 
-It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.  
-He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
 
-The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.  
-Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other 
like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
 
-They lived in a typical suburban neighbourhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.  
-John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
 
-He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.  
-Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
 
-Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.  
-He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
 
-The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.  
-The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
 
-The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.  
-He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.
 
-The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.  
-Her eyes were shining like two marbles that someone dropped in mucus and then held up to catch the light.
 
-The baseball player stepped out of the box and spit like a fountain statue of a Greek god that scratches itself a lot and spits brown, rusty tobacco water and refuses to sign autographs for all the little Greek kids unless they pay him lots of drachmas.  
-I felt a nameless dread. Well, there probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don't speak German. Anyway, it's a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those little square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don't know the name for those either.
 
-McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.  
-From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
 
-Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.  
-Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
 
-His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances, like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.  
-He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
 
-She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.  
-She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
 
-Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.  
-Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre.
 
-From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.  
-She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
 
-She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.  
-The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.
 
-His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.  
-He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
 
-The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.  
-Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
 
-He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.  
-Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
 
-They were as good friends as the people on "Friends."  
-Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein's Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.
 
-She was as unhappy as when someone puts your cake out in the rain, and all the sweet green icing flows down and then you lose the recipe, and on top of that you can't sing worth a damn.  
-Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
 
-It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.  
-You know how in "Rocky" he prepares for the fight by punching sides of raw beef? Well, yesterday it was as cold as that meat locker he was in.
 
-The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.  
-The sunset displayed rich, spectacular hues like a jpeg file at 10 per cent cyan, 10 per cent magenta, 60 per cent yellow and 10 per cent black.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Being a Mother

This comes from a facebook post by Kenny...this is another of those "I don't know or care if it's true...I just like it" stories.


 


After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. She said, "I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you." The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally. That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.

"What's wrong, are you well," she asked?

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

"I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you, "I responded. "Just the two of us."

She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I would like that very much."

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary. She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's.

"I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed," she said, as she got into the car. "They can't wait to hear about our meeting."

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.

"It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small, "she said

"Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favor," I responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation, nothing extraordinary, but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, "I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you."

I agreed.

"How was your dinner date?" asked my wife when I got home.

"Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined," I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to do anything for her.

Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined. An attached note said: "I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. "I love you, son."

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: "I LOVE YOU" and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till "some other time."

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby .... Somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother,"normal" is history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct ... Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring ... Somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.

Somebody said if you're a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good"... Somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said "good" mothers never raise their voices .... Somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor's kitchen window.

Somebody said you don't need an education to be a mother ... somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the first ... somebody doesn't have two children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books.... somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery.... somebody never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten ... or on a plane headed for military "boot camp."

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back ... somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married.... somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last child leaves home.... somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her ... somebody isn't a mother.

Pass this along to everyone. This isn't just about being a mother, it's about appreciating the people in your life while you have them.... no matter who that person is.

"Looking For You" ("Se") Josh Groban from Cinema Paradiso

In the last few years I've come to really appreciate the musical scores written by Ennio Morricone.  This is a personal favorite...yes, this is the same gentleman that wrote the scores for the hit Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns of the 60's & 70's.

From the 1988 movie "Cinema Paradiso" directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, Music by Ennio & Andrea Morricone, Lyrics by Allesio De Sensi, Sung by Josh Groban - "Looking For You" ("Se"):










Looking For You
Se
Music by: Ennio & Andrea Morricone
Lyrics by: Allesio De Sensi
Sung by: Josh Groban




Se tu fossi nei miei occhi per un giorno
Vedresti la bellezza che piena d'allegria
Io trovo dentro gli occhi tuoi
E nearo se magia o lealta

Se tu fossi nel mio cuore per un giorno
Potreste avere un'idea
Di cio che sento io
Quando m'abbracci forte a te
E petto a petto, noi
Respiriamo insieme

Protagonista del tuo amor
Non so se sia magia
O lealta

Se tu fossi nella mia anima un giorno
Sapresti cosa sono in me
Che m'innamorai
Da quell'istante insieme a te
E cio che provo e
Solamente amore

 
English Translation

If you were in my eyes for one day
You could see the full beauty of the joy
I find in your eyes
And it isn't magic or loyalty

If you were in my heart for a day
You would have an idea
Of what I feel
When you hold me strongly to you
Heart to heart,
Breathing together

Protagonist of your love
I don't know if it's magic or loyalty

If you were in my soul for a day
You would know what is inside me
That I fell in love
At that instant, together with you
And what I sense
It's only love.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

"Somewhere" - "West Side Story"

 
 
 
Somewhere
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Music: Leonard Bernstein


TONY: There's a place for us
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere
 
MARIA: There's a time for us
Some day a time for us
Time together
With time to spare
Time to learn
Time to care
Someday
 
TONY: Somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
 
MARIA: We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere
 
TONY & MARIA: There's a place for us
A time and place for us
Hold my hand
And we're halfway there
Hold my hand
And I'll take you there
Somehow
Someday
Somewhere
 
 
 
 
This was the senior class song for the Kubasaki High School class of 1969.

The Top 5 Killers of Men

Pretty scary article, click on the link:







What you can do about it: Small lifestyle changes can yield big results when it comes to improving heart health. Here are four simple changes you can make today:
• Exercise for 30 minutes. Middle-aged men who exercise vigorously for two hours a week (aim for 30 minutes, four times a week) have a 60 percent lower risk of a heart attack than inactive men.
• Lose the spare tire. If you’re overweight, dropping 10 to 20 pounds lowers your risk of dying from a heart attack. In fact, a 10-year study found that overweight people had heart attacks 8.2 years earlier than normal-weight victims.
• Drink five glasses of water a day. Men who drink that many 8-ounce glasses are 54 percent less likely to have a fatal heart attack than those who drink two glasses or fewer. Researchers say the water dilutes the blood, making it less likely to clot.
• Count to 10. Keeping your cool under stress may keep you alive. Men who respond with anger are three times more likely to have heart disease and five times more likely to have a heart attack before turning 55.

"Guantanamera" - The Sandpipers

 
 
 
Guantanamera 
 





The better known "official" lyrics are based on the first stanza of the first poem of the collection "Versos Sencillos" ("Simple Verses") by Cuban poet and independence hero José Martí, as adapted by Juliån Orbón. Given Martí's significance to the Cuban people, the use of his poem in the song virtually elevated it to unofficial anthem status in the country.





This is the poem that ultimately became the song "Guantanamera."


 Simple Verses-1891
 Poetry JosĂ© MartĂ­
 

I am a sincere man   
From where the palm tree grows;  
And before I die
I want to loose my verses from my heart.  

I come from everywhere,  
And I go everywhere:  
I am art among the arts;
In the hills, I am a hill.

I know the strange names of
The grasses and the flowers,
And deadly deceits
Of sublime grief.  

I have seen in the dark night  
Rain over my head
The rays of pure light  
Of divine beauty.

I saw wings on the shoulders
Born of beautiful women,
And butterflies come flying
From the rubbish.

I have seen a man live  
With a dagger in His side,  
Without ever Saying the name
Of those who killed him.

Quick as a reflection,
Twice I saw the soul, twice:  
When the poor old man died,  
When she bade me farewell.  

I shivered once - on the fence, 
At the entrance to the vineyard-  
When the barbarous bee  
My girl stung on the forehead.

I was happy once in a way 
That I've never ever been since:  
When the sentence of my death  
was read by the warden weeping.

I hear a sigh through
Land and the sea  
And it is a breeze - it
Is that my child will wake up.

If They Say: from the jeweler,
Take the best jewel,  
I take a sincere friend  
And put love aside.

I have seen the wounded eagle  
Flying the blue serene,
And dying in his lair  
The snake's venom.

I know that when the world  
cedes pale rest,
On the deep silence
Whispers the gentle stream.


I have put my daring hand
Stiff with horror and joy,

Extinguished upon the star
That fell to my door


I hide in my breast
Wild wounds that hurt me.
The son of an enslaved people
Live by it, silent and die.

All is beautiful and constant,
All is music and reason,
And all, like the diamond,
Before it is light is coal.

I know that the fool is buried
With great luxury and great weeping,
And that there Is no fruit on earth
like that of the burial ground.

I am silent, I understand,
And I doff the pomp of the rhymer;
I hang from a withered tree
My doctor's hood.


"Eres TĂș" Mocedades




Eres TĂș  (Spanish) 
 
 
Words and music by Juan Carlos CalderĂłn
Letra y mĂșsica de Juan Carlos CalderĂłn 
 
 
 
Como una promesa, eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
Como una mañana de verano.
Como una sonrisa, eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
AsĂ­, asĂ­, eres tĂș.


Toda mi esperanza, eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
Como lluvia fresca en mis manos
como fuerte brisa, eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
AsĂ­, asĂ­, eres tĂș. 

Eres tĂș como el agua de mi fuente (algo asĂ­ eres tĂș)
Eres tĂș el fuego de mi hogar
Eres tĂș como el fuego de mi hoguera
Eres tĂș el trigo de mi pan. 

Como mi poema, eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
Como una guitarra en la noche,
todo mi horizonte eres tĂș, eres tĂș.
AsĂ­, asĂ­, eres tĂș. 

Eres tĂș como el agua de mi fuente (algo asĂ­ eres tĂș)
Eres tĂș el fuego de mi hogar
Eres tĂș como el fuego de mi hoguera
Eres tĂș el trigo de mi pan. 

Eres tĂș... 



Like a promise, you are, you are
Like a summer morning
Like a smile, you are, you are
Like that, like that, you are
All my hope, you are, you are
Like fresh rain in my hands
Like a strong breeze, you are, you are; like that, like that, you are 

You are like the water of my fountain (something like that, you are)
You are the fire of my fireplace
You are like the fire of my bonfire
You are the wheat of my bread 

Like my poem, you are, you are
Like a guitar in the night
My whole horizon you are, you are; like that, like that, you are 

You are like the water of my fountain (something like that, you are)
You are the fire of my fireplace
You are like the fire of my bonfire
You are the wheat of my bread 

You are... 

11-06-25 Kaneohe Bay Sunrise


My OPMUG group and I got up early this morning so we could meet up and take some pictures of the sun rising from our favorite spot on Kaneohe Bay.










Thursday, June 23, 2011

"Another Try" America

One of my favorite songs by America..."Another Try."




"Fallin'" Alicia Keys

This song made me a huge fan of Alicia Keys...


Can I Be Your Friend?

Here's an interesting take on facebook:



The Battery Man

Don't know if this guy is for real...but if he is, he's amazing.



The Battery Man - Watch more Funny Videos

Women's Ass Size Study

There is a new study about women and how they feel about their asses, the results were pretty interesting. 30% of women think their ass is too fat, 10% of women think their ass is too skinny, the remaining 60% say they don't care, they love him, he is a good man, and wouldn't trade him for the world.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sack Lunches: From an Airline Passenger

Despite the last paragraph I can't say that this did or did not happen...it doesn't matter because again I like the story.


 
I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat.  It was going to be a long flight.  'I'm glad I have a good book to read.  Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me.  I decided to start a conversation.

'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

'Petawawa, we'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan."

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars.  It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time...

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 
'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.  Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks.  I'll wait till we get to base."

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers.  None were buying lunch. 
I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. "Take a lunch to all those soldiers."  
She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly.  Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. "My son was a soldier in Iraq;  it's almost like you are doing it for him."

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated.

She stopped at my seat and asked,  "Which do you like best - beef or chicken?" 

"Chicken," I replied, wondering why she asked.

She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class.

'This is your thanks.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room.  A man stopped me.  "I saw what you did. I want to be part of it.  Here, take this." He handed me
twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane.  When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, "I want to shake your hand."

Quickly unfastening my seat belt, I stood and took the Captain's hand.

With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot.  Once, someone bought me a lunch.  It was an act of kindness I never forgot."

I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs.  A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine.  He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane.

Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word.  Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base.  I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base.  It will be about time for a sandwich.  God Bless You."

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers.

As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return.  These soldiers were giving their all for our country.  I could only give them a couple of meals.  It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'  That is Honor, and
here are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.'

( This is a true story - many of you may have read this already. Its relevance is similar to Kubasaki High School Students Class of 1964 who raised money for my transportation to attend college from Okinawa to Ohio because my father was on a Foreign National's salary. Please pass this on. )  Thank you Shelley... :-)

Ying/Yang there's a balance

Homeless man with inheritance suffered tragedy


SALT LAKE CITY – A homeless man whose rags-to-riches story made international headlines suffered a devastating family tragedy decades ago that may have led to his life on the streets of Salt Lake City.
A friend tells the Deseret News that Max Melitzer's wife and two friends were killed in a 1990 car crash. Melitzer was driving and, according to Karol Behling, hasn't been the same since.
Behling says Melitzer was deeply affected by the death of his wife, Janice, and his life as a transient seemed to begin after the accident. Last week, a private investigator tracked down Melitzer to deliver the life-altering news of a sizable inheritance left by a brother who died last year of cancer.
Melitzer has since left Utah to reunite with family in New York, whom he hadn't been in contact with in months.
Behling's deceased husband, Steve, knew Melitzer for more than 20 years.
"He was very much in love with his wife, I believe. And it was really hard for him — one, to have her gone and, two, to have been driving," Behling recalled Tuesday. "I'm sure that affected him a lot, and I'm sure he missed his wife a lot."
In July 1990, Melitzer was driving through Wyoming when he lost control of his car, killing his wife and two passengers, the Deseret News reports.
Behling said she recalls Melitzer lost his apartment after the crash and bounced from place to place between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
Behling last saw Melitzer in December, when he visited her husband in the hospital. She said she was surprised to hear Melitzer's family was looking for him, because he never spoke of having any family.
"I hope this works out. And I hope his family is truly interested in him because he's a good guy," Behling said.
Melitzer's family recently hired a New York law firm in an effort to locate him, and the law firm contracted with investigator David Lundberg.
Neither Lundberg nor the lawyers have disclosed the amount Melitzer will receive.
"He'd have money where he could take care of himself or hire someone to take care of him," Lundberg said. "Apparently, he does have some emotional issues. The family just wants to make sure he's set up and he's taken care of."
Others who know Melitzer say he was an example to those around him.
"He takes donations of bread and other things like that, and he tries to donate them to my ministry," said Jason Florez, who runs the homeless ministry at Mountain View Christian Assembly of God church in Sandy. "He just happens to be one of the purest hearts of all the homeless people we bring in and come and see."
Florez gave one of the critical tips Lundberg that led to finding Melitzer at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City last Saturday. He said he saw a television news report highlighting the search for Melitzer.
"I was sitting next to my wife, and I couldn't even talk. I said, `That's Max,'" Florez recalled.
___
Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com

"You Are Beautiful" Faith Rivera & NYC Awesome Women Hub

For all the ladies out there...



Cats

funny gifs


Lytro

Love photos but utterly bored by wave after wave of iPhone photo sharing apps? Lytro is the company for you. This is also the company for anyone who thinks Silicon Valley has fallen into a rut of innovation-less posing. And it’s the company for anyone who complains that the Valley is more about media and marketing than brass-knuckles, hardcore technology. This is the company that jaded, cranky, rap-lyric quoting investor Ben Horowitz says, “blew my brains to bits.”
In short, Lytro is developing a new type of camera that dramatically changes photography for the first time since the 1800s. Rather than just capturing one plane of light, it captures the entire light field around a picture, all in one shot taken on a single device. A light field includes every beam of light in every direction at every point in time. Experimentation in this field started in the mid-1990s at Stanford with 100 cameras in one room. Lytro’s innovation is making it small enough to fit in your pocket. Really.
As a result you can refocus photos after the fact, wiggle around the orientation, and even show the photos in 3D. Get excited, Jason Kincaid, because it’s not too far away from those 3D moving photographs in the Harry Potter movies. The company has raised $50 million so far from NEA, K9 Ventures, Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
Check it out in this photo below by Richard Koci Hernandez. Click around to see Elvis come into focus in the foreground:
Here’s some of what Horowitz wrote on his blog about the company:
“People often refer to taking a picture as capturing the moment, but conventional photography does not really capture the moment. It captures one angle, one set of light, and one focus of the moment. If you are a professional photographer, you might capture the best parts of the moment. If you are someone like me, you most certainly will not. With Ren’s light field camera, you actually capture the moment or at least all of the light that visually represents the moment.
Once you have captured the moment, you can go back at any time and get the picture that you want.
Essentially, you can take the picture you wish you would have taken after the fact. If you are used to the old paradigm, it’s like travelling backwards through time.”
Of course there are big risks with any business this jaw-droppingly innovative. Will they be able to get the price point low enough that people will buy the camera? Right now, the closest Ng will commit on price is somewhere between north of $1 and less than $10,000. That’s a pretty broad ballpark. We won’t be able to see the devices until the also vague “sometime this year.” An equally important question is whether the user experience be as simple as the company claims.
We invited the CEO and founder Ren Ng into the TechCrunchTV studio to answer some of these questions, give us a demo and tell us more about this undeniably cool company. Video below.

Lytro


Lytro Camera Interactive Gallery Lets You Try The Magic Yourself [PICS]


Lytro - The Start of a Picture Revolution 

 




I copied this article from Tech Crunch's web site.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Don't know or care if this is true...just like it

 Two Choices


What would you do...you make the choice.  Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one.  Read it anyway.  My question is:  Would you have made the same choice?


At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.  After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection.
Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do.  He cannot understand things as other children do.  Where is the natural order of things in my son?'
 The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued.  'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'


Then he told the following story:



Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball.  Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?'  I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play.  The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the   eighth inning.  I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning..'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt...I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.  The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field.  Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.  Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
The game would now be over.  The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.  Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first!  Run to first!'

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.  He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!'

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.  By the time Shay rounded towards second base,  the right fielder had the ball.  The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third!  Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer.  He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!



AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.
We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.'

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:

1. Delete

2. Forward
  

May your day, be a Shay Day.

MAY GOD BLESS EVERYONE WHO DECIDES TO PASS THIS ON IN MEMORY OF SHAY..............

Thank you Roberta for sending this to me and allowing so I could pass it on.

March 14, 2015

Pi Day

Armless Pianist Liu Wei Performed You Are Beautiful

Wow!

The Winner of China's Got Talent Final 2010



Pianist with no fingers on right hand

What an amazing young lady...


Monday, June 20, 2011

Polaroid Art

This ain't the Polaroid I remember.




Photographer Peter Langenhahn

These pictures are amazing:


iOS5

I want this version of the operating system!


iOS 5 and Simon Pierro make the iPad even more magical!

Appracadabra & SMSalabim!
Hope you enjoy my digital magic - your "Wizard of OS" ;)
Simon Pierro

www.SimonPierro.com


Sunday, June 19, 2011

T-Mobile Angry Birds Live/New Zealand Pinball Machine Skate Park

This is cool...a real live game of Angry Birds.









And in New Zealand they made skate board park into a pinball game.






Vivian Maier - Street Photographer

Here are some youtube videos showcasing the street photography of Vivian Maier.  It's sad that her body work wasn't didn't receive recognition until after her death in 2009.

































11-06-18 50th State Fair

Last evening a group of us visited the 50th State Fair.  Despite the on and off again rains we had a pretty good time.

I got the chance to experiment with my photography technique.