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Showing posts from 2013

Metamorphasis

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If I were to describe this past two years it was like "transforming" From a ugly green caterpillar who eats toxic leaves and spews brown crud ... To a much more appealing creature that floats above all that, flutters away from it and sees things in a whole new way. I won't bore you with life as that green slug, the were lots of great moments, but a lot of toxins ingested crawling slowly along the way. This past year started off with a wonderful awakening of a spirit that I had shunned for various reasons for decades. It brought with is a peace and calmness that I have never experienced before, like walking into the eye of a hurricane where all around you there is chaos, but your area is awash in sunshine and calm. I have been blessed with many tools to help me carry that calm with me, wherever I go. From that brightly lit center, I now see many things a lot different. I look at what is "normal" around me, and discover that it is not normal at all. I hav

Happy UN-Thanksgiving

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First of all, Happy Thanksgiving. I have a Brother in Germany who gets about six weeks vacation and half a month of government holidays. So today is one of the only times of the year where I can gloat for a few moments. He is working today, I am not.  However, that moment is very short lived. It's not in my nature to do that. I miss him and his family for over fifty weeks of the year. I wish they could share in the festivities of today.  This is a great holiday. One of reflection, humility, grateful thanks. It's loosely about the story of two vastly diverse cultures and peoples long ago who got together to share their food and their spiritualism. That honeymoon day didn't last though. The Indians got the Casinos and the Pilgrims got everything else, and now the pilgrims go to the Casinos and give it all back. This has always been a holiday of a stressful roll-up of a mandated short week (unless you work in retail). Everything "needs" to be done by 2P

Perspective

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Like a trail of ants. I have a nice view from the 14th floor in my new office. All day long I see a stream of traffic ... heading somewhere.  I can't help but look at the lines of movement ... a steady flow of creatures, some larger, some smaller, but all following a trail somewhere. Like the little tiny ants I used to watch with fascination as a young kid; I see the same lines of tens of thousands traversing somewhere, knowing that each feels important in their own way, each has their own needs, their own lives, their own happiness, their own sorrows. Viewed from the 14th floor, you lose that perspective. You see only masses of motion. You forget that each vehicle, or human, or even the animals riding along; carry so many experiences, dreams and hopes ... from their perspective. It's all about me ... One of the great life lessons learned recently is that it IS all about me when it comes to interacting with other people. I have learned that if someone else upsets me,

Hi - my name is Bob ...

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Taken from my Blackberry So I was out riding my bike along a remote trail the other day .. and an alien materialized out of nowhere ... - I stopped. A little startled, I didn't say anything.  He said, "Hey there ... nice day for a ride eh?". It was a beautiful day, I agreed with him, introduced myself, he told me his name was Bob.  So, not to be rude, I asked him "how can I help you?" He explained that physically, his species was almost identical. He could consume the same foods as us and metabolize proteins, and minerals and nutrients the same as us... that he liked Pizza and he also had an affinity for M&M's. (must be an ET thing). I shared my love of pizza and suggested he try Heath Toffee Bars ... Then he started asking about some items he saw people ingesting in various ways, inhaling, injecting and consuming in liquid form, that seemed to have no benefit to the body at all. Little or no nutritional value, in fact, many contained seriou

The History of C2H6O

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After minutes of intense and exhaustive research, I have prepared this summary of the complete and thorough history of the compound C2H6O ... sometimes abbreviated as EtOH, using the common organic chemistry notation of representing the ethyl group (C2H5) with Et. It was discovered by a caveman named Eddie 10,479 years ago who ate some rotting fruit. In his notes posted on his blog, he noted it "affected every organ in the body. It is a central nervous system depressant that is rapidly absorbed from the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream." But it felt really good. So he opened a store ... Open M-S 10-8, closed on Sundays according to the "Beige Laws" (Blue was not invented yet). After Franchising, the word spread, Egyptian chemists a few thousand years later were able to extract enhanced variations of the compound C2H6O from a variety of fruits, with various affects on the central nervous system. Some causing seizure like walking episodes, hen

Sustainability

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What is sustainability? This little visual I found on the web tries to explain it all ... in my opinion it may be just a teeny tiny bit confusing? Maybe a candidate for that "Death by PowerPoint Presentation? For me it's a great buzz word for what should be simple common sense and doing the right thing. For example, in starting up my coffee business, the first question I heard was are you going to do K-Cups? My first thought was sure! Simple, easy to use, clean, efficient ... but then I thought about, expensive, wasteful of resources, huge additional carbon footprint and a recycling and waste management disaster. I can only imagine people excavating our trash a thousand years from now and seeing tens of millions of those little things and saying 'what the hell were they thinking ... were they that lazy and ADD that they couldn't make a pot of coffee, and recycle a paper filter? Sustainability is everywhere, it's not just a business buzz. It's your he

Blinded by the dollars

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If you were a traveling businessperson, looking for a fun  place to go for food and an evening of drinks and possible entertainment with local flair, I would suggest the Tavern downtown, or the Bar and Grill farther north near the airport. Both have great food, excellent wine lists and full bars. They have local 'regulars' who make the evenings fun, Windsor's version of 'Cheers'. I bring these up, because they were both promoted in a local fundraiser for the High School. Spend an evening out and these establishments, and they will donate a percentage of the revenues to the school to help with Graduation expenses. A mailer was sent out, but there was a problem. Contained in the envelope from the school was a letter from the High School Principal announcing an event to raise awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving. It talked of the thousands of deaths and what the school was doing to educate the students. The following four pages were fundraisers, two