Get Informed

Don't forget that on Tuesday you are not only voting for the President but for many other candidates in many other races.

You should know who they are and what they stand for.

The people you elect for your local and state government have just as much if not more influence over your daily life and you should be electing people you want in office.

Here is a website that will give you some basics on candidates as well as what your ballot will look like.

www.smartvoter.org

Go to the site and look at the information there. And then search the Internet for the candidates home pages and read more about them.

Get informed so that you can make the right choices.

Back again

I haven't even looked at my google reader yet but I am sure it is ridiculous. It had 250+ on it when I left last weekend.

I didn't have internet down there for the week so I am completely out of touch.

There will be a brief vacation post coming sometime early this week.

But for now here is your life lesson of the day:


Always take this

off of your finger when you go into the ocean!!


TRUST ME!!!

To all those that are married or engaged, take off your ring or you may lose it in the water.

I speak from experience unfortunately.

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Beers

Someone sent this to me today, and I think everyone needs this little reminder.



The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Beers

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.'

What are the Odds?

What Are the Odds?
By: Natalie Josef (View Profile)

About one out of every three people in the United States thinks that winning the lottery is the only way to become financially secure. But the odds of winning a single state lottery are about 18 million to 1.

That’s why I laugh at my friends who buy lottery tickets—to me, it’s just throwing money away. The likelihood you’ll be killed by lightning is roughly 2,650,000 to 1—a lot more likely than winning the lottery.

Have you ever wondered how the odds stack up against each other? For instance, did you know that your odds of winning an Olympic medal are roughly the same as drowning in the bathtub? Check out these odds:

Odds of dying from a dog bite: 1 in 20 million

Odds of becoming a saint: 1 in 20 million

Odds of becoming president: 1 in 10,000,000

Odds of dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000

Odds you will be injured by a toilet this year: 1 in 10,000

Odds of finding a four-leaf clover on the first try: 1 in 10,000

Odds of spotting a UFO today: 1 in 3,000,000

Odds of dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000

Odds of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000

Odds of dying from Measles: 1 in 300,000,000

Odds of a child being in a fatal automobile accident: 1 in 23,000

Odds of being wrongly declared dead by a Social Security data entry mistake: 1 in 23,483

Odds of writing a New York Times best seller: 1 in 220

Odds of dating a millionaire: 1 in 215

Odds of getting AIDS from heterosexual sex without using a condom: 1 in 5,000,000

Odds of dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564

Odds of winning an Academy Award: 1 in 11,500

Odds of bowling a 300 game: 1 in 11,500

Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 1 in 4464

Odds of dying on a bicycle: 1 in 4472

Odds of being murdered: 1 in 18,000

Odds of dying in a car accident: 1 in 18,585

Odds of getting arthritis: 1 in 7

Odds you don’t have health insurance: 1 in 7

Odds of dying from heart disease: 1 in 3

Odds of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime: 1 in 3

Odds that you will die from the collision of an asteroid hitting the earth in the next one hundred
years: 1 in 500,000

Odds of a non-felon being murdered with a gun: 1 in 500,000

Odds of being in a plane crash: 1 in 500,000

I think we need to keep things in perspective and ignore the commercials that tell you to start dreaming about the millions you’re going to win in the lottery. Actually, just ignore TV altogether. While they’re busy recalling every vegetable for fear of salmonella, no one is mentioning the fact that you’re more likely to die of appendicitis than salmonella. How many people do you know who’ve died from appendicitis? The moral here? Eat your vegetables and don’t play the lottery.

Don't Just Sit And Watch

Quit being such a wimp.

No more excuses.

Stand up and tell them what you are thinking and feeling.

And don’t take no for an answer.

You owe it to this person and yourself to push them.



What am I referring to here?

Anyone who has a friend or family member that is causing harm to themselves.

Whether that harm is being caused by alcohol abuse, drug abuse, abusive relationships, or just blatant ignorance of a situation.

Obviously there are some people that are going to respond favorably to you saying something and there are some people who won’t.

Does that mean you should be content to just stand back and watch?

Let’s say you have a friend that drive’s drunk on a regular basis.

And just for arguments sake, let’s say you disapprove of them doing this (which you should by the way).

Do you say something to this friend??

Let’s say you decide that they are an adult and can handle it themselves and you ignore it and right it off as part of who they are.

Now let’s say this person has an accident and is killed in it.

Now, don’t you wish you would’ve said something??

Let’s now say you did say something.

But the friend didn’t want to listen and threatened to not be friends with you if you didn’t chill out about it.

Now what do you do?

Your friendship is on the line here.

I think most people would back off because they don’t want to lose a friend.

I am not sure what I would do personally. It would be really hard, especially if it’s a good friend, to risk that friendship for it.

Especially considering your point may not be heard and it wouldn’t make a difference. And then you would have lost a friend and your efforts wouldn’t have changed anything.

That would suck.

But you know what would make that worse.

Is if you back off and they have an accident and die. Then you would beat yourself up about not doing more.

It isn’t an easy thought to have.

But sometimes you have to put your friend’s well-being before your own.

If you truly are a friend and care about someone than you need to step up and say something.

I don’t care if you have never had a more personal conversation than “hey what are you up to tonight?”

You still owe it to your friend and YOURSELF to stand up and do something.

If you watch from the sidelines as your friend tempts death than you aren’t a good friend.

No matter what excuses you come up with.



Note: there is more to this, but it can’t be told right now.

Random Quotes

So in my boredom, and avoidance to house work, I think I'm going to post random quotes from time to time. Here's the winning quote:






"Some people are like a Slinky... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs"

I have no idea were I saw, read, or heard this, but I think its a great quote.

Words of Wisdom

First of all, if you haven't seen this, check it out.

Now onto my post for today.

I have been talking to a buddy of mine for a few months now on a somewhat daily basis about his issues.

A little background for you:

My friend (lets call him M) met a girl while he was studying abroad in Spain and began dating this girl (lets call her E) when he was there.

They proceeded to carry on this long distance relationship for 5.5 years. She was going to school for the last couple of years in NC so it wasn't always different countries.

M would drive down from Maryland to see her every other weekend when she was on this continent.

M is not what one would call over-confident in himself (I may be to blame for some of that as me and other friend Patty would regularly pick on him cause he was shorter than us and for other reasons), so he probably hung on longer than most would have. E was a good looking girl who liked attention.

E apparently got too much attention from another guy at some point recently and decided to not worry about M and proceeded to cheat on him. No telling how long this went on for, but M found out about 3 months ago.

So now M is hurt, angry, and confused. Even though he will openly admit that he wanted to end things with E before this, he is still very hurt by what she did.

So last night we were talking and he was talking about what he wants to do at that he isn't interested in getting involved with anyone else right now. And while I agree that he isn't ready yet I suggested something else to him.

And this is advice that many of you should consider.

I have heard over the years from people that they plan on focusing on their careers before they start a family or get married. And I believe there are probably parents out there telling there kids to worry about themselves and their career first because you can always have a family later.

To me that sounds backwards. (to understand picture at right click here.)

Now I am not saying just stop working and look for love but don't be afraid of it because you have goals to meet in your professional life.

Love is much rarer than a good career and it is much harder to find.

If you are truly good at and passionate about what you do than you will always be able to find work that will make you happy.

But how many people find someone else that they want to spend the rest of their life with?

I have a few friends that have either not found this yet because they say they need to worry about finding themselves first. Or they don't want to get involved with someone until they are at a certain place in their life.

WHY?

Now I must clarify that I don't think you can go looking for love. It either happens or it doesn't. It is either there or it isn't. It isn't something that can be faked (for very long anyway) or manufactured.

So like I said before I do not mean just focus on your love life and not your professional life because then you will be miserable in both.

But do not avoid getting involved with someone because of your career or anything else.

Basically what I am saying is your career can wait, love can't and shouldn't. You can put your career on hold for a couple years and have no problem picking it back up. But you can't put love on the back burner (more than likely anyway) because either the other person will be gone or you won't feel the same.

Just a thought I had. Do you agree? If not, how come?