The Typical Characteristics of Rabbit
Cuddly, warm and affectionate are the attributes of the Rabbit. Mysterious and a great party-giver and host, the Rabbit enjoys being the centre of attention once in a while. The Rabbit is occasionally over cautious and can be a bit boring. He is also one of the luckiest signs in the Chinese Astrology chart.
Forecast for 2011
The Rabbit will have found the momentum during 2010 quite unsettling, little realizing that his accomplishments during the year will set him up beautifully for his own year in 2011. This will be a stunning and most favorable year for him, especially in regard to work and career. His ability to interact with others will put him in the lead for any promotions at work. Also, if the Rabbit is considering a completely different career, this is the perfect time to explore his options. Not only will the change energize him but he will feel happier than he has done in some time. March to May and October to November will be important times for career developments. Finances during the Rabbit’s own year are buzzing, with his luck running high! He may see a salary increase, receive a gift or make extra money from a hobby or entrepreneurial idea. Socially, August, September and December will be hectic! Single Rabbits could meet their significant other this year and the relationship could move very fast. Those with partners will find their relationship becomes more serious and important. Stress and worry over decisions may drain the Rabbit’s vitality during 2011 and it’s very important he gets enough rest and relaxation. He must also remember to call on friends and loved ones for support and advice during any challenging times.
Interesting Rabbit Facts:
Zodiac Stone: Pearl
Special Flower: Jonquil
Best Hours: 5-7 am
Season: Spring
Horoscope Colors: Grey, White
Source: Moonslipper.com
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Christmas Lights by Coldplay
"Those Christmas lights
Light up the street
Down where the sea and city meet
May all your troubles soon be gone
Oh Christmas lights, keep shining on"
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Lesson 102
Author Unknown
- Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
- Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something Really big.
- Don’t listen to critics. Do what has to be done.
- Build on the high ground.
- For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
- Two heads are better than one.
- Speed isn’t always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails.
- If you can’t fight or flee–float.
- Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.
- Don’t forget that we’re all in the same boat.
- When the doo-doo gets really deep, don’t sit there and complain–shovel!
- Stay below deck during the storm.
- Remember that the ark was built by amateurs & the Titanic was built by professionals.
- If you have to start over, have a friend by your side.
- Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.
- No matter how bleak it looks, there’s always a rainbow on the other side.
- DON’T MISS THE BOAT !!!!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Lesson 101
-excerpted from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School.
These are the things I learned:
- Share everything.
- Play fair.
- Don't hit people.
- Put things back where you found them.
- Clean up your own mess.
- Don't take things that aren't yours.
- Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
- Wash your hands before you eat.
- Flush.
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
- Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
- Take a nap every afternoon.
- When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
- Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
- Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
- And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Hitik sa Bunga by Brownman Revival
Nakaranas ka na ba
Nakatikim ka na ba
Nakatanggap o nabigyan ng kahihiyan
Dahil sa iyong pinakikinggan
Dahil sa iyong pinanindigan
Dahil sa mahal mong kasintahan
o dahil sa iyong nakamtan
[chorus]
Inggit sa iyong narating
Pilit kang sisirain
Dyan sila magaling
Ilalagay ka sa alanganin
Kaya mag-ingat sa mga asal talangka
Hihilahin ka nila pababa
Namamato pag ika'y hitik
Hitik sa bunga [2x]
Dapat lagi kang listo
Bantayan ang iyong puso
Sa mga pabigat sa iyong pag-akyat
Pumipigil sa iyong pag-angat hmmm
[repeat chorus]
Mag-ingat sa mga asal talangka
Hihilahin ka nila pababa
Namamato pag ika'y hitik
Hitik sa bunga [2x]
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
A Poem by Win Pe
(famous landmark on Rangoon University campus)
Most when I do not see it,
I see it in my heart.
Most when I am not near it,
it is near my thoughts,
attendant, attentive,
ready to slip in,
to spread its branches in the sky of my mind,
to flutter its leaves in the wind of memories.
In one of those classrooms
within easy reach of its falling leaf,
I learned to ride the pitch and yaw of reason.
It is not those classrooms I remember,
nor do I recall that heavy structure
where a piece of paper and a handshake confirm
some ability to cox the boat of intellect.
Most I remember
lying on back beside its roots,
looking into the deep well of its branches,
the sky at the other end like well-water
and I drinking deep.
Most I remember
taking my emotion and intuitions there,
letting the wind ruffle my deepest feelings
as it ruffles the leaf in the crook of a branch.
Man does not live in the edifices of reason.
Man does not dwell in the structures of intellect.
He lives as a tree lives,
open to the skies and winds of perception,
drinking the rain of passions and impulse,
soaking up the sunshine of affection.
The sap of feeling passes through him,
awakening each part of him to life.
So thitpoke tree,
let me live as you have lived for others,
and so will live to the wind and sun,
so let me live as you have lived for me.
Source: www.maymyanmar.com
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Best of Queen Seon Deok
This is one of the best scenes in Queen Seon Deok.
Lady Mishil reveals her secret to Deokman
Friday, April 16, 2010
Study: Only Two Tasks Can Be Done at Once
By Rachael Rettner, LiveScience Staff Writer
For those who find it tough to juggle more than a couple things at once, don't despair. The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests.
That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled.
"What really the results show is that we can readily divide tasking. We can cook, and at the same time talk on the phone, and switch back and forth between these two activities," said study researcher Etienne Koechlin of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. "However, we cannot multitask with more than two tasks."
The results will be published this week in the journal Science.
Multitasking in the brain
The MFC is thought to be part of the brain's "motivational system." Specifically, it helps monitor the value of rewards and drives a person's behavior according to that value. In other words, it's where rewards are represented in the brain.
Scientists knew that a region at the very front of the brain, called the anterior prefrontal cortex (APC), was involved in multitasking. But they weren't sure how the MFC was involved. Are the rewards for the different tasks represented separately? Or summed together?
Koechlin and his colleagues had 32 subjects complete a letter-matching task while they had their brains scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The subjects saw uppercase letters on a screen and had to determine whether those letters were presented in the correct order to spell out a certain word. They were given money if they performed the task with no errors.
The researchers saw that, the higher the monetary reward, the more activity there was in the MFC.
But then they made the task more difficult. In addition to uppercase letters, the subjects were also presented with lowercase letters, and had to switch back and forth between matching the uppercase letters to spell out, say, T-A-B-L-E-T, and lowercase letters to spell out t-a-b-l-e-t.
During this dual task, the MFC divided up the labor. One hemisphere of the brain encoded the reward associated with the uppercase letter task, and so showed activity during that task, while the other region encoded the reward associated with the lowercase task, Koechlin said.
Essentially, the brain behaved "as if each frontal lobe was pursuing its own goal," Koechlin said.
To make things even more complicated, the researchers introduced a third letter-matching task. Here, they saw the subject's accuracy drop considerably. It was as though, once each hemisphere was occupied with managing one task, there was nowhere for the third task to go.
"[The] subjects perform as if they systematically forget one of the three tasks," Koechlin told LiveScience.
Decision-making
The results might also explain why humans seem to have a hard time making decisions between more than two things, Koechlin said.
Previous work has indicated that people like binary choices, or decisions between two things. They have difficulty when decisions involve more than two choices, Koechlin said. When faced with three or more choices, subjects don't appear to evaluate them rationally; they simply start discarding choices until they get back to a binary choice.
This is perhaps because your brain can't keep track of the rewards involved with more than two choices, Koechlin said.
Source: Live Science
For those who find it tough to juggle more than a couple things at once, don't despair. The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests.
That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled.
"What really the results show is that we can readily divide tasking. We can cook, and at the same time talk on the phone, and switch back and forth between these two activities," said study researcher Etienne Koechlin of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. "However, we cannot multitask with more than two tasks."
The results will be published this week in the journal Science.
Multitasking in the brain
The MFC is thought to be part of the brain's "motivational system." Specifically, it helps monitor the value of rewards and drives a person's behavior according to that value. In other words, it's where rewards are represented in the brain.
Scientists knew that a region at the very front of the brain, called the anterior prefrontal cortex (APC), was involved in multitasking. But they weren't sure how the MFC was involved. Are the rewards for the different tasks represented separately? Or summed together?
Koechlin and his colleagues had 32 subjects complete a letter-matching task while they had their brains scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The subjects saw uppercase letters on a screen and had to determine whether those letters were presented in the correct order to spell out a certain word. They were given money if they performed the task with no errors.
The researchers saw that, the higher the monetary reward, the more activity there was in the MFC.
But then they made the task more difficult. In addition to uppercase letters, the subjects were also presented with lowercase letters, and had to switch back and forth between matching the uppercase letters to spell out, say, T-A-B-L-E-T, and lowercase letters to spell out t-a-b-l-e-t.
During this dual task, the MFC divided up the labor. One hemisphere of the brain encoded the reward associated with the uppercase letter task, and so showed activity during that task, while the other region encoded the reward associated with the lowercase task, Koechlin said.
Essentially, the brain behaved "as if each frontal lobe was pursuing its own goal," Koechlin said.
To make things even more complicated, the researchers introduced a third letter-matching task. Here, they saw the subject's accuracy drop considerably. It was as though, once each hemisphere was occupied with managing one task, there was nowhere for the third task to go.
"[The] subjects perform as if they systematically forget one of the three tasks," Koechlin told LiveScience.
Decision-making
The results might also explain why humans seem to have a hard time making decisions between more than two things, Koechlin said.
Previous work has indicated that people like binary choices, or decisions between two things. They have difficulty when decisions involve more than two choices, Koechlin said. When faced with three or more choices, subjects don't appear to evaluate them rationally; they simply start discarding choices until they get back to a binary choice.
This is perhaps because your brain can't keep track of the rewards involved with more than two choices, Koechlin said.
Source: Live Science
Monday, March 15, 2010
Idus Martias
(by Constantine P. Cavafy)
Fear grandeurs, O soul.
And if you cannot overcome
your ambitions, pursue them with hesitation
and caution. And the more you advance,
the more inquisitive, careful you must be.
And when you reach your peak, Caesar at last;
when you assume the form of a famous man,
then above all beware when you go out in the street,
a conspicuous ruler with followers,
if by chance from the mob approaches
some Artemidorus, bringing a letter
and says hastily "Read this immediately,
these are grave matters that concern you,"
do not fail to stop; do not fail to push aside
all those who salute and kneel
(you can see them later); let even the Senate
itself wait, and immediately recognise
the grave writings of Artemidorus.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Dim Lighting, Sunglasses, and Dishonesty
WASHINGTON: Dim lighting and sunglasses can encourage dishonest and unethical behavior, a new study finds.
Psychologists from University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted studies to test whether darkness can license dishonest and selfish behavior.
In one study, participants were placed in a dimly or well-lit room. They were given $10 and asked to complete a worksheet and reward themselves with $0.50 from their supply of money for each correct step. Participants in the slightly dim room cheated more and thus earned more undeserved money than those in a well-lit room.
In the another test, some people wore sunglasses and others wore clear glasses while interacting with a stranger. Each had $6 to allocate between him-or herself and the recipient and could keep what they didn’t offer. People wearing shades behaved more selfishly by giving less than the others.
The researchers suggest that the experience of darkness may induce a sense of anonymity that is disproportionate from actual anonymity in a given situation.
SOURCE: The Times of India
Psychologists from University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted studies to test whether darkness can license dishonest and selfish behavior.
In one study, participants were placed in a dimly or well-lit room. They were given $10 and asked to complete a worksheet and reward themselves with $0.50 from their supply of money for each correct step. Participants in the slightly dim room cheated more and thus earned more undeserved money than those in a well-lit room.
In the another test, some people wore sunglasses and others wore clear glasses while interacting with a stranger. Each had $6 to allocate between him-or herself and the recipient and could keep what they didn’t offer. People wearing shades behaved more selfishly by giving less than the others.
The researchers suggest that the experience of darkness may induce a sense of anonymity that is disproportionate from actual anonymity in a given situation.
SOURCE: The Times of India
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Happy Valentine's Day!
Something to reflect on this Valentine's Day (From "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran)
LOVE
Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
by Portia Nelson
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Don't Stop Believin'
Boyce Avenue's cover of Don't Stop Believin' by Journey
Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere
A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
{Refrain}
Strangers, waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night
Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
{Refrain}
Don't stop believing
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlight people
Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere
A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
{Refrain}
Strangers, waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night
Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
{Refrain}
Don't stop believing
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlight people
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein
"This fable can ... be interpreted to mean that no one should try to find all the answers, no one should hope to fill all the hopes in themselves, achieve total transcendental harmony or psychic order because a person without a search, loose ends, internal conflicts and external goals becomes too smooth to enjoy or know what's going on. Too much satisfaction blocks exchange with the outside." - Anne Roiphe
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