Does anybody clearly remember life before the mobile phone? The mobile revolution started in the mid to late 80s. It was a bulky contraption looking close to a ladies handbag with a strap to be slung over the shoulders. You could make very expensive calls on it .. if you talked loud enough. Then a couple of years later, SMSs (Short Message Service) were introduced. They had to be very short because the cost was horrendous. Sending an 'I love you' would cost the equivalent of about a dollar in today's money. And that's nigh 33 years ago.
Now, few, if anybody can live without the mobile. FaceBook, Twitter, BBC, CNN, WhatsApp, Messenger, Camera, eMail, YouTube, Spotify, ePayments and 'e'verything else one can think of.
It's taken over our lives, and some ! And maybe it's time to revert back to using the mobile to making short and necessary phone calls, and take back our lives.
Yes, maybe I'll do that. Tomorrow.
Today I need to stay abreast of all the gossip !
Peace.
In my opinion, everybody prays.
In all religions. Of all beliefs. Whether proclaimed atheists or non believers, all pray.
Spiritually prayer is from the heart and so most times it’s private, but it also is manifested publicly, aloud and as a congregation, invoking or pleading or asking or thanking God, or Allah, or Buddha, or the Sun, the Moon.....
Praying is a powerful emotion which can be both physical and mental, and even if for the briefest of time, can be a reliever of worry, stress, mental and physical pain, and a support in time of need.
I believe in the power of prayer.
You ?
My thought today is with a friend who has been suffering in health for many years, and who has been through hell and back an innumerable number of times. While this may show an inherent gigantic inner strength, it is truly a huge cross that this friend is bearing and carrying.
May the Almighty Father take pity, heals this person from the pain and lightens the load that has now been borne for many many years. I earnestly pray for this Dear God.
Amen
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Please say a little prayer for all the suffering in this world.
Hey people.
Since the earliest i can remember, i was always reading. Marvel Comics, illustrated books, Readers Digest and Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia, apart from most pf the classics, all of Enyd Blyton's Famous Five and Agatha Christie's Poirot works.
But a great book which I kept going to over and over from early reading stage to late teenager was a well gnarled copy of Aesop's Fables and all the lessons learned from it.
However the most powerful story that eventually guided me through my life was Hans Christian Andersons's The Emperor's New Clothes.
It taught me to always say the truth !
Politicians the world over today badly need the morals of Aesop's Fables, and the lesson learned from Hans Christian Anderson's fashion inspired tale. Really.
Peace !
One of Aesop's more popular fable is that of the Hare and the Tortoise famous race, in which, the hare being fast and was well ahead of his slow friend, foolishly takes a nap before crossing the finishing line. The hare oversleeps and the tortoise wins the race.
And the audience sheep went numb!
Brilliant lesson to be learned you would think. Slow and wise not fast and foolish.
Except that in today's life's rat-race, it's not the finishing line that matters, but the race itself. The race for enriching oneself as quickly as one can, amassing wealth and position even to the detriment of all others, and the planet itself. It's the commas in the bank amount that matters. Never mind the ruining of the environment, the non-existing spatial greenery, the suffocation of the bathing waters, the plastic in the oceans, the noise decibels in industrial and building production, the fake entertainment industry with fun pills and powder, and the selfish, unscrupulous politicians dominating everywhere .... and the list goes on and on.
The modern finishing of Aesop's fable would be that the hare couldn't finish the race because he died under all his weighty wealth.
And the tortoise crossed the line, won the race and died sad and broke because of the thieving, cheating, lying hare !
And all the sheep were clapping for they thought it was a great race.
Peace
Hey people.
I am sure all England football supporters worldwide remember today in history 52 years ago.
Yes 30 July 1966 England bested West Germany 4-2 and lifted the Joules Rimet trophy in Wembley Stadium. It was the first World Cup televised live in the competition’s 36 years history. Many reading this weren’t even born at the time but I specifically remember watching it at home with my parents and half the street neighbours filling the room and spilling out of the wide open front door into the street, on a b&w Leowe Opta mahogany cased tv.
That day I sided with Germany, and have been a DFB fan since .
Seems so like it was only yesterday !
Peace
Hey people,
Fuel went up by 4% and BOV went down by 10% and not paying any dividends this year so far. Makes me feel like Zuckerberg must have felt with his Facebook shortfall 5 days ago (ha bl**dy haha)!
Not a good start to this hot month of August. But I can still go to the beaches, albeit somewhat overcrowded. And snorkel!
Ah..... I also wrote a new poem, and that helps life remain somewhat bearable.
Peace
check it out
Today is the last day of July, the month dedicated internationally to picnics .... and therefore the great outdoors ! Not here though. In this, on this small island, we are a very poor nation. The little there is is inundated with building waste material, rubbish, or illegal encroachment by caravans and bird trappers’ RTO notices. All to a backdrop of towering cranes and noise.
So we don’t do picnics. We do beach barbecues ! The black small mounds of soot and unconsumed charcoal which pepper some of our popular rocky beach spots and the resultant eyesore of overflowing separating rubbish bins have become a norm, accepted by a people who seem to have given up.
But on this, maybe some other time ...
Peace
Hey people,
"Who wants to live forever" sang the great Freddie Mercury.
The first time I heard of Facebook was some 14 years ago when it was in its infancy. I started using it about a year later, little realizing how it will change social interactions worldwide and the upcoming generation's mentality. Kudos to Mark Zuckerberg, who overnight yesterday moved down from being the fouth richest to the sixth richest man on the Planet. So why kudos? Because the figures are mind numbing. Facebook, before yesterday was worth a mind boggling $626 billion or thereabouts. Now, it's down to c. $508 billion. That's 508,000,000,000. US dollars. Close your eyes, and repeat that figure digit by digit. It takes 12 seconds to just say it. To own it? Easy, depending on your perspective. Think about how nobody, nobody takes anything of materialistic value with them at the end of the day. I'll be remembered for my deeds ... and so would Zuckerberg. That makes us even I guess. I do my bit, but Zuckerberg and the top odd dozen of his ilk have the power to change the world .... for the better.
And unlike the rest of us mortals, live forever.
Peace
Hey people,
The Martians are coming!
Space scientists have found liquid water in some substrata lake on Mars. I was always under the impression that the Red planet was too cold, too dry and with no oxygen, yet I’ve a feeling that we in Malta will encounter Martians for real and even much before the local controversies unravel.
My theory is with the cranes, and not the flying kind either .... the Martians are bound to see our behemoths stretching to the skies and discover our advanced telecoms community and target superior Malta as the ideal first contact with Earthlings.
Trouble is, they won’t find any spot where to land ....precisely because of the cranes.
Peace
Hey people,.
While the month of July is dedicated to the Ice Cream, today in particular is Junk Food Day ! For many, today can be a treat, for many others today is nothing special, since eating junk food is a norm.
A rather disgusting statistic is that over 1 billion people worldwide defacate outdoors. Yes people, that’s sh*tting in the open. And no country is excluded from this practice .... both literally and figuratively speaking !
Why are you surprised ?
Peace
people talk about love. to love ... to be loved... being in love... falling in, falling out... wow.
the big question is 'what is love ?'
obviously there are many kinds of love - parental, filial, selfish. anyhow, personally i think 'love is never having to say you're sorry'. that i think encompasses everything. yet to err is so human. i know, to forgive is divine, but to apologise is humble, honorable and if genuine, gives a cleansing feeling. full circle.
but i think the million dollar question is:
which would you rather: to love and to lose, or never having loved at all ?
many times i think the former. many other times i feel it is best the latter.
your views are most welcome.
peace.
xx virgosign
virgosign Blog (27)