Last Edited Gaming Blogs (3,353)

There were 200 people attending a seminar on mental and physical health.

At one point, the speaker told the group they were going to do an activity. He gave each attendee one balloon and told them to write their name on it. Then, the balloons were collected and moved into a very small room. The participants were then asked to go into the other room and were given 2 minutes to find their balloon.

It was chaos…People were searching frantically for their balloon, pushing each other and running into one another while they grabbed a balloon, looked at it, and inevitably tossed it to the side. At the end of the 2 minutes, no one had found the balloon that had their name on it. Then, the speaker asked the participants to go back in the room and pick up one balloon at random, look at the name, and return it to its owner. Within minutes, everyone had been reunited with their original balloon.

He then told the group, “This is what it’s like when people are frantically searching for their own happiness in life. People push others aside to get the things that they want that they believe will bring them happiness. However, our happiness actually lies in helping other people and working together as a community.”

According to the Dalai Lama, “If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”


Blessings everyone!

My asthma is like the tides in the ocean... high on some days and low on others. Normally, I'll go with only a puff or two of Albuterol (rescue) inhaler. If I'm around someone with really strong perfume, I'll need another 'hit' to keep things rolling.
A few months ago I had a tough time after getting into a rental car. It was sprayed and prepped minutes earlier. I had to wait for the car as nothing else (to my liking) was available. The chemicals they use are toxic and within a few days my asthma medicine wasn't working. I was coughing up green chunks and went to the doctor because it turned into a respiratory infection.
I know, TMI, but every morning when I got up and showered, it would loosen 'stuff' in my lungs and I would go through a coughing session. This happened a few times a day, especially when exercising in my morning walks.
I use lots of paper cups and after a drink, I'll keep the empty cup... just in case and it's often used as a spittoon.



Ya gotta do what you've gotta do...

I see that cuspidor is the Portuguese word for spittoon. May be I'll use that as it has a nicer sound...

CS blog number 71,200.

This blog is not about politics. I've been formulating the idea for this blog in my mind for months. No big hurry, but two things happened this week to move it up on my list. My Rihanna blog with FF's comment about Tina Turner and Satellite Radio channel surfing that landed me on a soul station.

Somewhere in the early 1960's my dad bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. My (older) brother borrowed 45rpm records from friends and made a 'party mix' of songs. Depending on the speed, that could run non-stop for an hour or more.

What did he record? A little of this and a little of that. Some surfing music, rock & roll, Rhythm & blues and soul music. To us, music was music... well, with the exception of Country Music. I could listen to Roy Clark, but it tapered off sharply after that.

There were a dozen guitar players in my neighborhood, a few drummers, one guy playing bass guitar, one guy playing saxophone and one guy playing accordion.
I teamed up with a duo guitarist & drummer who played on Miami Beach hotels poolside. Americans called it 'pass the hat' and the British called it busking. Either way, the music was free and we accepted donations.

To get the gig with these guys, I had to play keyboards, so my parents bought a small portable organ by the Italian company Farfisa. I quickly memorized a bunch of songs and we were playing a few hotels every morning in the summer. Too young to drive, we always had a parent schlep us and our gear to the gigs as well as acting manager/agent to see we had plenty of bookings with the entertainment directors of the hotels.

We played music the tourists wanted to hear and that often got us special events when they had the pool open at night for a BBQ or party. We were available for birthday parties, school dances, teen hop at the bowling alley and the best paying gigs... fraternity parties at the local college!

Dance music was most of our repertoire, but college kids loved Soul Music and so it was. We also did songs by The Young Rascals and on request... The Supremes song You Keep Me Hanging On was on our list.

This brings up the part of Black female singers. A generation later, I watched a documentary about Whitney Houston where she mentioned her musical beginning was singing Gospel. Look around and nearly EVERY Black female singer got their start doing gospel. Can you name 20? I probably could.

My musical taste runs fickle and I have my favorites regardless of their success. Maybe it was the songs they were singing as many sounded like fingernails across a chalkboard.

White girls were everywhere but singers like Karen Carpenter bored me to tears. Remember Leslie Gore and I'll Cry if I want to ... Waaah. I cried because that song was played 32 million times.

I wasn't 100% on Black female singers either. What I disliked most were the wailers... Great voice, but they were over-the-top and I'd turn the volume down. Aretha, Patti LaBelle, Tina make it to that list.

Patti's duet with Michael McDonald (On My Own) was 'almost' a masterpiece, until she starts that wailin' shit (on live performances) and I have to turn it down. I think you get my point.

This week, I did hear a great song by a great singer Gladys Night and I think it's perfect for my blog... The voice of a Black Woman.

Now why is it that a lot of women tear other women down?

Watching Nikki Haley making it official today with her run for office in 2024, and then seeing where women from the TV show 'The View" going after Nikki Haley. Whoopi Goldberg was very vocal in going after her. You could just see their heads explode over her run.

I feel that when a lot of these type of women do this, they feel threatened over other women no matter the reason.

Now I know that these women on The View go after guys with political differences, but these women REALLY seem to go out of their way and want to go after the women they don't like.

A lot of women can be catty towards each other as well. Not an attractive trait to have for a woman.





Later, what the hell is wrong with some of us guys. Stay tuned!

I notice some blogs, are prone to being deleted, here, without notice. What are your thoughts on this? Is the famous "Freedom of Speech", (of which Americans are so mightily proud); in real danger?

Please discuss in the broader context of wider American society. Is this a sign of the times, that we are living in? Is America, inevitably, veering closer to China, in this respect?


The right to Free Speech, is more important, than the content of the speech.

- Voltaire

(Voltaire, by the way, was estimated to have an IQ of 190, and I'm willing to BET that nobody here, does (myself included). Therefore, having said that, maybe (just maybe), we should listen to, and study Voltaire?)

Breaking News...

You know who made a comment about entertainer Rihanna as having no talent. This was just prior to her performance at the Super Bowl this past weekend. Okay, then explain how since the age of 17, she put out eight albums in total, with 14 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She is one of the best-selling digital artists of all time and has sold 60 million albums and 215 million digital tracks. Musically, that put her as a multi-millionaire.

Her real success comes from a line of her cosmetics and in February 2023, her estimated net worth is $1.4 Billion... Yes, "B-illion" and Forbes ranked her No. 21 on their list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, becoming one of the youngest self-made female billionaires.



It's reported she didn't receive payment for her Super Bowl performance, but the appearance boosted her music career in more ways than one.

No-talent... I have to consider the source.

and there are.... dare I say it
push overs also.

After deciding to downsize, my friend Ali's house sold quicker then she had thought leaving her no time to sell off her furniture as planned, because she had no storage place she had no choice but to give all away, so among many in chats, she spread the word around.

Many came and everyone that took something, offered her something (as in money) everyone that is, but the one who took the most.

Quickly fast forwarding
Ali recently moved into her new smaller home, went on DoneDeal to buy a second hand table and lord and behold, there was HER old dining room one up for sale for 1,200

Now Ali ain't no fool nor does she like to be treated like one either, yet as angry as she is she has decided not to say anything to Ms Greedy, this really maddens me but she's warned me not to say anything about it to her either ... so I gave her my word I wouldn't.

Having said that, I never promised her I wouldn't be digging a hole in the back garden with her name on it though

When push comes to shove, we need to step up for our push over friends...
Right

Or as I call it: Tuesday. My day today has been okay. A lot of stuff to do at work, which is quite nice. It wouldn't be particularly fun if work was slow and boring.

Every day has a theme, it seems. Mondays are usually exhausts, since I pick so many exhausts during Mondays. Tuesdays are all about filters, while Wednesdays are all about oil. Thursdays are for the more troublesome things to pick, like subframes and Fridays are for all the small things (Na-na, na-na, na-na, na-na, na, na)


Anyway.. Tomorrow's Wednesday, so we are almost half way through the work week. Actually, in about 16 hours (it's 21:42 here now on a Tuesday), we are officially half way through the work week, at least here in Denmark. It might be different where you are, though.

I hope you have had a fantastic day, and have treated yourself to something nice. You deserve it. Unless your name is Carl. In that case, you deserve nothing..

Love - an intense feeling of deep affection.
Love is an emotion of strong affection, tenderness, or devotion toward a subject or object. (psychcentral.com)
Respect - a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
An attitude of, or behaviour demonstrating, esteem, honour, regard, concern, and other such positive qualities toward an individual or entity.(dictionary.apa.org)

Would it make sense to reaffirm your love for him after he accuses you of disrespecting him? In your mind you say, “How could I disrespect him, when I love him?” Doesn’t he know that I only want what’s best for him? The thing is, unless he’s your child, or you’re his court-appointed foster parent or guardian, or GOD, it’s disrespectful to decide that YOU know “what’s best” for him (a grown man).

For many people, they’d prefer to have Respect, rather than Love, from their date/significant other. Love could grow as time passed, but respect is needed from the get-go. It took me a while to agree with this perspective, because I had always believed that Love conquers all (and I still do, from a biblical point of view), so it would be enough. And that’s perhaps why I was saddened when I was accused of disrespecting him. But much later, when I had a similar experience, the ‘light of truth’ came on in my head.

Assuming that someone respects you just because they profess love for you is myopic, and this can happen due to one’s naivety or clouded judgement. Perhaps it was due to reading too many romance novels, watching too many rom-coms or listening to too many love stories told by the girls at high school. Perhaps all of the above.

Whichever… Love is an emotion, but must be demonstrated or else it carries no worth. Respect is an attitude that ascribes worth without any direct action, even though it too, requires some level of demonstration. With them both, any relationship would thrive and could be more easily repaired when things go wrong, than with only one of them.

Sadly, it IS possible to love someone but lack (or lose) respect for him/her.