Microsoft free tools #4 – Microsoft Songsmith

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Microsoft Songsmith is an amazing programme to use in the classroom for creating songs. The students absolutely love it.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What is Songsmith?</b></span><br />Songsmith is a pretty smart programme that creates musical accompaniment to match the voice of whoever is singing. All you have to do is choose a musical style, sing into your PC or laptop microphone, and Songsmith will come up with the backing track for your music. After that you can share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Songsmith is free for teachers</b></span><br />The great news is that Songsmith is free for teachers to use in their classrooms.  <br />Let’s look at this great infomercial from Microsoft Research.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3oGFogwcx-E" width="420"></iframe> <br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Classroom ideas</b></span><br />• Use it as a reward period for your students<br />• Make up songs about the curriculum (Maths, Grammar, Poems, Facts from particular subjects)<br />• Create backings for class movies<br />• Use in music lessons<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Tutorials</b></span><br />Here is a tutorial from the UK Partners in Learning site.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LuoHejVm9hU" width="420"></iframe> </div>

Microsoft tools SomgSmith Web tools Microsoft free tools #4 – Microsoft Songsmith

Microsoft Songsmith is an amazing programme to use in the classroom for creating songs. The students absolutely love it. What is Songsmith? ...

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Microsoft free tools #3 – Windows Movie Maker

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you think that creating a video with your photos is too complicated then you haven’t tried Windows Movie Maker! The only downside of this amazing programme is that it is too simple for advanced users!<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What can you do with Movie Maker? </b></span><br />It really is very simple to use like most of the Microsoft tools. Not only can you include your best photo shots and some of your clips, but you can also add some really nice video and transition effects. Your movie will look quite professional at the end I can assure you!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhyphenhyphenTOVyKU0DpJe1H9rmFNGydmD3b26cIgvr6RT0Q376GuNl3-k8qAwUWolmO1V799yAK5eytnsqU-VlCWrabpwEjxD-KPPKdLnWQGeAZSzCOqpfjwBZFB9KEeb_nldsK6dDDKpwSrgPI/s1600-h/image%25255B21%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUdoXT91XMkOjroKfINRf1G1_ojNCNrL-VpDazYtEq-BdKEu1tsLCf-f3pWBMGLRpc4pQi_DMEL7B4s6WnhGYJGRqnJ3TwYCjykqMG77U-tnxNI7ergy739Tw7aqPOXvn6kuZlyiay34/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How to get started</b></span><br />If you look at the image above you’ll see that there is a place that says ‘Add videos and photos’. After you do this the media clips appear on the timeline at the side. Then you add as many effects as you like. You can even add titles and credits to your movie.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How to use Movie Maker in the classroom</b></span><br />1. It really is fun when you include Movie Maker in your theme as the students love working with it.  These two Grade 4 teachers from St Cyprians in Cape Town based their theme on their Grade 4 novel, ‘Tolbooth’ and used Movie Maker extensively. They won the Innovative Teacher competition in South Africa as well as in the Pan Africa and the Middle East finals in Jordan and will be taking their Movie Maker project to Washington DC for the World Finals in early November.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Fwz2GJ-KCak/TqbzWdH7zsI/AAAAAAAAAYM/i3I_dJhYsT0/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgl2UOeTdRCGLQPgbootUFZGQE8cNruW53qIQhyL9TxgPh7RRxoVOd8-ezPyRT8GAZ2s6i7JCRu9l7s9B2VIivunEB9TDxKVuRSRjUsFutx7SZa0srcTOu7A1ltoOR6K4jznvzRSyKIQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a><br /><br />2. High School Life Science students in Cape Town used Windows Movie Maker to create an infomercial about HIV Aids. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlWJGaFrZOEatFaHw8RG9uz1IIwqF7lrnZTxnO-2oUpvtd4O-Dfz_-UZ0gvJUh4KM0UyRv_i-nvr7qsJjkdGhk5sWO0l99XF5ZDU56MM8xQ53WdR79Udc1Pgyj4Oq_zmmsFUZy0WySQw/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1YisvTSgm7AjsEpevKvuN7K1Mt4tHZ5lstcPbG4F7TqSISZEYv4N3F6RHmnKCn6BYHuHUD_Dj9_T-fcKRlISAQ7KsiI9al1MYkbvfeJ_SSWk95eZCbKQeRSXWnvvqkiMXk_XBtHJEgdI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a><br /><br />3. These high School History learners from Durban created movies about Apartheid using Windows Movie Maker.<br /><br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-_drFgtfr3BM/TqbzfqhG90I/AAAAAAAAAYs/YkqrOEBnHtA/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0xhO0oQiEFA33XUITsqj4xoxyswuD3dH5SL0iqtYiOhxzVHErxDJBrbbUcpeXQnU3nIAnVx9wpThrOVFI46j_dTohIqrTtYpisfRd1bV36RanpUCetFVrdVBQgKcFyE-rSGV4xdq7JDM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>More classroom ideas</b></span><br />•A very quick movie about something that has just happened – an outing or an event<br />• Expression of an assignment instead of writing it out. This definitely reduces the  riskof plagiarism<br />• Make book trailers instead of book reports<br />• Make movies about their book as was done by the Grade 4s<br />• Movies about Maths or other concepts<br />• Movies about the year at school<br />• Movies of their future dreamsin the job market<br />• Combine Movie Maker with Songsmith to create a music backing<br />• The learners can write instructions for something they are making i.e. a recipe, how to knit, how to make a card. etc. <br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What about starting a movie channel for your class? </b></span><br />You can create your own movie channel in YouTube or in School Tube to store all your class’s movies.<br /><br />If you need more detailed instructions on creating a movie with Windows Movie Maker just go to YouTube and ask for a tutorial on how to use Movie Maker.  You will find a huge selection.<br /><br />Here is an infomercial from Microsoft showing how to use the software.<br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="b-hbp-video b-uploaded" frameborder="0" height="266" id="BLOGGER-video-74114758ada0031b-19900" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy7XSR9w3yQ8k_u93gm49axKDKvunr0PyV0k8-Id7isE_n2e-q_U7r80TvbQ2hOTll7L9HEgW9xfXTrgjscnfc2OjWBitmM7fuMA-k4bFmBiP44ajwA1MRtbHnqPYUgAyhkNsDA" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Why not give Movie Maker a try tomorrow?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Microsoft tools Windows Movie Maker Microsoft free tools #3 – Windows Movie Maker

If you think that creating a video with your photos is too complicated then you haven’t tried Windows Movie Maker! The only downside of this...

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Does Persistence Really Pay?

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b><i><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></i></b></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal arial, helvetica;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="tblContent"><tbody><tr id="trContent"><td align="center" class="cb_style tcContent" id="tcContent" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><div class="cbArticleWrapper" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; width: 750px;"><div class="cbArticleContentWrapper" style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 15px; width: 750px;"><div class="cbArticleRight" style="width: 560px;"><div class="RXart" style="padding-right: 20px;"><div class="ArticleHeadline" style="margin-top: -30px;"><div class="cbmsnArticleImage" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://emj.icbdr.com/artieimages/87/ar5l55061trc9ftv8z87.gif" /></div><b><span id="cbArticle_lblByLine">Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder Writer</span></b> </div><br /><div class="ArticleContent"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">While we can all recite quotes about how persistence is the key to success --"If at first you don't succeed ...", "Nothing good comes easy" -- they're easier said than acted upon when we feel instead like we're "banging our head against a wall" or "beating a dead horse."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The fact is many workers and job seekers struggle with persistence nowadays. It can be hard to keep going when your job search proves fruitless after months of hard work, you still haven't gotten that promotion you were hoping for or it seems like your "big break" is always just out of arms' reach.  With so much time and energy put it our efforts to persist, doing so to no avail can cause us to wonder if our persistence will ever pay off.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">According to Caroline Ceniza-Levine, co-founder of SixFigureStart, persistence does pay off, so long as we remember one thing about our path to achieving our goals: There is a difference between smart persistence and blind persistence.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Persistence to a goal pays off as long as you can be flexible on how you get there," Ceniza-Levine says. "If your job search isn't yielding offers, then whatever you are doing is not working. You may have the right role and companies in mind but your <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/marketing/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">marketing</a>, your interview technique, your networking approach, or something else about how you are presenting yourself to these prospects is off. Or the prospects themselves may be wrong for you."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">With that in mind, here are a few strategies for successful, smart persistence.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Pursue your goal from all angles</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">According to Tyler Tervooren, <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/author/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">author</a> of the blog "Advanced Riskology," persistence works best when there's a method to your madness. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Persistence does pay, but only if it's persistence with a real strategy" he says. "If, in the worst economy of our time, your strategy is to send out a résumé and say 'Here, hire me please,' you're never going to get anywhere no matter how many times you do that. On the other hand, if your goal is to make enough money to support yourself and you're willing to try a bunch of different things like submitting an online résumé or portfolio, going to networking events, meeting influential people in different industries or even starting your own <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/business/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">business</a>, then yes, persistence pays off," he says.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">To elaborate on Tervooren's example: As a job seeker your overall goal may be to find a well-paying job in your industry. You decide that you will send out 10 résumés per week until you get a job -- but after months of searching, you have yet to land a position. While your ultimate goal may be a realistic one that's well within your reach, your way of going about getting the job is unrealistic.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Instead of just sending out résumés:</div><ul><br /><li>Seek out new networking opportunities by joining a professional organization or volunteering in your community AND</li><br /><li>Engage the companies you'd like to work for on Twitter and LinkedIn AND</li><br /><li>Take a class online or at a local community college to freshen up your skill set and enhance your résumé AND</li><br /><li>Consult a <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Resumes/SR_Start.aspx?cblid=scpsrnjstk1&sc_cmp1=JS_toolkit_newstellar" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">professional résumé writer </a>to make sure you résumé is fine-tuned and captivating</li></ul><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"You need be willing to try any crazy idea you get to make [your goal] happen; give up on the tactics that aren't working and pour more into the ones that look more promising. Do that over and over again and you'll get what you want," Tervooren says.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Take off your blinders</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">While it's important to have goals, it's also important to make sure you don't get so set on one particular path that you miss out on other opportunities that may prove equally rewarding.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"You cannot get so stuck or focused on that one goal that you forget to see other opportunities that might be even better than your original goal," says Jason O'Neill, teen <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/entrepreneur/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">entrepreneur</a> and author of "Bitten By the Business Bug." "While goals are good in theory, if someone doesn't reach their goal, they often feel like they failed. However, if they take off their blinders, keep their eyes open, they just may see some other direction they never even thought of."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Accept that waiting is part of the process</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It's important to remember that your goals won't happen overnight, and that you need to maintain a positive attitude in order to persist successfully. Believing that your goals will happen in your ideal time-frame will only lead to discouragement, so be willing to wait for your reward.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"The ability to delay gratification is vital," says Dr. Sylvia Gearing, a clinical <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/psychologist/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">psychologist</a> in <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/texas/dallas/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">Dallas</a>and owner of Gearing Up Counseling Centers. "Sacrificing short-term pleasure for a long-term goal is key here. Success has everything to do with tenacity. The world is full of intelligent, talented people who never achieved anything -- simply because they gave up."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Essentially, while persistence is necessary in achieving any goal, blind persistence isn't. Pouring your time and energy into a method of achieving you goal -- when that method isn't working -- is a waste of time. Trying every avenue you can think of in order to achieve a goal, on the other hand, is when persistence really does pay.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Kaitlin Madden is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, </i><a href="http://www.theworkbuzz.com/" style="color: #3300cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><i>The Work Buzz</i></a><i>. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues. Follow @CBForJobSeekers on Twitter.</i></div></div></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

Does Persistence Really Pay?

Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder Writer   While we can all recite quotes about how persistence is the key to success --"If at first you do...

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Quoteable Quotes

A few weeks ago I read a reader's comment on <a href="http://nothankstocake.blogspot.com/2011/10/emotional-eating.html">No Thanks to Cake</a> that I found very inspiring. <br /><br />Mel was talking about her struggle with emotional eating, and she shared her mantra in the comments section:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>"If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the answer."</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoons/401%20-%20425/402-food-choices-cartoon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoons/401%20-%20425/402-food-choices-cartoon.gif" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoons/401%20-%20425/402-food-choices-cartoon.gif">Source</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>I should print that quote out and hang it on the fridge.  And in the food pantry while I'm at it!<br /><br />I've talked before about emotional eating and how it is really my main struggle when it comes to food.  I find myself eating for these emotions: sadness, frustration, loneliness, and boredom.  I know this concept is not new to anyone - many of us struggle with this!  But the key, as with everything else in life, is how you handle it.  Through reading the <a href="http://the-big-weight.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Beck%20Diet%20Solution">Beck Diet Solution</a> (which by the way, I have yet to finish), I realized that I can deal with these emotions without using food as the vehicle.  I can busy myself with other things - surfing the internet, reading a book, reaching for water instead of food, etc - and just generally repeating to myself that "Hilary, you're <i>not </i>hungry.  You don't <i>need </i>to eat away your emotions just because you're feeling sad.  Go do something else that you won't regret later!".  I learned this through one exercise in the book, even if I do feel those pangs of hunger, I will be able to eat soon enough - it's not like I'm going to starve if I don't eat within a few minutes of feeling those pangs.<br /><br />Another quote I wanted to share is from <a href="http://ronisweigh.com/2011/10/weight-loss-diet-podcast-video.html">Roni @ Roni's Weigh</a>.  It was from her video post last week.  In no uncertain terms, she basically stated this:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>"Live the life you want to live in the body you have NOW."</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoons/439-difficulties-meditating-cartoon.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoons/439-difficulties-meditating-cartoon.gif" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://everydaypeoplecartoons.com/cartoon-topic/body-and-mind/439/Meditation_Cartoon">Source</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>How many of you are putting off things you want to do for yourself "when you get skinny" - Show of hands?  Me too.  I'll use the simplest example that applies to me.  Let's take clothing.  On one hand I tell myself that I'm not buying new clothes because I've spent a lot of money on clothes in the past that I grew out of - both because I lost weight <i>and </i>because I gained it.  So I end up wearing a lot of the same stuff over and over again.  And eventually, it makes me feel bad about myself.  I can only style a sweater or a top so many different ways (with my limited fashion knowledge).  And I also find that the best clothes I do own are mainly work clothes. So when it comes time for the weekend and Joel and I go out and do things, I have about 3 shirts in rotation, and 2 of them are several years old.  But I have refused to buy new clothes because I don't want to waste money dressing this body.  It's almost as though I feel like my body doesn't deserve to look nice in clothes because I'm not a thinner version of myself.  Also, how "nice" can a fat person really look?  Does that make sense?  Well, you might say it doesn't make sense because it's a whack sense of logic, but really, do you see what I'm trying to say? <br /><br />But recently, even prior to watching this video today, I realized exactly what <a href="http://ronisweigh.com/2011/10/weight-loss-diet-podcast-video.html">Roni</a> was saying.  There is no telling how long my weight loss journey is going to be.  Or, let's really be honest here - there is no telling how long we have on this Earth!  And while I'm on this journey, I still deserve to feel good about myself as much as I can, even if I'm not close to where I want to be.  I still deserve to buy nice clothes for myself and try to feel pretty, even if they aren't the size I am working toward.  I still deserve to make friends and go to social gatherings even if I'm not of a size where I feel like I will "fit in". <br /><br />I still deserve happiness, no matter what size I might be.

Random Weight Loss Thoughts Quoteable Quotes

A few weeks ago I read a reader's comment on No Thanks to Cake that I found very inspiring. Mel was talking about her struggle with emo...

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Editing videos in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Just recently I have started using Office 2010 and I am delighted to find that PowerPoint has a video editing feature. This YouTube video from Office shows how it is done.<br /><br /><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LWo4hIU_J2A" width="420"></iframe></div>

PowerPoint Tutorials Editing videos in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Just recently I have started using Office 2010 and I am delighted to find that PowerPoint has a video editing feature. This YouTube video fr...

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ANGLO SAXON QUEST

<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>ANGLO SAXON MONETARY QUEST</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Monitoring current developments regarding the financial crisis in Europe and how the US is influencing European decision making one cannot blend out the notion some conspiracy theorists have regarding the “New World Order” whose main aim seems to reestablish the old Anglo-Saxon global financial powerhouse. Obviously they can’t call it by name for then the Europeans would not jump onto the bandwagon to apply austerity for the cause of the Anglo Saxon eco – financial empire. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>'EU's actions could lead to revolutions in Greece and Portugal' </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>US PROXY PROVOKING CIVIL UNREST ON CONTINENTAL EUROPE? </b></span><br /><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">With rigorous austerity measures applied in Europe the threat of civil unrest or even revolution would bring the US – UK closer to their objectives. It seems however that France is starting to realize the true intentions of the USA and its proxy, the UK, for Sarkozy and Cameron clashed over the strategy on how to rescue the Euro zone. “You have missed your chance to shut up”, Sarkozy told the British Prime minister at the EU summit. France rejected British interference.” We are fed up of your criticism and telling us what to do. You said that you hate the EURO, thus you did not join the Euro Zone but now you want to interfere in our summit” Sarkozy allegedly told Cameron. Cameron reiterated US criticism on lack of initiative by the EU in order to solve the Euro crisis. “You have to apply a bazooka”, Cameron said. In other words apply decisive austerity, as envisioned by US “CORPORATOCRACY” to save the banks. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>RATING AGENCIES, MERCENARIES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT? </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Moody’s move of downgrading two of Frances biggest banks increased pressure on governments across Europe to impose austerity on the working class. This is precisely what the US and UK  set as their objective, for French and German banks, have large holdings in Greek bonds and thus the fear of dept default and subsequent collapse in confidence in the two countries would be imminent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Germany, France and the USA demonstratively reassured financial markets that Greece was not on the verge of bankruptcy but blamed the social democratic PASOK government of escalating its assault on jobs and living standards of Greeks working class. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>QUEST OF WAR </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fact that Geithner made it clear however that the US considers the steps taken by Europe thus far to be inadequate and calling upon European governments to use “<b>overwhelming force</b>” to deal with the continents financial crisis showcases the true intentions behind the current financial crises triggered most likely deliberately by US entities. The fact that Geithner took the unprecedented step of attending a meeting of the European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council ECOFIN, (one has to seriously question as to why the Europeans accepted US interference) in which he pressed to lay down the law to Greece and <u>extract a pledge of further layoffs and budget cuts</u>, only reiterates the true objective of the US - UK agenda. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In order to obtain IMF funds, Greece will have to apply even more drastic measures and reduce its public sector workers by more than 40,000. This is the usual IMF strategy which has brought many countries to the ruins. New cuts will only deepen the crisis, but the international bourgeoisie is determined to exploit the financial crisis to dismantle all of social gains of the past century and reduce the middle and working class to poverty.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>BANK RESCUES AT ALL COST </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Privatization is the key tool used by “CORPORATOCRACY” to take control and gain power, thus it comes as no surprise that Italia’s parliament approved a 54 billion Euro austerity budget that aims to eliminate the nation’s deficit by 2013. This however is only the first step. There is talk of large scale sale of state assets to raise as much as 400 billion Euros. Among the targets for privatization are government holdings in the power utility ENEL and the oil and gas group ENI.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>BANK RESCUES AS AN EXCUSE TO APPLY FURTHER AUSTERITY </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">France, on the other hand is moving for a massive bailout of its banking system, which will inevitably imply severe austerity measures against the French working class. <b>This is being pushed particularly by the US and the IMF, which fear the international consequences of a collapse of one or more big French banks.</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The USA and the IMF once again are waging a hidden war against Europe which unfortunately the Europeans don’t realize, for their economy and industries are too entangled with US corporations.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The IMF warned of a financial meltdown if European banks are not quickly recapitalized, i.e., bailed out with public funds. US Treasury Secretary Geithner pressured European finance ministers to expand the 440 billion Euro “European Financial Stability Facility” in order to <b>bail out failing banks</b>!!!!!! </span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Where are we heading with all this, back to the middle ages, where none what so ever democratic values existed? It all seems to head towards that direction.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Notwithstanding the differences that exist within the international bourgeoisie over how to deal with the debt and banking crisis, there is a universal consensus that the cost of the breakdown of the capitalist system must be borne by the working class.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The question is if the 1% ruling class have made the mistake of underestimating 99% of the population and tightened the thumb screw an inch too much? For now it seems that the 99% had enough and thus are waging their own resistance against austerity and diminishing democratic values.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Parts of above article have been adapted from Barry Grays’ article in Global Research</i></span></div>

ANGLO SAXON QUEST

ANGLO SAXON MONETARY QUEST Monitoring current developments regarding the financial crisis in Europe and how the US is influencing European ...

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The Haunting Melody of The Uninvited (1944)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJ19yJFWXwRMBbC-7ZI7HoFz5t4dTa5p_wjBhbSeIyl1HgQqTuY3xgV3FDyuwZUQe_n_swHv4Hn8vVZLxOKFaqpwbu7_9SzS9LQqBMST84ACjnd96N13U8W8mwjIIwFD9E2-EqCE8vI_u/s1600/the+uninvited+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJ19yJFWXwRMBbC-7ZI7HoFz5t4dTa5p_wjBhbSeIyl1HgQqTuY3xgV3FDyuwZUQe_n_swHv4Hn8vVZLxOKFaqpwbu7_9SzS9LQqBMST84ACjnd96N13U8W8mwjIIwFD9E2-EqCE8vI_u/s400/the+uninvited+2.jpg" width="279" /></a></div><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">  </span></i><br /><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Uninvited</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, from Paramount Pictures in 1944, is an elegantly spooky <i>Rebecca</i>-esque romance with more than one haunting quality. Yes, Windward House, the sea cliff-situated home central to the story, is haunted by a malevolent woman’s ghost, but the film’s music is equally haunting (though not at all spooky).</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Victor Young (who composed the film’s Rachmaninoff influenced score) and his orchestra introduced “Stella by Starlight” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Uninvited</i>. The melody is a thematic refrain throughout, but takes center stage in a romantic scene between Ray Milland (Roderick Fitzgerald) and Gail Russell (Stella Meredith). The pair is spending an evening together at Windward House and Rick begins to play the music, which he has written, on his grand piano:</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B96ApEvaoBY" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jan. 2013 update: sadly this video <span style="font-size: x-small;">is no longer available on YouTube)</span></span><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Victor Young wasn't Academy Award-nominated for his rhapsodic score for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Uninvited</i>, but did garner 22 Oscar nominations over his prolific career. He was nominated for as many as four films in a single year, but his only win came posthumously, for<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Around the World in 80 Days </i>(1956). His scores for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Golden Boy </i>(1939) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Written on the Wind </i>(1956) were among many nominated for the gold statuette - and he also scored <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Palm Beach Story </i>(1942), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shane </i>(1953), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnny Guitar </i>(1954) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Country Girl </i>(1954). Young died in 1956 with hundreds of film credits</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> to his name.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laura</i>, another notable film of 1944 with an evocative musical theme, song lyrics were composed for "Stella by Starlight" after <i>The Uninvited</i> was released and became a popular movie. In 1946 Oscar-winning lyricist Ned Washington (“When You Wish Upon a Star”/<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pinocchio</i> and “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”/<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High Noon</i>) created lyrics to accompany the music. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1947, two versions of "Stella by Starlight," one recorded by Frank Sinatra the other by the Harry James </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Orchestra, climbed the pop charts. In 1952, iconic saxophonist Charlie Parker made the first jazz recording of the tune; the song remains both a popular standard and jazz standard today.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P94vB3mLRzc" width="420"></iframe></div></div></div>

Frank Sinatra Gail Russell Ned Washington Ray Milland Stella By Starlight The Uninvited Victor Young The Haunting Melody of The Uninvited (1944)

  The Uninvited , from Paramount Pictures in 1944, is an elegantly spooky Rebecca -esque romance with more than one haunting quality. Yes, W...

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Sitting In A Zen Garden In Pocatello I Ponder The Oddness Of Life

On a soft Autumn afternoon, under blue Idaho skies, I sit in a Japanese gazebo in the Zen garden of the Pocatello airport. I live in Las Vegas, the neon capital of the Western Hemisphere. There is no neon here, just stillness. Inside the airport, there is no one at ticketing, no one in the closed cafe, no other passenger. Eventually, a pleasant young woman in a TSA uniform comes out to join me. She is not checking to see if I am a security threat. No, instead she tells me her life story and many of her hopes and dreams. She is from Preston on the Utah border but would like to live in San Diego someday. She was in Athens, Georgia once for training back when she was in the car business, and was captivated by the green antiquity.<br /><br />After she goes, I remember this weekend at the Diocese of Idaho Convention. I was the after dinner speaker. I began, "It is a sweeter thing for me to be here than most of you can imagine," then told them the story of how 30 years ago God had saved my life from cynical despair through the gracious agency of the Episcopal Church in Idaho. "I was born here," I told them, "through an at risk spriitual pregnancy and an arduous labor." It was a sweet thing to be here and the people this weekend were as kind and human as ever. I told them that "when I could not see God, I saw you." The truth is I still cannot see God anywhere so clearly as in the rumpled, fallible, oft-times maddening collection of people who stumble along together as the church. It takes better spiritual x ray vision than I have yet achieved to see God behind the opaque pride of the arrogantly disbelieving and the spiritually advanced alike -- though I still try.<br /><br />Here I saw a few old friends from those distant decades. I saw newer friends whom I know from national gatherings of those who try to be the church in the wild and sometimes lonely places like Pocatello, Blackfoot, Arco, Austin, Eureka, Ely, and Pioche. And I met new people: a retired admiral with bushy white eyebrows who settled in Idaho Falls after giving up his life on nuclear submarines; a tall handsome middle school teacher who discovered how rich he was while teaching English in Turkey; a lawyer who was once a high roller in the state bar but now serves as the chancellor for this church.<br /><br />I flew here 3 days ago, changing planes in Salt Lake, waiting for my connection in "the back 40" where all the planes are going to Great Falls, Helena, St. George, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Grand Junction. I don't know what possessed me to ever leave the West. "How could I sing King Alpha's song in a strange land?" I did not tell Jesse these things. How do I know what she needs? Perhaps she too needs an exile from this arid spaiousness; perhaps for her an urban exile in San Diego or back in the land of green antiquity. I suppose I did. And I know I may leave this land again someday. Out here even the mountains are transitory. They erupted recently in geological time and may collapse in some seismic shift one of these days. As the Bishop of Idaho often says, "Life is short. There is so little time to be kind."<br /><br />So this is not my life forever. Today, it is given to me to sit in a Zen garden at an empty airport in Pocatello and shake my head over just how odd that is.

Sitting In A Zen Garden In Pocatello I Ponder The Oddness Of Life

On a soft Autumn afternoon, under blue Idaho skies, I sit in a Japanese gazebo in the Zen garden of the Pocatello airport. I live in Las Veg...

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BRICS to save EUROPE?

<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit","serif"; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Any chance that the BRICS will save Europe is receding</b></span><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><i><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Article by </span></b><i><b>Sreeram Chaulia</b>, </i><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">republished with the permission of the author</span></b></i><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></i></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvvG0YtkRZD3qd7nyLLpXt6wFGstDLakDuikptmXjTH_zVSPsL9fi07C11LSmDgJajpDRIGRcO-HcqjjsluoigBZqwGZPG72dLJAYS46do7z3awsFt2_gtGNq1I_Rhn8yt0Mf_SRbgw3J/s1600/1319182719792.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHvvG0YtkRZD3qd7nyLLpXt6wFGstDLakDuikptmXjTH_zVSPsL9fi07C11LSmDgJajpDRIGRcO-HcqjjsluoigBZqwGZPG72dLJAYS46do7z3awsFt2_gtGNq1I_Rhn8yt0Mf_SRbgw3J/s320/1319182719792.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazil’s ambitious attempt to forge an internal consensus within the so-called ‘BRICS’ grouping for a timely financial intervention to save Europe’s diseased southern economies has gone nowhere. <br /><br />The finance ministers of the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- just met in Washington D.C. to discuss this idea, but Beijing, New Delhi, Moscow and Pretoria have poured cold water on Brasilia’s proposal for coordinated bond-buying from the Eurozone’s fiscally weakest governments, Greece, Spain and Italy. <br /><br />That outcome reflects the varied economic structures, conditions and models that prevail in individual BRICS nations. Brazil holds nearly 80 percent of its US$352 billion foreign exchange reserves in US dollars and is nervous about the growing levels of public debt in the American economy. It seeks diversification of its reserves away from the dollar and is hence calling for the BRICS to pool their capital and announce a big bond-buying spree for the Eurozone’s weak links. <br /><br />Brazil’s calculus dovetails with that of China, which has been making similar noises about the unreliability of the US dollar. With US$3.2 trillion in reserves, only 25 percent of which are held in euro-denominated assets, China has room aplenty to acquire bonds of European countries like Italy. <br /><br />When Chinese premier Wen Jiabao expressed willingness to lend “a helping hand and increase our investment in the European economy" at the recent World Economic Forum annual meeting in Dalian, he clearly had diversification of reserves in mind along with concerns about falling European consumption of Chinese exports. <br /><br />Yet, one sees a rare divergence of views within the Chinese establishment on the wisdom of buying bonds from European economies that resemble sinking ships. The lack of foreseeable growth prospects in the Eurozone’s southern economies make them risky bets. Chinese citizen bloggers have been posting angry messages on management of foreign reserves, railing against investing in the Eurozone that is “influenced by political factors, and not on market fundamentals. <br /><br />Serious weighing of pros and cons of buying Italian Euro bonds is underway in China, attesting to the genuine fear that there is, as yet, no well-developed alternative to the US dollar for safekeeping of one’s reserves. <br /><br />India falls in this same band of uncertainty. Its official comments on Brazil’s Euro bond-buying idea have been lukewarm. With only 20 percent of its US$320 billion foreign reserves in Euro-denominated assets, India has room to buy bonds of cash-strapped European countries. However, The Economic Times quoted an Indian finance ministry official as saying that “we will maintain the 20 percent ratio.” <br /><br />India’s economic growth forecast has been marked down in the last few months to less than 8 percent by many analysts, showing that the renewed global downturn has not left it untouched. Yet, as is the reflex reaction in a period of anxiety, Indian authorities are sticking to the safety of the dollar. In any case, like South Africa, which has only US$50 billion in foreign reserves, India is a relatively small player to execute systemically sizeable bond purchasing of Eurozone countries’ debts. <br /><br />Russia too has rebuffed the Brazilian proposal for concerted BRICS action to buy Euro-denominated debt. Some 45 percent of Russia’s foreign reserves of US$543 billion are already held in euros and its European strategy is less centered on the continent’s southern economies and more on Germany, which is the nodal recipient of Russian gas through the newly launched Nord Stream pipeline. If at all Russia were to buy more bonds from a European country, it would be German euros, not those of Italy, Spain or Greece. <br /><br />Should the 17 member states of the Eurozone overcome objections within their domestic political arenas and issue ‘Eurobonds’ guaranteed by the whole group, BRICS countries would find them more attractive vehicles to invest their reserves. <br /><br />Ironically, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has been alert to dangers of “excess liquidity” and inflow of hot money from rich nations. Private wealth, including that from the Euro zone, is flowing in the reverse direction, i.e. away from the OECD centres and towards BRICS. To wish for public wealth to go in the opposite way (towards Europe) is to vainly hope that governments are less savvy than private investors when it comes to return-on-investment calculations. <br /><br />Unlike private investors, governments do have one additional variable to consider when deciding where to place their reserves— political influence and image as ‘responsible’ actors who come to the aid of the ailing. A private pension fund’s moral compass is distinct from that of a sovereign wealth fund. The latter is motivated by competition for security and prestige with other states, geopolitical spaces that need to be filled, leverage and quid pro quos that can be extracted in other spheres for investing one’s reserves. It is because of these factors that we hear China and Brazil talking up the possibilities of buying more European bonds. <br /><br />Misalignment between private capital and public capital is a structural problem that is skewing the global economy. Can advanced economies restrict the outflow of private capital seeking higher interest rates in emerging economies? If money can stay at home and be channeled into buying public debt, it would be beneficial for calming choppy macroeconomic seas in the EU and the US. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br />Western corporations sitting on trillions of dollars of cash are not doing their bit at all in boosting employment or bailing out governments of advanced economies that are in hock. If giant Western companies share the burden of debt restructurings in the countries where they are headquartered, money from BRICS sovereign funds would not even be needed. <br /><br />Restrictions on capital movements saved Malaysia in the late 1990s and could do the same in the US and the Eurozone. But it takes political will to force big businesses to buy local public debt in the interests of overall macroeconomic stability of the OECD countries. Private capital does not have nationalism, but it must be controlled to prevent disasters in the making such as a possible collapse of the euro. Capital which is several times the combined weight of the BRICS’ foreign exchange reserves can be brought to revive the Eurozone if only highly profitable transatlantic corporations can be induced to buy European bonds. <br /><br />In November 2010, the billionaire private investor Warren Buffett authored an article to profusely thank ‘Uncle Sam’ for the expensive bailouts which prevented corporate America from caving in during the financial meltdown. It is now apt for the US and European governments to demand a payback in the form of their corporations buying local public debt. <br /><br />The Japanese model of locally headquartered companies buying their own government’s bonds is more viable for the Eurozone than to expect the parachute to materialize from the BRICS. Unless risks and losses are privatized, the “lesser depression” (as the current global slump has been described by economist Bradford DeLong) will keep extending the pain. <br /><br /><i>(Sreeram Chaulia is Vice Dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs in Sonipat, India, and the first ever B. Raman Fellow for Geopolitical Analysis at the Takshashila Institution. His new book, ‘International Organizations and Civilian Protection: Power, Ideas and Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Zones’, was published recently by I.B. Tauris, London.) </i></div>

BRICS to save EUROPE?

Any chance that the BRICS will save Europe is receding   Article by Sreeram Chaulia , republished with the permission of the author   Brazi...

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Can it really get any worse?

First, a huge thank you for all of your kind words and support. I read every comment and they fill my heart with gratitude. Each comment is very much appreciated and greatly lifts my spirits.<br /><br />Friday was a horrific day. We moved my sister to the assisted living home for hospice care. Even though I had explained to her several times that she was moving so her daughter (the insane one) would come visit her, at the last minute my sister decided she didn't want to go. It was beyond horrible. The crying and moaning tore my heart into pieces. <br /><br />After she was moved by ambulance she became non-communicative.She didn't want anything to do with any of us. She fell asleep or pretended to fall asleep. My crazy niece came by for five minutes and then left.<br /><br />Crazy niece didn't even visit yesterday. I was there all day and had a great visit with my sister for several hours. My other niece who is now seriously depressed only stayed a few hours. She was diagnosed as clinically depressed for the past 17 years and is on a multitude of drugs, bipolar,anti-anxiety, anti-psychotic and several anti-depressants. She's a sweet girl (well, 46 year old woman), but she's not much fun to hang out with. My brother came by a couple of times, bringing me his laptop and a giant TV for our sister's room. He's a laugh a minute so he hung out with us for a few hours.<br /><br />My sister napped off and on, but was awake most of the time I was there, from 9am to 7:30pm with a break when I went out to lunch and Walmart (yuk!) for some nails to hang pictures. She told me which pictures to hang and where. Her wedding picture made her cry and cry. It was so sad I thought I was going to die. She started talking very sweetly to the picture, and touching her husband's face in the picture, and cried. I told her it was okay to cry. It was just me and crying wasn't a bad thing. I couldn't understand her words but I think she was saying how much she missed him and loved him. I told her I knew she missed her husband of 51 years, and I told her how lucky she was to have been treated like a princess for all those years. We both cried and I held her.<br /><br />We had a lot of laughs yesterday too. I was trying to adjust her pillows and was having a heck of a time getting them in the position she wanted without pulling her hair. I told I was sorry I was Nurse Ratchet from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest but I was never trained in pillow fluffing. She yelled out "Ouch!", then laughed and laughed. She still has her sense of humor. <br /><br />It was a really great day with her. The people that work at the home are really nice and the owner that lives there is amazing and a great help in helping me accept this situation. <br /><br />Unfortunately my crazy niece called me when I got back to the hotel. She wants to get a morphine patch put on her mother so she'll be basically unconscious. My sister has sublingual morphine drops for pain, which work fine when she needs them. She doesn't need a patch with constant morphine.<br /><br />My niece got hysterical when I told her that her mother was drinking a lot of water. No food, but water. My niece insisted I was pouring it down her throat or holding the glass. I'm not, my sister holds the glass and drinks it. <br /><br />The conversation went really bad when I lost my temper over the morphine patch and then Linda said she couldn't visit because she "has three young boys" to take care of. I've heard this excuse thousands of times in the last four weeks. The "young" boys are 16, 14 and 9 and she has a husband that's perfectly capable of caring for them. For the very first time in four weeks I completely lost it and called her a stupid, crazy bitch, and I was sick to death of hearing about her "three f--king boys". Yes, not my finest moment but honest to God, I've had it with this woman. She may be my niece, but when this is over if I never hear her whiny voice or see her ugly, angry face again, I will be happy.<br /><br />I just want my sister's final days to be peaceful and comfortable. I want her to laugh and not be afraid and worried. Water is part of comfort care. My niece wants to withhold water, but fortunately it's in my sister's living trust to provide sustenance such as water and bread for comfort, just no feeding tubes. The morphine patch is ridiculous. She doesn't need it.<br /><br />I've blocked my crazy niece's phone numbers from my cell phone (there's an app that does that). If she visits her mother today (highly unlikely), I'll leave until she's gone. My hotel is two blocks from the home, so not a problem to just leave for a while. I know if she does visit it'll only be for a few minutes. Without me there for her to attack, it'll be better for everyone. Luckily for me her reputation is well known. I talked to Adult Protection Services yesterday and they knew all about the crazy niece. They work with the local hospital and had already received phone calls about my niece. <br /><br />Did I mention during the four days I was in Seattle she went to the hospital business office demanding to see someone in charge? No one was available so she laid her body down on the floor, blocking the entrance into the business office. She was physically carried out by security. Just one of her many crazy stunts these last four weeks, documented by the hospital and the police.<br /><br />My husband is flying up today. When I broke down a couple night's ago after a crazy niece encounter and couldn't stop crying so I could even talk to him, he said he'd fly up. I can't wait to see him.<br /><br />I'm sure today is going to be a better day. I'll avoid crazy niece, and I get to see my husband. And I still get to make my sister laugh. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Can it really get any worse?

First, a huge thank you for all of your kind words and support. I read every comment and they fill my heart with gratitude. Each comment is ...

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BANKING INSTITUTIONS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING ARMIES

<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>IRATE GOD, THE MARKET</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the old times the economy and markets managed to function without stock exchanges, daily ratings and real time minute by minute updates. With the coming of the “Information Highway” all this changed. Suddenly an entire eco political system panics when stock markets numbers plunge and cheer soaring stock figures. It seems the entire world has been drawn into this matrix which revolves around one thing, numbers which provide the illusion of money, ratings based on assumptions and economic power based on speculation. </span><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE POWER OF NUMBERS</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The majority of us does not even understanding the complex and obscured arithmetic’s of the “holy grail”, The Stock Market, but nevertheless we seems to be drawn into the believe that such fluctuations will affect our live. Considering that physical money accounts only for 10% in today’s markets and that 90% of “money transactions” are simple numeral data transfer within “cyberspace”, it becomes clear that physical money is only a tool to control people but not a necessity. Money gives the illusion of freedom and independence to the common man, yet we see how that very tool is used to implement austerity over the working class. US President Thomas Jefferson back in 1826 said:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">“<b>I BELIEVE THAT BANKING INSTITUTIONS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING ARMIES…</b></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVER ALLOW PRIVATE BANKS TO CONTROL THE ISSUE OF CURRENCY …… THE BANKS AND CORPORATIONS THAT WILL GROW UP AROUND THEM WILL DEPRIVE THE PEOPLE OF THEIR PROPERTY UNTIL THEIR CHILDREN WAKE UP HOMELESS ON THE CONTINENT THEIR FATHERS CONQUERED”</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">THOMAS JEFFERSON <b>1743 -1826</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Wise words, unfortunately no one seemed to take the advice, not in the 19^th century, nor in the 20^th century and certainly not in the 21^st century.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">To a large extend Financial institutions have caused the havoc we are currently experiencing, especially in Europe. Nevertheless governments are using taxpayer’s money to rescue those very institutions that caused the chaos in the first place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">GREECE’S LOOMING DEFAULT,......... A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">To solve the current financial crisis in Europe and especially Greece one should consider asking exactly those institutions that caused to a large extent the crisis in Greece to bail out Greece, namely GOLDMAN SACHS.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div style="color: red; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> FOOD FOR THOUGHT </b></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kKlUXeCWpM?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sreeram Chaulia,</b> Geopolitical analyst kindly permitted me to republish an article he wrote for <b>THE GLOBALIST</b>, which highlights the Goldman Sachs involvement in Greece’s dept dilemma. </span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td style="color: blue; padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dateline Greece: Goldman, Just Pay Up</b></span></div></td> <td style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="color: blue; padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />By <b>SREERAM CHAULIA </b> </span></div></td> <td style="padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: large;">As Greece teeters on the edge of sovereign default of around $300 billion and sends shudders of premonition throughout the global economy, the fingerprints of <span style="color: red;">Goldman Sachs </span> are once again to be found, as in so many crises beforehand. Sreeram Chaulia argues that Goldman should accept moral responsibility and contribute funds to bailing out Greece.</span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7VTdUWk9DLM?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="margin-left: 13.5pt; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 97.12%;"><tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 454.5pt;" valign="top" width="606"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span><span style="font-size: large;">s more skeletons fall out of the closet, it is coming to light that Greece's profligacy was abetted and managed for several years by the top Wall Street financial firms via complex instruments. </span></div><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; width: 151px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 130px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Economies of developing countries have endured decades of bitter experiences of falling into debt traps that sap productive resources.</span></b></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2001, before spendthrift Greece could enter the eurozone by satisfying the deficit limit rules of the currency union, Goldman Sachs entered the picture with a tricky currency trade deal that would hide billions of dollars of additional public borrowing and not make it look like debt. For this piece of consultancy, which helped Greece join the euro by hook or by crook, Goldman received fees of $300 million. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2005, Goldman sold to the National Bank of Greece an “interest rate swap,” one of the notorious derivatives that have come under scrutiny since the Wall Street implosion of 2008. Greek critics of such dubious debt-hiding transactions had warned their government of the mounting long-term liabilities to the likes of Goldman, but to no avail. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">According to news reports, Greece mortgaged revenue-generating assets like the national lottery, airports and highways as part of the agreements with Goldman in what amounted to "a garage sale on a national scale." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Goldman Sachs is reported to have attempted a redux of 2001 when its president, Gary Cohn, landed in Athens in November 2009 with a similar debt deferral proposal that would continue to fool investors and the EU. This time around, Greece did not oblige. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the damage had already been done over a decade of spiraling foreign debt that was repackaged and postponed with Wall Street's wizardry. We now know that similar borrowing binges were occurring in the rest of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) economies courtesy of the financial dodging expertise of Goldman, JPMorgan and the entire cadre of hedge funds. </span></div><table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; width: 151px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 130px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">It may not be unfair if the EU demands that Goldman accept moral responsibility and contribute to bailing out Greece.</span></b></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Economies of developing countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, have endured decades of bitter experiences of falling into debt traps that sap productive resources, benefit speculative financiers and weaken state capacities to govern. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In their cases, the Bretton Woods institutions acted as economic restructuring consultants and funding taps that only opened if the recipients met crushing conditionalities. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">John Perkins's book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," reveals how highly paid professionals with knowledge of macroeconomics and world affairs were deployed to convince political and financial leaders of poor countries to accept massive "development loans" from the World Bank and USAID. Once ensnared, the supplicants would be subjected to pressure on different issues from Washington. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the PIGS economies, it was not so much strategically motivated hit men working for the U.S. government but rather some freewheeling U.S. financial corporations that could make a killing out of clients who were addicted to reckless state spending. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In late February 2010, as the EU began investigating the Wall Street shenanigans in Athens, Goldman defended its Greek misadventures by arguing, predictably enough, that they were legal actions consistent with the regulations of their time. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, much of the fault lay with the Greek politicians who were seduced by the Wall Street financial advisers who, for their part, were simply pursuing the bread-and-butter business of circulating wealth for profit. </span></div><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; width: 151px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in;"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 130px;"><tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Of course, much of the fault lay with the Greek politicians who were seduced by Wall Street financial advisers.</span></b></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 3pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Had Athens been more disciplined in organizing its finances, there would not have been a window of opportunity for Goldman and company to exploit its vulnerability. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">But southern Europe's debt-proneness has systemic consequences from which Wall Street cannot easily extricate itself. While there is no evidence to suggest that U.S. investment banks deliberately dug the graves of PIGS to weaken the euro, the disastrous social costs of their financial chicanery call for reparations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">It may not be unfair if the EU demands that Goldman, which now leads the earnings chart on Wall Street, accept moral responsibility and contribute to bailing out Greece. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Who knows — now that even the U.S. Federal Reserve is making noises about investigating Goldman’s practices, the firm may be in a hurry to pay up. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">Editor's Note: This feature is adapted from a longer version published in The Financial Express on February 25, 2010</span></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><b>Interesting reading:</b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Occupy World Street</b> </span></div><div style="color: blue; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><b>By Pepe Escobar</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: yellow;"> </span> </b><b> </b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MJ19Dj02.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MJ19Dj02.html</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ufOTAFidGY8?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div></td> </tr></tbody></table>

BANKING INSTITUTIONS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING ARMIES

IRATE GOD, THE MARKET In the old times the economy and markets managed to function without stock exchanges, daily ratings and real time minu...

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9 Interview Questions You Should Be Asking

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b><i><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></i></b></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal arial, helvetica;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="tblContent"><tbody><tr id="trContent"><td align="center" class="cb_style tcContent" id="tcContent" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><div class="cbArticleWrapper" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; width: 750px;"><div class="cbArticleContentWrapper" style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 15px; width: 750px;"><div class="cbArticleRight" style="width: 560px;"><div class="RXart" style="padding-right: 20px;"><div class="ArticleHeadline" style="margin-top: -30px;"><div class="cbmsnArticleImage" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://emj.cbdr.com/artieimages/sy/ar5l01t6fwqtxm6nb9sy.gif?time=9/22/2010%205:18:44%20pm" /></div><b><span id="cbArticle_lblByLine">Selena Dehne, JIST Publishing</span></b> </div><div class="ArticleContent"><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">When interviewing, many candidates don't realize that the questions they ask are just as important as how they present themselves and the answers they give. Failing to ask questions shows a lack of genuine interest in the job. Asking foolish questions indicates the candidate didn't do enough research prior to the interview. Making either mistake can cost a candidate the job offer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heather Krasna, author of "Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service," advises job seekers to prepare a list of questions before the interview, much like they'd create a list of talking points that address the value they offer the employer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Every interview is different. Some interviewers will only give you the chance to ask two or three questions. Others will ask again and again if you have any questions, so prepare more questions than you think you will need in case this happens," she says.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Developing a list of questions to ask is problematic for many job seekers. In her book, Krasna offers the following suggestions and explains why such questions can give candidates a much-needed edge:<b></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>1. </b><b>"What are you seeking in the ideal candidate for this position?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question allows you to counter by adding any particular skills or qualities you have left out in the interview, but which the employer thinks are important.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>2. </b><b>"How would you describe your management style?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">When you are being interviewed by a hiring manager to whom you would report, this is a great question for gathering insight into whether you might get along.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>3. </b><b>"Can you give me some examples of the types of projects I may be working on?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If the job description was a bit vague on the types of assignments you would be doing or if you are otherwise unclear on this point, this question is essential to ask.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>4. </b><b>"What do you like best about working for this organization?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question not only gives great insight into the culture of the organization, it also makes the person answering the question feel good. In addition, if the person answering can't come up with something good to say, this is a red flag about the place you might be working!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>5. </b><b>"How did this position become available?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question is a bit pushy, but it is quite important if you do not know how the position opened. Is the organization expanding? Or did the last person leave, and can you subtly find out why?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>6. </b><b>"What would you like to see happen six-to-12 months after you hire a new person for this position?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question is akin to "How will I be evaluated?" or "How do you measure success in this role?" It can also clue you in on whether the expectations for the job are realistic.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>7. </b><b>"What resources are available for this position?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question addresses the technology, staff or budget resources you will have and gives many insights into whether the organization is being realistic about what you can accomplish given the resources available.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>8. </b><b>"Is there anything you are still wondering about my candidacy that might keep you from offering me the position? Is there anything further I should clarify?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This question shows you are open to feedback or critique and also tells the employer you want every opportunity to reassure him or her that you would be a great employee.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>9. </b><b>"What is the next step in the process? May I have your business card?"</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The final question can help relieve your anxiety after the interview because you at least have some clue about how long it will be before the employer gets back to you. Ask for business cards from each person interviewing you so you can send thank-you notes.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Krasna adds that there are also questions candidates should steer clear of asking during the interview. According to her, questions not to ask include inquiries about salary, scandals and office politics, and personal questions about the interviewer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">*Excerpted from "Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service" by Heather Krasna.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Selena Dehne is a career writer for JIST Publishing who shares the latest occupational, career and job search information available with job seekers and career changers. She is also the author of JIST's Job Search and Career Blog (</i><i>http://jistjobsearchandcareer.blogspot.com/</i><i>). Follow her on Twitter at </i><i>http://twitter.com/SelenaDehne.</i></div></div></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

9 Interview Questions You Should Be Asking

Selena Dehne, JIST Publishing   When interviewing, many candidates don't realize that the questions they ask are just as important as ho...

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first date

Thanks for coming over! Since we're just getting to know each other I'll keep this short. Everyone needs a little spot to share, brag, complain, contemplate and... all other kinds of good verbs. And what better subject(s) to do all that verbing (I tend to makeup words) than interior design, DIY projects and the occasional 'my crazy kids' story. Let's grab a drink and get to know each other.  (and I'll try my best to keep my excessive punctuation and icons in check)

welcome first date

Thanks for coming over! Since we're just getting to know each other I'll keep this short. Everyone needs a little spot to share, bra...

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Death becomes her

Today marks day 30 since my sister's stroke, and also day 30 of no food and very little water.<br /><br />It's a strange thing, watching my sister die. Each day, a little more of her slips away. She's a little less aware, a little thinner, and laughing a little less.<br /><br />Yesterday was a wretched, horrible day. She can no longer get out of bed because it's too painful. Her paralyzed side, with all it's intact and working nerve endings, tortures her with pain if we try to move her even half an inch. Her doctor, who makes house calls, said it's not worth it to move her and have her in so much pain. The morphine sublingual drops don't even help with that intense pain. She doesn't want to move and since the time is short, she remains in one position, on her back, where she is the most comfortable.<br /><br />I spent several hours alone with her yesterday, as she sat in bed, staring out the picture window, looking at the river and the snow. I did everything I could to make her smile. She would only look at me with tears in her eyes. I kept asking her what was wrong, besides the fact she was dying, why was she so unhappy.<br /><br />Once again, as she has several times in the past several days, she spelled "E.....L.....I!" I know what this means and it breaks my heart. I asked her, are you asking about Linda again? (heavy sigh on my part) A big nod yes from my sister. Linda, my sister's oldest daughter (49), who lives only ten miles down the road, has not come to see her mother since October 1.<br /><br />There are a lot of things I could say about Linda, but I hesitate to say anything. I know she's mentally ill, but right now I can't excuse her behavior. Linda told me today that she can't bear to see her mother like this because it hurts <u>her</u> too much. A lot of responses went through my head, mostly that I wanted to tell her she's a spoiled, self-centered little bitch, but instead, I told her I understood and that it was okay.<br /><br />After spending several hours with Linda today (she's finally talking to me again), she has agreed if we move my sister to a hospice for her last few days, she will visit her there. She just can't come to the house where she only had happy memories. It would ruin it for <u>her</u>.<br /><br />Again, the thoughts in my head were quite different from what I said to her. I hate the idea of another ambulance ride for my sister. It will be her fourth in four weeks, but this one will be one-way to the hospice. I think dying at home would be better, but I also know my sister's dying wish is to see this daughter. We have almost everything lined up to move my sister tomorrow to the hospice.<br /><br />My other niece (46) and her husband haven't left my sister's side.  The sad part of this is that this niece, sweet, mild mannered and kind, suffers from severe depression. The kind of clinical depression that  leads  to suicide. There have been many attempts over the years, several were almost successful.<br /><br />My sister was not only her mother, but her best friend, her support and her confidante. This is a very difficult time for this niece, and I'm not sure she's going to pull through what is undoubtedly the most catastrophic event of her life.<br /><br />Funny thing about my sister. She's always been a great beauty, she had movie star good looks in the fifties. People would often comment on her beauty. Even though she's 73, she's still gorgeous. She never thought she was pretty. Each day, as she gets weaker and thinner, she becomes even more beautiful. Her wrinkles are disappearing. Her eyes are bluer than I've ever seen them. When she blesses me with a smile, my heart melts.<br /><br />I already miss her.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Death becomes her

Today marks day 30 since my sister's stroke, and also day 30 of no food and very little water. It's a strange thing, watching my sis...

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Thank You

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OJQ0se-HVxMRQF1s6LRcmEseQXUxUQLi6jz-5rdk3r6yLskof095LV9ROhAS70cczVWLDAerRc91csTYv2LeHjkY4QNuuGC8noynPxsVFWdYeaI99fBqPOP3vUDzmyp1AdQ-64skZsU4/s1600/bette-davis-virgin-queen--large-msg-131541125088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OJQ0se-HVxMRQF1s6LRcmEseQXUxUQLi6jz-5rdk3r6yLskof095LV9ROhAS70cczVWLDAerRc91csTYv2LeHjkY4QNuuGC8noynPxsVFWdYeaI99fBqPOP3vUDzmyp1AdQ-64skZsU4/s400/bette-davis-virgin-queen--large-msg-131541125088.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bette Davis, <i>The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex  </i>(1939)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I received an email from Rick Armstrong the other day telling me that I'd been awarded the Classic Movie Blog Association's 2011  "Best Review/Drama" CiMBA for my post on <i>The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex</i>, I was thrilled - and also surprised. The post had originally been my entry in CMBA's "Movies of 1939 Blogathon" last spring and I'd always thought of it as something of an outlier, being about a film that isn't generally counted among the truly great films of that much-vaunted movie year.</span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I took another look at the post and read it with, I'll admit, a certain amount of pride (deserved or misplaced...who knows), and what came through most for me as I re-read my own words was the depth of my admiration for Bette Davis. I remembered that <i>The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex</i>, though a moneymaker for Warners and a nominee for five Academy Awards, was bereft of statuettes and plaques. And I thought with some satisfaction (and cheek), "At last, Bette, this film that you were so eager to make, that you insisted was your 'tankard of tea,' has won an award!" </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks to everyone who voted for my CiMBA entry - as well as those who simply liked it.  I'm honored.</span></div>

2011 CiMBA Awards Bette Davis The Lady Eve (author) The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex Thank You

Bette Davis, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex  (1939) When I received an email from Rick Armstrong the other day telling me that I&#...

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Groupon Weekend Part 2

On Saturday, I had scheduled Joel and I for massages at a spa in Old Town Alexandria.<br /><br />Whoa.<br /><br />I can't even believe that I just called that place "Old Town".  I cringe when I hear others use that term: it's for the uppity gang to call that part of Alexandria "Old Town", not me :).  After moving here and learning what exactly encompassed that part of Alexandria, the artsy swanky part of town, the term immediately annoyed me.  It's <i>still </i>Alexandria after all.  Rant ended.<br /><br />We each had hour long massages.  Mine was pretty painful, as are most massages for me.  I prefer deep tissue massages - where the masseuse pretty much drills her fingertips in to me to work out all the knots in my muscles.  My shoulders are littered with knots.  I also found out that my face and forearms are as well.  Wierd.<br /><br />After our massages, we still had the whole day to figure out some plans.  It was such a nice fall day so I suggested we go to some wineries.  We have a ton of wineries all throughout Virginia.  We had enough time to make it to 3.<br /><br />First up, we visited <a href="http://www.hartwoodwinery.com/temp2011/">Hartwood Winery</a> in Fredericksburg, VA.  <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDQDqzjx6HPF9KPl_VBULSASfdp9a1nRn2Z9yTDK80-K9v8gFPIKy9uE7Q3G9kPiNGjWQM4zPAugMedYUBwPbJbZ5hCa5RUvuaryAjyJQn6sJ-zwGUaQ7BjL4YFSBwdIYRvshvfo9VGO8/s1600/Hartwood+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDQDqzjx6HPF9KPl_VBULSASfdp9a1nRn2Z9yTDK80-K9v8gFPIKy9uE7Q3G9kPiNGjWQM4zPAugMedYUBwPbJbZ5hCa5RUvuaryAjyJQn6sJ-zwGUaQ7BjL4YFSBwdIYRvshvfo9VGO8/s400/Hartwood+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>This was our favorite stop of the day. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqWQd4pXEaZKAdlszKjUvKrWmAyCrAhBDu3Z9WDFwesTxWwM5MMgOeuuRmVjfQVpZnGXnv72UF9MFBOll4S_B07G9MegyhEFJfRTKvtZj1qyKrnpC3K1d_6Y1l6WdS78K8IKRe4rM6wc/s1600/Wagon+Wheel+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqWQd4pXEaZKAdlszKjUvKrWmAyCrAhBDu3Z9WDFwesTxWwM5MMgOeuuRmVjfQVpZnGXnv72UF9MFBOll4S_B07G9MegyhEFJfRTKvtZj1qyKrnpC3K1d_6Y1l6WdS78K8IKRe4rM6wc/s400/Wagon+Wheel+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />We got to talk with the owner of the winery and he helped us find the perfect wines to fit our tastes. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kZIenS-Zyib5OVDA8MsQ7HEwb57ELBopoJ1Vx5Zc0DgXwNtseAFzLUi12SBbKdLjliRg6IAdjgcyJXBcbKY8Nr0RLC8oU20vbLP13pYsK6hpAWeZVvBmPaTPKVIHQVy5-PbDkOMxQEc/s1600/hartwood+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kZIenS-Zyib5OVDA8MsQ7HEwb57ELBopoJ1Vx5Zc0DgXwNtseAFzLUi12SBbKdLjliRg6IAdjgcyJXBcbKY8Nr0RLC8oU20vbLP13pYsK6hpAWeZVvBmPaTPKVIHQVy5-PbDkOMxQEc/s320/hartwood+2.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><br />Next we headed to <a href="http://www.rogersfordwine.com/">Rogers Ford Farm</a> in Sumerduck, VA.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPKbaz1poJW71pWwTGCJ1JgrzDNDoxPJYCyIIOGrMD0fqJOBCF22gyCnF4Y1QzZ_x45mX9a8N8ULZpxLala1ECYLUr_U_1zIOq2N36yMxsewNssrTzQRq0oUhekg2kb_WfDJ9zQ9V0NA/s1600/Rogers+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPKbaz1poJW71pWwTGCJ1JgrzDNDoxPJYCyIIOGrMD0fqJOBCF22gyCnF4Y1QzZ_x45mX9a8N8ULZpxLala1ECYLUr_U_1zIOq2N36yMxsewNssrTzQRq0oUhekg2kb_WfDJ9zQ9V0NA/s400/Rogers+1.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />This place was really off the beaten path - just the way I like 'em.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI10svfsaaDDM8eBNEaZ5pSt_Ofgv_18KUKVs-VDau5BiJ_4VxaBXyqYqNg4tzWj9Wuvjhyphenhyphen3QTYt9zLiFwEev_ZS9fTMNGmZ-GsKa5I3XJWvEz2tqu6hv7I1u4dzR4Tb11rtxJlp1vaYA/s1600/Rogers+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI10svfsaaDDM8eBNEaZ5pSt_Ofgv_18KUKVs-VDau5BiJ_4VxaBXyqYqNg4tzWj9Wuvjhyphenhyphen3QTYt9zLiFwEev_ZS9fTMNGmZ-GsKa5I3XJWvEz2tqu6hv7I1u4dzR4Tb11rtxJlp1vaYA/s400/Rogers+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />Of course we had to do a self-timer.  Disregard my lack of dressing up please :).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXy2rxEUi58GgQC5zdhamOQGKJzprqAsgoPrkbexdj_DrRXPzE0_Kbi7AHyT-nE9FRlA_Kf5VpnEh6jGEnFKfigOSjb-yO4mmrF0r4gWfXwkq2p_zFBbvxGlPR75xU_Hj0Fq_VVH-mM8E/s1600/Rogers+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXy2rxEUi58GgQC5zdhamOQGKJzprqAsgoPrkbexdj_DrRXPzE0_Kbi7AHyT-nE9FRlA_Kf5VpnEh6jGEnFKfigOSjb-yO4mmrF0r4gWfXwkq2p_zFBbvxGlPR75xU_Hj0Fq_VVH-mM8E/s400/Rogers+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />And finally we ended our vino tour at the <a href="http://www.potomacpointwinery.com/">Potomac Point vineyard</a> in Stafford, VA.  This was the swankiest winery of all 3.  There was even a wedding going on when we arrived.  The tasting room was very fancy and also very busy.  We bought 2 bottles at this place and that ended our day. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Arxp-4LEgx7I2DsXO18Nmf8MOQML7Fx2SUHd2zi7am_zaPJrZkPCDad9Savn_RNIfNrRfig75P3GD2oRLpXQWjM5962vwaxXsXUSo_T6RYP0CDnYYbjwZrqoM6TV0y-cljuAELF2olI/s1600/Groupon+Weekend+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Arxp-4LEgx7I2DsXO18Nmf8MOQML7Fx2SUHd2zi7am_zaPJrZkPCDad9Savn_RNIfNrRfig75P3GD2oRLpXQWjM5962vwaxXsXUSo_T6RYP0CDnYYbjwZrqoM6TV0y-cljuAELF2olI/s400/Groupon+Weekend+012.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />So how does the Groupon weekend relate to weight loss?  For me, when I stay busy, I don't eat.  And while we were busy on a 3 hour sailing adventure and a wine tour, I wasn't eating.  Now, sure, I was consuming calories from wine tasting, but I accounted for that and moved on.  Part of the weight loss journey for me is the mental aspect as well (not just the physical).  If I keep myself busy and get out and enjoy other things about life (instead of sitting at home....eating), it helps me realize that my life doesn't have to revolve around food - it can and should be centered around doing fun things instead of worrying about my next meal. <br /><br />On Sunday, Joel and I finished off our busy weekend with some football and a wine and cheese affair:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf_QcWZKvZjNxOoD7c0KrR-JTUu7YpxpoCksfl5EMPV8zbU8DRVnOZws_tPi0ouZ3Bs7Rc8Vsd-H9hoEcoXcdB4A8e5RFdcCF6SBttDht9Po0uBHhM5v7bEzlBfaYfD_bcVTAt60YmUk/s1600/wine+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf_QcWZKvZjNxOoD7c0KrR-JTUu7YpxpoCksfl5EMPV8zbU8DRVnOZws_tPi0ouZ3Bs7Rc8Vsd-H9hoEcoXcdB4A8e5RFdcCF6SBttDht9Po0uBHhM5v7bEzlBfaYfD_bcVTAt60YmUk/s400/wine+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />I hope you're having a wonderful week everybody :).<br /> <br /> Cheers!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkVWBlVMiR-cl2A7pofoiH5OEzCWM6Ya-Jh51oQ4lgB8AI4GyHwpjwgvGrhSshyPTLY9YBsKyv8Mq24oKiW1-hZt2hUHiTtPutb6LDhrFD0qrklnLcC68Dn-CgReVkZ-pHkzazbmXS0U/s1600/wine+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkVWBlVMiR-cl2A7pofoiH5OEzCWM6Ya-Jh51oQ4lgB8AI4GyHwpjwgvGrhSshyPTLY9YBsKyv8Mq24oKiW1-hZt2hUHiTtPutb6LDhrFD0qrklnLcC68Dn-CgReVkZ-pHkzazbmXS0U/s400/wine+2.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />

Miscellaneous Groupon Weekend Part 2

On Saturday, I had scheduled Joel and I for massages at a spa in Old Town Alexandria. Whoa. I can't even believe that I just called that...

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