I could use a hand here!

       

I could use some help.  I am trying to launch the "Pay It Forward" "Nice Matters" idea and I am begining with trying to find a new logo for it.  Can everyone in J-Land please help.  If you have ever given or received the Nice Matters Award, can you please forward this link

 http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/#Entry3328 

and this one  

http://journals.aol.com/attitudeslc/inspiration/#Entry516 

to everyone you know who has gotten the award so that they can join in helping in this project?

Thank You!

~Rosemary

Tags: Help, Inspire, Believe, 5659

The Vine

                 The Vine

                                    By Robert Herrick

I dreamed this mortal part of mine
Was metamorphosed to a vine,
Which, crawling one and every way,
Enthralled my dainty Lucia.
Methought, her long small legs and thighs
I with my tendrils did surprise:
Her belley, buttocks, and her waist
By my soft nervelets were embraced
About her head I writhing hung
And with rich clusters (hid Amoung
The leaves) her temples i behung,
So that my Lucia seemed to me
Young Bacchus ravished by his tree.
My curls about her neck did crawl,
And arms and hands they did enthrall,
So that she could not freely stir
( All parts there made one prisoner).
But when I crept with leaves to hide
Those parts which maids keep unespied,
Such fleeting pleasures there I took
That with the fancy i awoke,
And found (ah me!) this flesh of mine
More like a stock than like a vine.

Tags: Wicked, Blieve, Romance, Hope, Inspire, Believe, 5659

Nice REALLY REALLY Matters!

A while ago Krissy @ Sometimes I Think and my dear friend Veronica, sent me an e-mail that reminded me of the "Nice Matters" award that was going around J-land for a while.  I have an idea developed and am working on it.  For now, read the e-mail below to give you a basic idea of the concept I hope to bring to our friends and family.  For more of the concept you can follow up today at Magic Smoke.

Tags: Nice matter, Believe, Inspire, Hope, Love

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_19

ACTUALLY BACKING UP

This will be the last entry on backing up.  I have some fun stuff planned for tomorrow and on Friday so stay tuned.

Below you will find how to actually back up your documents, pictures and music, once you have them organized.  Choose your method of back up and follow the instructions below.

For CD back up

~Put blank CD in to CD drive.

~A prompt should come up asking you what you would like to do.

~Click on they type of copy you would like to Data (pictures or documents) Music you would back up under your music CD burner.

~Depending on the program there is usually a prompt.  It will ask you what you want to add.  Simply click on the files you want to back up and click on add.

~When you have everything transferred, click Next or Burn.

~Viola!  You have a hard copy.

 

For Flash Drives.

~ Put travel drive into the USB slot that should be on the side of your laptop or on the front of your tower.

~ Depending on the travel drive you may have prompts to help you along.  Follow the prompts to set it up or go to the next step.

~ Open up my documents.

~ Go to my computer and click open travel drive.

~ Drag and drop whatever files you wish onto the travel drive. You may also transfer music files in the same manner.

 

For External Hard Drives

~ The instructions are the same as above unless youwish to have thedevice automatically back itself up on a regular

Back To Backing Up

I left you high and dry last week in the middle of backup procedures, but hopefully that gave you time to clean up and organize the items you want to back up.  There are four ways to back up your files.

The first, and best is by using a CD.

The reason I say this is the best way to back up your information is because it is the closest thing to a "hard" copy that you can get without actually printing out your information.   It is not the most efficient or space saving, but it has no chance of becoming corrupted once it is permanently burned onto a CD that can not be re-used.       

Next, there is the Flash Drive. 

 

This is my choice of back up.  It can hold a lot of information on a very small space. It also allows you to work on multiple computers as it is easily portable.  I do not save anything on my computer hard drive.  Everything of importance is always saved on my Flash Drive.  However, because it can get lost easily and possibly get corrupted (you can lose information stored on this just like a hard drive) I back up my travel drive once a week on to another hard drive.  Additionally, I have separate Flash Drives for my music and photos.  These vary in price range from $15 to $65 dollars depending on the gig.  I have four 2gig Flash Drives that I used to back up photo's and music and another two 2gig Flash Drives to back up my document files. One I carry with me the other stays home in a safe place.

Then there is the External Hard Drive

This is perfect if you only use one computer and you store everything you have on it.  This attaches easily to your computer and you can back up manually or have it set to back up itself on regular intervals.  I use this on my office computer.  If the computer crashes I have a regular back up and can reinstall all the information onto the computer when it is repaired or on the new computer should I need one.

Last there are online systems that will back up your hard drive.  I have never used any online service so I can't help you out with how to use it or its safety and security, but I would be remiss if I didn't let you know of it's existence.  Here is the link if you would like to explore AOL's version http://premiumservices.aol.com/fbcenter/index.jsp?p=main

Tomorrow I will go over how to get the information from your comptuer to your backup of choice.  It's SIMPLE!

Balance

 

                 

You may have noticed I have been "gone" for a couple of days.  Last Wednesday I had an emergency call from the police department that they needed help.  Not being one to ignore my civic duty I of course obliged.  This left me unable to post on Wednesday.  On Thursday I had an entry almost complete for Inspiration as well as an entry for Magic Smoke.  Just as I was about to click on "save" my computer froze.  This meant I would have to re-write both. I restarted the computer and went to sign on to AOL and I had completely lost Internet service.  So, I was unable to post on Thursday.  After that things got really crazy so the weekend was a total wash.  I took a bit of a break to balance out and re-group and here I am again!

Speaking of balance... Now I am sure you are wondering what could the police department possibly need me for?  This is special!  They needed me to get drunk.  Yup!  You read it right.  They needed four volunteers to come in and start drinking at nine in the morning so that by one in the afternoon the recruits could test their knowledge on field sobriety tests.  So, at 8am my bottle of champagne and I were picked up by a police officer and driven to the police academy.  I got to ride in the front seat and without handcuffs.  I got to ride home in the same manner! When I arrived an officer did a nystamus test and breathalyzer test.  This breathalyzer test was then repeated every hour.  After my second drink and before I blew into the machine I told the officer administering the test that at this point I would not drive.  Thatwas a good call on my part because I blew a .08 which is the legal limit in NY for arrest for DWI.   Apparently however, I am a very good drunk.  The poor recruits had a tough time with me.  Before I entered the room to be tested I blew a .15 which is well over the legal limit and had I been driving I would have been arrested. 

Here is how it works.  If  an officer pulls you over and believes that you may be intoxicated there are three tests that you will be asked to perform.  These three tests are (1) the walk and turn [WAT] test, (2) the one leg stand [OLS] test, and (3) the horizontal gaze nystagmus [HGN] test.  The officer will explain in detail and show you how to perform each test.  This is actaully the a test as well, to see if you can follow and remember the directions.  If you can't, then it is the first sign you may be intoxicated.  If you have been drinking the nystagmus test is almost fool proof and it is also the first test that will be preformed.  The officer asks you to follow a pen with your eyes.  If you have been drinking your eyes will begin to twitch.   Now I have a natural nystagmus which means that my eyes will twitch whether I have been drinking or not. This was a very happy thing for me to learn about myself.  My husband, who is a Highway Patrol Officer and highly trained in DWI has done this test on me a number of times.  On a number of occasions after only one glass of wine he would perform this test on me and say I was drunk.  I would then swear up and down I wasn't.  Turns out, I wasn't!  I have a natural twitch.    The next test is the walk and turn.  This is where you have to walk the line turn and walk back. You must walk nine steps one foot in front of the other with your hands at your side, turn taking a series of small steps and walk back in the same manner. The last test is the one leg stand.  You have to raise one leg, hold your foot level to the ground, look at your toe and count 1/1000 2/1000 and so on.  Apparently I am very good at the latter two tests no matter how much I have been drinking, because if those were the only two tests that were to be preformed then they would have let me go.  The nystagmus test was the only "solid" proof of my intoxication.  

 

 

Tags: DWI, Champagne, Police Officers

Back Up Continued

Yesterday we started talking about backing up your hard drive.  Many of you are computer savy, but for those of you know to computers or those of you who know people who are, these entries are for you.

 

When you are done tidying up your "My Documents" folder move over to the "My pictures" folder.  As you go through the pictures make certain that you delete any duplicates.  Pictures take up a lot more memory then document files.  While this may not be so important when you are storing files on your hard drive, it will be important when you are backing up the files you want to save.  As you go through the pictures delete the duplicates or the unwanted pictures and  rename the ones you want to keep so that you will remember what they are by their file name.   Once the pictures are renamed it is important to organize them in to folders.  Whether you organize them by date, occasion, location, or subject is not important, it is however important that you are fairly consistent and name the folders accordingly. 

 

Music files are also very important to clean up.  Music files take up a lot of space as well so make certain that you delete any duplicates.  You may want to cleaning up your music files until AFTER you create a back up.  It isn't as easy to tell duplicates with music files and many of your files may be unnamed or improperly named.  Working with music files can be very time consuming, if you have a lot of files and very little time, create the back up first, then clean it up later.

 

Tomorrow I will cover how to do actual back up and what types of formats are availble.

 

 

Back Up!

With summer officially upon us on June 21 it is quite likely that many of us will be experiencing rolling black outs  These events can be quite a nuisance and can cause havoc to your hard dive.  If you have ever had your hard drive crash you know the anguish you feel, is compounded by the knowledge that you could have completely avoided this by backing up your system.

 

Five years ago, backing up your system could be a tedious process, but thanks to today's travel drives and portable external hard drives the process is fast and painless.  I suggest you back up your computer at the end of each day, however, if this isn't possible then it is very important to do so on Friday's, or every time you create an important document that must not get lost.

 

Before we handle backing up your data, lets talk about organizing your data.  The more efficiently your data is organized the quicker and easier it is to back it up and locate a file.

 

I suggest you take a look at the "My Documents" folder on your desk top.  Open it up and take a serious look at it.  How many folders do you have in there?  How many documents?  Do you any folders?  Do you have folders with both documents and pictures in them and are you are clueless as to what they are?  If you have answered yes to any of these questions, follow the step by step instructions to clean up your hard drive before backing it up.  This will make it easy to find your documents and save valuble space on your backup drives.

 

1.  Go through each folder in your "My Documents" file.  If it's a folder holding pictures that you would like to save, send it over to "My Pictures" by opening up the "My Pictures" folder and dragging it over.  If you do not want the pictures, click delete.

 

2.  Once you have cleared out all the pictures out of your document file, focus on the documents you already have saved.  As you check each one and decide if the document is still necessary or not, delete it or create a folder.  For example, Aunt Sally sent you a touching mother daughter story you would like to save.  Create a folder in my documents and name it "stories" and then drag it in there.  Then lets say your nephew Joe sent you a great joke you want to save..  Create a file called "humor" or "Jokes" and drag it into there.  Create folders so that you do not have any loose documents hanging about your "My Documents" folder.  This is important because it enables you to quickly find documents as well as back them up.

 

3. If you come across any music in your documents folder you will want to move that into the "My Music" folder as well. 

 

This is enough for today, tomorrow we will cover pictures and music.

 

This is how Seinfeld Episodes are made!

This is how Seinfeld Episodes are made!

The name of the episode:    My husband whispered "I hope he didn't hear you!"

The Mattituck Strawberry Festival was today.  They have strawberries.  I'm not really a strawberry fan, but the father of my children is.  So, we went to the festival.

It was pleasent.

As we were leaving there as a god awful band.  It was really bad.  The worst part about it was the lead singer.  He needed to be slienced.  FAST. 

As we were leaving I said to my husband "That guy is really bad.  Someone needs to pull the plug."

It was then that he whispered "I hope he didnt' hear you!"

I looked at him perplexed. Then he pointed out the paraplegic in the wheel chair.  I hadn't noticed him when I was talking about the band.  I too hope he wasn't listening as I wasn't talking about him.

Call 911 I'm Stuck To My Chair

        This just may be my best coaching tip yet!

                                  

Now, this tip is really just for the girls, but guys please read it as you just may save your SOB a lot of undue pain.  (SOB stands for Significant Other Being)

Everyone in J-land is complaining about the heat.  With the heat comes shorts, skirts, bathing suits and bear legs.  You are going about your day and unwittingly sit down with no forethought of the attack that is about to take place.  It could happen any where, a stadium chair, a church pew, a car seat, a park bench, you never know when it will happen.  You are sitting in the seat, minding your own business, and then it assault takes place.  You have to get up out of the chair to go do something.  That is when you realize that the chair has laid its claim on the back of your legs with an unrelenting grip.  As you slowly lift yourself out of the chair you pray that no one will see the tears streaming down your face.  Once you have freed your self from the vice grip hold this inanimate object has on you, you look to the spot to check to see how much of your leg will need to be reattached at the emergency room, as you are fairly certain that you have left a minimum of six layers of epidermis on the surface below.

Now ladies I bear tidings of great joy.  I have developed a cure!!!   It was quite by accident and all thanks to a mosquito whom I never got to thank!  Last summer I was sitting on my wooden chair working on my computer.  I had a mosquito bite on the back of my leg about 4 inches past the crease of my knee.  The heat from the chair started to bother the bite on the back of my leg and begged to be scratched.  So, I lifted my knee off of the chair towards the direction of my chest and applied my nails to the area.  I no sooner got done with that task when the bite on the back of my other leg begged for attention as well.  Obligingly I lifted my other leg, in the same manner, and gave that bite equal time.  It was at that moment the phone rang and I had to go in search of the phone.  (No one puts it back where it belongs, including me!)  I jumped up from the chair and realized I didn't stick!  There was no pain.  Now this was immediately obvious to me as early in the summer my chairs train me well on how to remove myself slowly as to cause the least amount of pain. So, when I accidentally jumped up, it was quite apparent that the chair had a secret it wasn't telling.  There was in fact an easy way to release yourself from its clutches!

Ladies, try it!  Next time you are stuck to your chair lift your knee  and bring it slightly towards your chest. This will release the skin very easily from the suction the chair has on you making it simple to ease yourself out of your chair with no pain involved. Now if you are the type that likes to experiment, you can lift one knee and not the other and in one quick step try out both methods!  Choose which leg you like best before you conduct this experiment.

Good luck and share this with everyone and let me know what the results are!

(Men do not go through this.  I checked.  It seems they have a protective layer of hair that frees them from this burdensome pain.  But just so you guys know what the pain is a kin to; Imagine getting a paper cut and pouring lemon juice on it.)

Tags: Leg safety 411, 5659

Tornado's and Labyrinths

(a rare look into my world) (This one is dedicated to Mary so she won't feel so all alone in her group experience) (We don't have to hug Mary! )

The above picture is a pictue of me!  (or at least how I felt on Saturday)

As I eluded to in previous posts, life has been busy for me and it has been difficult, at best, to keep up with posting regularly.  Busy in a good way, but, busy none the less.

Our area was hit with tornado's yesterday.  I live on Long Island in NY so it is very odd.  I didn't see one, but many of my friends did.  We were very fortunate as there was no property damage to anyone's home that we are aware of, however the trees in our area did take quite a hit and power has been out for quite a few people. 

On Saturday I spent the day on retreat.  I belong to the Long Island Coaching Alliance which is the local chapter of the International Coaches Federation, to which I also belong.  Once a year, each June, we gather as a group for spiritual renewal.  Last year it was at my house!  Which was great as I consider my home to be on unusually sacred ground, but I digress.  This year it was held at The Little Portion Friary and the topic was "How Do You Walk Upon This Earth".  The Highlight of the day was walking the labyrinth.

The day went really well.  It was quite beautiful.  It would have been even better if I could have ridden my motorcycle there as the roads were just perfect for it, but I am not quite ready for that just yet.  I did take the convertible so it made me feel somewhat better.   (I digress again)  At the end of the day everyone shared their individual thoughts and spiritual experiences inside the labyrinth.  They were all very profound.  Everyone seemed to be touched emotionally and spiritually.  I however, had a very different experience. 

The retreat was lead by two wonderful women, Kay and Jeannine.  Jeannine being my coach and an amazing women, led the labyrinth introduction.  She was disappointed because she had to leave early and was going to miss the sharing part of the day, which she was most interested in.  (She had to leave to go to a wedding.  Fools! oops, digressing again)  We all promised to e-mail her what we shared when she was gone. 

Now I facilitate a lot of group experiences.  I am really very good at this.  I really enjoy it very much.  I am however not very gifted at being a participant.  It is quite challenging for me to "share" without at least one glass of wine in me, aka truth serum. (It can be done, but it isn't that easy or comfortable, and I am digressing yet again)

So, we get our brief introduction into the Labyrinth experience.  The short version is you are to ask a question before you walk in and the answer is supposed to come to you while you are walking.  Click here for the Long Version if you are interested.

So, everyone shared their deeply spiritual and moving experience, and then it was my turn, well I was number 7 out of 16. 

Here is the Labyrinth we walked:

Here is my experience in side the labyrinth:

I couldn't think of a question when I went into the labyrinth so I just figured that the labyrinth would provide a question, or an answer I needed.  When I got to the labyrinth I was a  bit off kilter because I was expecting high hedges. No hedges, just grass and wood chips.  But, into it I walked.  As I started walking I thought "hmmmm if everyone would just pick one or two weeds as they were walking this would be a very nicely manicured labyrinth. I thought to mention it, but remembered we weren't allowed to talk.  Then I got a kick out of Paul (another coach) and how he was walking.  As I got further in it seemed like a chore.  Like something I had to complete.  I wanted to break out of the lines and go smell the flowers and check out the garden and walk around the property and explore. There was a pretty bench I wanted to sit on and write.  This feeling didn't leave until I got out of the labyrinth.  Then I realized that I was tripping a bit and thought "If I fall I will really screw up everyone's nice spiritual day". Then Jeannine quietly blessed me. "God, she must REALLY know I need it it" I thought to myself.  On the way back out of the labyrinth,  the mushrooms caught my eye again and I thought touching them would be a nice distraction.  Then Paul stole my idea.  I didn't want to pet the mushrooms then because I didn't want to look like a copycat, but I did it anyway.  This brought me back to my bartending days and I thought "A mushroom walks into a bar and orders a beer.  The bartender said "we don't serve mushrooms here!"  The mushroom answered, "Why not?  I'm a FUNGI!"  Then I just focused on completing my task and moving on, (and pouring a glass or wine or making a nice crisp Cosmopolitan digressing again) noticing that some of the wood chips looked curiously like bones.  Finally I came to the end of the walk and felt free.  I enjoyed the bees and the dragonflies and flowers on my walk.  The Gregorian chant and noon didn't suck either!  I stayed late after everyone left and re walked the maze in hopes of having the wonderful enlightening experience that everyone else had, but alas, I walked away empty handed with the exception of having a staring match with a very pretty black cat.  The cat won.

All in all, I seemed to be comic relief for the group.  Everyone was hysterical and Paul said I shouldn't have eaten the mushrooms.  Now as I have said many times before, I would never ask a client to do anything I wouldn't do, so I do have my very own life coach, who I was lucky enough to have run the retreat.  I shared this with her and here was her feed back.

Think of where you are in your life right now, and your walk in the labyrinth doesn't surprise me at all.  You were literally putting one foot in front of the other staying in the moment and noticing exactly what was in front of you.  That is being fully alive, Rosemary.

I expected you to walk across the circles and sit down at some point, it must have been a drag to literally drag your leg around.................you show such perseverance and patience with yourself, please acknowledge that.  It isn't always a "high" moment when walking the labyrinth.  Sometimes it can be that seemingly "nothing" happens, yet even then something subtle is taking place. Generally what happens is the universe gives you exactly what you need ......... at that moment.  You NOTICED the moments in front of you and you "focused on completing the task in front of you." courage!

 

I was pretty impressed with her interpretation. 

 

 

 

I'm in a mood

I know it isn't Friday.  As I said the next couple of weeks are going to be a "free for all" as far as entries are concerned as I have things coming at me from ever direction.  I thought this poem was a hoot, and well, to be perfectly honest, a most excellent idea.

The Little Vagabond

 by William Blake.

Dear mother, dear mother, the church is cold,
But the ale-house is healthy and pleasant and warm;
Besides I can tell where I am used well,
Such usage in Heaven will never do well.

But if at the church they would give us some ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day,
Nor ever once wish from the church to stray.

Then the parson might preach, and drink, and sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

And God, like a father rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as he,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the barrel,
But kiss him, and give him both drink and apparel.