There is a Chinese story of an old farmer who had an old horse for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and, when all the farmer’s neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’

A week later the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, ‘Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?’

Then, when the farmer’s son was attempted to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, ‘Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?’

I studied in a public school once, and when rain comes, rain water goes through the roof. Corruption was involved on its construction, and that is a sad reality.

I remember this well, it was raining hard, and classes were suspended. All of the children and my classmates tried to search for their nannies / guardians. Well for me I know it will be late because my mother will come to pick me up late from the office.

Discovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been available for viewing only in a museum in Israel...until now.

Thanks to some expert digital photography and a project set up by Google, high-resolution photos of five of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls can now be seen online. Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Web site offers a peek into the distant past, allowing people to view and examine the scrolls in fine detail.

Photographed by digital photographer Ardon Bar-Hama, the images contain as many as 1,200 megapixels, according to Google, so that people can zoom in to get a detailed view of the historic manuscripts.

You never know when someone
might catch a dream from you.

Or something you say may open up the windows
of a mind that seeks light;

The way you live may not matter at all,
But you never know, it might.

“Could I speak to the manager?”

My friend’s sudden query to our waitress startled me. Our dinner at a popular pizza restaurant had seemed uneventful, and I wondered what Eileen was up to.

The manager appeared at our table a few minutes later.

“What can I do for you?” she asked hesitantly, as if she were expecting yet another reprimand from an angry customer.

“I just want to you to know that our waitress tonight has been really exceptional,” Eileen began.

Gerard Butler is crying.

It's a sunny afternoon and the actor best known as King Leonidas in "300" had just sauntered into a Los Feliz eatery, fresh off his Harley, adorned in a black T-shirt, army green pants and a helmet tucked close to his newly trim body. He's charmed the wait staff, ordered a salad along with his café latte so his guest won't have to eat alone, and is affably sharing anecdotes. Yet the moment he revisits his time in South Africa, playing Sam Childers, the real-life gun-wielding preacher who went to the Sudan and started an orphanage, his emotions can't be contained.

Reporting from Toronto —— A few years ago, director Marc Forster went to visit Sam Childers at his home in rural Central City, Pa., eager to learn about how a drug dealer became a preacher and then director of an orphanage in Africa. As a get-to-know-you activity, Childers took the Swiss filmmaker (who has a penchant for purple sneakers and pink-striped socks) into his backyard to shoot guns.

The real-life subject of the new film "Machine Gun Preacher," Sam Childers has long had a conflicted relationship with Hollywood. As the real-life gun-wielding preacher who started an orphanage in Africa, Childers came to the attention of Hollywood back in 2005 when his unique story -- drug addict-turned-African-vigilante -- was featured on "Dateline NBC." Once that program aired, offers for book, television and film deals flooded into his modest Pennsylvania home that Childers shares with his wife, Lynn.

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant teacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never traveled, except in his infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

This has to be one of the funniest things in a long time. I think this guy should have been promoted, not fired. This is a true story from the WordPerfect Helpline, which was transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care department.

Needless to say the Help Desk employee was fired; however, he/she is currently suing the Word Perfect organization for 'Termination without Cause.'

Actual dialogue of a former WordPerfect Customer Support employee.
(Now I know why they record these conversations!):

I've learned- that you cannot make someone love you.  All you can do is be someone who can be loved.  The rest is up to them.

I've learned-  that no matter how much I care,  some people just don't care back.

I've learned-  that it takes years to build up trust,  and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned-  that it's not what you have in your life  but who you have in your life that counts.

Ada seorang bapak ingin mengajarkan sesuatu pada anaknya.

Maka dia meminta anaknya untuk mengambil 3 jenis benda, yaitu, wortel, telur dan biji kopi

Sang ayah bertanya kepada anaknya, "Diantara 3 benda tersebut, manakah yang paling rapuh atau mudah pecah ?"

Scott Ross interviewed Johnny Cash.

John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. By the early 1970s, he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black". He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat.

SCOTT: John, looking back over 30 years in the music business, just give us an overview.

JOHNNY: It's been a good 30 years... It's been a great spiritual experience sharing my feelings with my audience. And that's what performing is. It's communicating your feelings through lyrics, recitation, or dialogue between songs. I found it to be a great challenge yet a most rewarding thing and probably the most rewarding vocation a person can have...

"Why do we have to learn all of this dumb stuff?"

Of all the complaints and questions I have heard from my students during my years in the classroom, this was the one most frequently uttered. I would answer it by recounting the following legend.

One night a group of nomads were preparing to retire for the evening when suddenly they were surrounded by a great light. They knew they were in the presence of a celestial being. With great anticipation, they awaited a heavenly message of great importance that they knew must be especially for them.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside  the wonderful device lived an amazing person -- her name was "Information, Please" and there was nothing she did not know.

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird behind it. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds 71 percent more flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: 
People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier when they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

"Bake sale" said the sign over the door. Joe's mouth watered.

He could imagine all the treats inside. He opened the door and walked in.

Joe couldn't believe his eyes. As far as he could see in the building there were rows of tables with signs over each table to describe its specialty. Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, pies, tarts.

Except....there were no cakes, cookies, muffins, pies or tarts.

You see, this was a "recipe" bake sale.

On a dark winter's night as the chill wind blew
on a park bench an old man there lay

Tattered and torn, tired withered and worn
he'd not eaten for more than a day

Heartache and fears and much sadness and tears
was his life - fate had dealt a poor hand

He thought once or twice of the terrible price
he'd paid not obeying God's command

There is a story about an old fox hunter. He had been extremely successful, but he finally decided to retire and go south for the winters.

Before he left for his first winter in a warmer climate, an energetic young man came to him and asked how to become as successful as the old hunter. He offered to buy the old man's shop, his hunting rights, and even his secrets for successfully hunting foxes. The old hunter agreed; he sold the young man all his goods and carefully told him all the secrets to his great hunting success.

Two Zen monks, an older monk and a young student monk had been sent to town for provisions, and here now journeying back to their ashram.

Presently they came to the banks of a fast-flowing river, here they found a young woman huddled on the bank, unable to cross the current by herself. Immediately the older monk went to the woman, picked her up in his arms, and carried her safely across.

At the other side, he placed her feet down on the ground, bowed, and went on his way.

The son of a master thief asked his father to teach him the secrets of the trade. The old thief agreed and that night took his son to burglarize a large house.

While the family was asleep, he silently led his young apprentice into a room that contained a clothes closet. The father told his son to go into the closet to pick out some clothes. When he did, his father quickly shut the door and locked him in.

Immortals is an upcoming 2011 3D action-adventure fantasy film directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto, and Mickey Rourke. The film was previously named Dawn of War and War of the Gods before being officially named Immortals and is loosely based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy. It is set to be released in Real D 3D and Digital 3D on November 11, 2011 by Relativity Media and Universal Pictures.

Machine Gun Preacher is the inspirational true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. Gerard Butler (300) delivers a searing performance as Childers, the impassioned founder of the Angels of East Africa rescue organization in Golden Globe-nominated director Marc Forster's (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) moving story of violence and redemption.

Blackthorn is an 2011 Western film directed by Mateo Gil and starring Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega and Stephen Rea.

Your presence is a present to the world.
You're unique and one of a kind.
Your life can be what you want it to be.
Take the days just one at a time.

Count your blessings, not your troubles.
You'll make it through whatever comes along.
Within you are so many answers.
Understand, have courage, be strong.

My nephew's 10 year old son came for a visit one hot, July weekend. I was enticing him to stay inside by joining him in a nintendo game. After being mercilessly defeated by a more experienced player, I suggested that we relax awhile. I collapsed into my favorite recliner to let my neck muscles relax and my ego recover from such a beating. He had slipped out of the room and I was catching a few relished moments of peace and quiet.

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high;
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit -
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.
-------
http://www.inspirationalarchive.com/texts/topics/perseverance/dontquit.shtml
http://www.straightchuter.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/dan_hike.jpg

Behind the city of Colorado Springs, at the back of the U.S. Air Force Academy stands a mountain called Eagle Peak which is popular among local hikers, and Scouts in particular. From it's summit you can peer into the depths of the Rocky Mountains on one side or overlook the vast expanse of the Great Plains on the other. Each summer the trail leading to the peak is trod by those who've walked it's track before as well as those who make of it a new experience.

The inexperienced hiker is generally always told, if he cares to ask, that the hike will take all day to go up and back. He is told to start early and to set a strong, steady pace for the journey will be difficult and rigorous. The inexperienced hiker who follows this advice and plans accordingly can be easily disappointed and even become angry or confused upon reaching the beginning of the trail, because he can see with his own eyes from the parking lot that the hike to the summit and back would take far less than half a day with little difficulty at even the most leisurely pace.

Paul McCartney first met Albert Maysles back in 1964 when Maysles and his brother David followed The Beatles during their first trip to America – from their frenzied arrival at JFK airport to their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in front of a theater full of screaming teenage girls. The result was the now-classic documentary What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.

So when McCartney was participating in the benefit Concert for New York City in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he rang up his old friend Albert (David Maysles died in 1987) to ask if he’d fancy shadowing him on a different kind of New York sojourn.

Andrew Zuckerman: On Curiosity, Rigor, and Learning As You Go from 99% on Vimeo.

"Few of our own failures are fatal," economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford writes in his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure. This may be true, but we certainly don't act like it. When our mistakes stare us in the face, we often find it so upsetting that we miss out on the primary benefit of failing (yes, benefit): the chance to get over our egos and come back with a stronger, smarter approach.

According to Adapt, "success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right first time." To prove his point, Harford cites compelling examples innovation by trial-and-error from visionaries as varied as choreographer Twyla Tharp and US Forces Commander David Petraeus.

In sports, one never imagines that you can get by on talent alone. Take Roger Federer or Michael Jordan, for instance. Although each man’s one-of-a-kind natural talent is undeniable, we are also keenly aware of the grueling hours of practice that were necessary to mold that talent into true greatness. So why should it be any different with creativity?

Two brothers worked together on the family farm. One was married and had a large family. The other was single. At the day's end, the brothers shared everything equally, produce and profit.

Then one day the single brother said to himself, "It's not right that we should share equally the produce and the profit. I'm alone and my needs are simple."

MELBOURNE, Australia — Even with the best scientific techniques, you can’t always get what you want. But if you try, as the Rolling Stones put it, sometimes you get what you need.

Consider the case of Ned Kelly’s skull.

In Australia, Kelly needs no introduction; for Americans, it may help to think of him as Jesse James, Thomas Paine and John F. Kennedy rolled into one.

Born about 1854 to an Irish convict exiled to Australia, Kelly became a folk hero as a very young man. He took up arms against a corrupt British constabulary, robbed banks, wrote an explosive manifesto — and in a final shootout in which he wore homemade metal armor, he was shot, arrested and hanged in 1880 by the Anglo-Irish establishment he despised.

I heard this song for the first time when I watched "The Hunted" (Tommy Lee Jones' movie). It is in the end credits of the film. And the song kept on playing in my mind long after the film has ended and I went to sleep.

The next morning I checked in the internet to know what Johnny Cash's album in which this song is contained. Then I called a local CD store. Fortunately, they have this album.

Hurriedly, I drove to the store to pick up the CD.

Since then, this song is becoming one of my favorite from Johnny Cash's songs.

There once was a powerful Japanese emperor who needed a new chief samurai. So he sent out a declaration throughout the entire known world that he was searching for a chief.

A year passed, and only three people applied for the very demanding position: a Japanese samurai, a Chinese samurai, and a Jewish samurai.

The emperor asked the Japanese samurai to come in and demonstrate why he should be the chief samurai. The Japanese samurai opened a matchbox, and out popped a bumblebee. Whoosh! went his sword. The bumblebee dropped dead, chopped in half.

A sobbing little girl stood near a small church from which she had been turned away because it 'was too crowded'. "I can't go to Sunday School," she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by. Seeing her shabby, unkempt appearance, the pastor guessed the reason and, taking her by the hand, took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday School class. The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who have no place to worship Jesus.

My all-time favourite film is "Lawrence Of Arabia" and, if I have a favourite scene from the movie, then I guess it is the one of Lawrence's triumphal return from the Nefud desert, having gone back to rescue the Arab Gasim. The crossing of the Nefud desert is considered impossible, even by the local Arabs, but Lawrence persuades them that, in this way, they can take the Turkish port at Aqaba from the rear.

Join Brian David-Marshall as he talks with Wizards of the Coast R&D members Mark Rosewater and Zac Hill about the newest Magic card set, Innistrad. Set in a gothic horror world of vampires, zombies, werewolves, and things much worse, the humans stand alone against the darkness. Nearly two dozen new cards are previewed in this video.