Peace of Mind

Most people would be glad to have some peace of mind in their life. They would be happy to forget their troubles, problems and worries, and enjoy a few moments of inner calmness and freedom from obsessing thoughts.

What is peace of mind? It is a state of inner calmness and tranquility, together with a sense of freedom, when thoughts and worries cease, and there is no stress, strain or fear. Such moments are not so rare. They may be experienced while being engaged in some kind of an absorbing or interesting activity, such as while watching an entertaining movie or TV program, while being with someone you love, while reading a book or while lying on the sand at the beach.

Here are some simple Peace of Mind tips:

• Reduce the amount of time you read the newspapers or watch the news on TV.
• Stay away from negative conversations and from negative people.
• Don't hold grudges. Learn to forget and forgive. Nurturing ill feelings and grievances hurts you and causes lack of sleep.
• Don't be jealous of others. Being jealous means that you have low self-esteem and consider yourself inferior to others. Jealousy and low self esteem, often lead to lack of inner peace.
• Accept what cannot be changed. This saves a lot of time, energy and worries.
• Every day we face numerous inconveniences, irritations and situations that are beyond our control. If we can change them, that's fine, but this is not always possible. We must learn to put up with such things and accept them cheerfully.
• Learn to be more patient and tolerant with people and events.
• Don't take everything too personally. Some emotional and mental detachment is desirable. Try to view your life and other people with a little detachment and less involvement. Detachment is not indifference, lack of interest or coldness. It is the ability to think and judge impartially and logically. Don't worry if again and again you fail to manifest detachment. Just keep trying.
• Let bygones be gone. Forget the past and concentrate on the present moment. There is no need to evoke unpleasant memories and immerse yourself in them.
• Practice some concentration exercises. This will help you to reject unpleasant thoughts and worries that steal away your peace of mind.
• Learn to practice meditation. Even a few minutes a day will make a change in your life.

Inner peace ultimately leads to external peace. By creating peace in our inner world, we bring it into the external world, affecting other people too.

by Remez Sasson

Autumn Colors 2012

To Autumn

John Keats wrote "To Autumn" on September 19, 1819, at the height of his skill. He had just returned from a stroll near the town of Winchester in Hampshire, England. As he put it in a letter to his friend J.H. Reynolds:

How beautiful the season is now – How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather – Dian skies – I never lik'd stubble fields so much as now – Aye better than the chilly green of spring. Somehow a stubble plain looks warm – in the same way that some pictures look warm – this struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it.

As the letter suggests, the poem professes Keats's preference for autumn over spring, but the real star of "To Autumn" is the language and, more specifically, the sound.

"To Autumn" is a poem for anyone who has a little trouble letting good things come to an end. It could be a relationship, a cherished experience, or just something you outgrow. And, of course, it could even be a favorite time of year.

So what's the secret to letting a good thing end with grace and good humor? First, always look forward, never back. When Keats thinks about the flowers of spring and summer, he's thinking about the seeds that are being dropped to bloom next year, and not what happened last year. Second, soak up every last bit of goodness at that moment without worrying about what comes next. The woman who personifies autumn in this poem spends her time napping in the fields and watching cider being made. She doesn't fret about winter. Finally, take a snapshot in your mind (or better yet, on paper), so you'll always have a powerful memory to return to. Each of the three stanzas of "To Autumn" is like a different Polaroid put into words, and filled with the light, smells, and sounds of the season.

Sadly, Keats was to become a living example of things coming to an end too soon. He died at the age of 25, only two years after completing this poem.

Wood Art

American Sculptor, Dan Webb, turns ordinary pieces of wood into extraordinary works of art. His lifelike creations contain high levels of detail and the intricate design is truly masterful. Born in East Lansing, Michigan and now living in Seattle, Washington, artist Dan Webb creates amazing sculptures out of wood. The textures and intricate detail in his work are truly astounding. Webb received his BFA from the Cornish College of the Arts and he has had a number of solo and group exhibits. His work is also held in various museum collections in Washington and New York.

Four-Leaf Clover

Is it difficult to find happiness, like a four-leaf clover?

The four-leaf clover grows inside. You can choose to be grumpy or you can choose to be cheerful. I don't have time to be grumpy or cheerful. I just need calmness. Time alone enjoying being ME. Some people are not happy most of time because they compare with others. The unrealistic expectations make them unhappy. Do not compare. You have the power to design your own life for happiness.

Find the virtual four-leaf clover inside, it is easier because it is virtual. You make it yourself :-)))))))

Clover

Clovers occasionally have leaves with four leaflets, instead of the usual three. These four-leaf clovers, like other rarities, are considered lucky. Clovers can also have five, six, or more leaves, but these are rarer. The record for most leaves is 56, set on 10 May 2009. This beat the 21-leaf clover, a record set in June 2008 by the same man, who had also held the prior record Guinness World Record of 18.

A common idiom is "to be (live) in clover", meaning to live a carefree life of ease, comfort, or prosperity. This originally referred to the fact that clover is fattening to cattle.


Clover (Trifolium), or trefoil, is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the leguminous pea family Fabaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution; the highest diversity is found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes on mountains in the tropics. They are small annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herbaceous plants. The leaves are trifoliate (rarely 5- or 7-foliate), with stipules adnate to the leaf-stalk, and heads or dense spikes of small red, purple, white, or yellow flowers; the small, few-seeded pods are enclosed in the calyx. Other closely related genera often called clovers include Melilotus (sweet clover) and Medicago (alfalfa or 'calvary clover'). The "shamrock" of popular iconography is sometimes considered to be young clover. The scientific name derives from the Latin tres, "three", and folium, "leaf", so called from the characteristic form of the leaf, which has three leaflets (trifoliate); hence the popular name trefoil. Clovers are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species; see list of Lepidoptera that feed on clovers.

Settle Down

Kimbra Lee Johnson was born on 27 March 1990 and grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand. Her father, Ken Johnson, was the head doctor at the University of Waikato's student health centre and her mother was an orthopaedic nurse. Kimbra attended Hillcrest High School, rising to prominence as a musician after competing in the national schools' competition Rockquest for three years running, where she was awarded second place in 2004 when aged 14-years-old. At the age of 10, Kimbra had begun writing songs, at 12-years-old Ken bought her a guitar and "after a few years of lessons, she was on stage, performing with her guitar tutors (she was never taught to sing)". Kimbra made her first music video, "Smile", for the children's TV show What Now. Kimbra was a member of the Hillcrest High Jazz choir, Scat, and her teacher, Sue Radford described her as "a very talented young person in a range of different areas".

In June 2010 Kimbra's first single on Forum 5, "Settle Down", was released. She had started writing the track four years earlier – it was finished with François Tétaz. The music video was directed by Guy Franklin. Perez Hilton featured the track on his website citing "If you like Nina Simone, Florence & The Machine and/or Bjork, then we think you will enjoy Kimbra – her music reminds us of all those fierce ladies!" On 10 December, the Australian 'indietronica' group Miami Horror released their single, "I Look to You" featuring Kimbra's vocals. Kimbra also stars in its music video, which features wide-angle and kaleidoscope shots of her in face paint and dresses walking through golden fields.

Kimbra's music delves beyond the "four chord cliché but still maintains strong hooks and catchy melodies that are sometimes unpredictable but satisfying".

She is a very different young singer dressed in antique style beyond her age. Her music is very different. Not very sweet. In settle down, she dressed like a doll which is cute but dark. The little girls shown in the video are pretty scary. It is her style.

Her 2012 tour includes October 23 (Tuesday) at Washington DC 9:30 Club (815 V St NW 20001 Washington, DC, US).

The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 American biographical drama film based on Chris Gardner's nearly one-year struggle with homelessness. Directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film features Will Smith as Gardner, an on-and-off-homeless salesman-turned stockbroker. Smith's son Jaden Smith co-stars, making his film debut as Gardner's son Christopher Jr.

The screenplay by Steven Conrad is based on the best-selling memoir written by Gardner with Quincy Troupe. The film was released on December 15, 2006, by Columbia Pictures. For his performance, Smith, was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. The unusual spelling of the film's title comes from a sign Gardner saw when he was homeless. In the film, "happiness" is misspelled as "happyness" outside the daycare facility Gardner's son attends.

Plot

In 1981 San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his family's savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tries to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proves to be a white elephant, which financially breaks the family and as a result, his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and moves to New York. Their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) remains with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris meets Jay Twistle (Brian Howe), a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short cab ride. Chris does not have enough money for the cab fare and flees into a subway station where he barely escapes the cab driver but loses one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with Twistle earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker.

Despite arriving there unkempt and shabbily dressed due to being arrested the previous day for unpaid parking tickets and Chris didn't have enough time to make the appointment on time, Chris is offered the internship. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid income taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a subway station. Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter primarily for single mothers and their children. The church's owner does not let him stay due to the fact that it is for women and children, although she tells him about a local church that also provides shelter, but has very limited space. Due to demand for the limited rooms, Chris must frantically race from his internship work early each afternoon in order to land a place in line. Chris finds the bone scanner that he lost in the subway station from a demented man who believes it to be a time machine and it is now damaged, but Chris finally repairs it.

Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that maximizing his client contacts and profits is the only way to earn the one paid position that he and his 19 competitors are fighting for, Chris develops a number of ways to make phone sales calls more efficiently. He also reaches out to potential high value customers, defying protocol. One sympathetic prospect takes him and his son to a San Francisco 49ers game. Regardless of his challenges, Chris never reveals his lowly circumstances to his co-workers, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five dollars for a cab, a sum he can't afford.

Concluding his internship, Chris is called into a meeting with his managers. His work has paid off and he is offered the position. Fighting back tears, he rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him. They walk down the street, joking with each other and are passed by a man in a business suit (the real Chris Gardner in a cameo). The epilogue reveals that Chris went on to form his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm.

It is a good movie. Heart broke when the little boy lost his little stuff animal pal on the street and when Will Smith needs to pay someone else' cab which is all he got  from his wallet. If you watched this movie, are you still not happy with what you have now?

After Eight

After Eight Thin Mints - The original After Eight product, these comprise square dark or (less commonly) milk chocolate, enclosing the mint fondant. It is perfect combination of luxurious mint fondant crafted with 100 percent natural peppermint oil, enrobed in rich dark chocolate, makes After Eight The chocolate mint. All After Eight products are free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.

The fondant in the centre of After Eights is made from a stiff paste of saccharose, water, and a small amount of the enzyme invertase. This fondant can readily be coated with dark chocolate. After manufacture, the enzyme gradually splits the saccharose into the much more soluble glucose and fructose, resulting in a more liquid consistency. Maturing of the mint is said to take over three months.

History:

After Eight Thin Mints (After Eights) are a confectionery product described as "mint enrobed in dark chocolate" (although a milk chocolate version became available in 2006) that are intended, as its name suggests, to be used as after-dinner mints. They were created in 1962 by Rowntree and Company Limited. Since the 1988 acquisition of the United Kingdom-based company, the mints have been produced by Nestlé.

The "Thin Mints" have been made in the factory in Castleford, West Yorkshire since 1970, and the Chocolate Truffles are made in York. After Eights are now sold across Europe and North America, and one billion After Eight mints are made annually.

In 2010, Nestle announced the closure of the Castleford factory, and the transfer of the production of After Eight to its Halifax factory.

In 1967, After Eights were also manufactured at the Rowntree factory in the Wandsbek district of Hamburg.

After Eights were originally made from dairy-free dark chocolate. However, in 2007, Nestlé started adding butterfat to After Eights, making them a dairy product. Nestlé has also made special editions of After Eights, including orange After Eights and milk chocolate After Eights.

Lately she had been eating After Eight Thin Mint brought from Switzerland. She has one box at office and one box at home. Those little black-bagged thin mint is perfect for morning refresh or after dinner sweet. The logo is a very unique design. mmmmmm .... can not live without chocolate and cotton candy  :-))))))))))))

Klein Bottle

In 1882, Felix Klein imagined sewing two Möbius Loops together to create a single sided bottle with no boundary. Its inside is its outside. It contains itself.

Take a rectangle and join one pair of opposite sides -- you'll now have a cylinder. Now join the other pair of sides with a half-twist. That last step isn't possible in our universe, sad to say. A true Klein Bottle requires 4-dimensions because the surface has to pass through itself without a hole.

It's closed and non-orientable, so a symbol on its surface can be slid around on it and reappear backwards at the same place.You can't do this trick on a sphere, doughnut, or pet ferret -- they're orientable.

A true Klein Bottle lives in 4-dimensions. But every tiny patch of the Klein Bottle is 2-dimensional. In this sense, a Klein Bottle is a 2-dimensional manifold which can only exist in 4-dimensions!

AH topology - seems interesting, but never really into it, probably because she was under huge pressure of qualifying exam with two famous Russian professors long time ago. God knows how she passed it :-)))

I'd love to have one of those and put a lady bug on it. Did you try on a Mobius loop?

This place to buy one of those:  http://kleinbottle.com/index.htm

  Klein Bottle Hat with a matching Mobius Scarf

Pon and Zi

 Who are Pon and Zi?

They are two cute emo characters, designed by Jeff Thomas (nickname: Azuzephre @DeviantArt). The pictures of Pon & Zi are cute and adorable. Pon and Zi describes a strong love relationship between the two; melancholic, sorrow, and sometimes has a deep meaning to it. I love Pon and Zi.

Who is the boy and who is the girl?

The artist, Jeff Thomas, didn't assign genders to Pon & Zi. He said:

"Originally gray and nameless, Pon and Zi were named and given colors along with different personalities. Pon, colored yellow, is usually the optimistic instigator, and Zi, colored blue, retains some of the disconnect and apathy found in the first comics.

Neither is assigned a gender because I think that each of their personalities could be identified by either male or female readers, depending on the comic and dynamics of the relationship the reader is involved in."