Happier Life Is Yours

This is something I wish I would have understood when I was growing up, as it would have made some areas of my life simpler and more satisfying. Perhaps my thoughts will help you giving you a direction you want your life to go in, and make it more satisfying and fulfilling.

In the movie, The Edge, the main character Anthony Hopkins is Charles Morse, who is constantly asked, “What now Charles?” Charles is a business and book smart billionaire who finds himself stranded with his wife’s lover Alec Baldwin plying Bob Green in the wilds of Alaska. Only Charles knows enough about survival from his voracious reading to save both of their lives in the rugged wilderness. Before the plane crash, Charles was by perception in the movie, an extremely successful businessman having inadequate social skills.

change carsI was or perhaps still am, as are many other people, like the character Charles. I spent years trying to fit in where I always felt a little out of place. My fitting in was always met with varying degrees of success depending on how one wished to categorize or rate what constitutes success. In parts of my life I was very successful, in others areas, which are the areas we tend to focus on when reviewing ourselves, I did not feel I was that successful.

When the plane crashes, Charles is now in a position to compete where he can excel, not to far removed from the business arena where Charles was a stellar performer. Some could say Charles was an illusionist, in that he chose not to excel in any activity that did not reward him financially. This may or may not be the case.

In the wilds of Alaska, with his extensive survival knowledge, Charles was in an arena where the other person did not even know the rules of the game. There was almost no chance of Charles being less successful than someone who had no survival skills experience or knowledge. Charles was unfortunately because of the plane crash in an arena where he would excel using all his knowledge and talents.

What came to pass was I realized that no matter how I tried, unless I changed myself and many things about me, I would never fit in with certain groups of people. That seemed to leave me two choices: Change, or always be a little bit of an outsider. I tried changing, but those clothes were not comfortable. Neither was being a little bit of an outsider, but it was the better feeling of my two options.

Somewhere along the way of living my life, I started to have an awareness that my not fitting in had nothing to do with me, or the people around me. We were all being ourselves, and doing what made us happy. Any conflict was a result of the situation, not them and not a flaw in me. I was trying to belong where I could never comfortably belong or fit in.

Almost by accident I stumbled into changing my circumstances into situations where I did fit in. I quit trying to fit in where I thought I should, and started looking for people and activities that fit the real me. In essence I became Charles after the plane crash. I had leveled the field and began spending my time in places where other people like me spent their time too.

During this time the way I felt about me and my life became much better, and more comfortable. I did not change myself in the process. I changed what I did and who I spent my time with. Phrased another way, I changed my reality. I am still the same person, but those around me, have a better understanding of my character, and personality, and therefore have a clearer perception of why I do the things I do, or not as the case may be.

If you are like me and you look in the mirror, are happy with the person you see, who does not quite fit in their life as you think they should, do what I did. Decide where you do fit in and with whom, and see if that agrees with who you think you are. If you find that those types of people share your idea of life, join them and don’t be surprised when you become like Charles too. Often it is not the person who is not quite right; it is the situation they are in that does not fit their character and personality.

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Linux Testing Crashing and Burning

I decided it was time to play around with newly released Linux distros the other night night. I know it is not the greatest decision as far as computers go, to play with the operating system when it is late. Getting to bed at four in the morning reinforced that thought.

It started out simply enough, I thought I would check out the new Linux listings at Distrowatch
and see what distributions are popular. There has not been a lot of movement in ratings of different distributions but there were some new releases. I broke out some blank cd’s and off I went.

I started out innocently enough thinking about a recent conversation I had at a local netboook show and tell. One of the people there also uses Linux and we talked about our choices. One distro we both had used in the past was PCLinuxOS and we both agreed PCLinuxOS is a solid distribution. I had moved on to Minime which became obsolete, and he has moved on to Tinyme for his netbook which he runs off a xd card and does not use his hard drive.

He mentioned a recent release of Minime was out. That was my starting point. I found the updated Minme torrent download, downloaded the iso and copied it to cd. Minime said it could not run as a live cd. Oh well, that was fun, not.

Mepis released a new beta iso, and I thought it may run well on my netbook. I downloaded the iso, copied it and started it up. It ran fine as a live cd, so I installed Mepis to my hard drive. mepis installed quickly, and ran okay except it would not shutdown properly. That should have been a hint to stop for the night.

I thought, well maybe Debian would now work with my netbook wireless. Repeat, to install. Debian made it to the wireless configuration but does not support my wireless card. In the past Debian made no changes to my hard drive, but this time that was not the case. Grub was gone and Windows was in jeopardy.

This is where the fun began as midnight came and went. As Zenwalk worked before, except for my wireless card, the new beta may have caught up. Repeat download install sequence. Being a beta, or more likely my Debian almost install and abort, Zenwalk loaded and ran, but Windows was still missing.

fouramOne o’clock in the morning was now in the past. I got on the net and looked for an easy was to fix the MBR so Windows could load. That was a wasted forty minutes except I read a method to use Ubuntu to rewrite the Windows loader. Three o’clock in the morning was now history. I had downloaded Ubuntu and repeated the install.

Ubuntu not only loaded painlessly, it found Windows and added it to Grub! The world or at least my netbook was safe once again. It was now almost 3:45 am. The Ubuntu file update notification showed up and I decided I may as well spend a few minutes updating Ubuntu. Wrong thought, thinking it would be a few minutes. The update was quick and painless, but not fast.

Mepis works on my Asus netbook. Debian’s install, and also tells so you before you start. Ubuntu saved the day for me. It may be Ubuntu loads and runs faster than previous releases. Ubuntu is well polished and stable.

In wrapping up, do not seriously think about toying with your computer’s operating system when it is late, or you are tired. Linux Beta’s are not really ready for prime time, or at least dual booting. They make it clear in their release announcement, and they mean it. Staying up later to fix earlier mistakes is not really a good solution.

Linux is a great OS, and the problems were all my doing. Towards the end, I thought perhaps I should download a server version which is pretty stripped down, and add programs I want. After seeing four in the morning, I decided enough was enough for one night.

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Free Occult Knowledge, Choose Carefully

Having an interest in wanting to know about dimensions and realities most people never think about, my having contact with other entities is not unusual. Most experiences are rather mundane, and some make my pulse beat faster. While I would like to attribute it to imagination, undiagnosed emotional illness, or other unexplained melody, I know I it is not so. A lifetime of odd happenings is too much to dismiss.

Such is this the basis of this post. I am happily thinking of nothing really when something shows up. To some people it may have been called a demon. To me that is like calling everyone on the other side of the equator southerners, while those of us on my side of the equator are northerners. It is just too broad of a brush stroke to define everything so generally. There are people who choose to live a fear based life, and almost everything is evil to them, I choose to approach this differently.

What it was I am not sure. It wanted to give me the psychic equivalent of an e-book. Offering me information that some people spend their life looking for and never finding. In this interaction – rather than conversation, because I find it hard to converse things that give me primal feelings of loathing and dislike, this creature told me it is hungry and was offering me with something of value to myself, and to itself.

offeredAt first when I realized what I was hearing, I thought it was some kind of odd joke. As I thought about it, I realized that children’s books, lore, and late night conversation, along with some angered conversation, have many instances of what was being offered. Enough instances in fact I can not say it was not a joke. What would you do with a manual on, “How to Turn Someone Into a Toad”?

Kind of funny at first thought. Not a literal physical change into a toad, more of a psychic or spiritual changing. The images I saw were of it feeding off an unfortunate ‘human toad’ were not appealing. I became repulsed at what I saw. It was not a tearing and rendering of flesh feeding, but a spiritual draining, knowing that no matter what the victim does, this feeding does not stop for long. Somehow this creature gets what it needs to sustain its life from our human spiritual side.

This is where occult, or hidden knowledge is learned. There is no book or other access to it. Unless someone, or in this case something offers to teach you, you would never find it. In this particular case it had already been offered to me, unasked, and accepting the ‘gift’ was my choice. Sort of like Eve tasting the apple, or George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Once taken, it can not be given back.

Most people in the world have experiences that can not be explained. Most people in the world think those other people who speak of their experiences have something wrong with them. It is interesting, believing what I experience is normal and real, but your unexplained experience is a result of a hidden flaw in your makeup.

We are conditioned over our lifetime to think that any experience unless it can be explained by our physical laws and rules, can not happen. We are conditioned to assume there are no dimensions or realities other than this dimension and reality. We are conditioned to think there is goodness and evil. In our conditioned minds, if we have not been told or taught it is good, it is evil by default. We are allowed no alternative explanation.

Psychic experience, arcane, occult knowledge, or overactive imagination, this type of thing has happened to most of us. Whether this really happened or not, the idea of intentionally damaging someone, is not in my character. Though reflecting on children’s stories and childhood lore, something like this has been happening for a long long time. Perhaps without our even being aware of it because we are conditioned to not notice.

Entities like this one exist. They are neither good or bad, light or darkness, even though we want them to be. If someone is approachable because they are in the correct mindset, or right frequency to hear, they approach and make an offer. What one does with what they offer is either good or evil. The choice of accepting a gift such as this is always ours to make. Choose carefully and with respect for the outcome, if or when an offer is made to you; when something slips up on you and offers you something before you are even aware of what is happening.

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Feel Good About You and Your World

Do you find yourself depressed with the way the world is? Do you turn on the news and see nothing but how bad things are? Does thinking about the state of the world bring you down? In our world of twenty-four hour instant access to everything, we are exposed to more than ever, and think about more than ever, most of it being bad via the media.

When reading the next two words: news & information – we think of something which interests us, or will be of value to us. That is what we think, not noticing the new media definition. News rarely contains information of any real interest or importance to you personally.

Often, what passes for news and information is verbiage and video filling space between advertisements trying to sell you something. What something is depends on who pays the most for that advertising slot, the media is not overly partial.

feel goodMedia networks show and tell whatever brings in the most viewers or readers. Content does not matter in the least. If content made a difference young children would not be aware of adult sexual problems, or be experts on stomach medications. Mainstream media is as content airing doom and gloom stories with children watching as it is discussing sexual diseases via commercials with those same children, as we wonder while we are unhappy with the world.

Due to a lifetime of media conditioning, we get more excited about doom and gloom with blood splattered across walls and running down streets, than we do about a feel good story. Slowly but surely without our even being aware of it, our behavior has been modified to enjoy these sights and sounds. We find more excitement in learning of some hideous crime than we do in watching a news report of a zoo, unless an animal attacks a visitor.

Some people however are bothered by what they see, read, and hear to the point it negatively effects their lives. They feel helpless, hopeless, and even depressed without realizing it is what the media badgers them with with an unending flow of bad news, and grisly sights that should upset anyone.

A solution is available, and it works. Within a few weeks you can have a happier life, with less worry and stress. All it takes is willingness to change a behavior or two. It is hard to change some behaviors, because most of the time we can not believe it is a really a problem. Until we test it out, we think it is a waste of our time. It is not until later when we look back we know the change was good.

We are too close to it to see the connection. People exposed to mass media saturation think they are too sensitive, too emotional, or too soft. The real issue is it is just too much of violence, bad news, and depressing stories. Start reducing the amount of time you read about, watch, or listen to the news. The world won’t stop because you watch less news, or read less news on the web.

People after their first week of no oppressing news start feeling better about their life, and the world in general. After three weeks, they have that extra time filled with something more important and meaningful in their life. This is good news for you. You can change your media habit, start feeling better about the world. You will also help yourself to feel better about your part of the world.

If you can’t think of anything fun to do look around your neighborhood and see what you con do to make better. Perhaps something as simple as planting a flower along the sidewalk, your favorite window, or in an empty lot. Pick up a piece of trash every day, or clean up a few feet of an empty lot. Water a weed every day if nothing else comes to mind.

Put out pieces of bread for birds to eat. Smile at someone and say hello. The act of doing anything positive to make a change is liberating. Do something small, do something others can enjoy too. You are not alone in how you feel, but now you know how to change your life in a positive way. Any and every little thing you do is enough to help you start feeling better about the world once you break the news habit.

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Eating with Celiacs, For The Gluten Intolerant

It has been four months now since I have been eating a Celiac or wheat gluten free diet. If you are not sure what that means, my understanding is Celiac is intolerance for wheat type gluten. This type of gluten is found in Wheat, Barley, and Rye for starters and perhaps a few lesser known grains too. Anything with malt or malt extract is code for gluten. Modified something you do not understand exactly what it is, is a phrase to be wary of. In my earlier Celiac post, I went over some of the symptoms that have been experienced both by myself and others.

It seems a Celiac diet is generally misunderstood, I read and have been told following a gluten free diet is a poor lifestyle choice which is simply not true. Lots of people around the world live quite happily on a gluten free diet. I suggest a lot of thought on going on a Celiac diet just for fun. It is a very restrictive diet if you are not adventurous. Eliminating gluten from your diet is no small undertaking.

After eliminating all the common places gluten sources exist in the average diet, there are other places gluten lurks. It is important to read each and every food label every time you shop because gluten lurks in almost every food you can imagine, from ice cream, to protein powders, some peanut butter, vitamins, and some medicines. What may be free of gluten this time, may have gluten in it the next time because the manufacturing of the product changed.

cel 2A Celiac diet properly undertaken is very healthy and nutritious. A Celiac diet done wrong can also turn into a monster. If you are not open to trying new foods, food combinations, and tastes, the Celiac diet is very expensive and fairly bland. Trying to eat the same type of foods you always ate such as different forms of breads and pasta’s will send the cost of eating into the upper limits. If a loaf of bread used to cost you $2.50, you can now plan on paying two to three times or more for bread that never quite matches your memories.

If you enjoy snacking on an occasional pretzel, cookie, or doughnut, get ready to pay much more for the pleasure. If you like pancakes or waffles guess what? The price of pancake mix and waffles goes up too. If you always wanted to expand what you eat, and you can get excited about new vegetables, and fruits, you will find life pretty exciting. You can practically start at one side of your favorite produce section and eat your way around to the other side.

If you are in the middle in your eating needs, you will find your food bill has gone up, and you may find yourself eating more of the types of foods that you previously ate less of. Going to a buffet for example where everyone can find something they want to eat, your choices once you leave the salad area becomes limited. Most thick soups are out, so is most chili, cheese, croutons, crackers, and everyone’s favorite – most of the desert section. You are left with vegetables and some of the meats. You can eat those meats which are not breaded, barbequed, or marinated with a soy based sauce, because they are likely to contain gluten.

On the bright side, I have noticed the taste of wheat in some food is obvious. The first bite often tells me if there is wheat hiding in the food somewhere. If I do not notice which has happened a few times, upset stomach of some form is not far away. Talk about negative reinforcement, it only needs to happen a few times before the awareness level and attention to what I am eating went way up.

Contrary to some of what I have read, being gluten free is not the end of the world. With some willingness to say goodbye to what your diet used to be and hello to the world of vegetables and fruits you never tasted before, a Celiac diet is healthy and can be quite reasonable both in taste and expense.

If you do have a gluten allergy, you will know generally within a few weeks because you should feel better, and not just different. In my case, it was only a few days before I started feeling a difference, and a few weeks before feeling healthier

An acquaintance mentioned many people have an allergy to many foods, but our bodies for the most part are able to handle the reaction without our even noticing. Again though that is conjecture and opinion, so take it with a grain of e-salt.

If you are serious about a celiac diet, or have health concerns, you need opinion and advice from a more informed source than myself. While I have done my reading and research, I am by no more than a beginning novice on Celiacs, and much of what I say may not be correct or correct for you. I have some small gluten tolerance, as some people do, so my thoughts and opinions may not be correct for you.

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How To Choose The Best Cell Phone For You

Recently three family members chose to upgrade their cell phones. I found the process interesting and wanted to share it. The thinking involved can help you choose your next cell phone, or perhaps something more important. We three had different wants and needs. It was interesting how individual wants, needs, real world usage, and cell phone design all influence the decision making process. We are with Verizon Wireless, so your options may be slightly different, but the process is the same.

A twenty year old male wanted the following:

Flashy, eye catching features, major texting ability, internet access, and positive peer review

My Wife’s priorities were:

Calling and call answering, easy and powerful texting, overall ease of use, conservative design

My priorities were:

Water resistant, able to take a licking and keep on ticking (Timex slogan), scratch resistance, improved texting

I thought our needs were pretty diverse. I was responsible for researching our two phones as I am the one who likes to get on the net, read opinions, and I am willing to sit through YouTube demo videos. When making purchases such as a cell phone, the real considerations are what you do actually use the phone for, what the phone can do best, and are you compatible with the software.

mobile phoneCell phones primarily make and receive phone calls, but also text, take pictures, connect to the internet, and can be substitute game playing machines. Software design varies among brands so it is important you find the software is easy to use.

I went to the Verizon web site and searched on features of the cell phones I found. I was able to filter on features on the web page making searching easier. After some different searches I had some possible choices. I wrote the names of phones across the top of a sheet of paper. I read the ratings, reviews and details of course. I then marked the features that were most important below each phone across from the feature it listed.

It looked something like this, except you have to use your imagination with the X’s (and n for no):

phone 1 phone 2 phone 3 phone 4

Internal screen X X n X

Flip X X X n

External keys n X X X

Qwerty n X X X

Camera X X X X

Long battery life X n X X

Rugged n X n n

I had created a chart of what was wanted in a cell phone for the two of us of us. Counting the X’s for each phone from top to bottom made it easier to see which phone was a better choice. By preparing myself before going to the store, we were better able to make a smart purchase as I already knew which phones we did not want to see.

This simple method of rating wants or needs works well for any decision making from simple choices for dinner, to a selection from a series of products with multiple options such as cell phones, or a new car. What is nice, is what your chart shows may not be what you had in mind.

In the end the twenty year old chose an LG Versa, which has about all the functions you can find in a cell phone. It has all the flash to appeal to a young crowd. A few of his friends have the same model phone, so it was a good choice for him. My wife chose a Samsung Alias 2 for its call and texting features. I chose a Casio/Verizon GzOne Boulder with camera mostly because it will not easily break (fingers crossed). We are each happy with our own choices, but I doubt we would be as happy using each others cell phones for very long.

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