I came across this SelfGrowth.com poll today and looking at the results at the time, out of 26 votes, not a single person voted for Money and Career as being the things they feel thankful for.  I wondered:  Could it be because the respondents were from amongst those who are directly affected by the high unemployment rates that have  risen to 10.2 percent in the month of October, which is an all time high since The Great Depression?

Or Is it possible the people who answered that poll are the ones who only go to the selfgrowth.com site for inspiration and aren’t really concerned about or concentrating on making money online or offline?

As for me, I am thankful for my family and friends, but honestly, I am more thankful today to have a job that pays my bills (including health care insurance).

What about you?

What are you most thankful for today?

Let us know in the comments here and list at least 3 things that you are thankful for today.

What Are You Most Thankful For? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Look,  we know those guys in Jill and Kevin Heinz’s wedding dance video were a bit over the top but you have to see how these guys handled the last day of their journey as they proceed to divorce each other, just after 6 months!!

It’s a different cast but the divorce day must have been a blast for everyone as their friends and family can be seen swinging to Chris Brown’s “Forever“..

By the way, they are still happily married :)

Happiness is contagious – 2! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Happiness really IS contagious! And to make a difference, all we need to do is share it, ’spread it around’….

Seeing this video not only made me laugh, the affect lasted for a long time.  It also reminded me of a post I had recently read at Seth Godin about leaders who start a movement that people feel compelled to join!

He’s referring to the Guy #3 in the following video:

I have a feeling we’ll see this trend in more and more weddings :)

Happiness is Contagious is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As you know by now, Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up of personal blog posts on the topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment. Posts range from tips on losing weight, sharpening your brain to stem cell research, Feng Shui to finding our true self! Eventually, it’s all about healing our minds, bodies and Spirit.

So how can today’s edition be complete without including that person who has given tears of joy and hope this week to millions around the globe? If you are one of the few who has not heard of Susan Boyle this week, you definitely need to watch her in this video and then read Clayton Makepeace’s article What Are You So Afraid Of?

Reminds me a quote “Success is never found.  Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.”

- Winston Churchill

So, here are this week’s healing articles

ChristianPF present Health benefits of cocoa posted at Natural Health Ezine , saying, “We all know cocoa has some health benefits, but is it all good?”

Robert Galway presents Ftiness Bootcamp posted at robertgalway.com , saying, “Boot camp exercises are chosen to build strength and total body conditioning through repetition, duration, and gradual intensity. A typical day of full basic training in the booth camp exercises are also easy to weave into your running program, as you can do them at regular intervals during your workout at a park, trail or track.”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Teaser to Stimulate your Concentration Skills posted at SharpBrains, saying, “What about a quick brain teaser: can you count?”

Aparna presents Tulsi (Basil) to cure skin problems posted at Beauty & Personality Grooming, saying, “Tulsi has been found to possess extraordinary powers of healing and promoting health. Tulsi is found to be endowed with purifying and antiseptic qualities. The efficacy of the remedies of skin diseases is greatly augmented if they are used in conjunction with Tulsi”

Gerard Banhidi presents Meditation: Introduction posted at Health and Meditation Corner

floslib presents Finding My Beliefs posted at Spirited Script.

Kaushik Chokshi presents The Power of Intention – how to stop the cycle of madness posted at Beyond Karma.

Tom Maurer presents Mind-Body Healing posted at Simple and Spiritual.

Robin Birch presents Finding Our True Selves posted at Let’s Live Forever!, saying, “The “Observer” part of us has always been the same, and is always in ecstasy – we can get in touch with our higher self by being the Observer.”

Pat Doyle presents How To Arrange Your Bedroom For Good Feng Shui posted at Feng Shui Crazy, saying, “The bedroom is one of the most important rooms for Feng Shui. You spend one third of your life in bed, and a restful sleep is important for your general energy level.”

Margaret Garcia presents 100 Best Blogs for Living Healthy on a Budget posted at Surgical Technician Schools.

Julian Pollock presents Avoiding Allergies with Organic Lotion – and Discover the Major Skin Benefits for the Entire Family, From Babies on Up posted at Julian Pollock, saying, “Although the Internet abounds with the advantages of organic skincare, I still feel it’s worth bringing this to people’s attention. (As a private note on the anniversary of my mother’s death, I was quite touched with your writings about your father. I’m told it is a male trait that we try to fix other people’s problems – as opposed to being there for them; but still – I wonder if you know about the Sedona Method – a system of letting go I have been using for six or seven years now and treasure it.)”

Brad presents Playing Your Heart Strings posted at Tri-Freedom, saying, “Letting music take us deep within.”

Ross presents How To Cure Yourself of Hay Fever posted at Energise for Life, saying, “It’s that time of year again! I know it’s coming, you know it’s coming and all the signs are there: the mood of the nation lifts (wahoo!), we start saying hello to each other again, everyone desperately starts trying to get in shape, the sunny mornings give everyone a lift and a spring in their step and the clocks change (at last!). We don’t go to work and come home from work in the dark anymore and we start looking forward to Wimbledon, summer fruits and holidays.”

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: Complacency posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat, saying, “Being complacent takes life for granted and tells the Law of Attraction you don’t appreciate what you have. You can change that!”

Robert Burton Robinson presents How to Lose the Fat and Keep It Off Forever posted at Mind Over Mania, saying, “8 tips to help you lose fat and FINALLY keep it off FOREVER. You’ll feel better and be healthier when your weight is under control.”

Sarah Scrafford presents 50 Foods That Give You the Most Nutrition Bang for Your Buck posted at Masters in Health Care.

GrrlScientist presents Pioneering Stem Cell Research in Race Horses Now Helping People posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, “Several companies that I’ve been following have been redirecting their stem-cell research that they originally developed to help injured horses to help people recover from Achilles tendon injuries.”

Joe Tichio presents The Best Stress Busters posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog.

VikramKir presents What to eat to lose fat? Food for weight loss! posted at Thoughtfully Vikram.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Watch for next week’s carnival #186 – April 25 2009: hosted by Jon, Beyond Within
Last week #184 – April 11 2009 carnival was hosted by Ji Hyang, Natural Wisdom

Technorati tags: carnival of healing, blog carnival.

Carnival Of Healing #185 – It’s all about having courage is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Last year when I started participating in the carnival of healing, I was going through myriad of emotions and was very angry at the helplessness that I felt after my dad suddenly passed away.   He was in very good health except a headache that lasted for a week and wouldn’t go away.  He had walked a couple of miles the day he was taken to the ER.  In the hospital, everything happened so fast, the doctors could not keep pace with his deteriorating health from some infection he had caught in the hospital.  We were devastated.  I cannot believe it’s already been a year since then.  Throughout his stay in the hospital he stayed very optimistic, as he always was and rather gave us strength.

I had seen people dying before but this was different.  This was very different as I loved (and still do) my dad more than anyone else in the world.  I felt closer to my dad than to my mother or siblings.  I felt he understood me and my feelings more than anyone else could.  So, this year has been the most difficult time in all of my life but I have to say that even so, as time passes, as most of you told me at the time, it has become easier as I try to understand life and death cycle and come to accept it.

Our mom, however week she is right now, is mentally and spiritually very strong.  She has seen us all break down at times and one day she told us that now we should be paying more attention to the ones that are living, than to the one that has moved on the next phase of his journey.  It sounded harsh at the time, but it makes a lot of sense.  Pay attention to your life and the lives of those you love.  And that is what the Carnival of Healing is all about too.  It has information on how to improve the quality of your life.

There are already a lot of great articles submitted to this carnival each week, but I also asked some of my friends who I thought could write on the subject or already do write on healing.  I met Sid Savara via Stumble Upon whose blog is not about ‘healing’ or ‘personal empowerment’ but he was kind enough to point me to one of his posts on inspirational quotes and the very first one is a gem.  I repeat that quote here:

“Life is but a brief moment. The years go by quickly and old age arrives suddenly before we have an inkling. People desire so many things and waste their days in vain. Some yearn for gold, others for power, yet others for glory and a higher station. But when death’s moment nears and they look back at their lives they’ve lived, they realize they’ve been happy only during those moments when they’ve loved.”
-Borje Vahamaki

1. Samir doesn’t write on holistic healing either, but was kind enough to write about what Holistic Health actually means in A Better Definition Of Holistic Health on his blog
2. Jenny’s blog is all about Healing Pain Naturally and this article on Healing – The Unlimited Possiblities, gives a good perspective.

There have been a lot of good articles that I tried to break down in different segments as healing entails all aspects of life: Physical, Emotional as well as Spiritual.  Take a look.

Emotional and Spiritual

1. Akemi presents Spiritual Self Protection And Clearing posted at Yes to Me .
2. Burak Bilgin presents Clear Your Mind posted at Distiller’s Corner .
3. Michael Miles presents Let your subconscious do the work posted at Effortless Abundance .
4. Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: “I’m Fine!” posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat .
5. Ross “Tolemac” Cotton presents Law of Attraction Methods and Techniques: Part 1 posted at Tolemac’s Metaphysical Blog .
6. ITAKEOFFTHEMASK presents Balancing the Root Chakra for Health and Stability posted at itakeoffthemask.com .
7. Robin shared The Journey, With Brandon Bays posted at Let’s Live Forever! . .

Physical

1. Tristan presents Weights advice from a Beast! posted at Body And Fitness Blog .
2. Brad presents Calorie Restriction posted at Tri-Freedom .
3. Martin Russell presents Phentermine For Weight Loss – My Story posted at Self Help Blog .
4. Axel presents Jet-Like Motivation posted at axel g .
5. Farid Mostamand presents Skin Beauty Blog posted at Anti-aging Skin care for body .
6. Mike presents What Is Anti-Aging? posted at Daily Health Tips And Health Services .
7. ananga presents Discover What Causes Fatigue and How You Can Stop It posted at Ananga’s Living by Design Blog .
8. Health Tips 101 presents Summer Tea: Blackberry/ Raspberry Leaf Tea posted at Health  Health Tips 101

Getting rid of addictions and disease

1. Kalidasa presents Neck Pain: C5 The Most Common Cause And What You Can Do About It
   posted at Natural Healing And Back Pain Relief .
2. Peter Crump presents Can You Get Cancer From Drinking Chlorinated Water? posted at Which Is THE Best Drinking Water Filter? .
3. Gina Loree Marks presents Liver Has Sprung posted at Blog/Home .
4. Alvin Hopkinson presents Signs of Diabetes – The 8 Signs to Watch Out For posted at How to Control Diabetes .
5. Dean Moyer presents Back Pain and Massage Therapy posted at The Back Pain Blog .
6. 00FF00 presents Hibiscus as a treatment for cystitis and high blood pressure – ooffoo – free to reuse, swap, sell, give away, recycle and more posted at A member of the ooffoo community .
7. Alvaro Fernandez presents New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution .
8. Brain Blogger presents Lithium as a Neuroprotectant? posted at Brain Blogger .
9. ishanbansal presents How to Save Money on Prescription Drugs posted at Save Few Bucks .
10. Roy Schwartz presents 10 (Proven!) Reasons to Quit Smoking and How You Can Start posted at A Disease A Day .
11. Patricia Turner presents Top 50 Cancer Survival Inspiration Blogs posted at Radiology Technician Schools .
12. NAOMI STEVENS presents PRINCE CHARLES LAUNCHES DUCHY HERBALS posted at Diary From England .

And here are some more interesting reads that indirectly impact the whole holistic concept and mindset.

1. Chris Edgar presents Is There Such A Thing As “Boring” Work? posted at Purpose Power Coaching .
2. Travis presents Crossing Cultural Boundaries | www.datinginislam.com posted at Dating In Islam.
3. Yael Ernst presents Complementary & Alternative Marketing- a Review posted at Chinese Medicine Notes .
4. Online Wellness Association presents PRACTITIONERS: WHY HAVE A WEBSITE? posted at Online Wellness: A Safe Haven .

Check out previous week’s carnival @ Create a Thriving Business

And if you are interested in participating, here is the upcoming schedule for the next few weeks:

You can also familiarize yourself by reading more about Holistic Healing here

photos: Lepiaf.geo

Carnival of Healing #181 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

In a few hours from now, Barak Obama will take the oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the US.  We all know that putting such a huge responsibility on one person’s shoulders is most probably going to lead us all to disappointment but then like Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”

Right now, that is exactly all of us Americans feel.   Hopeful.  Heck, that is how most of the people all over the world feel about Obama’s rise to Presidency.  This is an amazing moment in our country’s history!    We certainly have come a long way from the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” address on August 28th, 1963, but there is still a long way to go.

But with leaders like Obama, who can motivate and inspire others to do the right thing, there is a hope that most people will come together to keeping America strong and proud. In the video below, you can see how some of the very famous celebrities have come together and made pledges to Barack Obama, supporting his call for change. We ALL can do the same. Make a Pledge today to make that change happen, however small it might be.

The Presidential Pledge

Because, together we will be the change that we seek.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You… is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, Successful and Safe New Year. Hope all of your wishes come true this year and beyond.

My only wish for the year 2009 is that it be more peaceful and prosperous than 2008.

This year we had no extravagant celebrations, just watched the ball drop in Times Square (on TV).

How about you?

Do you like to stay at home on New Year’s or are you the type who absolutely has to be out of the house this day?

Happy New Year – Welcome 2009! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

What a charismatic moment we just had in America with Barack Obama’s victory tonight. Included below is President Obama’s (getting used to saying that) victory speech that he gave in Chicago just less than an hour ago. Watch it and notice the height of emotions felt across people of ALL colors, ages and social classes.

It was truly a very proud and emotionally thrilling moment as in times like these, you forget the differences and divide and stand united, for each other, not just for ourselves. Very inspirational as greatness and intelligence is once again rewarded tonight. Here’s to the new beginnings and much needed change..

President Obama gives America a night to remember forever! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to yet another great edition of carnival of healing .

Let me start by thanking all who submitted useful and practical advice filled articles to this edition of the carnival. I noticed a lot of the articles submitted were on physical well being and that is rightfully a huge part of our healing but I also feel that binge eating and not exercising and not taking care of our bodies etc. stem primarily from the way we are on the inside, how we feel about our current situations.

So, one of the major steps towards healing is to continuously be open to learning new skills for the changing circumstances throughout life :

Skills

• to stop the negative thinking cycle and calm the storms on the inside,
• to forgive people as well as circumstances that are beyond our control
• to break free from limiting beliefs
• to love ourselves

I am sure there are many more skills that help with healing and without further ado, here is some great reading material this weekend.

Dr. Ben Adkins presents Why Some People Are More Successful Than You posted at Dr. Ben Adkins.

Nicholas Powiull presents Conscious Flex: How to Easily Experience Lucid Dreams: by Nicholas Powiull posted at Conscious Flex, saying, “The more you can improve on your dreams, the more you can improve in your life. It is a reflection upon each other. Lucid dreams are a state of empowerment.”

Donald Latumahina presents 7 Winning Character Traits That Create A Lifetime Of Success posted at Life Optimizer.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brainy Haikus for brain training posted at SharpBrains, saying, “Enjoy this collection of fantastic haikus on brain and mind topics, and contribute yours!”

Grace Young presents Please Be Seated! posted at Grace R Young OT, saying, “Prolonged standing is stressful. Sitting while performing tasks takes 25% less energy.”

Erin Pavlina presents 2012 and the End of the World posted at Erin Pavlina’s Blog, saying, “I’m sure you’ve heard about it. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, and there are signs in so many places … the world is going to end in 2012. I get at least 3 or 4 emails per week asking if I believe the world will really end in 2012 or if there will be a spiritual awakening, or if God is coming down to select his top 100 people to take to Heaven while the rest of us go to Hell.”

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Law of Attraction in Action: “Too Blessed to Be Stressed” posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat, saying, “When you regularly focus on appreciating your blessings, use the mantra, “I’m too blessed to be stressed” to attract relaxation during stressful times.”

AndrewB presents How to Stop Binge Eating posted at Stop Binge Eating, saying, “How I lost weight, overcame food addiction, and kept all the weight off.”

Kara-Leah Grant presents On the power of paying attention to your words posted at Prana Flow NZ, saying, “One of the most powerful actions we can take in our day to day life is to pay attention to our words. The language we choose to use reveals much about what we truly believe, and by choosing words that reflect our dreams and goals, we can change ourselves for the better.”

Kelly Turner presents Bulimic To Personal Trainer: Can Too Much of a Good Thing Be Bad? posted at Grounded Fitness.

AndrewB presents How to Stop Binge Eating posted at Binge Eating Forum, saying, “A post where everyone shared their best advice on how to stop binge eating or stop overeating, many great free tips to stop binge eating.”

Louis Burns presents Presuppose Greatness posted at NLP Marketing Blog.

fitnchic presents Diet food ? Weighing the Pros and Cons :: FitNChic.com – Get in Shape Fashionably :: posted at FitNChic.com – Get in Shape, Fashionably!.

Patricia Turner presents 5 Free Kettlebell Video Sites – EKG Classes posted at EKG Classes.

BoH presents Fat Chance! posted at buddha of hollywood.

Margaret Garcia presents Give your Children the Gift of Good Health – Radiology Technician Schools posted at Radiology Technician Schools.

Nancy Miller presents Bitter Pill to Swallow – Antidepressants and Weight Gain – Becoming A Radiologist posted at Becoming A Radiologist.

mag presents Heal yourself naturally by balancing your pH with acid/alkaline foods posted at The Magenpie.com, saying, “Many health problems that people suffer from these days are due to an imbalance of the body’s pH. The human blood pH should be slightly alkaline, at 7.35-7.45 pH. Anything below or above this range spells trouble.”

Mary@SimplyForties presents My Summer of Cancer posted at SimplyForties.

myln presents Simple Ways to Manage Stress posted at ManageYourLifeNow.com, saying, “Stress is not something that we cannot manage. There are ways to manage stress and reverse the negative consequences to our mental and physical health caused by stress. When we feel that stress is dominating our life we should take action immediately to find ways to manage our life and stress better.”

FitBuff presents How to Form Good Eating Habits posted at 3rd Chance Fitness Blog, saying, “We all wish we had good eating habits, but it’s hard. The good news is it’s also largely mental, and the following mindset will set you in the right direction.”

AndrewB presents Stop Emotional Eating Tips posted at Stop Binge Eating, saying, “why emotional eating is probably keeping you fat and how to instantly conquerit with these quick tips.”

AndrewB presents Courage – The World is Yours posted at Personal Hack, saying, “When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. – Ralph Waldo Emerson”

Ray Dotson shows us How to Deal with Disappointment posted Freshblogger, saying, “I’m no psychiatrist, but I do believe there are stages that a person goes through in dealing with disappointment just like when grieving. In fact, disappointment could be seen as a loss of opportunity that certainly could trigger the grieving process.”

Caffeine Junkie presents Caffeine Content | My Caffeine Addiction posted at Caffeine Addiction, saying, “How to figure out the caffeine content in your drink.”

Pastor WD Favour presents Do You Have An Addiction? | wdfavour.com posted at wdfavour.com, saying, “Do you have an addiction? Do a personal check right away. Is there a specific activity, or a set of activities, that you are engaged in to the detriment of your health, mental state or social life? You might be blinded by the positive effects of that activity – probably you are making money from it or whatever: but if it’s hurting your health, mental state, or social life, its an addiction.”

Fiona King presents Top 100 Men?s Health Blogs posted at Massage Therapy Careers.

Khan presents Harmless or Deadly: A Personal Story About Asthma posted at Higher Education and Career Blog.

Steve Beisheim presents Free and Unlimited Exotic Massages posted at HowIHealed.com, saying, “A great resource for free massages”

Dean Moyer presents Microdiscectomy and Herniated Discs posted at The Back Pain Blog, saying, “Could the simple act of bending forward cause you to develop a herniated disc? What are the risk factors and what precautions should you take to avoid injury? And what about everybody’s favorite exercise; the sit-up? Is it really good for building core strength, or is it a dangerous practice? Since most health and fitness-minded people insist on “working those abs,” is there a way to perform sit-ups and crunches that minimizes the risk factors while actually enhancing results?”

FitBuff presents How Colon Cancer Warning Signs saved his life… posted at 3rd Chance Fitness Blog, saying, “Another 4 months of feeling winded and drained and he said “uncle” and called his doctor. It turns out, he HAD stage 2 colon cancer and was severely anemic from internal bleeding…”

Lizzie discusses Why Do Diet Fail on her FatLadySingz blog that just about everyone can benefit from

Vish presents The Illusion of Great Work posted at The Power To Realise God Through Self Enquiry.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of healing using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Previous Edition: Yourjoyouslife
Next Edition: howihealed

Technorati tags: carnival of healing, blog carnival.

Carnival of Healing #161 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

As much as I try to write and move this blog forward,  new and weird issues continue to challenge me.  I’ve been sick for a week now with high fever and chills with a lot of body ache.  Not only that,  my desktop got infected with some virus and trojans which keep directing my browser to agoga.com.  What frustrates me more and more is that none of the spyware programs I have downloaded are able to clean this shit out and the pc has almost come to a halt.  It just freezes when I try running ad-aware or spybot – search and destroy.   I recently restored one of my friend’s computers because she was having the same problems and thought now that I did it once, it should be a breeze to return my own pc to some restore point but it wouldn’t work on my pc.

The restore shuts the pc and even restarts but the message comes up saying No changes have been made to your computer.  And a strange thing I noticed is that there are restore points only for the last three months, nothing before that.  I’m running Windows XP, SR2.   I also have a Dell laptop that is starting to heat up to temperatures beyond 200 degrees!   So, I haven’t been turning that one on fearing it’ll just blow up on me one of these days.

So, frustrated with the situation, I decided to start painting again (again, coz I had completely stopped painting when I started blogging).   Here are a couple unfinished oil paintings I did this week.  Of course every time I spent some time on these, the fever went up to 102°F but it definitely eased my anxiety.

This is a copy of course from a very famous French Artist 1841-1919) Renoir’s painting of a woman reading.  Here is the original

The flowers in a vase is also a famous painting but I couldn’t find who it is from.  I am copying it from a single sheet that’s been cut out from a magazine.  These are far from finished yet but something I thought of sharing.

This exercise also brought back memories of the days when we didn’t have computers to communicate with each other, or internet to do research on just about every topic.  I thought about expanding this article into a list of things you can do when there is no pc or internet available, but truthfully? I get tired of those instructional posts in just about every other blog.  On this blog, we will stick to informal conversations about things to do when there is no internet or when your pc doesn’t work. And of course if you know how to get rid of that ugly agoga.com thingy, please please let me know.

I’m writing this from my brother’s laptop as my pc continues to freeze with every click,  so I may not be able to reply to your comments right away but would love to read them.

Reminder:  The 161th edition of carnival of healing will be posted this upcoming Saturday (Oct. 25th).  So if you want to submit your post to be published, please send it it before Friday (Oct 24th).

When the going gets tough, tough feels like quitting is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I hesitate a bit to say that I’ve felt many times that my sixth sense is pretty developed and that I can often feel things to a great accuracy.  No, I am not talking about psychic abilities but just general intuitive hunches about many of my situations.  (Although I read somewhere that people born under the signs of Scorpio and Pisces are born with extra sensory perceptions, so may be it has to do with that I am a Scorpio).  And every time I have ignored my instincts, I have ended up hurting or regretting afterwards.   This inner voice is within all of us and most of us hear it but do not pay much attention to it.

In the online world, we are meeting new people and developing connections on a daily basis so it is all the more important to use discretion, stay alert and trust our instincts.  On the Internet, all we know about some stranger is what he or she tells us and have no way of knowing if they are genuine, telling the truth or just trying to con us.  I don’t mean to say we need to be paranoid about trusting others, but keeping our ears and eyes open, watching for the gaps in the information they provide can save everyone tons of misery, time, energy, heartache and many times even money! This is true whether you are dealing with someone on a personal level, in the Internet marketing arena, shopping or anything else you are doing on the Internet.

To reiterate why it is important to trust our gut and intuitions, I want to share with you a post that one of my very good blogging friends teeni wrote on how Appearances can be deceiving, in which teeni has provided links to stories and other people’s posts when some good intentioned and otherwise intelligent, compassionate people fell pray to online frauds.  Teeni’s post stirred up some of my own emotions from a recent online experience in which I forced myself to trust someone despite having a very strong feeling that everything this person was telling me was a lie of some sort.

I am pretty careful in giving out my personal information to someone I have doubts about but upon finding this person was on a different continent,  I sort of relaxed and gave out some information I shouldn’t have.  Over time though, I couldn’t deal with deceiving, and clever conversations any more and stopped all contact.  Now, this person didn’t do any harm to me and I doubt they are out to harm anyone but who knows?   Pretending to be what you are not, you are playing with other people’s emotions and that is not forgivable.  I was on guard most of the time and that did not sit well with this person as they showed frustration that I wouldn’t ‘open up’ with them but it goes to show how many of us are vulnerable and readily trust the outside world than our own selves.  Like teeni points out in her post, a lot of people have self-esteem issues and this is their only avenue to get attention, by trapping innocent folk for their own benefit.    So Be Careful.

Here are some more resources to check out on Internet Fraud

Would love to hear your take on this issue and if you know of any such incidents.

photo: Neil Phillips

Your Instincts and gut feelings are mostly true – Trust them is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This question has been on my mind for a few days.

I went to a restaurant the other day with a few of my colleagues from work.  It was lunch time and this restaurant offers buffet for lunch. We have gone to this place many times before but recently there seems to be a new management and new crew.

At buffets, as you know, everyone gets their own servings and we all did.  The waiter came and filled our glasses with water but then after his first appearance, the waiter couldn’t be seen anywhere the entire time.  At one point we ran out of water and the food being very spicy and hot, we really needed it, the only thing that was not on the buffet table otherwise we would have gotten the refills ourselves.  This particular restaurant is quite famous in my town and gets filled beyond capacity during lunch so I understand that the staff usually gets busy (with what? I’m not sure) and cannot attend every customer individually.

The hot and spicy food was getting to us and in the absence of water,  we decided we were not going to tip them. (blame it on dehydration).

We finished our meal somehow and after paying at the front desk, headed to our cars while talking about how once this place used to be a very nice but the service was going downhill lately.   All of a sudden we heard someone calling us from behind: “Miss… excuse me ma’am..”  All four of us turned around and found that one of the waiters was walking towards us, with a smirk on his face.   Not understanding what his problem was, we stood there waiting to hear what was his problem. The guy walked up to us and told us that we had forgotten to pay him the tip.

Huh?  We were stunned and furious at his audacity.  How could he follow us in the parking lot asking for money?   All he did was fill our glasses with water one time at the beginning.   We wondered what that smirk was for… did he really think we were going to feel embarrassed and end up paying the tips in the parking lot?   Not to mention how suspiciously stupid the scene would have looked to someone – each of us handing over some money to a strange guy!

This is the first time in my life I’ve come across such behavior. No waiter in the world should be chasing customers in the parking lots to demand tips! We of course refused politely and said we didn’t think a gratuity was warranted as no service was provided, the guy insisted a couple of times but we just walked away!  Phew!   What has the world come to?

As ridiculous as it sounds, we recently also started noticing that this place has started to include the tip in the check when it’s first given to you so if you do not notice it, and end up giving 15% to 20% on top of that, it’s your fault and they will gladly take the money, knowing fully well that you didn’t notice the tip had already been added.  Not to mention, some restaurants charge you tip on the take-outs too!

So, here are my questions:

Do you always pay tips even when they don’t provide any service?

I mostly do but this one time we collectively decided not to and the waiter came after us!

How would you have handled this?  If you are not from United States, I’d love to know the custom and expectations in your country.

photo: Digital Plus Art & Photo

To Tip or Not to Tip the Nutty Waiter? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

One of my good friends Chee Wee Ng from Betshopboy completes a great milestone of blogging for one full year tomorrow and is celebrating first blog anniversary this month.  He has lined up some great gifts to give away to his readers.

I realize I should have announced it on my blog a bit earlier as he had weekly drawings and even early bird draw where if you entered early and secured 20 points, your points would be doubled but still there is one grand prize draw that will be on August 31.. The prizes for this coming week and the rules are listed below but first, check out Chee Wee’s video about his contest..

Prizes for 24 August draw

1st prize – 4GB Sandisk Micro Cruzer skin flash drive
2nd & 3rd – a 125×125 ad book for 7 days (from 25 – 31 Aug) with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Prizes for Grand draw on 31 August (one winner)

A 2GB Creative Zen MP3 player with 2.5? TFT LCD for videos & audios & SD card expansion slot. Click for specification.

A 125×125 ad book for entire month of September 2008 with PerformancingAds on my sidebar

Early Bird Bonus
The first 25 submissions with minimum of 20 points each will have their total points doubled!

So here is the deal, if you want to win one of the prizes, then here is what you need to do to gain those points:

* Registration and 1 point –> Subscribe to our RSS Feed via email (mandatory) and comment below that you are registered to win. You can use the subscribe option in the sidebar or at the end of this post.

* 1 point: Stumble or Stumble Review this contest

* 2 points –> Follow me on Twitter and Twitt about this contest with link to this contest page.

* 5 points –> Make a *New* blog post on a publicly accessible blog (cannot be on a password protected page such as myspace or facebook) and link to this page and the homepage. Additional 5 points given if you embed the above video(found in this post) in your post.

Earn Bonus Points
15 points –> Make a *New* blog post (separate from above post) and embed anyone of my videos found in below posts with a short writeup and link to the respective posts. That’s 15 points for each new post with a video.

Video post #1: Singapore Toys & Comic Convention 2008

Video post #2: A Prelude To F1 Grand Prix

Rules:

* This contest is all in good fun and is open to anywhere that snail mail goes.

* Participating blogs must be 90 days old and consist of at least 10 posts.

* Comment must contain link to twitter posts and blog posts, Twitter id and StumbleUpon id, so they can be verified.

* Winner must have an active subscription to Betshopboy.net when selected.

* Winners of ad spot must supply your own 125×125 image, which will run during the period stated above.

* Winners will be selected by random draw and will be contacted by email and you have 7 days to response. If there’s no response, a new winner will be drawn

* Contest ends on August 30th at 11.59pm (GMT +8).

* The organizer (that’s me!) reserve the right to reject any entries from websites that are generally offensive or pornographic, and any websites that can be classified as spam.

* The organizer (me again) reserves the right, at my sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this contest, e.g., depending on the participation rate, additional prizes and/or early bird bonus may be thrown in if my subscription target is hit.

Submit your entries early to qualify for the weekly draws and to double your points for the first 25 submissions with minimum 20 points!

Congratulations Chee Wee

First Anniversary Giveaway Contest – Betshopboy is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Your

Doctor?

Pharmacist?

Hair Dresser

Attorney?

Maid?

Friend?

OR

Mother-In-Law?

(trusting “myself” is not a choice) ;)

Update:  If you came here earlier after seeing this post in your feed reader, I apologize… the format kept getting all messed up for some reason and I had to delete the post!   I’ve been writing posts from either Windows Live Writer or BlogDesk and am so not used to the dashboard of this new version!

photo: OiMax

Who do you trust more? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

How would you do that?

Okay, here’s the constraint, try to describe yourself in just 2 or 3 words. Don’t think about your whole life because that gets confusing. Just concentrate on your state of mind at this very moment, NOW, and see what you come up with.

And of course let us know in the comments what you thought of, or else we’ll never know :-)

Above is a picture of Michael’s daughter from Flickr. I do not know Michael but when I came across this picture on Flickr while browsing, I instantly added him as a ‘contact’. Michael’s entire collection is great and there are tons of inspirational shots in his sets but this one touched me the most because of his explanation below this picture. It took me back to my childhood.

And I instantly felt sad, happy and calm at the same time.

I was sad because every time I think of my dad, I yearn to see him, talk to him and sometimes I listen to his messages on my cell phone voice mail.

I felt happy that he gave me a very enriched childhood, loved us all very dearly and supported us in everything we ever wanted to do.

I felt calm knowing that my mom is doing better. I was talking to a friend the other day who works in a public utilities company. She gets to hear from a lot of the clients on a daily basis about their problems. It was sad to know that so many of the older folk ( the ones in their late 70s or early 80s even) suffer because their water and/or electricity was shut off because they hadn’t been able to pay their bills. It’s really sad but that gave me a weird sense of calmness about my mother ‘coz things could have been much worse than they really are.

If you were to describe yourself in few words, is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

For a change, I was sent this video by someone today and it sure changed my mood so thought of sharing it with you guys for smiles.  

Also look for a guest post in a couple of days here.  Enjoy!

Britain’s Got Talent – Michael Jackson is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

It's been over two months since I've updated this blog and even though I browse through the web and meet/talk and socialize with many of you on various networking sites, I have to be honest that something inside me is not the same as before. The months after my father's passing haven't been easy on any of us in the family but it's been even tougher on our mother who is often hears him calling her name out for something. His presence in every room is still felt and even though we are comforted in the thoughts that he is around us and amidst us, the helplessness and not being able to see his physical self is just beyond any words could explain.

For me, there have been sudden and unannounced crying bouts at odd times and odd places, more so in my car while going home after work, which automatically disappear after some time. They are like spasms that come fast and make you feel like nothing in the world matters any more. All kinds of emotions, anger, helplessness, frustration, sadness, depression – any of these prop up at different times causing a lot of stress. Needless to say, it's been one of the most difficult things I have experienced.

With so much stress there have been many days when it became a burden to just get through the day let alone accomplish something. But, I am managing well so far. And the credit goes to all of you. My online community of friends – who are the reason I am able to write this post. You are the reason I have been able to keep my sanity many days when all else failed. The days when during my sadness, I didn't have the energy to do anything, when I wanted to be all alone yet needed the quiet support. It was easier reading your emails and short messages full of love, support and advice on twitter and StumbleUpon, than picking up the telephone to talk to someone. Your kind gestures, expressions of sympathy and offers to help out with this blog, everything – comforted and helped to pick up my spirit.

So, in this post, I want to take the time to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being there for me.

Steven @ http://traffikd.com/

Aruni @ http://www.entrepremusings.com/

Alina @ http://wordsofabrokenmirror.com/

Rob @ http://www.robschaumer.com/blog/

Glenn @ http://www.interfaithnetworking.com/myblog

Sue @ http://www.sueblimely.com/

David McCauley

Mig @ http://ewriting.pamil-visions.com/

Joy @ http://gourmeted.com/

Darren @ http://www.problogger.net/

David @ http://www.seduction-chronicles.net/david-deangelo

Mark @ http://www.mytropicalescape.com/

Tay @ http://superbloggingtips.com/

Lalla @ http://www.lalla-mira.com/

betshopboy @ http://www.betshopboy.net/

Scott @ http://mythermos.com/

Morgan @ http://morganwrites.wordpress.com/

Shazza

Ken @ http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com/

April @ http://www.dreamingofsilverroses.com/

Mike @ http://port16.com/blog

Renny @ http://www.terella.no/

Kelly @ http://she-power.com/

Stephen @ http://www.scratch99.com/

Don @ http://makingsalesmakingmoney.com/blog/

Alex @ http://www.thenext45years.com/

Karen @ http://abaminds.com/

teeni @ http://vtroom.wordpress.com/

Lyndon @ http://www.cornwallseo.com/search

Meg @ http://blogpond.com.au/

Ange @ http://angesbiz.com/

Madhur @ http://www.whoismadhur.com/

Ben @ http://www.benh.org/techblog

Ritu @ http://www.ghostblogging.net/

Ray @ http://freshblogger.com

Donovan @ http://www.seduction-chronicles.net/

Ruud @ http://ruudhein.com/

Akemi @ http://yes-to-me.com/

Ian @ http://www.mybigworldofcrap.org/

Pelf @ http://chenpn.com/

Frank @ http://www.seopranos.com/

Shankar @ http://www.shankarganesh.com/

Gazzali @ http://proenrichment.blogspot.com/

Isabella @ http://moritherapy.org/

Deborah @ http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/

Colin @ http://cotojo.wordpress.com/

Vivien @ http://www.inspirationbit.com/

Tony @ http://aplawrence.com/

Diane @ http://dianealdred.com/

Saboma @ http://saboma.stumbleupon.com/

Monika @ http://www.thewritersmanifesto.com/blog/

Diana @ http://www.134u.com/

Simonne @ http://www.alltipsandtricks.com/

Pablo @ http://blogsreview.net/

Matt @ http://lordmatt.co.uk/

Jay @ http://www.onlineopportunity.org

Mayank @ http://www.reviewsaurus.com/

Alex Petre

Wayne @ http://www.wayneliew.com/

Adnan @ Blogtrepreneur

Jacob @ http://jobmob.co.il/

Franco Yong @ http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Franco_Yong

Anna @ Stumble Upon

Kim @ http://laketrees.blogspot.com/

Jolynn Brailey @ http://www.thefitshack.com/

Susie @ http://soul-to-soul.com/

Glen @ http://www.viperchill.com/blog/

Isabella @ http://moritherapy.org/

Alex @ http://www.thenext45years.com/

Dawud @ http://dmiracle.com/

Bobby @ http://revellian.com/

Mark @ http://markeff.blogspot.com/

Ev @ http://wackymom.blogspot.com/

Mary Ann @ http://maryannaville.blogspot.com/

Maggie @ http://tasteofbothworlds.typepad.com/

Alina @ http://www.automaticlifechanges.com/

Barbara @ http://www.scvlife.net/

Maura @ http://momcominghome.com/

My Heartfelt Thanks!

little things that give us hope is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

My dad passed away on March 17th.

I was not able to say anything at the funeral because of the disbelief and shock. When I saw a lot of my family men in suits walking around at the funeral, it was so unbelievable and for a few seconds, my eyes were looking around the room to find my father. How could it be that he was not amongst us? He was right there, but not walking, resting with a smile on his face. In the new suit that he had just bought and gotten custom tailored, as if he knew. It felt like he would wake up any second.

I cannot believe it’s already been over two weeks without him.

I am not able to express in words the intensity of my sadness but if you were here dad, I would like you to know that you truly are my hero.

I love you dad and I really miss you.

In Loving Memory of My Father is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I haven't been able to update this blog for a couple of weeks and I thought I owed you all some explanation. Some of my blogging friends know by now that my dad has been in ICU for the last couple of weeks. At times, his health seems to be improving but at other times we get terrified.

This is how it all started. One day out of the blue he started having severe headache that wouldn't go away for a few days. He's never had headaches all his life so that was alarming but he is of the type who never asks anyone for any help. He wouldn't let our mom tell any of us siblings saying he didn't want to bother any of us. But then one day, he had a vomit and was taken to emergency. You would think the doctors would have done the cat-scan of the head right away but they took two full days to review his symptoms – which included lower back pain, intense weakness and pain in the thighs. They kept thinking it was some kind of weird virus. But when the cat-scan was done, it was discovered that he had bled at multiple spots in the brain. The bleeding had stopped but then other complications started happening – lung infection which according to the doctors, was picked up in the hospital itself.

My dad has always been very self sufficient, always going out of his way to help just about everyone and asking for help for himself is the last thing in his dictionary. Not always a positive I know. So this morning, he talked to my mom on the phone that he was feeling a lot better and should be home by the weekend. Only around noon we found out that he had tried to get out of the bed to go to the washroom but as soon as he got up, he fell because of weakness and passed out. We don't know when the nurses got to him but he did get bruised and started bleeding on the forehead – externally.

Thank God, he didn't have any internal bleeding. But he is extremely weak and is hardly talking. He said a few words to me this evening and they were "don't worry about me my child, I will be fine, take care of yourself". Apparently he knows I have been sick with high fever from the stress. And hearing these words, I couldn't stop crying. That's my dad. Always bringing attention away from himself, always thinking about others.

All these days I've been helplessly praying that he gets better. And at times while praying, I've found myself making deals and promises with the supreme being, in exchange for making my dad better.

As I write this, my childhood images float in front of my eyes. Our parents try to provide us with everything that is within their power. They will themselves go through difficulties but not let their children suffer. So why does God make us see them suffer so much?

Sometimes parents will use, loving though weird, names to refer to their children. My dad calls me his little tigress. It's his way of giving me strength and tell me I can achieve just about anything in life. But today, with him lying helplessly in the hospital, struggling for his life, I feel completely shattered and lonely.

A lot of questions go through my head these days.

Why are we all running after making money?

What is it that I should make my priority to do, while I am able bodied?

What is it that makes us walk, talk and smile? makes us feel pain and happiness?

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago, whose family went through some similarly tough situation. I asked him, does a person create a journey or the journey molds a person? We both didn't know the answer to this. Do you?

Today I request you all to keep my dad in your prayers. I can't continue as I cannot see the words on the screen anymore.

Does Prayer Really Work? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I’m happy to say that Awards, Accolades has become a series in itself..  Check out Awards I and Awards II to see what I mean. 

I can’t begin to thank all the wonderful people I have met ever since I started blogging.  These fellow bloggers who have become good friends make my life better each and every day.   So, once again, I thank these shining stars, who have become part of my life, from the bottom of my heart.

You have heard me talk about the most generous soul,  Mig, who not only comes up with the original posts (like 10 reasons why she loves pearl), but also continues to bestow me with numerous beautiful awards and accolades. 

And what can I say?   Sue from Sueblimely and Kuanyin from Blog Pond and Colin from Free PC Security made me blush by calling me their Blogging Mentor, the award created by Sue.

How can I thank these beautiful people making my world ever so exciting?  Kim the beautiful artist from Laketrees designed another award this year called Significant Blogger Award and it was an honor to receive it from her.

Kim has also spent considerable time coming up with Top 101 Artists’ Blogs which is worth checking out. 

Colin also awarded Best Friends award which is very nice of him.  Colin maintains numerous blogs with a lot of useful information and is always ready to help out anyone in need.  I am proud that he is my friend.   thanks buddy.. (Did I pick up all the awards from you Colin?  I know you’ve been showering me with a lot of them lately lol)

When you get mentioned and recognized by others,  it makes blogging experience even more exciting and makes you want to continue, despite all the struggles that come with blogging.  I started reading Steven Snell’s blog, Vandelay Design, a few months ago and really loved it.   I was surprised when Steven asked to feature me on his new blog, Traffikd, a blog about Social Media and Internet Marketing. Check out this blog for all you want to know about Social Media or Internet Marketing.

Steven was also very kind in including me for his list of 8 Bloggers That Won’t Bite, on PureBlogging.  

What more could I ask?  I am blessed meeting so many supportive and kind friends and I wish the best for all of you. 

Awards, Accolades III is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Wishing all my readers, fellow bloggers and friends on all of the networking sites, a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you have befriended me on one of the social media networks and we haven’t had a chance to exchange a hello, please feel free to say a hi in the comments and I’ll definitely visit and comment your blog.  

Remember,  Valentine’s Day is for spreading love.  You comment here and get a link with CommentLuv

Spread Love with Your Comments is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Can you read these right the first time?

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital, ship by truck and send cargo by ship, have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn't Buick rhyme with quick?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP.

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or toward the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. We use something to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

We could go on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP; so: Time to shut UP!

Oh… one more thing: What are the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U-P

PS: BTW I found this message in my inbox this morning and it gave me a chuckle, thought I'd share it with you. hope it brought smiles to you too..

Did you think English was an easy language? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

February 2nd was Groundhog Day in North America. And as Punxsutawney Phil, the one and the only official Weather Forcasting Groundhog declared that there will be six more weeks of winter, I had started to lose hope to get back in the swing of writing. But then, came this guest post by Paul Hannam, the author of The Magic of Groundhog Day, the book that is based on the movie Groundhog Day.

Author Paul Hannam believes that watching the movie, Groundhog Day, will teach you more about life and work than anything else you can do in less than two hours! He has taught thousands of people on personal development, and taught management and organizational psychology at Oxford University and in his new book, The Magic of Groundhog Day, he explains why the movie is so inspirational and life-changing.

I have found the movie so invaluable because it helps me see each day as a unique opportunity to improve the way I think, feel and act. We all feel stuck at times in our life. The difference is that, in the movie, Phil Connors is literally stuck in the exact same, repeating day. The town never changes; the events and the people never change. Only he can change. It is impossible for Phil to have any control over his outer world, so he is forced to change himself.

Groundhog Day brilliantly dramatizes one of the greatest spiritual and psychological lessons – that change comes from within, and that only we can create meaning and happiness in our lives. Every form of therapy and every self-help technique supports this wisdom, and nothing illustrates it better than the movie.

Phil has to find a meaning and purpose for his life to survive and prosper. It is the only way out of the time loop, and it is our only way out of a rut. He transforms his life by experimenting each day with new thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. He changes his life day by day and transforms the worst day of his life into the best day of his life. I find this idea very inspiring.

All that changes is his perspective on life, and we can emulate this in our own lives to turn a miserable day into a magical day. We all share this remarkable gift, the capacity to make today better than yesterday – and tomorrow better than today.

An Experiment for Transforming your Life Day by Day

Try this experiment. Tomorrow, when you wake up, imagine how you would feel if you too were stuck in time, about to re-live yesterday in the same place, doing the same activities, repeating the same conversations with the same people. What would you do differently?

How would you have made yesterday better?

Maybe you would have been less harsh with your partner, or listened more attentively to a colleague who needed your help or perhaps you would have phoned a friend to tell them how much they meant to you. And what about work?

Would you have spent more time on that important project that could boost your career – and less time lost in thought about how you dislike your boss, or what you are going to do at the weekend?

Well, you can’t change yesterday but the good news is that you can change today. You can press your personal reset button and forget about yesterday. You don’t need to carry yesterday’s mood into today. Like Phil, you can choose to make this day terrible or great.

How do you transform a Miserable Day into a Great Day?

The first step is to stop living on automatic pilot, and return your awareness to the present moment. I call this the Magic of Paying Attention. In the movie, when Phil first arrives in Punxsutawney he is oblivious to the town and its people. He is sleepwalking through his life, completely self-absorbed. By the end of the movie he is awake, and absorbed not in his own ruminations but in the rich drama of the community he has learn to love and serve.

How about you? How much of what you do is the same as yesterday? How much of your day did you spend lost in thought, unconscious to life around you?

I believe that we largely re-live the same day again and again in our heads. We tend to have the same thoughts, the same emotions, the same hopes and anxieties and the same moods. We are not trapped by a time loop. We are trapped instead by our conditioning that is like a gravity that holds us down, keeping us stuck in old patterns and habits going back to our childhood. Every day can seem the same if we experience it through our past conditioning, rather than in the present moment.

The good news is that we can break free of our conditioning. It all starts by paying attention as soon as you wake up. Start by altering your routine when you get out of bed. Do some yoga stretches instead of watching the TV news, eat something different for breakfast and travel a different way to work. Then during the day catch yourself slipping back into conditioned responses.

Stop yourself falling back on the old patterns of seeking approval, being in control or avoiding conflict. These patterns are not you, and you can get out of your rut and experience the magic of everyday life when you are mindful and shift back to the present moment.

Experiment with a new response. When your partner looks at you in that annoying, disapproving manner don’t fall for it. Break your patterned response, and just smile. This is your greatest gift. You can choose to let your partner control your mood, or take back charge yourself and not let anyone or anything disturb your balance and peace of mind.

The genius of the movie is that it intensifies all the focus on us to change ourselves, because everything else is fixed. Every day, Phil can try a new behavior and then measure and evaluate the results. He learns to realize that he cannot seduce Rita, he cannot manipulate her to fall in love with him. It is only when he becomes genuinely loving that she falls in love with him. If you do the same as Phil, if you experiment and evaluate the results in your journal you will make subtle changes in just one day. Then over a week and a month this new self-awareness will lead to a significant transformation.

By practicing moment to moment awareness we come alive and experience a world of hope and possibility. This is the first, crucial step in leading the life you choose to live, not the life you were conditioned to live. This is the Magic of Groundhog Day!

Paul Hannam, author of the Magic of Groundhog Day

How the movie Groundhog Day can lead to a happier and more productive life is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Now that I have found my niche, it should really be a piece of cake for me to churn out some wonderful posts, right? Well, as it turns out, I am still feeling overwhelming sadness and no matter how hard I try, I can't get it out of my mind.

What I am feeling these days is, I am sure, a very common feeling and many of you might be able to relate to. Losing someone can do this to anyone.

Sure I have laughed and even been to a couple of movies since my friend passed away just before Christmas, but I have felt bouts of sadness and depression in the last few weeks, off and on and as I struggled to come out of it, I felt a strange uneasiness and realized there was no need to try to come OUT of a feeling of sadness when someone is taken away from your life suddenly. Rather I was going to try and take this as an opportunity to reflect upon what my life is all about and truly try to enjoy it as if I had only a short time to live.

And as I traveled the web in the past few weeks, I kept coming across posts that had the same message, of living each day as if it were your last, all reminding us how trivial our everyday issues or complaints are. Simonne's post till death do us part, this may come sooner than expected, reminded how important it is to "never to go to sleep with unspoken things on your mind", Mig wrote about her friend's mother passing away, heard about Ashley Spencer, known on twitter as @ashPEAmama, a young mother who died in a car crash.

And then I came across a beautiful meme that I had not heard about before and it is called The Bucket List 2008 Meme, and on following the blog where this meme originated, I found Jeff of Pulver Blog saying this:

In the movie "The Bucket List", Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman decide to make the most out of what time they think they have left. In the movie they compile a list of things they still wish to accomplish, giving them some much-needed motivation and a desire to still stay young at heart.

In the spirit of the movie, and in the spirit of trying to make 2008 be the year that we all start to do some of the things we would like to accomplish one day, I thought it would be fun to reach out to friends across the blogosphere and ask them to share some of the things on their "Bucket List" they hope to remove during 2008. For some of us, these are not necessarily our "New Year's Resolutions", but rather things we have been meaning to do for some time that we WILL get done in 2008

And that was it.

The meme and the concept is a good reminder to all of us that talking about death shouldn't be a taboo, its a reality that we all are going to have to face one day. So, instead of denying it and ignoring it, we need to take time to evaluate what our dreams were and where our current life situations and routines are taking us, and then do everything to go after those goals and dreams before it is too late.

So, here is what I would like to do if I knew I had only a few months to live! And of course this could change if I REALLY knew I had a few months to live, who knows! But at my first hearing the news, I would

• start writing thank you letters to all the people who have influenced me in a positive way
• write letters to those who have hurt me (I'd email these on one last day though)
• quit my job and go for sky diving lessons
• paint, sing, smile and laugh more often
• visit Greece, England, Norway, India
• go hot air ballooning over some of the best cities
• put a letter in a bottle and throw it in the Ocean
• go for a safari in Africa

Of course I couldn't list some of the more personal wishes but these are all things that are achievable and I hope to work towards attaining them.

How about you?

The Bucket List – Live, Love, Laugh is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo by mysza831

So I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.3.2 this weekend but now all of my comments are going to the moderation queue. I have checked the Discussion Options and do not have the option “an administrator must always approve the comment” box checked!

What could be going on?

Getting Stuck in the Moderation Queue is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

WOW! Here is a real cool article I want to share with you tonite. I first thought it cannot be true but reading the following lines in the article amazed me!

Click on the link to read the article: ‘Kryptonite’ discovered in mine

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.

A new mineral matching its unique chemistry – as described in the film Superman Returns – has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

“Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite “was the coincidence of a lifetime,” he added.

Reality is NOT Stranger than Fiction Anymore is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I haven't had the right state of mind to do my most popular or my favorite posts of 2007  from my blog and from other blogs,  although I am sure I have them linked in various bookmarking sites but I do want to thank all of my readers for sticking up with me and supporting this blog by subscribing to the RSS , commenting and emailing me this week with their supportive messages.  

I also want to apologize to all of the friends who have been asking for digg /stumble or Mixx their articles or whose emails I couldn't respond to,  I promise to do better in the coming weeks and months. 

In keeping up with my goals for 2008,  I am looking for ideas to add some quality content to this blog, so if you have suggestions, please let me know.   One of the things I did a couple of times in the past and a lot of the bloggers do is the Interesting weekly links,  which I will be starting again.   So, please check often to find some great reads that I'll be sharing from around the web.

There will be a Mega Group Writing Project in the month of January on Social Media Sites, hosted by multiple bloggers, lead by Vivien of InspirationBit.   Check out InspirationBit for bloggers hosting your favorite social media site group writing project and be sure to get your entries in. 

And if there is still something left that hasn't been grabbed and you would like to participate in hosting,  there might still be time to get in,  just ask Vivien.  I will be hosting the project on Mixx, Netscape (which is now Propeller) as well as Squidoo,  so get thinking about writing your articles on these sites.  I will write what you need to do in another post soon. 

So, here is wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy, Successful and Prosperous New Year. 

Wishing You a Happy 2008 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I haven’t written any posts in over a week. Because I lost one of my very close friends to cancer a day before Christmas. The funeral was on Christmas Eve, Sunday.

The experience has been devastating to say the least. Doctors had told us as well as her, that there were only a few weeks left. So, I used to spend a few hours every day at the hospital but that Saturday, I was there by her bedside since 8 in the morning till 11 at night. Around 5pm I asked her if I could leave to return the next morning, she insisted that I stay another few minutes, then again around 8pm I tried to leave but she asked for ‘just 5 more minutes’ and I stayed until 11pm. I left when she seemed exhausted and fell asleep, after waving goodbyes to us – family members and friends. She was happy, giving high-fives and laughing at our jokes, with all her faculties working, remembering old times, sometimes filling in the details herself. We were so hopeful that day.

Our families have been close friends, so my family was there at the hospital too. At midnight, my parents did not want me to go home alone, so asked to come and stay at their place which is closer to the hospital, whereas I live about an hours driving distance from the hospital. I went with them but was restless the whole time, and despite their requests to sleep over, drove back to my place at little after 3 in the morning. I couldn’t wake up until after noon on Sunday and when I did, I just hung around and watched some TV for a while before heading for shower. By the time I got to the hospital on Sunday, she had already left this world! Needless to say I was shocked and angry at whoever it is that takes our loved ones away from us, whenever he so wishes.

My friend had been diagnosed with cervical cancer early last year and underwent 13+ hours of surgery. She had what is termed as 3rd stage cancer, meaning the cancer had started to spread to other organs in her body. Even the most aggressive treatment for these two years could not save her. And all of us are left with millions of questions but no answers. I wonder why is it so difficult to understand what God wants? Don’t you think he or she is cruel sometimes? It does not make sense to me to take away someone so young, during holidays when the entire world is happy, make a few selective people so unhappy?

I sometimes wonder why we humans are so dense and thick headed as to continue to fight with each other and want to kill those that do not believe in the same God as we do! It sounds so stupid to me, because I feel if there is a God, he definitely will take us and our loved ones whenever he wants, regardless of what our darn faith is. So the least we can do is spend whatever time he has given us, in peace and harmony!

At first, I thought of not sharing this sad event in the blog here as it does not fit with what I write about and also because I was afraid of ruining everyone’s mood amidst celebrations. But all of my adult life I have also struggled with the “keeping up appearances” concept that I was brought up with, so to ignore what happened and after about a week’s absence start blogging about social media or self improvement, just didn’t seem right.

And you know I am an avid reader of problogger and after reading Darren’s post on Seth Godin’s response to his one question interviews – improving your blog by showing up - today I felt I had to show up here on my blog, to not just to improve the blog, but for you – because I wanted to tell you all to try to make the best of whatever it is you are going through; and for me – because it feels better to write what I feel and share it with you; and for this blog to continue to exist.

May you all have a very happy, joyous, successful, peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2008 and beyond!

Technorati Tags: faith, death, life

Faith that Tests is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

photo by: face-to-face

A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.
~Anais Nin

This is exactly how I feel today! Joy, accompanying me as I walk!
You’ll see what I mean if you head on over to see some Notes of Friendship!

With love to all my readers….

I am, this blog is, All because of you!

Note: Check out the What to Look for In List Posts for an update!

I am, all because of you! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I am amazed at the level of encouragement I get from all of you guys. And it is humbling to receive tremendous support from you all via emails, MyBlogLog messages, SU messages and IMs! Some of you have gone beyond my wildest imagination in bestowing upon me your love and support and for that I am grateful! So, without further ado, here is a list of awards I’ve received in the past few weeks… (I’m sure I forgot some and technorati reactions aren’t always accurate so if you remember giving me an award, please email me or let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post).

I was completely surprised by Bes’s mention from Reader Appreciation Project that I was one of the recipients of Readers First award! Although, honestly, I do not even remember when I wrote to him.. but then thats the beauty of interacting with your readers… you never know who is reading your blog! My heartfelt thanks to RAProject authors: Simonne, Ronald and of course Bes!

Kim is a great Award winning artist herself and runs Poeartica, a blog full of beautiful paintings and Laketrees where she creates quite a buzz with all of her contests where people have chances to win her esteemed paintings and portraits! I thank Kim for awarding me with Southern Cross Award

Other recipients included:

Lisa Mikey Jan Morriconei Hidyn Gems Kitty Deborah MaryAnn Anna Boyd Renny Pearl Colin Ev Santa Diane Sue Blog Elf Lynda Mihaela Captain Life cruiser Fruity Franco Nihal

Oh here is another award called

Blogging Star Award from KIM @ Laketrees

Other recipients included:

Bluepanjeet Renny and
Diane purplefrog

Thank you Kim!

Sir Colin from The free PC Security also awarded me the Community Blogger Award as well as Shibumi!
“The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one. It also underlines the importance of a blogs readership community, one of the most rewarding parts about blogging. It’s the people that come back to comment, adding to the conversation, making you feel like someone is listening and interested.”

Shibumi – “Subtle and unobtrusive beauty” award for blogging elegance!

“Shibumi is a Japanese term which used in the following context is a noun. Its meaning refers to a ‘particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty” which can be applied to almost anything.”

The “shibumi” award was originally created by Hawk who maintains a nice blog!

Thank you so much Colin!

Nice Matters Award from totally useless! Its been long, but I promised I wouldn’t forget you!

With so many awards going back and forth, and more and more people getting involved in this, Colin ended up creating his own thank you award for his buddies called Best Blogging Buddies and presented it to all of the following!

Lisa , Kim, Deborah, Pearl, Sandy, Jesse, Chris, Santa, Blog Elf, Jackie, Marzie, Adrian, Jos, NAFA SG, Polli, Sue, Kathy Maartje, Morgan, Greg, MaryAnn, Eric, Hawk, Carol, Diane, Ev Nucci, Surjit, Kuanyin, Christy Z, Sandee, Robin, Hanna, Maunie, Kim, Bobby, Billy, David, Jennifer, Aryst, Winston, Christy, LilyRuth, Jess, Rudy, Lili, Sandy G, Ange, BlackWyrm, Vincent, Colin & Anne, Blandly Urbane, Marco, Mihaela Lica, Aziz-sm, Lansy, Alex Badalic, Victors, Nostalgia Manila, Franco Yong, Herby, Rubie, Santaram & BVK, Jean-david, Namgay, Catherine, Yunita P, PJ Lighthouse, Lorimer Black, Dream Catcher,Fred Plimley, Anja Merret, Maria Lourdes, Jon B, Denise, Dharmendra P, Brent D, Jerry & Daryl McCoy, Brian B, Calvin Innes, Pieter Marburn, Jessica Field, Taflas, Alex Sysoef, Norie, Justin Stanley, Ashish, David Ledoux, Thanate Tan, Kevin, Etienne, Gerbera, Christina, Abhishek d, Uprai, Texas_Jam, Azmiel, Daniel, Kristin B, Luwis, Adavait, Now Sourcing, Buen Amigo, Kiran Pande, Peterson Wong, Lynn, Chessnoid, Luis Hipolito, Joliveira, Jennifer & Pete, Team Dog, Megan, Mark, Raivyn, Mel, Andrea, Jen / domestika, Mimi, Bobo, Lynda Lehmann, Dread Bob, Julie, RennyBA, Bobbarama, Becky, Magdalena,

Phew! That was some list of links ;) thank you Sir Colin!

If these awards were not enough! Santa considered me worthy of a Santa Certified Award

Needless to say I am feeling ecstatic!  This post was long overdue and I’m glad I finally got to it!   The awards came at such a fast pace, I couldn’t bring myself to blog about them :-)

You should know that I am immensely touched by your support and wish you all a very very Happy Thanksgiving and much joy! 

I would also like to take a second to thank ALL of my readers and commentors.  Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to continue!  So, thank you so very much!

I am also thankful to all of my readers who I haven’t ‘met‘ on their blog or here! If you haven’t commented yet, come out from behind the screen and say a hello sometime.

For previous posts on awards check Awards and Accolades I

And stay tuned for a couple of nice posts that I have been working on! I am sure they’ll make you think and you’ll like them.

Tags: Awards, Blogging Community

Awards, Accolades II is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Red Panda – also known as Fire Fox photo by Damouns

and giving me quite a heartache for the last couple of days now! I haven’t used IE for eons although have IE7 installed, just for the heck of it! But I am so used to the add ons in FireFox that working with any other browser feels so foreign. Thank God, I don’t have a problem with accessing my favorites since I transported all of them in Delicious! Yeah, so much for relying on technology!

Which makes me wonder what I will (and you all will) do if we didn’t have access to the internet? chilling thought, isn’t it?

Okay so the browser does load up, but it hangs up on ‘Options’, which are set to clear cache on exit, or on logging on to my beloved social networking site StumbleUpon; which is one of my most favorite activities on a daily basis now and needless to say, it’s added to the ‘blues’!

yes, I am really frustrated and feeling sort of sad…

This post I am writing from IE on the desktop (which has XP home edition, but when I go to install google toolbar or some other apps, the message comes up that the OS is not compatible for the app – they detect my OS to be some older version of Windows 9+, which is beyond my comprehension… strange, isn’t it? And for that reason, cannot install Windows Live Writer on the desktop either, my favorite editor). I use Dell Laptop Inspiron 9300 for just about everything and have used it for almost two years now… AND it is slowing down! *SIGH*

And on top of that seeing the subscriber numbers down to 57 this morning gave me the ultimate shock! Only to see that other blogs were also showing dropped counts on the feedburner chicklet, and that I wasn’t the chosen one this time, was able to have my morning coffee with some peace!

Reading tons of great articles is all I am going to be doing for today (or tomorrow) until I get some of these issues resolved.

I need help! I have tried un-installing and re-installing fire fox, but nothing seems to work! Any ideas? It started happening with the latest upgrade ff 2.0.0.9

UPDATE: Nov. 6th, 2007… finally, I have my baby back, my lovely firefox is all fixed now! Had to delete ALL impressions of the old and do a fresh install! what’s with that? out with the old, in with the new? [this msg should actually have been on twitter] Thank you Mike and Lee for helping to gear me in the right direction!

My lovely browser FireFox is hanging up! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Halloween is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday was a nice day at fresh perspectives, weather wise and other wise, for a few good surprises! For one, Google was kind and assigned this blog a page rank of 4 and gave me a feeling of ‘official belonging’ to the blogosphere. What more? it came on my birthday (yes, not blog birthday, my birthday ;) so that was a nice surprise!

Now SportSayer would probably have to add one more page rank display button for blogs that got the PR for the first time because ‘has been’ or any other from his selection may not quite fit in this situation! May be a ‘lucked out’ button?

A real nice long vacation on birthday would also have been great idea and as a matter of fact I feel it should be mandatory to stay out of work for a few days on or around your birthday. What do you think?

Which brings me to this question:

If money or time were not an issue, and you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Where would you like to go? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Can you guess whats missing in the blank space between Alexa and dealdotcom widgets in my right side bar?

Well, there used to be a widget called Blogrush! Today I got an email from them telling me that my BlogRush Account has been made INACTIVE because this blog did not pass their Quality Review criteria. Huh?? It sure surprised me but also gave me a good chuckle ^_^

The email continues: “We determined that your blog did not meet our strict quality guidelines. Please do not take this personally but realize that we must abide by a very strict set of quality guidelines. (They are listed below.) If you feel you have made the necessary changes to your blog(s) to meet our guidelines, you can resubmit your blog(s) for review after this date: Wednesday, November 21, 2007.

Below is a complete list of our quality guidelines…

BlogRush Quality Guidelines:

- The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources.

- The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts.

- The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted.

- The blog’s primary contain must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs.

- The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

- The primary content of the blog should not be “scraped” content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

- The blog’s content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal.

Best Regards,
The BlogRush Team”

Wow!! this blog I thought was in English, gets updated way more than 10 times a month, its not scraped content (as a matter of fact I am completely at a loss myself how to stop those blogs from scrapping content), and there is nothing about terrorism or hate etc in here! So I wonder how they decided to make my account inactive!

Could it be because I never blogged about them to promote them? I signed up and added their widget and didn’t have the time to first write that I had come across this system, then that I had included the widget, and then a week later how the widget was doing or how bad the colors were, how most of the links appearing on it didn’t even have the widget installed etc! Everyone else was doing that and I didn’t feel the need. Same was the case with DealDotCom widget which was talked about by everyone but I just didn’t have the time!

Anyways, goodbye blogrush! I am also glad to let you go since now I can add some shopping ads in that place ;)

Did any of you get dropped by blogrush? And more importantly, what are you going to use that empty space for?

How would you use the empty space with blogrush gone? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul…

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops ….at all

~ Emily Dickinson

I was reminded of this poem by a friend named Anna on one of the social networks! And it was nice to know that there is this little feathered being deep inside me, that sings non-stop!

So many times we start feeling we have come to a time and place that is void of hope and of possibilities, only to find that it is the very state of hopelessness that not only allows us to hit the bottom and give up the illusion of control, but also turn everything around and make the impossible, possible.  To not have hopes and dreams means you are at a place of complete loss…… loss of our birthright as a human being.  Hope does spring and sing eternal, even when we have wax in our ears!   By recognizing and affirming our feelings of hopelessness, we open the possibility of something else, something more beautiful!

And now, here is a video that I watched yesterday and enjoyed it a lot!

no, no hidden meanings – I really wanted to post that cockatoo video ever since I found it on StumbleUpon, but since Wendy posted it yesterday, I didn’t want to look like I was copying her! Now I am going to wait to get my hands on Wendy’s dance video! I’m darn sure it’ll bring me thousands if not millions of links and help me get a good PR!!

Hopes and Dreams is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.