Life After 55

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ”In five years, will this matter?”.
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business…
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
46. Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.

1. Jim wrote all the numbers from 300 to 400 on a piece of paper. How many times did he write the digit 3?

Jim wrote one hundred and twenty 3’s! He wrote one hundred 3’s in the hundreds places, ten 3’s in the tens places, and ten 3’s in the ones places.

2. I am eight letters long – “12345678″
My 1234 is an atmospheric condition.
My 34567 supports a plant.
My 4567 is to appropriate.
My 45 is a friendly thank-you.
My 678 is a name.
Q: What word am I?

M I S T A K E N

3. What is the easiest way to throw a ball, and have it stop, and completely reverse direction after traveling a short distance?

Throw the ball Straight up.

4. How would you rearrange the letters in the words “new door” to make one word? Note: There is only one correct answer.

One Word!

5. What is at the beginning of eternity, the end of time, the beginning of every end, and the end of every place?

“e”

6. A traveler comes to a fork in the road and does not know how to get to his destination. Two men are at the fork in the road. One of them always tells the truth, and the other one always lies. He may ask the men on question to find his way. What question does the man ask these men?

He asks them, “If I ask the other man which way to go, what would his answer be?” They would both answer in the same way. Whatever the answer is, go the other way. If the man you ask always tells the truth, then the other always lies. The man you ask will tell truthfully that the answer would be the wrong way. If the man you ask always lies, then the other man tells the truth. The man you ask will lie and tell you that the other man would tell you the wrong way. In both cases the answer you would receive would be the wrong way. Go the other way.

7. A boy leaves his house one summer day, and began to run through the woods to his best friend’s house which is on the other side of the woods. It should also be known that the boy reached his friend’s house. How far did the boy run into to woods?

Halfway. Because once you reach the middle, you are then running out of the woods.

8. Two girls on bicycles, 20 miles apart, began racing toward each other. The instant they started, a bee on the handle bar of one of the bikes started flying toward the other bike’s handle bar. As soon as it reached, it turned around and went to the other bike and so on until the bikes met. If each bike had a constant speed of 10 mph, and the bee was traveling 15 mph constantly, how far did the bee travel?

Each bike travels at 10 mph, so they meet at the center of the 20 mile distance in exactly 1 hour the fly travels 15 mph and so at the end of the hour, he will have gone 15 miles.

9. I dig out tiny caves, and store gold and sliver in them. I also build bridges to sliver and make crowns of gold. They are the smallest you could imagine. Sooner or later everybody needs my help yet many people are afraid to let me help them. What am I?

Dentist

10. A steer weighing 630 kilograms requires 13,500 calories a day to maintain its weight. That amount of food turns out to be proportional to its external surface. How many calories does a steer of 420 kilograms require?

Weight is proportional to linear dimension (length or girth of the steer) cubed. Surface area is proportional to linear dimension squared. Therefore, 13,500 x [ ( 420/630)1/3 ] 2 = 10,300 calories

11. A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How come?

The man’s horse was called Friday.

12. Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they should be there. What is it?

They were used by children who made a snowman. The snow has now melted.

In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl……. Let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean.

The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for sumptuous brown gravy.

To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly Corrosive materials. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

My son and I recently attended the Winston Churchill High School Football Banquet for 2009. During the event, which was held at the Bolger Center in Potomac, MD, the guest speaker, Barry Smith, delivered a very uplifting speech to all attending.

“Okay, fellas, you got your football degrees and its a good time to set goals and devise a plan. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. You need a roadmap, but be prepared for unintended detours, confusing signs and closed roads. Don’t be afraid of change or be unwilling to change. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, because that’s your life.

Chances are, success and happiness are among your goals. But be careful, they’re not the same — all successful people aren’t happy and all happy people aren’t successful. If you have to choose, choose happiness. “Take control of your life by taking control of your attitudes. Pain and disappointment are inevitable, but suffering is optional and tough times are always temporary.

Live within your means, and when you mess up, fess up. When you’re in a hole, stop digging. Listen to both your heart and your head. Pursue your passions, but don’t confuse feelings with facts, fun with happiness or pleasure with fulfillment. “Don’t sacrifice a thousand tomorrows for a few todays, and don’t settle for a little life. Live with purpose and for significance. Respect yourself and others, avoid self-righteousness and be kind rather than right.”

Apparently the legal staff at the Transportation Security Administration are as clueless and inept as the guys who search you at the airport. The TSA released an Operating Manual for flight and other screening procedures and thought they had done a knock-up job on redacting certain sensitive areas.

Problem is they attempted to do this with a PDF editor and blew it big time. Instead of printing the document and marking out the areas by hand, they merely placed black boxes over the text in the editor. Call it laziness or stupidity. Either way, the boxes were easily defeated because they are not part of the document. Even a sixth grader with rudimentary knowledge of Acrobat or other PDF editors knows this.

Obviously, the factotums at the TSA need to read one of those Dummy books. It is another example of the kind of help the government hires. And these guys want to run health care?

The areas outlined in red were formerly redacted (click on the image above to download the unredacted document). No telling how long this document will remain on the WikiLeak servers.

At any rate, the document reveals a few things the feds don’t want us to know. For instance, Section 2A-2 (C) (1) (b) (iv) addresses which twelve passports will instantly get you moved to secondary screening. Other juicy details include the procedure for CIA-escorted passengers to be processed and the calibration process of airport metal detectors.

In 1993 when Ty launched their Beanie Babies, children couldn’t get enough of these bean bag animals. Now, almost 17 years later, with my children grown, the lure is gone, but the massive collection of over 500 beanies was just laid out on the living room floor. Now comes the difficult part – do I: 1) inventory all this and put it up on eBay; 2) go to the container store and purchase several hundred miniature boxes and wrap these toys for some needy kids somewhere in the world; or 3) put them in a large trash bag and drop them in a Goodwill receptacle. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Who doesn’t love snow, especially when it occurs on a weekend. And this deluge began at 9:00am, so that by noon there may be enough ground cover for some serious sliding. Compared to previous years of very irregular weather in the Washington, DC area, this early snowfall makes wintertime all that more fun.

Self-esteem is shaped by your relationships, your experiences and your thoughts. Healthy self-esteem promotes mental well-being, assertiveness, resilience and more.

Self-esteem is your overall opinion of yourself — how you honestly feel about yourself with all of your successes, abilities, flaws and limits. When you have healthy self-esteem, you feel good about yourself and see yourself as deserving others’ respect. When you have low self-esteem, on the other hand, you put little value on your opinions and ideas, and you constantly worry that you aren’t “good enough.”

Although the benefits of building healthy self-esteem are often discussed for children, there are plenty of adults who need to work on their self-esteem. Learn how to tell if your self-esteem needs a boost — and the benefits of developing healthy self-esteem.
Factors that shape and influence self-esteem

Self-esteem starts forming early in life. Factors that can influence self-esteem include:

* Other peoples’ reactions to you
* Your own thoughts and perceptions
* School and extracurricular experiences
* Work experiences
* Illness, disability or injury
* Culture
* Religion
* Role and status in society

Relationships with those close to you — parents, siblings, peers, teachers and other important adults — are especially powerful. Many beliefs you hold about yourself today reflect messages you’ve received from these people over time. If your close relationships are good and you receive generally positive feedback, you’re more likely to see yourself as worthwhile. However, if you receive mostly negative feedback and are often criticized, teased or devalued by others, you’re more likely to struggle with poor self-esteem.

But your own thoughts have perhaps the biggest impact on self-esteem — and they are one aspect of self-esteem that you can control. With techniques such as cognitive behavior training, you can learn to reframe negative thinking and self-talk and to correct misperceptions that lead you to focus on your weaknesses or flaws.

The ranges of self-esteem

Self-esteem ranges from very positive to very negative. Neither extreme is healthy. Although self-esteem fluctuates over time, depending on your circumstances, it generally stays in a range that reflects how you feel about yourself overall.

* Overly high self-esteem. If you regard yourself more highly than others do, you may have an unrealistically positive view of yourself. When you have an inflated sense of self-esteem, you often feel superior to those around you. Such feelings can lead you to become arrogant or self-indulgent and believe that you deserve special privileges.
* Low self-esteem. When you have low or negative self-esteem, you put little value on your opinions and ideas. You focus on your perceived weaknesses and faults and give scant credit to your skills and assets. You believe that others are better than you.
* Healthy self-esteem. Healthy self-esteem lies between these two extremes. It means you have a balanced, accurate view of yourself. For instance, you have a good opinion of your abilities but recognize your flaws. When you understand your own worth, you invite the respect of others.

Common characteristics of low self-esteem

It’s normal to go through times when you feel down about yourself. Everyone has times when they feel insecure about their abilities, accomplishments or appearance. However, when you feel bad about yourself in many areas of your life — and these feelings become long-standing — your self-esteem can suffer. Low self-esteem affects not only the way you feel but also the way you behave and interact with others.

How do you know if you think too little of yourself? You may have some of these characteristics of low self-esteem:

* Frequent negative self-talk, such as, “I’m a failure,” or “I’ll never amount to anything.”
* Preoccupation with your flaws and weaknesses.
* Need for constant reassurance from others, which doesn’t relieve your insecurity.
* Inability to accept compliments or positive feedback.
* Fear of failure, which holds you back from succeeding at work or school.
* Difficulty handling stressful situations.

Benefits of healthy self-esteem

When you value yourself and have good self-esteem, you feel secure and worthwhile and have generally positive relationships with others. You feel confident about your abilities and tend to do well at school or work. You’re also open to learning and feedback, which can help you acquire and master new skills.

With healthy self-esteem you are:

* Less prone to feelings such as hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt and shame.
* Assertive in expressing your needs and opinions.
* Confident in your ability to make decisions.
* Able to form secure and honest relationships — and less likely to stay in unhealthy ones.
* Realistic in your expectations and less likely to be overcritical of yourself and others.
* More resilient and able to weather stress and setbacks.
* Less likely to develop mental health conditions, such as eating disorders, addictions, depression and anxiety.

Because self-esteem affects every facet of your life, having a healthy, realistic view of yourself is important. Remember, it’s not about blowing your own horn. It’s about learning to like and respect yourself, faults and all.

Boredom is the neediness for something “exciting” to happen. It’s the craving for drama. It’s the attachment/addiction to experiencing physical sensations. It’s the desire to satisfy the physical senses. It’s the wantingness to satisfy animal urges, rather than spiritual peace. It’s the choosing of a temporary instant gratification, over long term well-being. Boredom is the choosing of pleasure over peace, because peace is perceived as being “boring”. It’s the urge to DO something in hopes of finding happiness, instead of simply BEING that something (happiness).

Boredom is the inability to accept life for what it is, as it is in this very moment. Boredom is the inability to see the beauty of the world, as it is right now. It’s the unwillingness to see the perfection of what’s right in front of our faces. It’s the faulty judgemental egoic opinion that something is “wrong” with existence. Boredom is the absence of acceptance, and the rejection of contentness. It’s the neediness to change the situation because the mind refuses to be happy with what is. Boredom is the refusal of happiness in this very moment. When the mind is needy, there always has to be something more. With boredom, things always have to be different than how they already are. Boredom is intolerance and discrimination. Boredom is the absence of love.

Boredom is the anticipation of what could be, but isn’t. It’s the looking forward to what doesn’t exist in reality. It’s the indulgence in an illusionary dream of imagination, and the escaping of reality.

Boredom is a form of anxiety and stress. Boredom determines many of our erroneous actions, and is therefore the source of much of our suffering. Boredom is a psychological problem that is best to be let go of. When one lets boredom take control of them, one is never satisfied (happy/content).

Boredom is the false notion that happiness lies outside oneself. It’s born from the unawareness that happiness can simply be chosen at all moments of life, despite life’s circumstances. Boredom happens because of ignorance and unconsciousness. Boredom is the result of a lack of truth. Boredom is a negativity. Boredom creates problems.

Boredom is the identification with the autonomous cellular neural functioning/activities/thinkingness of the physical brain, instead of the identification with the formless spiritual awareness that silently observes the mind’s automatic functioning/thinking from an “outside” perspective.

Boredom is the worry that something is being missed out on. It’s the fear of doing nothing. It’s the fear of silence, or more specifically, the fear of the silence of your own mind. It’s the fear that one’s life will come to an end if one stops thinking. It’s the fear that the “me”, “myself”, and “I” might die. Boredom is the fear of death because the automatic thinkingness of the mind is falsely identified as being “me”.

When one takes control of the mind (lets it go), instead of being controlled by it, boredom becomes non-existent, and happiness/joy/contentness/peace then becomes permanent, instead of just temporary. When one’s happiness is no longer limited to only when experiencing external phenomena, one realizes that the true source of happiness is, and always has been, found and experienced within, as a choice. Happiness is an inner choice, right here, right now, and always, no matter what life’s external happenings are. The outer becomes completely irrelevant as one becomes immersed in this permanent inwardly experienced happiness/joy/bliss/ecstasy. And this profoundly ineffable bliss/ecstasy/peace is far beyond any physical sensation that one could possibly imagine (and yes, that includes sex). All that one has to do is refuse the mind’s activities, and choose to be it.

Boredom can’t be quenched. It can only be let go of.

The symptoms of moderate depression are similar to those of mild depression, but are worse and are present most of the time. You can pull yourself together for short periods only:

- You are sad
- You lack energy
- You show less of an interest in the world around you.

Your thoughts center on:

- Feelings of guilt
- Low self-esteem

The people around you find it hard to understand why you feel guilty. You are also less happy with people or things in general.

You have little interest in your family or work. Your ability to concentrate is significantly impaired. You stop watching movies and your favourite TV programs, reading newspapers or books. You find it hard to concentrate.

Tiny everyday decisions may feel insurmountable. It can be hard to decide what you should buy for dinner. You have no desire to go out on the town or entertain guests.

If you suffer from moderate depression, you will normally suffer from mood changes during the day. This means that you may be miserable in the morning but better towards the evening.

Your sleep is disturbed. You don’t feel rested. You may find it easy to fall asleep, but wake up after a few hours and can’t drift off again. Many people find lying awake during the early hours very stressful. Here you are all alone with your sad thoughts.

You may find your appetite reduces during a bout of moderate depression. It’s not unusual to lose 5-10% of your normal weight.

You generally lose your sex drive – you may need closeness and contact but find it difficult. Your lack of sex drive may trigger more feelings of guilt.