“Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing moment its own full and unique meaning.”

“Love is not blind–it sees more, not less.  But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.”  Julius Gordon

“We never live so intensely as when we love strongly.  We never realize ourselves so vividly as when we are in the full glow of love for others.”  Walter Rauschenbusch

Welcome back to Cause & Effect. Today’s random encounter, if pursued by the Crew, can provide you with a number of strings to pull in the future. It could also result in a fun chase scene and who doesn’t like chase scenes?

Randomly rolling (because that is the only way to go) on the table presented in V is for Vignettes has resulted in the following information:

Instigator Wealthy Citizen

Action Delivers something to

Target Crew & a Poor Civilian

Escalation I is for Illegal goods is involved

Escalation Quickly turns into a chase scene

 Just as the Crew or another Crew are about to accept the job:

• A female Weequay dashes out of a crowd, quickly snatches the cred-stick and storage key, and disappears into another crowd.
• Tash quickly shouts: I’ve been robbed!
• If Tash hired the crew, he will insist that they pursue the thief and get back the stolen items.

If the Crew does not chase after Kalla:

• The shifty thief disappears into a crowd. Perhaps she returns at a later date and attempts to pick pocket the Crew.

If the Crew chases after Kalla:

• Let the chase begin!
• Crowded streets or cantina (where did she go? pushing through crowds, angering civilians) —> Cramped alleyways (lots of things to obstruct passage, climb over, drop down) —> Roof tops (building jumping, roofs in poor condition, windows to jump though, environmental conditions) —> Speeders (other vehicles and buildings as obstructions, tunnels, industrial section with smog, old lady crossing street with even slower moving animal companion)
• If the Crew is able to return with the stolen items, Tash will be very impressed. He will give the Crew an additional 500 credits. If the Crew hadn’t been hired to transport his goods, he will offer them the contract instead of another Crew.

• If the Crew chases after the thief, perhaps another Crew does the same. Now not only do they need to catch the thief, they need to catch the thief before the other Crew.
• If the Crew managed to poach the contract from another Crew, perhaps they run into that crew at a later time. I doubt that they will be impressed. 5 Obligation Rival Crew
• If the Crew take on the job, curiosity might get the best of them. The 5 crates of cargo all have computerized locks which require a Hard (ddd) Check to open. If successful, the Crew learns that they are really transporting Stormtrooper helmets and armor and not textiles (which have been placed on top of the armor as a decoy.)
  
• If the Crew discovers the true nature of the cargo, they might try to barter for a better deal or skip out on their contract and try to sell the illegal cargo for more credits on the black market…This could result in additional trouble or even some bad rep, as Tash spreads word that they are bad transporters. 5 Obligation Tash
• If the Crew takes the job, they might be stopped for a random cargo inspection. They might not think much of it at the time, but once the true cargo is revealed, they might be in some trouble with the authorities. 10 Obligation Empire
• If the cargo is successfully delivered, Tash and Gorg might offer the Crew additional work.

“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.”  Thomas Browne

“Life is a series of surprises, and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.”  William James

“May you live all the days of your life.”  Jonathan Swift

“Life truly lived is a risky business, and if one puts up too many fences against risk one ends by shutting down life itself.”   Kenneth S. Davis

“Things are but the outer manifestations of inner mental concepts.”

“The person who is to succeed will never let his mind dwell on past mistakes.  He will forgive the past in his life and in the lives of other people.  If he makes a mistake he will at once forgive it.  He will know that so long as he desires any good, there is nowhere in the universe anything that opposes him.”

“Tomorrow’s plants are in today’s seeds.”

The thoughts we plant in our mind todaybecome the experiences of tomorrow.  Jay

Have you ever seen a pot bellied-Wookiee? Me neither. I think that is something that we need to correct. Randomly rolling (because that is the only way to go) on the table presented in V is for Vignettes has resulted in the following information:

 If the Crew lets Grawwyn take their ship:

• He allows the Crew to remain on the planet. He will not try to capture the Crew as they are not his quarry. They must now find a way off world and either re-claim their vessel or buy/steal another one.

If the Crew refuses to hand over their ship:

• If negotiation fails (the Twist above) , combat begins. Grawwyn and the Hired Guns are at Close Range to the Crew and Medium Range to the Crew’s starship. The Crew is at Close Range to both their their starship and the Bounty Hunters. If the Crew looks weak, Grawwyn will try and take them out of the fight. The Hired Guns will take Cover behind some crates and fire from cover. If they look to be in fit fighting condition, Grawwyn will make a mad dash for their vessel.

• If defeated but not killed, Grawwyn takes the loss personal and holds a grudge against whomever landed the knock out blow. The Crew Member gains 5 Obligation to Grawwyn.
  
• If the Crew are docked at a Core World or any other place with a strong legal system, Grawwyn may have put their ship on lock-down, thereby preventing them from leaving even if they outwit or defeat the bounty hunter. Now they must find a way to get their vessel in the sky before the authorities start to show up.
• During combat, a labor droid accidentally steps in-between the firing combatants, creating Cover for both parties until the droid gets out of the way or is destroyed in the cross fire (Wound Threshold 15). If the landing site is not at a space port, use a large animal native to this planet or a B is for Beast.

“A definite chief aim is the starting point of all noteworthy achievement, but Self-Confidence is the unseen force that coaxes, drives, or leads one on and on until the object of the aim is a reality.”

Reblogged from 52 Steps:

Have you ever had "one of those days"? You know the ones; where you feel like you're dragging your feet, and your pride, and all of your courage through the mud?

That is how I started this week, feeling like a colossal disaster. I muddled my way through Sunday, allowing my selfish heart to take all the good things that were happening to others, and use them to remind me of how much of a failure I am.

Read more… 864 more words

“We should aim not so much at having or making some particular thing as at expressing all that we are.  The expressing will grow out of realising the treasures that are ours already, and contemplating the beauty, the affirmative side, of all that we are now, apart from the negative conceptions and detractions which veil this good from us.”

“We should never lose sight of the fact that we are each given the individual right to use the law [cause & effect], and that we cannot escape from using it.”

“To be successful in any sort of endeavor, you must have a definite goal.  You must have definite plans for attaining this goal.  Nothing is ever accomplished that is worthwhile without a definite plan of procedure that is systematically and continuously followed out day by day.”

“Success in life, no matter what one may call success, is very largely a matter of adaptation to environment so that there is harmony between the individual and the environment.”

“We walk in a world of our own creation.  The world we see is the world we are.  Each of us lives in his own private world and sees things and activities just a little bit differently from the way his neighbor sees them.”

“All that a man achieves and that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts…His condition is his own, and not another man’s.  His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within.  As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”

When I recruit a young man I spend a long time talking to him about all aspects of his game. We talk about putting, driving, iron play, etc. We also talk about how he plays, what he thinks about while playing, what usually happens when he plays well and what goes wrong when he plays poorly. When he plays poorly many times he explains the situation like this:  The round starts out very well, then about the 14th hole everything begins to unravel. The young man doesn’t really know why, he just knows that he chokes at the end of rounds—usually in tournaments.

The first thing I ask is, “How much do you eat out there?”  The answer I usually get is either, “Nothing”, or “I had a pack of crackers during the round.” I hope to God that I don’t hear, “I had a hot dog at the turn.” That one drives me nuts.

I then ask, “Do you know how many calories your body burns during a round of golf when you walk?“

At this point I get either silence or a shrug. They usually have no idea.

Well, for all of you out there, the answer is right around 2000! That’s almost a days worth of calories!  I know, right? Surprised?

The reason he finished poorly is pretty obvious to me. He simply ran out of fuel.

Almost every golfer that I’ve ever coached prior to their experience with me operated at what I call a Calorie Deficit. I have discovered that teaching a player to eat may be just as important as teaching them the swing.

Young people are calorie burning machines. I know very few moms who have sons that don’t eat constantly and in great quantities. Yet these same young men go to the course to play or compete and do so with no food in their bag and by the time they have hit balls and played, they will have gone six hours without eating, maybe more. I ask them, “Aside from sleeping do you ever go 6 hours without eating?” Of course not. Yet while doing an athletic activity they starve themselves of the fuel they need to compete at a high level! This makes no sense.

Let’s say you were going on a trip in a car. One of the first things you would ask yourself is, “Do I have enough fuel to get me where I want to go?” The same question needs to be asked prior to a round of golf or even more importantly, a round of tournament golf.

One of the biggest reasons golfers “choke” stems from a lack of food in their belly. Simple as that.

When you lack fuel it not only affects your energy level (blood sugar) but it also affects your ability to make sound decisions. The brain needs fuel just as much as the body in order to operate at an effective level.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying—don’t go and pound down 2000 calories prior to your round. That would be equally disastrous!

My golfers always eat a ton of healthy snacks while on the course. This always comes as a shock to my freshman. Most aren’t used to eating at all. As I tell them, “you’re not eating because you are hungry, you are eating to maintain your optimum performance level. If you wait until you are hungry to eat, it’s too late. Chances are we’ve already lost strokes out there.”

When we compete we eat something every 2 to 3 holes, but never garbage! (hot dogs, hamburgers, candy bars, chips, sodas, etc.) Those items are loaded with fat and will cause your blood sugar to spike and then dive. Eat things that will help you perform like the athlete you are! You want to maintain a consistent blood sugar level. My team eats apples, bananas, nuts (excellent) beef jerky, any dried fruit like raisins, trail mix, and a good energy bar like a Cliff Bar or something.

A few years ago I had a golfer from England named Tom. We discovered he played his best when he ate 6 apples a round. I called him Apple Tom. He would eat an apple every 3 holes. He won a lot of college events and became an All-America.

During your round you will need to consume 2000 calories to match what your body will burn.

This is one of the most important lessons my golfers learn from me their first year. When they go home for the summer and play in their local events, state amateurs or national events I usually get a call after the tournament and hear stories about their successes not failures.

I like happy endings.

Happy 80th Dad!

“Let’s have confidence in ourselves.  We know enough to think; that is all it takes –to think constructively.  We are here to live life every day…Let us forget the follies of the past; and in so doing disconnect ourselves from their effects and look forward to the future with joy.  All of our future is being born of thoughts today.”

“The truly rich are those who know the creative power of thought and who continue to impress their thoughts of abundance and prosperity upon their subconscious mind, which in turn causes the things they think about to be objectified in their experience.”

“Life is for us today.  There will be no change for to-morrow unless we do the changing to-day.  To-day we are setting in motion the power of to-morrow.”

“Thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”

“You are in the midst of a power which is saying to you, ‘Use me, direct me, express me I am ready.  Are you?’”

“Men who are gifted with intuition and imagination find water in the desert, and they create cities where formerly other men  saw only a desert and a wilderness.”