Hello world!

Christmas is near!!! Super near!!!! And the weather today, hot The weatherman said that we will get a huge thunderstorm… and so far it has been a big fat lie!!! I want rain rain rain!!!! Anyway, like what I said yesterday, I have an assignment to make more than 40 cupcakes with Christmas as the theme~ Made the cuppies yesterday and today, to decorate them~

Put so much effort this year, and I came up with four different patterns

Christmas Wreath

Christmas Mistletoe

Silver Snowflake

Christmas Tree

And this is what it looks like!!!!!! PRETTY!!!!!

Just be happy when you’re in a middle of decorating, cos it will shown on your work in the end~

Happy decorating guys~

XOXO,

Aby

The Sprint Character Education Grant Program accepts applications for funding of programs promoting leadership, youth volunteerism, character education, and school pride.

Grants will fund the purchase of resource materials, supplies, teacher training, and equipment that facilitates character education for K-12 students, such as the Second Step or Steps to Respect programs.

Public schools may apply for individual school grants up to $5,000, and public school districts can apply for district-wide grants up to $25,000.

The grant application period begins January 4 and ends February 5, 2010.

Click here for more information.

Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging.
LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.

http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php

President Barack Obama greets a boy after speaking about strengthening America’s education system, at the Wright Middle School in Madison, Wis., Nov. 4, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Free call pick up and delivery.

No contracts required. One-time service / weekly service / monthly service (your choice).

Up to 50 Items of Clothing. Any of the following items: shirts, jeans,pants, skirts, blouses, dresses, linens, etc.

Please call 561-290-0432

Currently servicing:

Boca Raton
Delray Beach
Hillsboro Beach
Pompano Beach
Deerfield Beach
Coral Springs
Coconut Creek
Parkland
West Boca
Lauderdale Lakes
Wilton Manors
East Fort Lauderdale

Does not include:  South and West Broward, North Palm Beach or Miami.

No checks, please.

Between all of this I want to finish the rough draft of the novel I started writing during NaNoWriMo. Though having reached the 50,000 minimum, I still have to complete the middle and write the ending.

The facilitator of the on-line writing class I am taking gave us two exercises during our meeting this week. One was to list the key scenes we have yet to write of our novel. All of the students participated in NaNoWriMo.

The second exercise was to list all the things concerning our protagonist’s dilemma that we have yet to address or include in our novel.

Though quite simple, I found these tasks quite energizing. I listed four key scenes I had yet to write. My mind went blank after writing the fourth scene. I began to search for other scenes then realized that writing these scenes would take me through the middle of my novel and on to the end.

I wrote the first of those key scenes Wednesday night.

This list of things left out of my novel proved quite interesting. I wrote down about 6-8 aspects of my protagonist’s dilemma with one or 2 relating to a supporting character.

Even more interesting was that the scenes I wrote last evening those leading up to the second key scene, included 1-2 of the aspects I had listed as yet included in the novel.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is write.

Then again knowing what to write helps.

Though having graduated an MFA program I continue to take writing classes.

The craft of writing holds so much for the writer to discover, learn and work to refine and master.

I suppose that’s why I like writing.

Like hiking, there are peaks and valleys, hills and crevices. And plateaus.

Writing the first draft of a novel is like climbing a steep hill. Revising and editing we reach a plateau.

Re-reading that final of many drafts in between can be like walking down hill.

Always moving. Always writing.

Where are you in the journey?

What are your peaks and valleys?

What constitutes your plateaus?

I get ideas for stories at the strangest time.

While I’m driving, I’ll have to try to repeat the idea to myself as many times as possible, so I don’t forget it. I have to rush to wherever I’m going, and make a note of the idea I had in my phone, or in a small notebook that I keep in my car, so that I’ll remember to use it later. The worst is the thoughts I have right before falling asleep, the ones that don’t make it onto the page and then I spend the rest of the next day grasping at the edges of what I had.

I am, however, developing a routine. When I can’t come up with an idea, but I know there’s one rattling around, I get out of my chair and walk. Around the apartment, or outside to get the mail, anywhere. I’ve found that changing my view and getting out really helps to get things moving in my mind — I come up with my best ideas while just walking around and letting my mind wander to grasp what it will.

It reminds me of the scene from Dead Poet’s Society where Keating gets everyone to stand up on his desk so they can see the world from a new perspective. I’d stand on my desk, but it’s glass and, well, I don’t trust it that much.

I’ve been having a tough time with The Names We Chose, lately. I got to the halfway point, and I got started on that well enough. It’s always the middle parts that get to you, I find. I need to find the right ideas, the right sequence of things to spice things up. I have some great plot points coming in, I just need to make the journey to those points more entertaining. It’s a slow process, and I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I’d have liked, but I’m going to relax about it for the day, let my mind wander — I’m giving myself this one more day. Tomorrow, I sit down with inspiration or no, and I write.

If I don’t have it yet, I’ll trust that it’ll come to me!

If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway.
You can always throw it away, and maybe by the
time you get to the fourth page, you will have an
idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first
three pages.”
- William Campbell Gault

I am blogging my experience with the project 365 that I started on the first day of December.  I started my blogging on a different web (blogger) page.  But during my journey in trying to find the best outlet, I came across Word Press.  I must say, it has way more options.  In almost every way. Anyhow, the title of todays blog “in the middle” is because this may be the beginning blog for here, but its my 13ish blog for the month.  I am going to just copy and paste from my other blog to here. So 13 days of blogging will be in one. Sorry about that.

Actually, I am just going to post the pictures, and save the actual blogging to start tomorrow. If you would like to read what I have post previously, you can go to http://naomiford.blogspot.com.

What is this blog is about? I decided to push myself creatively and technically in the world of photography.  The way I decided to do that is a 365 day photo journey.  Now this is not to record my day to day life in a year.  I am not interested in that.  It is to push me to think out side of the “box” in my hobby. With that, I decided to blog my experience’s, what I enjoyed, what I hated, my mistakes. Basically everything that I am learning.

Here are my last 13 shots from my 365 day..

13/365

12/365

11/365

10/365

9/365

8/365

7/365

6/365

5/365

4/365

3/365

2/365

1/365

to avoid an outbreak of moderate views and ideas

or: in case of a ‘moderate ideas’ outbreak, take Purivax every day until you again hate gays, immigrants, and rekindle your love for guns. (side effects may include rash, dizziness, prolonged spells of irrational fear, misinformation on all political topics, a predisposition to simply scream instead of reasoning with opposition, anal leakage, and even supporting G W Bush for re-election. If side effects continue, contact your nearest republican representative for a job, immediately.) Purivax, wouldn’t this country be great if we had a moat?

For many years leading up until now the very driving force of hope and joy has been sucked out of my life force by one story after another of truly despicable and shocking actions by those vested with the responsibility of representing the proletariate they were elected to fight for. Week after week and year after year, the will of the people has been largely ignored, as well as the masses of the world, as America, specifically the GOP, ran rough shod over every human right and possibility of progress this country has had on a myriad of topics. When Obama was elected, or was campaigning even, this country began to polarize in a way that I had not seen in my lifetime. As he became president and started enacting his decisions on policy and action, the outraged tides were stemmed no longer, and the tidal wave of irrational fear and neo-racism came rushing in from all sides. I felt that there might have been a real chance for bi-partisanship in this country despite this, but I have been so wrong. Though Obama may claim to want it, I haven’t seen it, and if the GOP’s new purity test is any indication, the conservative right has now galvanized to shun even moderates who represented the possibility for across-the-aisle progress in this country.

If you haven’t been obsessed with politics as I am, then you may not have caught wind of the new ‘purity test’. It is a list of ten policies and platforms that every republican running for office in 2010 must adhere to so as to receive support from the GOP in their election. The ten items include opposing Obama-care, bills like the stimulus package, anti-amnesty immigration laws, protecting the defense of marriage act, and supporting the right to bear arms, among others. Every candidate must meet at least eight out of ten of these items to qualify as a conservative republican and be eligible for support in fundraising and endorsements from the far-right GOP. The test was designed to weed out moderate republicans in the coming elections; with no support from their party, moderate candidates would die leaving an opening for the GOP supported, far-right candidates to run for office in the house and senate.

I want you to think about this for a minute, I mean really think about the message the GOP is sending to the public and it’s party. The GOP is saying that if you aren’t with us eighty percent then you are not with us at all. It is no secret that I feel the GOP has entrenched itself for legislative war up until now; this proposal now stipulates that no traitor shall be given quarter, and no nay sayer shall be in rank and file of their army. The GOP has essentially stated that they are now requiring every candidate to either give not an inch, no bi-partisan consent, and to hold true to ideologies of the conservative core of the party, or they can join the drum march in to a communist Soddom and Gammorah ushered in under the guise of ‘responsible governing’. The party is now cutting out anyone that isn’t completely with them, requiring them to play ball or they will be excommunicated from the party to fend for themselves on their outlandish ideas of a moderate nature.

When I thought about this I found a few things quite funny as well as terrifying. When I first heard about the ‘purity test’ consisting of ten items I immediately thought that it could not have been a coincidence that the conservative, religious-right came up with ten rules to campaign by, or be shunned in to damnation…c’mon, ten commandments maybe? The party decided that they needed a list of ten mortal ‘sins’ to judge men by as an election came around. Someone decided that ten, exactly ten, items needed to be highlighted that required adherence, so as to get in to heaven..I mean, the RNC. I find it so funny that the religious arm of the conservative party, an all too powerful group of decision makers with puppeteering hands, had to pick just ten. If you look at the rules I see that there are two that sound very much alike, as if they had nine, but needed to fill to conjure images of Moses handing down platforms and policy reform to live by…I’m guessing they think Moses would have run for the Senate.

When I heard the term ‘purity test’ I then became cold and fearful, my laughter dying out. A purity test? Could it be that a bunch of lawmaking, rich, white men decided that they needed a system by which to measure the purity of those in their party, and to a greater extent, the length to which they would go to achieve it? The last time a bunch of white men sat around in a room talking about purity, a million people vanished and Poland had it’s worst tourist season ever; just saying. Hey, if the TEA Party can call Obama “Hitler” then I think this is a fair situation to turn the ‘light of the third reich’ on its head. I find it a very scary proposition for the possible progress in those brave people willing to open their minds to moderate views, that could represent a populous well, when their party has got a knife to their GOP umbilical cord. The sweat needs to be pouring on the brow of those willing to hear legitimate concerns from the left right now. There they are pouring over their voting record and policy moves to make sure they qualify, or where they can fudge the results to fit in the new cement boots of a helplessly desperate party center.

What does this all represent? How has the party become so hostile and unyielding in their policies so as to take it to the extreme of a political contract? I cannot understand how the members of the republican party can stand idly by as those willing to explore moderate compromises are burned at the electoral-stakes as witches. I think it shows a complete lack of respect for the times we live in and the possibilities that are out there. The Grand Old Party is showing its age as it is not willing to embrace a growing population of those Americans, even republicans, that are pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-gun legislation, and pro-health care reform. I know that Obama, and nobody so far, has it right on every issue, the times today have complicated these issues, but I think it is damaging to us as a nation to have one of the two parties unwilling to budge or support anyone that is open to hearing new ideas and constructive criticism to the point that you must sign your ability, as a representative, to re-evaluate your stance as you mature and new information or concerns come to light. Nothing can be gained if we are not willing, first, to truly be open to change.

I am outraged at the audacity of the GOP to literally hold a career ending gun to the heads of those wanting to make change and do good for the public, though in a misguided way, and to stunt their ability to be sentient beings. You are handicapping some of the greatest young minds your party has to offer and you make no apologies for it. If it were me, and I was a republican (shudder), I would be the first to stand up and say “hey, isn’t our conservative party lines and exclusive party policies what lost us every source of power we had in 2008?” Just saying. This party was supposed to be rebranded, remember that? Where a bunch of republicans sat around in what looked like a Pizza Hut and talked about the party ‘rebranding’ and then they placed a black guy as their party representative, Michael Steele. I remember that, do you, GOP? Was this the rebranding, because this feels more like branding…literally branding your party members like cattle on the farm as your intellectual and literal property. Save a horse, ride a Republican.

There is a more nefarious idea I explored as the republican’ts put this out, do you want to elect anyone who signed it? As a republican I would fear two things. First I would fear that my representative was so conservative that they would qualify, and secondly, that my representative trying to get elected would fudge their record or lie to get the GOP support by signing it. Either way the country and the constituents lose. If they are so conservative that they qualify, then progress on the myriad of rights, amnesty, and reform policies would never be explored, even as information and concern changes with time. Your representative would have to ignore moral and constituent’s imperatives to re-evaluate just so as to adhere to these strict guidelines. In this situation the will of the people and this country would not be done. Secondly, if they lie or scheme their way in to the good graces of the party, do you want a slime-ball like that representing you? Would you want someone willing to disavow their own guiding principles in favor of GOP support and funding? They are essentially selling out for money even before they get in to office, there is no way that person has the moral aptitude to represent you and stand up for what is right when they feel it is time, no matter the cost. Either one of the candidates represents the worst possible option when faced with the fallout of not getting with the conservative program.

There may be an upside to this though, as the liberal that I am. The ten commandments as they stand (let’s just call them what they are) would not allow for Sarah Palin, based on her record and platforms, to qualify for support from the party and therefore could not get a nomination to office from the Republican party. This is great news as that maverick can not play the Washington game with her ‘shoot from the hip’ kind of ‘tell it how it is’ mentality. Little Miss Land of the Midnight Sun would have to jump on the GOP bandwagon or get trampled to get to the white house. How great is it that she could not get the support to make a run, unless she recanted, went back on her word, morals, rogue persona, and let the party ‘handle’ her to get to the white house. She would have no footing, if this list stands long enough, from which to run for office. She could not run as a republican representative without the nomination, so she would have to run as an independent…Hardy-fucking-har-har. Hell, they would send Nader back out there just to beat her, and how great would it be for Palin to suck republican votes away as an independent leading to an Obama landslide in 2012!?

The new party line of “qualify or fuck you, Commy” is going to weaken the party in the end. This kind of mandate will further fracture the party, alienating a moderate republican base and hurting the party in 2010. The question of “are you GOP pure?” will come up and will be a platform for candidates to campaign on. This test of GOP balls is a shining example of some of the fundamental issues Obama faces trying to make headway with these fastidious conservatives. They have their heads in the sand on the direction of this country and where it will inevitably lead as causes rise, oppressed groups get larger, and the issues for middle-america become more dire. They will be hurting themselves by saying that they accept no treaty and no compromise. Digging in their heels like this seems to be an appeal to the TEA Party movement and an all out ass-presentation to those involved supporting the 9/12 project. Don’t think that the GOP doesn’t have a specific demographic in mind when trying to retake seats of the senate in many conservative states that flipped on them.

The GOP is attempting to shun those that could be a key asset to showing the party’s aforementioned “rebranding” in the future, opting instead for a party manifesto to weed out the unsavory characters eroding what this country stands for…hmmm, seems there was this guy Karl who had a manifesto once (turn around is fair play after all). I cannot pretend to not see what the religious-right base is trying to do. I have to say that if you are trying to reach out to new voters and appeal to lapsed republicans after a decade of screwing up, the last thing you wanna do is push someone that you are trying to pull in from the ledge of a 15 story building. The action you should be taking is inclusion, open dialogue, and free exchange of ideas which could lead to those on the fence choosing your dead republican grass over our brown liberal grass. This oathe-like list has done little but to disheartened those of us that wanted bi-partisan progress, and scare the shit out of those in your party that don’t fornicate in a pentagram covered in the blood of a thousand enviro-activists while rhythmically chanting the names of all republican presidents. You can’t blame them for doing some house cleaning though, because when you are trying to stage a national coup for power you can’t have any pussy moderates standing in your way examining the ‘consequences’ of your ‘actions’. Heil, Reagan!

Tony Oller did it once again! He blew us away with his newest cover of “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne featuring his friend Malcolm Middle. We know we’ve said it multiple times, but why hasn’t Tony been signed with a record label?! What do you think of his newest cover?

I want the conservative opinion, as well as the liberal, and all between on this. If you would do so, please watch this video, at least for the first five minutes, which set up the statements below. Read the corresponding conversation, and give me your thoughts. I’m into opening a dialogue, and I believe that a major question was posed here, and I want to continue the conversation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/34352230#34352230

(I’d embed the video, but MSNBC is not working with me tonight)

First off, Dick Cheney needs to shut up. I know that this statement might set an offsetting precedent for some, but I mean it in no disrespect to conservatives. I don’t view Dick Cheney as a conservative. I don’t buy that he believes in fiscal conservatism, budget hawk conservatism, Goldwater conservatism, Buckley conservatism, and I definitely don’t entertain the thought that he is, in any way, a so-called true believer. I believe in my heart that Dick Cheney is a one-man-for-himself capitalist who has bastardized the party possibly to the point of illegitimacy (please do not confuse that to mean the death of conservatism). He has manipulated policy in a way that solely serves himself, and close allies, and casts aside the fate of anyone and everyone who is not connected within that small inner-circle. I have seen, through friends and family, that this isn’t the entirety of the party, nor reflective of the many populist movements wishing to convey their messages of discontent. But those voices who indeed speak for the conservative movement within this country need to get louder, and speak to bigger issues than obstruction and hatred of government; hatred towards Obama.

I bring this up only to give context to how I view the person who applied the treasonous phrase “Giving aid and comfort to the enemy” to the President of the United States.

Here’s where discussion should come into play. How many people really believe that President Obama has violated the US Constitution, Article 3, Section 3:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”

Because here are my thoughts. I think that the same people who are rallying behind Cheney, saying “Yeah! Obama is guilty of treason!” have effectively detached themselves from reality.

I believe that this is the same mentality that allows people to march in 18th century patriot costumes and participate in tea parties against taxes, invoking the words of our founding fathers, and assuming that they are speaking for our ancestors. The audacity for people who live in modern day America to stand up and arrogantly take on the mantle of our founding fathers is disturbing to me. There is no realism displayed when dressing up in a costume and arguing against government, and then alleging it to be in league with our nation’s founders, who risked everything, including their lives (and those of their children), not to prevent taxation, but to stand up and say, “If we’re going to live here and be taxed, we need to have a damn say in the matter.”

These folks weren’t just complaining about what tax dollars were put towards. They were saying they were willing to put down their lives for a fighting chance to have a stake in it. There is no link to that within today’s reality. This is self-conceptualization. These are people who are patting themselves on the back for their ancestors’ bravery. Don’t speak for them. You’re doing both parties a disservice.

Likewise, this “Obama treason” mentality falls in line with folks who play war games on Xbox. There is a noteworthy group of people who truly believe that there is no distinguishable difference between killing someone in a video game, and killing them in reality. If you don’t see this as a problem, I think you need to. It is a good thing to recognize humanity.

Similarly, you see this disconnect with people offering up signs touting “Chairman Maobama,” or drawing the Hitler-stache on the President’s face. These are people who have never dealt with the reality of death, or, if they have, have never taken it seriously, or walked away with a sick interpretation of it’s impact. Anyone who can conflate the Holocaust with one approximated year of Barrack Obama needs to go to a better school. Probably one that isn’t taught by your parents.

This concept is also prevalent with secessionists. Most people who subscribe to secessionist parties don’t actually want secession. They just want the threat; it’s their negotiation chip. Just as most militias prepare for the revolution, but don’t actually want the revolution to happen. Secession? Revolution? It means the unavoidable end to society as we know it. Put down the Fred Meyer or Carr’s card. It’s a cool t-shirt that doubles as a great conversation piece, but would be a disservice to generations to come. Those dreaming about post apocalyptic realities are not exhibiting compassion; they are promulgating destructive fantasies that will facilitate, or further, a culture of hate, desensitization, and detachment. And as much as conservatives adore looking gravely at the deficit and lowering their heads, worrying for their children, grandchildren, etc… None of these grand statements will improve the situation. If the world really is flat now, can you imagine what a death sentence would be served if we split up our country? Or turned to mob rule?

It’s closing in on the year mark for President Obama. And it’s been, probably, the most partisan year of my life. Isn’t it about time to move back towards reality? Towards the center? Isn’t it about time we started evaluating policy for its merits, rather than its political affiliation? I, for one, love talking with conservatives, so long as they listen. I can be convinced, so long as you provide the better argument. Can you say the same?

So, it’s your call. What do you think? Is society getting to a point where we can challenge each other and share our common goals; respect our differences and similarities without resorting to calling each other fascists or communists?

Can we, as a people, move away from Cheney?

That I reached 50,000 words planted me square in the middle of my book, yes the dreaded middle.

Writing the middle of a novel presents as my greatest challenge. I do not want the story to sag or the plot to lose ground.

I want my novel to come alive in then middle like the middle’s of the novels that I have loved reading and have inspired me as both a lover of the written word and a writer.

And so I when feeling tired, I stopped. Writing while tired makes for tired writing. I got that from my husband.

I do not fear stopping, or that I will not complete my novel because I have a plan.

Presently I am thinking.

The greatest gift of NaNoWriMo and what leaves me so excited in having participated is not that I reached 50,000 words, but what having reached the mark, and again with joy has indicated to me.

I learned what I need to write, and how to give that to myself. A plan, a blueprint, allows me to write with energy and rhythm and joy. It also allows me to maintain footing when life calls.

A plan gives me the option to stop, think and regroup.

What fuels your writing?

What allows you to write with joy and rhythm that matches the demands of your life?

This is so awesome. Years ago our family recorded ourselves hiking to the top of Middle Mountain in Joes Valley. We then buried the tape at the top for a year as a time capsule. The next year we hiked up again, found the tape and had a lot of fun listening to it. Since then however, we haven’t know where it went. Lost amongst our stuff.

Just recently my brother, Chas found it! So here it is! I was 14 years old at the time! Haha! Enjoy!

Click here to listen

   I have been silently fuming for a number of years. I suffer from a disease called a conscience. It is a terrible affliction, everyone has this disease, but in some people it is not an active disease. Mine is full blown, and if I do not do the right thing my conscience will keep me up nights. A girl needs her beauty sleep not bags under her eyes. My parents taught me the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. I tended to give people the benefit of the doubt on most things. If others chose to act against the law or be hypocritical I would allow it. I would giggle, smile, blush or just be silent at their behavior. I didn’t want to cause a problem, or get in an argument. Now, I realize I was just intimidated and scared. It is always easier to run from trouble then to confront it. I called it, my political correctness. I hate political correctness; it was giving me ulcers! It used to be that people stood for things. Today it’s the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil crowd, that is political correctness. It has really become the norm for politicians both big and small. I believe Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” In your personal life if you choose to walk around with blinders on then that is your choice. I, rather than run into yet another pitfall have decided to cast aside my blinders, why? Because my life and way of life depends on it, that is why. I live in the USA and my life, way of life, and well being is in the hands of the government. In my government I have a say in things by way of my vote. I also have protections provided by the laws of the Constitution. I give my vote to those I hope and trust will do the right things including following and enforcing those same laws. It is the politicians who invented political correctness, or for whom it was so named. The founding fathers of our country wrote a document that starts ‘We the People’. We the people elect politicians to look after our interests. Democrat, Republican, religion it really is not supposed to matter. Once elected, the politician takes an oath to uphold the laws and to do what is right, just, and to represent his or her constituents. Constituents are the ones who gave them their vote. Mayor, Governor, Congressperson, Senator, President, what have you. It does not matter the office held, they all matter. You cannot promise those who vote for you one thing, yet turn and do something totally different out of self-serving interest, or agendas. To do something like that you cannot have any shred of a conscience. It is becoming increasing clear that conscience is not the disease running rampant in politicians, but it is greed. Greed is a totally different disease, more in the line of a cancer. Like a cancer it must be removed. It may be painful to remove, but in the end if you do nothing it will kill you, fact. A lot of politicians today, rather than do as they promise, would rather do a balancing act; it is the only way to further their greed. This balancing act is called leaning left, or leaning right. Political correctness is claiming to be walking in the center, thus not ticking off anyone. Oh please, President Lincoln had it right, didn’t he? For crying out loud, when did money become what politicians represent? I think this kind of snuck up on all of us, because we have had our blinders on. Good people have become complacent in today’s world and placed all their trust in their politicians. Did they not elect them to do the right thing? Let me tell you something, evil is not complacent. It uses everything it can to grab, to destroy good, and steal what good people have, and they want. Trust me, they don’t care about you. If we do not speak out against such things, we will lose our voices, because it is long proven that evil has no problem silencing the opposition, permanently. Let me say my education is not on par with many others. I wish I was a better writer, but I feel people can understand what I say well enough. I do not claim to be right on everything. If I am wrong on things, I do not have an ego that will be crushed by this revaluation. I cannot grow as a writer or a person without open dialogue with others. If I am wrong, I can admit it, correct it, learn from it and move on. If we do not learn from our past, we are bound to relearn those lessons the hard way. I have learned some lessons personally and what has befallen me is very scary indeed. Trust me when I say, “it is easier to discredit, destroy and ruin the messenger, then to admit to, and fix a problem”. That is a politically correct statement, and how politically correct people act, so beware. When money, power, ego and reputation are in control, they can be used to destroy the messenger, person or persons who may find or stumble upon something wrong, then to fix the problem. What I mean is the person who uncovers the fraud, corruption, problem or whatever it may be, becomes the problem. It is easier to destroy one person, then to have many come down on you for doing your job as a politician and safeguarding the people and doing just what the voters put you there for in the first place. This epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks. This is the truth and a fact. I am no longer politically correct, but as long as I can I will point out the facts and truth as best I can. Let me know what you think. If I can teach you one thing let it be this. The truth and just thing may save many, but evil will not go down without one hell of a fight. Evil has no conscience lies easily, kills, and fears no man or god and is quick to defend itself, often by pointing at others. Evil will throw anyone and everyone under the proverbial bus to save itself. The good of the world does not act as fast and has a distaste to fight evil. Time is always on evil’s side, history proves this time and time again. To fight evil, good people have to do awful things sometimes to win, but not to fight means the loss of all that is good. If you think I am wrong, prove it.

When the Government of India Act 1936 came into existence, India was whole and intact.

With the signing of the agreement between Nehru and Mountbatten, leading to independence, this was divided into three segments.

The west became Pakistan. It was immediately picked up by Americans and became their baby. Even today, it is given milk and baby food, by them.

The east is now Bangladesh. They go on producing babies for export to India, as there is nothing there; no food, no employment, no industry.

The middle is India, which had 600 states, free in terms of the agreement, but somehow coerced into India’s belly, causing stomach ache, even today, after sixty two years. You all know it is Kashmir.

If India was a truly democratic nation, my Cochin State would have flourished as corruption free, least taxed, tourist destination like Switzerland.

To mourn the death of the undivided India, let us march from the India Gate to the Red Fort, chanting Vande Mataram, every year on 15^th of August!

Indeed, organizations have been rapidly reducing the number of employees needed to operate effectively—a process known as downsizing. Typically this involves more than just laying off people in a move to save money. It is directed at adjusting the number of employees needed to work in newly designed organizations and is, therefore, also known as rightsizing. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear. Many organizations need fewer people to operate today than in the past—sometimes far fewer. The statistics tell a sobering tale. Downsizings are not a unique manifestation of current economic trends. In the recent past, some degree of downsizing has occurred in about half of all companies—especially in the middle management and supervisory ranks. Experts agree that rapid changes in technology have been largely responsible for much of this.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

1113d9ea309361b9bbf140184b1f3c85… From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: fashion history. The blog is also related to: fashion forward.