Maya’s Own

I just finished reading a book titled: “Surviving Armageddon, solutions for a Threatened Planet” by Bill McGuire. I am not usually paranoid, but this book got me thinking. The author does not mention 2012, or any predictions of doom according to the Mayan calendar, instead he gives us a run down on the various threats faced by our planet.
Needless to say, I spend a sleepless night or two.

As if global warming was not enough he tells us about all the other threats facing us, most of them are a certainty, the only unsure factor is: when will it happen?

Here is a short list of the threats:

Asteroid and comet impacts

Giant earthquakes

Mega-tsunami

Severe climate change

This is not even including the more esoteric threats such as:

Polar switch

Solar flares

Alien invasion

Super viruses

Scientific experiment going very wrong as in the Zell accelerator near zurich in Switzerland

I am just naming a few here, these are all genuine doomsday scenarios and if I am to take any of this too seriously, I think I would need serious medication.
Don’t get me wrong, these are major threats, well most of them anyway, and they are a little meatier than the problem of flatulent cows causing a build up of methane and therefore warming of the climate.

What can we possibly do to minimize the impact of any of those events should they happen in our lifetime? I mean should we head for the hills now or join the ranks of the gun toting survivalists and be ready for global meltdown. Having said that preparing a little couldn’t hurt, we had our share of severe storms already and power cuts, surely a little preparedness cannot , it would be better than that awful feeling of sticking my head in the sand and ending up as a speed bump.

Then of course there are all those predictions about the Mayan Calender ending just on December 21st 2012, not to mention all those other prophesies, enough to make one’s head spin just like that chick in “The exorcist”.
Maybe nothing will happen on December the 21st in a little less then 2 years now, and as a child mentioned recently: “Maybe the Mayans ran out of stone tablets”, cute.

Still, I saw the movie and it ain’t pretty, it was quite tragic too [the movie, I mean].

A little bit of foresight cannot hurt, my Grandma used to stock up on everything: food, candles, firewood, woolen blankets, anything she thought she may need in case of another war. I remember raiding her cellar and seeing those shelves upon shelves of home made preserves, heaven until I got caught!

Today I purchased an emergency gas stove and a crank up flashlight, who knows I may end up with one of those bug out bags and army rations….
Uhmm, I will need to make some space for all that gear.

Armageddon can come, I will be prepared, I think…

Do you know that there are two kinds of people in this world? They are sheep or wolves, and it is up to the individual to choose which he or she is.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Being a sheep is fine, you may prefer to be led and told how to live your life, it is usually the easiest path and just like the sheep you can run with the flock and keep on grazing the ever green pastures.

Now if you decide you want to be a wolf this is altogether very different. As a wolf you can run over a wider range of territory and although you can run with the pack, you will often run alone as well. The wolf is very individual and will do just as she  pleases, she is fast, cunning, intelligent and creative.

When a sheep encounters a wolf it will see only danger and run in fear, when the wolf meets a sheep however she sees lunch.

You see a wolf may go about in sheep’s clothing but have you ever heard of a sheep in wolf’s clothing? Not very likely.

Someone I trust once told me:

“Be a wolf and you will be free, life will not always be easy and you may go hungry at times but there is nothing to compare with being free”.

Being a rebel may not only change you but you may also change the world. Whether good or bad, the world needs rebels, people who think outside the box and dare to be different, not because they are “bad” but because they have a need to explore other avenues and ways of doing things.




Civil Rights Activists Coretta King and Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, 1975

Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Just try to think of some personality, be it in politics, arts  science or business and you will find that they more often than not went against the established way of thinking and forged their own path to achieving their dream. Rebels can become heroes or villains, what makes the two extremes so alike is their singular will to go where no body has gone before.Now a real rebel, well in my eyes at least is usually born to many challenges, economic, racial that he/she must overcome, and more often than not their initial rebellion comes at great cost or risk to themselves. One particular person comes to mind here: Rosa Parks. born in 1913 in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, going home after work   she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man,  Rosa was then arrested, tried and convicted, this sparked a boycott of the bus system by blacks and a a result  the US  Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses.

Rosa Parks became a rebel because of her deep sense of injustice

People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

This one act of rebellion not only brought Martin Luther King Jr to national prominence but helped to  kick off the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks was without a doubt a rebel who became a hero, she stepped out of her comfort zone and risked jail in a time when blacks were not permitted to speak up.

“The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest”

Recently questions arose in a discussion about lies in business; more specifically when is it ok to lie in order to get sales, not big lies, just itty bitty ones. Is it OK to lie to keep the peace, or to avoid an argument?
A while back I went with someone to purchase a used car, the salesman assured us that this particular brand and model was such a good car even his wife drove one! The following day a friend was also told the same story about a different car, maybe the salesman had more than one wife!
Knowing this I hesitated and thought to myself that if he is so desperate to sell a car maybe his cars are not very reliable.
Look, it was a very small lie really, we made good fun of it but I did not buy a car from him.
How small is a small lie and how do you differentiate it from a big lie?

Someone suggested that small lies don’t hurt anyone but big ones do, this sounds fair, but say that you have a lot of small lies and those lies become huge:
“no I did not have sexual relations with that woman” comes to mind.

I would like to say I never lied, or never will lie again but I can’t, I may lie to save myself from some sticky situation or because the truth could be too hurtful, let the one who never ever lied cast the first stone.

What I can make sure of is that I will endeavor to be as honest as possible without compromising my safety, “Do I look good in this?” one question I would rather answer with a lie if I have to.
We all tell lies, small itty bitty ones on a daily basis, if someone asks you:
“How are you today” do you answer
” I feel awful, my head hurts and I just don’t really want to talk to you, also I think my boss wants to fire me…” no, you wouldn’t dump like this on anyone, you just smile and say:
“I am very well, thank you”.
In this case are you an awful liar or just being sociable?

We seem to accept that it is OK for some people to lie to us, politicians, people in the media and advertising, after all you can’t really believe that you will end up looking like Paris Hilton if you buy her perfume, or that you will be dating that super model what’s her name if you use a certain deodorant. We are sold lies and we know they are lies, but we like to pretend otherwise.

I remember laughing while watching Star Trek when Captain Kirk would speak into what looked like a wrist watch and say the famous words:” Beam me up Scotty”
Things have improved from the early mobile phones in the nineties when they were the size of a brick and weighed as much. Now I see people of all ages walking down the road seemingly talking to themselves, one arm bend holding their ever smaller cell phone to their ear.

If people want to talk and walk I have no issue, I get a little steamed up if in the middle of a conversation with someone their phone rings and they proceed to talk at length. I never hang around and just walk off, it would be common courtesy when in a conversation to ignore the phone or if it is important to make it brief, after all it usually is not urgent. Most people would be happy to ring back or leave a message. Is there any etiquette specific to mobile phones? What are good manners when it comes to using a mobile to talk or text?
Maybe we just have lost all notions of courtesy being so wrapped up in being electronically connected. Recently a cafe owner complained of the number of people walking in, holding up the queue whilst talking on the phone, what is it with people, can’t get coffee without telling someone about it? Maybe they just want to look important and busy: “Look at me, look at me, I talk on the phone, I am a shmuck, but I am important!”

Please turn off your phone while in a theater, a restaurant or at the movies!

Leaving a mobile on to ring while at a performance or in a restaurant is the height of bad manners, you not only will spoil it for your companion [s] but also for everyone else, it is definitely uncool. The right thing to do is to show good manners and switch off the phone or alternatively put it on vibrate, if you must answer it, excuse yourself and step outside.

Do not talk on the phone while driving

Unless you have blue tooth or a hands free device, driving while talking on a mobile phone is totally stupid, you have one hand holding the phone and you are driving at speed, you will be distracted. This is illegal in most countries, and so it should be.
This of course goes also for texting while driving
I recently was on the city bus when i could not help but overhear a phone conversation, a young woman was telling her friend about her antics of the night before, it was very entertaining, it should have been Xrated but all the bus passengers got a good earful and a good chuckle. What shocked me the most is that she was totally oblivious to the effect her phone conversation was having, when she got off the bus many people commented on her conversationin a very unflattering way. Nobody told her to keep her voice down, this would not do and I suppose most thought that maybe she wanted us all to hear it!
The young woman may have thought she was so cool.
We have become so dependent on our mobile phones, I know a few people who just panic when they misplace their phone, all the phone numbers and addresses are in there as well as a lot of other information.
I have slowly been weaning myself off, no mobile on the week end and I switch it on silent most of the time unless I expect a call.
Phones are becoming smaller and have so many more applications, there is always the push to get the latest and most expensive device, why?
I traveled in Vietnam and mobile phones were everywhere there too, I even saw an older lady in the traditional peasant dress carrying a long bamboo pole and her two baskets of vegetables, when out of nowhere i heard a Xmas jingle [Rudolf the reindeer], she pulled her mobile out from under her vegetables and started talking.

Make procrastination work for you

If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.

~Author Unknown

Are you a master at procrastination and wouldn’t you like to see some recognition?

After all procrastination isn’t so bad, never mind all the doers out there that will try to get you off your butt with all kinds of enticements about getting the job done, doing today what you could very well be doing tomorrow or the day after or never. I mean if you wait long enough several things could happen:

- The job won’t need doing anymore

- Someone else [probably a uber efficient doer] will do it for you

- Some disaster hits and then who will care anyway

- Better still you could win the lottery [if you did buy that ticket].

Procrastinators are smart, why would you do today what really you may never have to do at all?

Procrastinators are very chilled out people, and are easy to recognize by their vocabulary, they may use phrases like:

- Yeah, whatever…

- Will be done tomorrow…next week…

- Hey, relax, there is no rush

- Take a chill pill

- Didn’t I do it last week?

- I’ll get on to it right away [well sometime soonish]

- It will be done by Friday [and I am Robin Crusoe]

- I’ll have a rest and then I’ll get onto it

- What Friday already, time flies

- This job is too hard

- I have an allergy

- Men/women were not put on this earth to work

- Adam and Eve had free apples

You see really procrastinators are easy going, relaxed and some take the long view on life:

- Why do today what you could put off indefinitely? After all whatever isn’t now is in the future, right? That means that if I don’t do it this instant it doesn’t mean I won’t do it later.

Procrastinators live really in the now:

- Right now I sit here staring into infinite space

- I am contemplating

- I breathe therefore I am

- Is this pencil really made from a tree?

There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house. ~Joe Ryan

There is a certain frisson in putting off jobs and urgent task, isn’t there feeling of power to know that you could do something right now but you choose not to? You can observe everyone getting very agitated because you are so masterful at being a great procrastinator. You see procrastination takes immense skill at not doing something, sure we all know you really think about it a lot, you mull it over: will i, wont i, should I and then you perform an absolute miracle, you will put it out of your mind altogether, that is until someone reminds you that the letter you meant to write three years ago to your uncle in Italy wont be needed anymore and he left his mansion to the cat society.

You know that procrastination works for you, most of the time. When it stops to work for you it may be that you are getting too old for it, you may then just have to get on with it and try to join the doers.

I strongly suggest that you reconsider, old age is the perfect excuse! The Universe has finally granted you your wish: you are now too feeble to do anything!

Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow. ~Gerald Vaughan

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. ~Mark Twain