I could easily sum up MY ideal man as someone I want to spend my life with and he reciprocates, lots of loving, fun and laughter, et voila!

 Here are the qualities/ attributes of the Ideal Man, not in any particular order:

1. Funny
2. Intelligent
3. Practical
4. Warm personality
5. Has his own income/wealth
6. Likes to travel
7. Is good looking
8. Healthy and fit
9. Worships the ground I walk on
10. Honest
11. Dependable
12. Loyal
13. Has a sense of adventure
14. Appreciates beauty
15. He is enthusiastic about life
16. Has no time for fools yet is compassionate
17. He is generous and giving without being foolish
18. Has a strong sense of justice
19. He is non religious but is spiritual
20. Is well travelled
21. He smells good
22. Has a great sense of humour
23. He is a good lover
24. He is supportive of whatever I do
25. He brings out the best in me
26. He is loving and tender
27. He is protective
28. Enjoys the outdoors
29. Likes good coffee
30. Enjoys good healthy food
31. He can cook
32. He is a great masseur
33. He is wealthy
34. Has the same eclectic taste in music as I do
35. He is a non smoker
36. He is a tee totaller [sorta like me]
37. Takes me on great adventures travel
38. He is respectful
39. He is the best kisser

Best is to just watch this YouTube video and make up your own mind.

The mountains of trash we throw out every year are choking our waterways and landfills; and what about the floating trash islands in the ocean, we are not doing the Erath or ourselves a service by being careless consumers. We do not need to purchase new clothes to stay in fashion just as soon as a new trend emerges. We do not need to update our car on a yearly basis or keep up with the latest gadget. There is no need to wear sacks or be a Luddite about it, we just need to be smarter than the latest advertising campaign that tells us that we cannot live without such or such.

Let’s live being fashion by being just plain stylish, classic clothes with classic cuts always do the job and we won’t have to be fashion victims.

Things we can do to avoid consumerism:

Turn off TV, record your favourite programs and replay them without the ads, this way you may only watch what you want without the brain washing of commercial TV

Have a budget and stick to it.

Make a list of food you need and plan your weekly menus in advance. You will spend less this way and you will not let food go off.

 Buy a little less than what you think you need and stretch it.

 Only allow yourself one small treat a week.

Learn to mend clothes and alter them, it is a lot more economical and less wasteful than always buying new.  Become familiar with Ebay and snag yourself some amazing bargains.

Check out garage sales or thrift shops, often you can find new or nearly new at a fraction of the price.

Don’t buy new books, borrow from your local library or join a book exchange in your area. You could save a few trees this way as well as supporting great institutions like the local library.

This goes to for the newspapers, read them online or at the library.

Forget the car, ride on buses or get a bicycle, it is better for your health and fitness. Driving a car in the city is a major stress factor, by taking buses you get to know the city and you can relax.

Buy your music online, this way you bypass the whole CD production, printing of labels and shipping. You will save a lot of resources.

The same goes for movies, they are easy enough to purchase online.

Learn to see how you can buy less, when you see this really amazing bargain for yet another pair of boots you should get because they are 50% off.

1. Don’t know anything about computers
2. What is blogging? I know nothing about blogging
3. I am a Luddite
4. Should stick to pen and paper
5. I don’t trust the internet
6. I don’t trust geeks
7. I cannot write to save my life
8. I cannot type, you need to type on a keyboard don’t you?
9. I wouldn’t know what to blog about.
10. Blogging is for younger people
11. Blogging is for older people
12. Life is too hectic, I have no time to blog
13. I cannot blog while the kids are still at home
14. I have nothing to blog about
15. You have to be educated in how to blog
16. Cannot make any money
17. Tried it once, didn’t work for me
18. You have to be a web designer to set up a blog
19. Too many people are already doing it
20. Nobody would want to read my blog
21. People will laugh at me
22. I am not smart enough
23. Wouldn’t know where to start
24. I will  need money to set it up and keep it going
25. I am just not sure about all this internet terminology, I am not a geek
26. There are too many other things I need to take care of first
27. I am too lazy by far
28. The internet is very dangerous and someone my steel my identity
29. The internet will be shut down by the government any time now
30. It is too much hard work for a single person, you need a team around you.
31. The internet is saturated with brilliant writers, how could I possibly compete at their level.
32. I would have to give up my job

There is nothing new in the search for happiness.

Neither is there any “secret” doctrine or teachings that will give you instant happiness. There are however many clues left by ancient and modern wise individuals giving a little insight and showing us the way to leading happier lives. Some of those sayings are so old that their origins are lost in antiquity. This doesn’t seem to matter, there are still as valid today as they were originally.

Old proverbs and sayings can be the key to happiness, they are little pieces of wisdom to remind us of what is important. More often than not we will remember some little piece of wisdom dispensed when we were children, it is usually meant as a reminder for deeper thinking.

IT IS NOT SELF INDULGENT TO SEEK HAPPINESS BUT A HUMAN DUTY, a happy life is what we should all seek, not through a filling of the senses but as a ” way of being” .

I selected a few of the proverbs that I grew up with and a few that seem to have come up since [Yoda]. Old proverbs and saying have a way of being in fashion for a time then return to obscurity for a while. A lot of the more modern sayings are just recycled ancient ones adapted to fit our times.

 Here is an example of the recycled saying:

• “Things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within”. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

• “There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. Hamlet [Act 2 scene2]

• As man thinketh so he is

• You are what you think you are

These are the more common proverbs and sayings I came accross. Stay tuned for my interpretation of those sayings in a later posting. I added the origins of the saying wherever I could do so, but I think at lot of the more common ones have been appropriated or adapted somewhere along the line.

• “The one being carried does not realize how far away the town is.” [Nigeria]

• All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move. [Arab]

• Throw dirt enough, and some will stick.

• Trust in God, but tie your camel. (Arabian)

• It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. Confucius

• Half a loaf is still better than no bread” Irish

• “Put a silk dress on a goat and it remains a goat” Irish

• “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leasds to suffering” Yoda

• “Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin, the fear of loss is the path to the dark side” yoda

• Never look a gift horse in the mouth

• Cut your coat according to the cloth

• Never let the sun set on angry heart

• In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

• It is no use crying over spilt milk.

• Old friends and old wine are best

• Too many cooks spoil the broth.

• What can’t be cured must be endured.

• It is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

• A stitch in time saves nine

• There’s no use in flogging (beating)a dead horse.

• Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

• Respect yourself and others will respect you. Confucius

• A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart. Confucius

• A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Lao Tzu

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:

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

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…

Here are some tips to stay healthy while you blog:

1. Get a timer and stop every hour for ten minutes, get up, stretch walk outside and rest your eyes a bit.

2. Drink at least 3 litres of water

3. Replace your coffee with green tea, it contains caffeine as well but is also packed with antioxidants.

4. Stop every 2 hours and exercise for at least ten minutes, do some squats or push ups, go outside and focus on some distant objects.

5. Take a daily multi vitamin and some fish oil capsules

6. Get 8 hours sleep every day, I even got into having a little nap if I stayed up late.

7. Exercise every day for at least 40 minutes.

8. Get into healthy snacks, cut up some raw vegetables and fruit and keep them next to you to munch on. Try some raw nuts and dates.

9. Have a work schedule, just because you work from home does not mean you should be a haphazard blogger.

10. Prioritize your tasks, answering your email or mucking around on Facebook should not be the first thing on your list, divide the tasks into smaller chunks, they become a lot easier this way.

Blogging can be detrimental to your health if you do not discipline yourself, the worst part of it is that if you let your body suffer, you will find that your thinking and your creative juices also tend to dry up.
Stay healthy while you blog and you will be a much better blogger.

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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”.