LaserMonks

So, here’s what I learned today. There’s a group of Cistercian monks in the wilds of rural Wisconsin who are gagazillionaires now because of the on-line business they have. It began as they were brainstorming for a way to support their monastery. Funds were tight and the bills were piling up. The more traditional means of making money with a farm wasn’t going to work for 6 monks. So, they put their heads together and began to think. They thought about a golf course and a conference center. They considered growing Shitake mushrooms and raising Christmas trees. And, what do you figure happened while all this brainstorming was going on?

Their printer ran out of toner.

Fr. Bernard McCoy was shocked at how much a new toner cartridge was going to cost. He began to surf the internet to find a better deal and when he did he wondered how he might save money for other religious in need.

One thing led to another and they sell lots more than just toner cartridges now. Visit the monks at www.LaserMonks.com

They are a regular business. You get the added bonus of having somebody pray for you. They do as much as the other big office supply stores do. I’m switching my business to them.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Where I Consider Resolutions

I’m not too sure what I want to do. It’s interesting to me that during the course of any year, lately anyway, that ideas to do things sort of spring upon me and I either act upon them then or I don’t. I also don’t lose a lot of sleep over this process. If something sounds sort of difficult to manage at the point of inspiration I typically put it on a back-burner and return to it later on where I might or might not have had a revelation about how to proceed.

The idea, though, is to allow these ideas room to grow. And, I, being the one in charge of my life can either act upon them or not.

Except when the new year rolls around. That’s when I start looking at my feet while I’m dancing and inevitably start tripping myself up.

Stupid resolutions. I never keep them. It sounds like a good idea at the time, but it’s a sort of forced idea. It doesn’t flow naturally from where I am now to where I’d like to be at the end of the year. I don’t know that I’ve ever kept a single resolution that I made. To be generous I would imagine some of the ideas I had eventually did pay off and I actually did end up keeping them, but if you ask me now I really can’t remember any of them.

The thing that I think does work is that I can remember I am constantly in motion. I know that I’m not exactly the same person now that I was at the beginning of this year.

For one thing I am calmer. Now, why is that? I’m not sure. But, it’s a good thing. Believe me, it’s a much better thing. It might have to do with the fact that my husband is a lot calmer. He quit his job in April to write full time. At first I was panic stricken. Slowly, though, I moved through the panic, faced some of my own personal demons, and got over it. Maybe that was the key thing to do.

Anyway, that’s sort of off the point. The idea is that I’m calmer now than I was before. I’ve got all kinds of hopes for the new year. I guess that’s where that old phrase, “Hope springs eternal” comes from. So do resolutions.

So, while I will likely make a few resolutions this year maybe I can school myself to reconsider them when my fortitude to keep them appears to be flagging. Maybe at the point (probably 2 weeks into the new year) where I suddenly begin to lose interest in losing weight I am able to encourage myself without shaming myself into continuing on. Maybe a small quiet meditation would be the ticket.

I could center myself. I could move inside to where I, like all of us are, am perfect just the way we are. The center of soul. That part of us that continues through each lifetime, that moves with determination and with purpose into and out of the many lifetimes we have had. The inner part of us that does not fear, that understands beyond belief, that has a personal and permanent connection to Source. I want to be there just for a moment or two to connect again with who I really am. The stuff in this lifetime is the clothes I am wearing. The stuff at the center is me naked; where flab is not so important, where wrinkles don’t matter, where what really matters is love and creativity and laughter. If I connect for a few moments I believe I can come away from the encounter and be a little kinder towards myself and by extension to everybody in my life.

Happy New Year Everybody.

Internet Explorer 7 and Java Problem Solved

Wow. That took awhile. Recently I upgraded to Internet Explore 7. I tried to play one of the word games at Pogo and it wouldn’t work. It kept saying I didn’t have Java installed. Except, I did. After much searching on the internet I finally discovered what needed to be done.

On the Internet Explorer 7 screen over on the far right hand side is the word “Tools”. You let that drop down and go to “Manage Add-Ons”. Go to “Enable or Disable Add-Ons” and make sure that Sun Java is enabled.

The first time I did it I saw all these other programs that I used to use occasionally before I did the upgrade and selected them too. Wrong move. Just do one at a time and make sure it works before you add on any others. I managed to totally disable Internet Explorer. And, the way to solve that slick move? I went to the Control Panel – Internet Options – Advanced Tab – and down at the bottom Reset Internet Explorer Settings.

This was another time where I was glad to have a second browser installed. It is Firefox and I use it as a backup when I manage to screw up Internet Explorer 7.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody.

A Favorite Quote

“If you have to eat a frog, do it quickly.” Actually, I’m having a terrible time actually finding this quote. Mark Twain was supposed to have said it. What I did find was a variation of it which goes, “"If you have to eat a frog, don't spend a lot of time looking at it.”

This is actually one of my favorite sayings and to have it said by Mark Twain who is a writer I admire is doubly satisfying. But, for both of these quotes I cannot find direct evidence that Mark Twain actually said it.

I farted around for over half an hour looking on the internet and I was beginning to feel disappointed. This was what I was all set to write about and I wasn’t going to be able to do it if I wasn’t 100% certain that Mark Twain actually said it.

That’s when somebody whispered in my ear, “I’ll say it to you now if it makes you feel any better.” You just have to love Folk in Spirit.

Where Our Neighbors Give us a Christmas Cake

Our neighbors just came over with a Christmas cake for us. This looks absolutely magnificent, don’t you agree?

Where I Don't Recognize a Psychic Hit

Here’s what happened. I intended to hook a camera up to my computer to download some pictures. The camera rests in a cradle. There’s a power cord to the electric and there’s a USB cord between the camera and the cradle. Usually, the order I do things is to plug in the USB thingie first and then plug the power in. Except, it’s been awhile since I did this, I forgot how I normally did it and I neglected to plug in the USB thingie.

The cradle fired up, but the charge light was the only light to come on. Normally, I lean on the USB light and that function becomes active and then I download the photos.

Right.

So, the procedure got turned around and I’m pushing on the light/button for the USB and nothing is happening and I’m starting to get concerned. Suddenly, I realize I never plugged in the USB cable. I realized right then that this was not the normal order of how I do things and even though my intention was to now plug in the USB cable I got this very, very quiet feeling of unease about the whole thing.

That, dear readers, was my psychic hit.

And, I didn’t pay attention.

My computer broke.

The whole ding-donged screen went black and I could not get the stupid computer to turn on again. So, here I go thinking I’ve broken my computer at work and why hadn’t I done a backup recently (I will do one today) and why hadn’t I ever located the stupid Outlook.pst file to backup too because now I’m really sorry and most of all: Why the hell didn’t I pay attention to that psychic impulse?

Because it was so quiet.

Because it was such a tiny, tiny thing.

Because I’m stupid.

The guides say it’s because I’m learning. Okay, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Anyway, that was the psychic hit.

Now, the good news. After trying and trying to get the computer to turn back on again with no success, we called our computer guy who was able to rearrange his plans and make an emergency visit to the office.

He unplugged the computer and plugged it back in again.

It worked.

He explained that sometimes electricity will cycle around inside the machine and somehow the computer gets confused. Unplugging it completely and plugging it back in again reset the whole thing.

12:12 Meditation