What type of shower chair do you need?

There was a small debate in our home over the issue of a shower chair that has come up for sale in a popular auction shop. Though I didn’t know what type of chair was for sale and its price, I already decided that I wanted only a folding shower chair because of space limitations.

So, I asked my husband to check out again at the sales brochure. He checked and confirmed that it was not the one I had in my mind.

It didn’t take me long to find the web’s biggest medical supplies and fitness equipment store Allegromedical.com

Founded in 1996, and now serving more than 1 million customers, Allegro Medical is one of the largest and most technologically advanced independently owned online retailers of life enhancing products in the United States.

Yes, they have the exact foldable shower chair that I wanted.

A wonderful greetings!

This stunning picture with the words spoken directly by the God is a gift to me by my friend Devendra.

What a thoughtful gift. I wonder how long he took to search for this perfect image to be gifted on the birthday of Lord Krishna!

I have been circulating this image to several of my relatives. I can't take my eyes off this picture.

Thank you Devendra.

Beautiful designer bedroom furniture.

I chided my son when he bought a mobile phone for around $1000. It is simply lavish in my opinion. I could have used that money to buy the designer bedroom furniture that I desired. And this bedroom furniture that I have been eyeing for long won’t give me anymore expenses like a mobile phone!

Just have a look at this modern bedroom fitting. Don’t you think this will give you more pleasure than a mobile phone? This is a life time investment and will be a proud addition to our new house.

My mother-in-law wanted a contemporary bedroom but I convinced her by arguing that we have built a uniquely designed bedroom and it is only fitting that it is decorated something extraordinary like an Italian bedroom.

But youth have their own way of placating their mother-right? My son promised me to fill the new empty bedroom within three months.

Design your shipping box online.

Those who don’t have car will find it difficult to find boxes to pack odd shaped goods, big sewing machines, grandfather clocks etc. Do you know why? They won’t have garages to store junks like used boxes.

I am not joking brother; I am sharing my experience with you. I don’t own a house. I am forced to shift quite frequently. At such times, my greatest problem is finding boxes to pack. Since I don’t have garage, I throw away TV boxes, computer boxes etc as and when I buy consumer durables.

I happen to find a fantastic resource for shipping boxes. Packnboxnow.com is a wonderful resource where one can custom design corrugated boxes to suit their packing needs. As you design online, you are intimated of its price.

Another superb facility is uploading your own logo to be printed on your boxes. This kind of service is rare to find.

Any search engine for flowers?

Image by tanakawho via Flickr I was sent this picture only by a contact in Flickr.com We both share the same love for flowers.

This is Coral Flower. I want to know desperately more info on this slender and beautiful flower. This is so romantic and gives a cool sensation to look at.

I have been searching the Web for info on this lovely flower but I am unable to come up with anything. Is there a niche search engine or directory of flowers?

I should be able to search for any flower with its name as the search term and the search result should include photo, common name, cultivation methods, its uses if any, fragranace, life time etc.

What about acne face wash?

Several years ago, news papers carried a strong public debate that really rocked the medical world. It all started with a product that promised quick cure for acne by minimizing the production of the natural oil called sebum by the skin.

Skin protects itself against the vagaries of nature by producing sebum. The skin knows how much oil is required for the healthy skin. This oil is not the main cause for the acne but the blockage of it alone causes it.

Well, the consumer world as usual took everything in its stride and the issue was forgotten but not the product.

Now, for acne treatment, there are hundreds of remedies offered and all of them are reviewed by several websites. One can gain as much knowledge as required about the causes and remedies for acne by visiting such websites.

Do you know acne face wash? Have you heard about Bruunhause? If not, please visit getacnetreatments.com/review/acne-face-wash/. I read what I read there.

Absolte chaos in T.Nagar.

Image via Wikipedia The chaos that is prevailing in T.Nagar, the city's shopping district cannot be expressed but only to be experienced.

I had the unfortunate privilege of experiencing that madness yesterday when I went there to attend a marriage. Being born and brought up in Madras, I know every nook and corner of this city but for the first time, I felt I was in an alien city.

I was forced to take unexpected turns, circuitous routes, navigate through 100s of vehicles in those narrow roads because of the city's traffic department's poor vision.

This is leading to extra consumption of fuel and time. I pity the residents of T.Nagar; they are enduring so much. For tourists of madras, it all seems to be enjoyable as they have come here to shop around.

The image you see here is the place I am referring to-the South Usman road, in T.Nagar

Back to Home School

Now that everyone is healthy again time to get back on track for homeschooling.
I have noticed that Shaylin knows a lot more than I realize she knows. It is always a delight to see how far she is coming along and how much she enjoys homeschooling.

We are getting excited about our NGBTS Picnic on Tuesday. It is going to be so much fun to hang out with other homeschoolers on the traditional first day of school around here. But alas I have already broke traditional ways and started school already. Call me a rebel.

more pictures will be coming now that things are back to normal around here.

Not easy, not easy at all.

Image via Wikipedia

We all come across a point of indecision several times in our life. It can be at the time of choosing a course in college, deciding which car to buy and even while shopping for a swim suit.

I know how difficult it is especially for women to select the dress when presented with myriad options. Selecting the right swimwear too is very difficult if you happen to shop online at instyleswimwear.com because of the great range of swimwear.

They sell One Piece, Two Piece, Tankini, Monokini, Cover Ups and many more. Also we can shop by designer, shop by tops and bottoms. I have heard about Liza Lozano, a designer whose swimwear products are the most sought after by film industry.

Haven’t you heard about Liza Lozano? You can shop her products at instyleswimwear.com

Flickr gives me immense solace.

Image by wvs via Flickr I have no regrets about not owning a camera, not even the old fashioned one that eats film rolls and money too to clean the films.

I am an ardent fan of Flickr.com and I spend at least 20 minutes daily in Flickr, browsing happily at pictures of my choice.

I have sent the pictures that I liked to my friends, stumbled them and blogged about them.

Here is a picture that caught my attention today. Those pink colors-aren't they stunning?

I am forever grateful for all those passionate photographers.

My nickname is Planter.

I earned the nickname Planter when I was studying in my 10^th standard. I happen to choose a stunning ornamental plant from the nursery next to my house and gave it as a wedding anniversary gift to my class teacher.

I am still retaining my ardent passion in Decorative Planters though I have nothing in my house. Yes, I have this peculiar habit gifting the plants and not growing them at my home.

I frequent a website called Planter Ixchange for my gifting needs and I especially like their slant roof Wardian Case Terrarium (see picture). So far to whomsoever I have gifted this, cherish their gift like a treasure.

I have been postponing my desire to buy a water fountain from Planter Ixchange. Somehow my attraction to outdoor plants pushing back my own desire for the fountain.

Planter Ixchange is an excellent resource for unique green gift ideas.

Stay connected with Christians of the world.

My husband’s friend is a Christianity film maker. His products are in good demand abroad, especially Singapore, Malaysia. He sought my help to propagate his skills in the Internet.

I immediately asked him to come over to my place because, only a day before I came across Lordsmessage.com, a Christian social networking site that offers plenty to Christian community across the world.

The Lordsmessage.com was the result of Heath and Alex’s dream of giving something back to the community.

Through their site, they propagate Faith in God, invite inspiring true stories from their members, offer a Christian Chat facility, and facilitate interaction between members and so on.

Right now, they offer a free book titled, “The Path of Grace: 5 ways to accomplish the impossible".

I was confident the lordsmessage.com can be very useful to my husband’s friend. He too liked the idea.

Farewell to a Sunburnt Country

Today I'm leaving Australia for Hong Kong and Hawai'i. Many of my batch have left already. The halls are quiet and strange.

About a month ago an Australian Jesuit read me this poem, which many Australians learn as schoolchildren. It captures well a lot of what I've seen.

My Country
A poem about Australia

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea McKellar

Why we should use HDMI products?

The amount of time we spend in front of the TV is almost double than we spend in the kitchen. Entertainment has become our food instead of pass time. The technology wizards also constantly develop new products that promise to enhance our entertainment experience.

HDMI:

High Definition Multimedia Interface is shortly called HDMI. The main use for HDMI products such as HDMI switches, HDMI cables is the enhancement of digital viewing experience and reduction cable clusters.

As a consumer we can enjoy uncompressed digital video and audio quality by using HDMI products. In short, HDMI switch can receive audio, video inputs from one or more devices.

There are more Advantages of HDMI over existing analog interfaces; I request you to visit the link to gain insight.

Genuine home business opportunities for moms.

I did not expect a long time friend of mine, a teacher by profession, turning to be a business woman. She visited me with prior appointment only to sell health care products. She revealed to me that she is now a work at home woman.

Her transformation was quite unexpected as she loved her teaching job. Giving in to her husband’s prodding, she looked out for small business for sale in the web. While searching for the right kind of business opportunity, she was recommended in a work at home mom forum to look up at Smallbusinesssale.com

It is a directory of genuine franchise opportunities in the fields of health care, cleaning, education, travel and many more.

My friend took up a three week online coaching assignment and now she is glad to be on her own. Now she can easily accompany her husband wherever he gets transferred.

Whales Again

My mom asked in a comment whether we had actually seen any whales. We did, in fact, see a number of tails and tips of edges that looked like sea serpents.






A bit underwhelming really. The whales we were following would generally "come up" for about a minute and then descend for 8-10. So you spend a lot of time frantically looking around for something, anything to reassure you that you did not just pay $60 to vomit for three hours. Anything seen for more than a second, particularly a tail, is met with a rush of bodies, group sighs and a thousand shutters clicking. At least at the beginning. By the end of the trip there were about five of us at the front of the boat (and two of them were lying on a bench clearly praying for a merciful God to end their suffering, even if it meant being attacked and devoured by the whales). The back of the boat really was a triage unit, filled with sick, sick blokes.

People wonder why anyone would hunt poor whales. Some say blubber. I say unmet expectations.

I had hoped to write a lot of "final thoughts" about Australia these days, as I leave on Saturday. But, as you might imagine, it's been pretty busy. The time will come.

No more bad credit mess.

Once bitten, twice shy. How very true this proverb is proving to be in our practical life. The message hidden in this proverb is ‘learn from mistakes committed’. At least that is what I have taken it to be.

Who is immune from mistakes? None in my opinion. But what the mistakes led to and what lesson did we derive from it, all that matters.

In the present economic mess world wide, we may entangle our personal economy by mistakenly damaging our credit worthiness. Of course, approaching a reputed financial institution for credit repair is the only wise move to re-enter the downtown shopping mall.

Earlier credit repair services used to be a rather cumbersome process but with the competition among them getting touch, they made the procedure much easier. DSI solutions is said to be the most friendly bad credit repair service in the field today. They have a healthy positive feedback and that makes them to the most sought after bad credit repair services online.

Go ahead and start reviving your desire of getting that home loan.

There She Blows

Today the tertians went whale watching out in the ocean off Sydney Harbor. Beautiful day, we actually spotted a couple whale tails, at one time very very close, everyone in good spirits. "Mission Accomplished."

However, should you ever have the opportunity to go whale watching, there's a couple things they won't tell you that you probably should know.

1) On the ocean you go up and down. Like a rollercoaster.

2) It doesn't matter whether it's a nice day or not, a calm day or not in the harbor. On the ocean, you go up and down.


3) You also go side to side. For those of us raised in the 70s, think of the Weebles. They wobble, but they don't fall down. But they can REALLY WOBBLE.



4) Many people get really sick when they go up and down and side to side. I'm told it has something to do with being out of control of one's own movement. Similar to the reason why you won't get carsick when you drive, but you can when others are driving.

5) Consequently, a whale watching boat should more properly be called a spew-watching boat. Because you see a lot more spew than you do spouts.

A lot more.

A lot more.

6) Lastly: once it's out on the ocean, the boat is not going to turn back. So, enjoy either that apparently inexhaustible feeling that you are going to die from the non-stop dry-heaving that you will do for the next 2-3 hours, or if by some trick of fate you don't get sick, that sense of being trapped in a heaving, rocking, speeding plague ward.

One of our guys got sick an hour out, and I would say if we had any doubts that he would remember us when we all depart they are now null and void, because based on what we witnessed it is safe to say that the poor man will always remember this day, or at least those terrible, terrible two hours. If you take a moment to recall your own experiences of being violently ill -- not from drinking, as those pass once you get the poison out, usually, but stomach flu, say -- you know what I mean. Except you were in your bathroom. He was 3 miles out to sea surrounded by others who are also vomiting -- which really does not help soothe the stomach.

So, if you have to go see whales, might I suggest bring lots and lots of dramamine. And when they say "eat a light lunch", what they mean is, "If you want to feed the whales, be sure to eat a light lunch."

Musharraf resigned!

Image via Wikipedia So, at last, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned just minutes after his televised speech.
It was reported in Yahoo! at 2.03 PM today-just an hour ago.

He is expected to settle down in Saudi Arabia but it may be a rumor. His nine years of power has ended as demands overs resignation have been on the raise locally.

I don't know what will be the implications on the India political scene but in Pakistan, Karachi witnessed people dancing on the streets in celebration.
The Pakistan stock market reported an uptrend.

"In the best interest of the nation and to avoid any confrontation I today announce my resignation," said an apparently disturbed Musharraf, making the address that was telecast live from the Army House - from where he ruled the country for eight years, ten months and six days after overthrowing the elected government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999.

Source: Yahoo!

Real franchise opportunities.

Franchise Gator is the best website in the Internet to look for work at home opportunities, franchise business opportunities for one and all.

Searching for a genuine franchise opportunity was like picking a needle from the hay stack a few before when I entered the web. Those days, scams ruled the net. I was also a victim once.

But Franchisegator.com offers real franchise opportunities such as travel franchises, women’s franchises, education franchises and even pet franchises. Business opportunities exist for international entrepreneurs too.

My curiosity was piqued in the field of pets and I clicked on the relevant link. The next page asked me my location. Based on my choice, I saw three pet franchise opportunities namely, pet foods, wild birds related business and a general pet depot.

Each franchise opportunity informs you about the required capital and most of the opportunities offered training too.

Franchise Gator is also loaded with a lot of very useful articles on franchise and business opportunities.

An excellent resourceful website.

The forgotten blogroll.

Don’t we all do-forget the blogs that we add in our blogroll because we sincerely admire or to oblige a friend?

Of course we don’t forget to visit the blogs on bloroll intentionally. The might ‘time’ stands tall in our life, friendly most of the times but not so friendly at times.

I thought I would visit at least 6 blogs today that are in my blogroll but I ended up visiting just one because I spent the stipulated time fully on the blog of Fitfuel.com

Since I too write a lot on meditation, the blog post titled ‘Running on meditation’ attracted my attention. After reading that post, I wrote a blog post on it in one of my blogs.

Though I don’t run or walk these days, I too withdrew my mind from my consciousness while walking a few years before. I fully used that walking time to focus on my body and tried to shut off my mind completely.

The blogger has voiced his opinion and experience on meditating during running and has quoted Zen of running aptly which also echoes my method of focusing on body and breathing rather than focusing on thoughts while walking or running.

The next post that I felt the urge to read was on ‘releasing emotions’. Ah, this is one topic that I used to lecture on quite frequently. I would have written the blog post on releasing the emotions differently. For example, I would have explained the cause of emotions first.

The Fit Fuel Blog has many more interesting topics.

What is a gravatar?

I don't understand the purpose using avatar in the web. Somehow I don't get the hang of it. Mostly due to compulsion only, I upload some image (sometimes my picture) that I quickly get tired of looking at it and change it.

Recently I have been coming across the word, 'gravatar' which is an image we select to represent us. Any image goes along as long as it is not a copy righted material.
I quote:
"A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites."

I think the forums only started this practice which is now being followed by blogs and all the social media.

One grab a gravata from http://en.gravatar.com/

Great range of bedroom furniture.

I shop like a novice means, I don't go to a shop with pre-loaded knowledge. I don't equip myself with any technical knowledge of a product before I buy offline or online.

But, I make it a point to be aware of the price. This habit of mine has been paying me rich dividends and as I wrote earlier, I am one the sought after shopping companions.

During the recently ended festival, I helped my cousin to buy a solid foam mattress online. Based on my cousin’s preferences such as the mattress should receive the body weight willingly, suppress the urge to toss around etc, I helped him buy Versailles Memory Foam Mattress

Satisfied with my choice, he goaded me to buy a colorful rug. I am known for my weakness to multi colored products and this is not mostly appreciated even by my family. But my cousin obviously matched my interests. I lingered a little longer browsing though bedroom sets before my eyes rested on the rugs.

Suddenly, I realized that I have not hopped onto another website to buy the rugs. I was still on Spacify.com and I noticed they offer complete bedroom furniture in their website apart from kitchen and office needs.

Before you apply for a credit card…

And now, all the new credit card customers have learnt the art of segregating the chaff from the wheat. This is good news from the customers’ point of view in lieu of the frauds perpetrated by the credit cards issuing banks.

In the past 3 weeks or so, I have read about 4 different credit card scams out of which two involved customers and two involved credit card issuing institutions.

The days of accepting credit card offers blindly are no more in the vogue. Now, we all need to gain enough knowledge about how to compare and choose credit cards.

The banks are now chasing the customers with promises of low interest credit card, balance transfer facility, maximum reward points and more.

The View from the End of the World

The View from Lorne, on the Great Ocean Road

As I write this, we've just begun a 4 day end-of-tertianship retreat. Yes, you read that right, we're just about at the end of the line here. Less than two weeks. I've been crossing my fingers of late that I might fail for the course and be asked to repeat. However, the director (and my provincial) assure me that's not how this process works. I'm taking that as a personal challenge.

So, anyway, I probably won't be writing much this week. I'm hoping next week I can share just a few more really cool things about Australia, things I've grown to love.

But I did want to give one more little glance at the Great Ocean Road. Not far from all the green I put up yesterday is a little road that leads down to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. It's about 30kms out of the way of the main road, and I have to say I was really debating whether or not to make the trip. I was already about an hour over schedule, with less than a quarter tank of petrol in a car that had suddenly found its appetite for the fuel. Visions of being stranded in a friend's car with no gas on a road with few visitors on a rainy day suggested I should move on.

Plus, it's a lighthouse. I've seen lighthouses. I was at one just seven years ago with my parents and my Aunt Pat and Uncle Al in Maine. It was Ok, I guess. Had they changed in the intervening years? Was an Australian lighthouse going to be that different?

But in the back of my head, I could hear one of the other tertians, Michael Gilson, who had taken this road in the summer and told me repeatedly, I can't wait until you see that lighthouse.

I thought he had some lighthouse fetish, but Ok, forget my schedule, I took the turnoff and off we went.

Turns out, lighthouses are very cool. Or this one is, anyway. Here's the general view:


I know -- pretty typical. But then, here's the view to the left from the catwalk near the top of the lighthouse:



And to the right:



And, just to really mess with my head, the view down (100-105m/325-345 ft down):



Pretty fantastic, yeah? But it's the view straight out that really got me:



Maybe it's not all that impressive in a photo, but standing up there in the silence looking out on the ocean, it hits you, this is it. I'm standing at pretty much the end of the world. Drive just a little bit east on the Ocean Road and you might see nothing but ocean before you, but down past the horizon lies Tasmania and its whirling hordes of Tasmanian devils.
But go south from here, from the Cape Otway Lighthouse, and there's nothing ahead but the icebergs of Antarctica.

Quite a place to pause and have a little think.

Just a Little Bit East of Tipperarie

Still on the Great Ocean Road. I tell you, if you come to Australia, you have to spend a couple days driving this baby. It's just one spectacular view after another. And what you're seeing shifts radically as you drive on.

The most radical example of this: After driving along the cliffs and limestone toward the western end of the road, I turned back east toward the longer expanse of the road. Almost immediately the road pulled away from the ocean into the mountains that abut to the north.

We wound up and around through what looked like farm country. And then suddenly I found myself in County Clare.






(Click on any of these or the ones below for a much broader view.)

Isn't it amazing? Frankly, I wasn't ready for it. After six months in Australia I had seen outstanding beaches, great urban landscapes and that strange, scary, oh so alluring world of the outback. But hills? Farmland? Never, not once. And then, all of a sudden, here it was, hidden on a road supposedly dedicated to the ocean. For kilometers and kilometers it spun on and away, Australian pastoral.

And like most great things I've seen these last eight months, it was impossible to adequately capture. The views you see here are just small cuttings of what you see when you're standing there. Time and again, I would come up on a turn and hit the brakes, I was so blown away.



Soon after I began on this part of the road, but before the amazing views, I saw a sign that struck me as funny:



When some Australians really like something, they'll say "Beauty!" (For example, if I admire your shirt, or the fact that you brought some beer along, or the sausages you made, I might say, "Beauty!") It can be sort of another way of saying "Good on ya!" That is, well done!

Looking at those rolling hills, boy that phrase made new sense. Hey God -- Beauty Spot!

Badrinath-a victim?

The issue of Badrinath-the Tamilnadu cricketer was not handled diplomatically by the Indian press media. In fact the entire series of news seem to have been done with the sole objective of creating news and not reporting news.

First, they have reported that Badrinath will be considered for the one day matches when there was nothing from official sources. This had created a lot of expectation in him without any official indication from the cricket governing bodies.

Then, when the squad was announced and badrinath's name was not there, the reporter(s) had rushed to get an interview from Badrinath and naturally he vented his disappointment. I think he was vulnerable when the reporter(s) met him.

Poor chap, he was toyed by the media. He will be now regretting his public outburst.

A wasted life.

What I consider a wasted life is killing all the aspirations and talents and sitting at home idly, gossiping away the days and nights.

In the name of religion and social conditions, some refuse to come out of their shell for fear of losing the shell's security. But every now and then, those 'some' would ask me if there is anything worth to be done.

And it goes without saying it won't be heeded for at least a while. I can only give a handful of water to quench your thirst-right? You must bend down to take your pail of water from river.

It was such a sad sight to see my once close friend to sit idly for years together. She has not worked that long and refuses to work.

A wasted life!

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow

The word goes round Repins,
the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
at Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
the Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
and men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There's a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can't stop him.

The traffic in George Street is banked up for half a mile
and drained of motion. The crowds are edgy with talk
and more crowds come hurrying. Many run in the back streets
which minutes ago were busy main streets, pointing:
There's a fellow weeping down there. No one can stop him.

The man we surround, the man no one approaches
simply weeps, and does not cover it, weeps
not like a child, not like the wind, like a man
and does not declaim it, nor beat his breast, nor even
sob very loudly - yet the dignity of his weeping

holds us back from his space, the hollow he makes about him
in the midday light, in his pentagram of sorrow,
and uniforms back in the crowd who tried to seize him
stare out at him, and feel, with amazement, their minds
longing for tears as children for a rainbow.

Some will say, in the years to come, a halo
or force stood around him. There is no such thing.
Some will say they were shocked and would have stopped him
but they will not have been there. The fiercest manhood,
the toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us

trembles with silence, and burns with unexpected
judgements of peace. Some in the concourse scream
who thought themselves happy. Only the smallest children
and such as look out of Paradise come near him
and sit at his feet, with dogs and dusty pigeons.

Ridiculous, says a man near me, and stops
his mouth with his hands, as if it uttered vomit -
and I see a woman, shining, stretch her hand
and shake as she receives the gift of weeping;
as many as follow her also receive it

and many weep for sheer acceptance, and more
refuse to weep for fear of all acceptance,
but the weeping man, like the earth, requires nothing,
the man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
of his writhen face and ordinary body

not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow,
hard as the earth, sheer, present as the sea -
and when he stops, he simply walks between us
mopping his face with the dignity of one
man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.

Evading believers, he hurries off down Pitt Street.

Les Murray
(Australian Catholic poet)

From wood to vinyl.

Windows of the buildings are akin to our dress-don’t you think so?

Our eyes fall first upon the dress of the people we see and like that windows of the homes are our first sight. We are conditioned to judge anything by the first sight that causes to form an impression and the first impression stays.

If you care to inspect the windows of your home as an outsider, you are likely to pass critical opinions. So, before the windows give a chance to others to make a rather negative remark, it is better to give it a dressing.

Alternatively, consider buying new vinyl windows that are the best options for replacement windows because even I can install them and never bother about painting them. Man, doesn’t that mean a big relief?

How to shop for windows?

I will save you time from reading a lengthy article by asking you to go to 1st-replacement-windows.com

Image courtesy: Yahoo! images

Do you have any questions regarding Paypal?

Most first timers who have just signed up with Paypal, the Internet's number 1 e-commerce and payment gateway will have plenty of questions regarding using Paypal and especially about its safety.

There is nothing to feel embarrassed. I too was like that in the year 2000. Now I am a premier account holder in Paypal.

Here is an online magazine you can subscribe for free. It answers all your questions about Paypal. But you must be living in the U.S or Canada for requesting subscription.

Residents of other countries can always email me and I will try to answer within 24 hours.

Read "Happy About Website Payments with PayPal”

Easy to understand tutorials on web hosting.

This blog post will be very useful for newbies as well as experienced webmasters and bloggers. Ever since I launched my first website in the year 2001, I have been looking for easy to understand web hosting tutorials and after seven years, I have found the exact materials on the web.

The reason for my first 4 websites being abandoned by me is mainly due to the lack of knowledge about control panels. When you first log into your control panel given by your web host, you will be intimidated by all those icons and information.

It is absolutely essential for you to get a fair amount of reading of articles on control panel. Without equipping yourself with the required knowledge about using the control panel, you are likely to disfigure your website.

Oh, I forgot to mention the importance of selecting apt domain name for your home in the cyber space. It should be suggestive of the theme of your website or blog.

Once you have selected the domain name, it can’t be changed. So, read as many articles on domain names as possible before you think about the domain name for your first website.

Bookmark webhostingrating.com/articles and please blog about it in your blog. This is a big resource center.

My Musical Confession

After my last post I thought it would be appropriate to retell the story of my conversion from atheism to faith.

I love to sing. My mother sang to me when I was a little crawler back in Kentucky. I sang nursery rhymes in kindergarten on the swings. I sang along with the radio when Michael Jackson was part of the Jackson Five. When I was ten, I sang Englebert Humperdinck songs in the basement to a broomstick microphone. When no one was around.

When I was in college at Western Washington University I decided to get serious about music. I had been a starving art student for a time, but my minimalist professors, who alternately painted brown Xs across white canvases and white Xs across brown canvases didn’t inspire me much. So I switched to studying music, about which I knew next to nothing, but thought was really cool.

Despite my thorough lack of musical knowledge and skill, I somehow got admitted into the music department and became a jazz studies major. Music gave me purpose, direction and drive. After a couple of years I learned to play guitar and sing well enough to join a dance band and play in night clubs. I sang Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, and top-forty tunes. I also sang Handel’s Messiah in the university choir.

The choir director was a cute, young graduate assistant named Arden Steves, who called herself a Christian. I sang at her from the back of the bass section. I was an atheist, an unbeliever. I agreed with Karl Marx, who said that religion was an opiate for the masses. I thought Christians were weak-minded people who used religion as an intoxicating crutch. I didn’t like their songs much, either. I’d rather sing the blues than Amazing Grace. I didn’t really know what grace was anyway.

One day, when I was feeling like a miserable existentialist, I asked Arden about her religious beliefs. She told me about her faith in God and her desire to live a life of purity. Her sincerity stunned me. We had music in common, yet we were worlds apart.

I started to consider the possibility that God might really exist. It was exciting. Yet, if He had been paying attention to my immoral behavior during the past decade, I was in serious trouble. I decided to stop partying, just in case, which cost me most of my friends.

I prayed one night for God to give me the desire to seek Him if He was really out there. I’m glad my roommates weren't listening, because I felt like an idiot, talking to the ceiling. Yet soon I was reading books by C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell and R.C. Sproul, which Arden recommended. I bought a Bible, and we read through the Book of John together. I went to church with her to “check things out.” I didn’t like the music much.

The more I read the Bible, the more convicted I felt about the sins of my youth. The idea of forgiveness in Christ sounded appealing. Still, I resisted conversion, because I wasn’t sure whether I was more attracted to Christ the Messiah or to His pretty little gospel messenger, Arden. We had been seeing a lot of each other as performers in the university’s production of Music Man, and had grown close enough to talk about hypothetical marriage, as if it was a thing apart from us that could be viewed objectively. I admired her sincerity of conviction, which included her refusal to marry a non-Christian. Since I was one of those, I gazed across a chasm, it seemed.

As things worked out, Arden flew out of town in August to take a teaching job, and I joined an international dance band (we played in Canada, just across the border, big whoop-dee-doo). We said we’d stay in touch.

With Arden gone, I wondered whether I might just blow the whole faith thing off and return to my former, existential party life. One weekend when I didn’t have any dance gigs, I decided to go to Arden’s church again. The brakes on my beater van were shot, and I could only stop by frantically pumping the brake pedal, so I had a good excuse to skip. Still, I felt I should go, to see if I was really serious about spiritual things independent of her. Five intersections with traffic signals stood between my rental house and the church. I prayed this goofy prayer: “God, if you want me to be at church today, I need green lights all the way there.”

Off I went, slow and steady through five green lights until I rolled safely into the church parking lot. Amazing. My skeptic’s mind told me it could have been dumb luck coincidence, but I had a sneaking suspicion that God had perfectly orchestrated the laws of physics, the flow of electricity, my choice of speed and time of departure, along with the choices of other drivers, to clear my path to that church and let me know He was in charge of such things. I remember thinking, “Nice, work, God.” “Hey, but can you do ten lights in a row?”

While I was at church I enjoyed myself a lot. With Arden not there I could stare at people when every head was supposed to be bowed and every eye was supposed to be closed, like an infidel spy. It didn’t seem like an opium den for the masses. I was impressed by the sincerity and joy of the people in the room. I don’t remember the sermon, but I know it gave me an appetite to hear more. It didn’t matter that I hit red lights on the way home and had to pump the brakes like I was trying to kick a hole through the floor board. I felt I had received a small blessing from God that day. I determined to go to church as often as I could. I would fix my brakes.

I’m not sure exactly when I entered the kingdom of God, but I think He arranged it like he did the green lights to church, and left me wondering how it had happened. I kept reading and questioning, examining my presuppositions, and grappling with the concept of grace. At some point in the fall of my 25th year of life, I simply surrendered, and trusted what I read in the Bible, even though I didn’t always understand it. I began to sing to God in my heart. I was a sinner saved by the blood of Jesus. I wrote to Arden about it and she said she thought I was a Christian. I was okay with the label. I was one of them, one of Christ’s.

Soon, I made a public profession of faith at church that I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9). For me there was no recited sinner’s prayer, no dramatic moment of decision, just a confession. God had done everything. I was a recipient of grace. Amazing. I quit the dance band, married Arden, and moved to Alaska.

I went back to school to become a teacher, but continued to be an active musician. Arden and I began having children. We sang in church choirs. I performed special music in church and in the community. I was a professional soloist for weddings, funerals, fund raisers, and private parties, which were much better than the lousy night club gigs I’d played back in my dance band days. As our five children grew up, we taught them to sing parts so that we could perform as a family choir. Then, when they were old enough to play instruments, we formed a family band called Homemade Jam. We have produced an a cappella Christmas CD, which was recorded in our home studio. Our oldest daughter has since married and moved away, but the remaining four children help me lead worship at Coram Deo Church in Grants Pass.

I plan on singing and making music as long as I can. I think the Bible commands it. “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!” (Psalm 98:4) My family has chosen Colossians 3:16 as our musical theme verse. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

I thank God for his wonderful redeeming work in my life. He, not music, has given me purpose, direction and drive. What a privilege it is to use music to glorify Him. I think the last psalm in the Bible (Psalm 150) says it well.

Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
Praise him according to his excellent greatness!Praise him with trumpet sound;
Praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
Praise him with strings and pipe!Praise him with sounding cymbals;
Praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!

How I Lost My Atheism

I was once an atheist, or so I believed. I denied the existence of God and assumed that I was the measure of all things. I reasoned that it was my brain that processed all the data I observed in life. I was the one who thought my thoughts.

I considered myself an existentialist, too. I figured that since my existence preceded my perceptions of reality, I was in charge of determining what was real. I believed in man’s free will, which I translated my free will. I ruled as king over reality. Rene Descartes’ supposition, “I think, therefore I am” helped established my lordship.

One day the thought occurred to me that I was not entirely in control of my thoughts. I suspected that outside forces were at work, influencing me from a distance. This was a challenge to my sovereignty of mind. I realized that I thought much like my father.

Dad was a high school biology teacher, a Darwinian evolutionist, and a skeptic of religious faith. He was an atheist. Me too, I believed. Like father, like son. Dad felt that religion was a crutch for the weak minded, the insecure and the old fashioned. He once said that love was not a moral commitment, but a chemically based, physiological response to the evolutionary impulse toward reproduction. When Dad cheated on Mom he was only exercising his evolutionary impulses, I guess.

My parent’s divorce was very painful to me, though at the time, in my teen years, I played the stoic. I wondered if grief was just a physiological response to the evolutionary impulse toward parent attachment. Perhaps marital infidelity and family disintegration were part of the evolutionary process of self-actualization. After all, divorce rates were escalating throughout the nation like it was the latest, coolest social trend. Maybe the idea of long term, monogamous marriage was an outdated religious construct, due for disposal during the new age of enlightenment and individualism.

At some point after moving out on my own I grew to realize that in addition to my father’s influence, the culture around me had determined much of what I thought. I was not truly master and author of my own thoughts. The same was true of Dad, of course. I realized he had picked up his ideas from the culture around him, as well. His practice of multiple marriages was in step with the rest of the nation. No-fault divorce laws were being passed in state after state. I began to connect the dots between the beliefs and behaviors that derive from an atheistic worldview. My worldview. I wasn’t sure I liked the implications.

A bit of history. According to Albert Mohler’s book, Atheism Remix, a massive cultural, intellectual and epistemological shift resulted from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud. Nietzsche declared that, “God is dead.” He believed that Christianity was the worst enemy of human enlightenment and progress. Marx despised religion as the “opiate of the masses” and an obstacle to the community of man’s economic prosperity. Darwin posited that naturalistic explanations of life’s origin negate God’s supernatural creation. Evolution rendered God and religion unnecessary. Freud elevated the unconscious over the conscious. He believed that religion was an illusion that would eventually pass away. These four men contributed hugely to the worldview of secular humanism, another name for atheism. Remove a supernatural Creator God from the picture and you are left with humans calling all the shots on earth according to their own desires.

Thanks to secular humanism, I was taught in college that primitive man had created gods to help him cope with threatening, natural phenomena, such as thunderstorms, droughts and earthquakes. Organized religion arose as an attempt to appease these fabricated deities with rituals and sacrifices. It was popular to agree with the French philosopher, Voltaire who said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” as if religious sentiments were not credible, but nonetheless quaint, attractive and socially useful for ignorant folk who don’t know much about the modern god of science. The secularists of modernity thought that as mankind climbed the evolutionary ladder out of the pit of ignorance, it would gradually discard God as the explanatory, causal factor in civilization’s intellectual framework. They predicted that life would become increasingly rationalized, and that belief in God, and participation in organized religion, would dissipate into oblivion.

The secularists had the demise of religion all planned out, too. According to John Sommerville, secularization would follow this pattern: 1) of land use and property, 2) of time and recreation, 3) of language and common speech, 4) of technology and work, 5) of art and entertainment, 6) of political and military power, 7) of personhood and association, 8) of scholarship and science. Secularists were confident that humanity was destined to grow up and leave the childish things of theistic belief behind.

The secularist game plan works like a charm at most colleges in America today. Overwhelming majorities of Christian students lose their religious faith by the end of their freshman year while away at college. At college I learned to mock people with religious views. I didn’t know many Christians personally, but I was content to join the consensus in caricaturing and slandering them as intolerant bigots. At one point, though, I felt guilty for my ad hominem attacks. I thought my criticism should be more substantive. Therefore I decided to learn more about their beliefs so that I might refute them. Also, I wanted to know what was true. It was my undoing.

I assumed that most Christians had been indoctrinated with a religious belief system, to which they agreed uncritically. But what about me? Was I unbiased? Hadn’t I been indoctrinated by an atheist father, and by many years of secular instruction in government schools? Dissecting the Christian theistic position meant dissecting my own atheistic position as fair play. Had I chosen atheism after careful thought, or had I merely accepted it as it was spoon fed to me? As I continued in this vain, I was disturbed to realize that my schools had censored virtually all religious information, as if the separation between church and state was a concrete barrier, never to be breached. Religion was relegated to the private, personal sphere. It was prohibited or marginalized in public institutions of learning. Only secular information had been allowed into my cage for regular feeding. Was that right?

Troubling questions arose within my belief system. "What preceded the Big Bang?" I wondered. "Why does the fossil record that is supposed to prove macro-evolution lack any quantity of evidence of transitional species? Why is the theory of geologic gradualism favored despite abundant evidence of catastrophism? Why is supernatural phenomena rejected just because materialistic empiricism cannot test it? Why are secular scientists so afraid of following the evidence of cosmic design to a cosmic designer?"

I lost track of my atheism when I found it could not answer my questions. Like a stray cat, it wandered away to go beg someone else’s attention. Since I was heavily invested in having rejected theism, though, I passed time like an aimless satellite orbiting a planet, unable to land. But not for long. A Christian acquaintance became a friend and counselor of truth. She spoke about God as if He were real, like a wise uncle back east, but supernatural and divine and almighty and eternal. She asked me to consider believing in Him too.

I stalled.

One night I spoke a prayer at the ceiling in my rooming house: “God, if you exist, you need to give me the desire to look for you.”

I found that I enjoyed reading all the books my friend kept passing on to me on theology and faith. I read sections of the Bible, too, until I felt like I was a pretty fair-minded skeptic. I grew to like both her and the scriptures very much.

One dark and beautiful evening the two of us walked under the stars, she a Christian, I an unbelieving, infidel friend. I thought of the vastness of space, the smallness of man, my ultimate purpose in life. Things like that. Was creation a myth? Was the story of Adam and Eve a cute fairy tale for toddlers? Then a thought struck me: If God exists, couldn't He control the things He created? It was as if I’d resolved a tricky syllogism that now seemed amazingly simple. God is God. He can do whatever He wants. A woman from a rib? Why not? God is God. If He created all the elements, then He can rearrange them in any order He chooses. He can leave His signature on His work, too so that we know He is Lord. God is God.

That night I felt as if I had received a long-distance call from heaven. I heard nothing audible, but I imagined God speaking from His infinite expanse to answer my question: “I Am.”

That’s how I lost my atheism. Atheism was a worldview of futility and despair. It was a shipwreck from which I was glad to escape. God, in His great mercy and love called me into His kingdom. I could not deny Him. Do you also hear Him calling?

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” Psalm 19:1-2

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:3-4

London Bridge

Another shot from the Great Ocean Road: the London Bridge. Yeah, that's right -- it fell down. (Question: why does the first verse of that song end with "my fair lady?" You know?)

So, the collapse: January 1990, at sunset, while two people were on the far side, the middle collapsed. That limestone really can be unpredictable. (Note to self: say no to limestone houses.) Somehow, word was gotten to authorities, and the two were heli'd to safety. (One of the great things about the Great Ocean Road, I guess -- tourists.) Now you can see but not touch.


And this little nook not far from the Bridge and the Apostles is called "the Grotto". Fancy that. From above it doesn't seem like there's much here to see at all. And I had just one day to drive along the road -- it really needs 3, I'd say, and a partner -- so I was pretty pressed for time. But once I got down into this quiet little spot, I had to drag myself out away. Serene.