San Diego-Based USS Freedom Arrived in Hawaii

A  L  O  H  A      U S S   F R E E D O M

Sorry for the blurry distance shots

" On this her Maiden Deployment 

 USS Freedom

 is headed to Southeast Asia and Singapore, 

where the ship will spend roughly eight months. 

While there, the Freedom will conduct 

maritime security operations

 with regional partners and allies,"

 according to the Navy.

Fast & agile, 

these 'platforms' can be configured

 for three separate purposes: 

surface warfare, mine countermeasures,

 or anti-submarine warfare.

Entering Pearl Harbor after 9am Hawaii Time

This is the first US Navy ship to be

 Camouflaged since WWII.

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Building You and Me

A  L  O  H  A !

" It's not the load

 that breaks you down, 

it's the way 

you carry it. "

Lena Horne

" To different minds, 

the same world

 is a hell,

 and a heaven. "

Ralph Waldo Emerson

" I am determined

 to be cheerful and happy 

in whatever situation

 I may find myself. 

For I have learned 

that the greater part 

of our misery 

or unhappiness is 

determined 

not by our circumstance 

but by our disposition. "

 
Martha Washington

Wife of George Washington

and first First Lady

  of the USA

" Speak your mind - 

even if your voice shakes. 

Well aimed slingshots 

can topple giants. "

 

Maggie Kuhn, 

founder, Gray Panthers

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Free Will- What IS that?

Yes, we live & act based

on the way were were raised,

the family, community, nation

where we grew.

Genetics and brain chemistry

pull many of our strings. . . .

And yet-

In every community

there are those

who live generosity

while neighbors

live a predatory existence.

There is no

 Manual for the Human

in Washington, Rome, or Beijing

where we can look up the correct

"Answers"

So in the truest sense,

EACH of us, YOU & me,

has the task (if we think about it)

to CHOOSE what we BELIEVE

about the nature of life, of

reality.

Many of us contract out this power

to a Church, Mosque, Peer-Group,

Conspiracy Mind Set,

or Common Ethos

 (where we happen to live).

On my quest to Find Out

I have found many powerful little

(and Huge) gems.

Call them Tools, Skills, Maxims,

Wisdom.

I am constructing

my own Understanding.

I act from what I know to be right.

When I fail, I forgive myself.

I believe that God cares, cheers me on, smooths my path.

But I do not subscribe to any church

 but the world.

No one should hold the reigns of my morality

but me.

That's Free Will.

That's tested Cloudia Morality Reigning.

I dine at every tradition's ancient banquet

as a respectful guest.

My soul rises up to sing with theirs.

But I decide of the feast

what is the Chicken

and what are the bones

to be discarded.

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Innocent Wild

A L O H A !
                                   Click to enlarge

" Worry

 is using your

 Brilliant Creative Imagination

 to Manifest 

what you

DO NOT WANT! "   

Maureen Pua'ena O'Shaughnessy

Our Higher Wisdom 

Link

" A beautiful thing,

though simple in its immediate presence,

always gives us a sense of

depth below depth,

almost an innocent wild vertigo

as one falls through its levels. "

Frederick Turner


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Life & Laundry Tips

Mt. Leahi / "Diamond Head"

" If you haven't got

 charity in your heart, 

you have the worst kind

 of heart trouble. "

Bob Hope

 “ The hardest job

 kids face today

 is learning good manners

 without seeing any. ”

 Fred Astaire

I like the tiny hole letting the green through

" You can find the

 entire cosmos

 lurking

 in its least remarkable

 objects. "

Wislawa Szymborska 

" Is the Earth 

the property of 

all her passengers, 

or just those 

who manage to 

assert exclusivity 

over her richest resources? "

 Cloudia

  <(-'.'-)

And now:

Laundry Tip

O' the Day !

" Here's an energy-saving laundry tip for you: Placing a dry towel in the clothes dryer with a load of wet laundry reduces drying time, cutting down on energy usage and utility bills. The idea is that by adding a dry and absorbent material, 
some of the moisture from the wet fabrics is wicked away by the dry towel. This reduces the moisture inside the dryer, allowing each item to dry out more quickly. Experiment at home "

Read more: at  eHow.com  Link

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Tibetan Secret

A  L  O  H  A !

 " Don't notice

 the tiny flea

  in the other person's hair 

 and overlook the

 lumbering yak 

on your own nose. "

Tibetan Proverb

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Pristine-in-Box Truth

A  L  O  H  A !

" If a problem has no solution,

 it may not be a problem, 

but a fact - 

not to be solved,

 but to be coped with

 over time. "

Shimon Peres

"Procrastination isn't the problem,

 it's the solution. 

So procrastinate now,

 don't put it off."

       Ellen DeGeneres

"Education 

is a progressive discovery 

of our own ignorance."

        Will Durant

This pic deserves an enlarging 'click'

"I look to solitude for solutions.

Answers will always come,

but none can be implemented

from the far off land
 within my soul."

© M Durfee

"Pristine in box"

Holy Grail to collectors.

Remember boxes?

Everything: trinkets,

shirts, appliances,

transistor radios,

they all came in

cardboard.

Inside,

 your treasure

was cradled in

tissue paper,

foreign news print. . .

Remember Excelsior?

Link

Now, everything comes in a 

Blister Pack, or Bubble Pack

Link

You can see your desire

entombed in  thick, 

impregnable plastic.

"Consumers suffer thousands of injuries per year,

 such as cut fingers and sprained wrists,

 from tools used to open packages 

and from the packaging itself. "

Wikipedia

I own a razor knife

and know how to use it

without amputating

any flute-playing,

bum-wiping

fingers.

PLEASE cut away from yourself!

And use scissors

or sheers

on tricky corners.

So what is your 

strategy

for liberating

fortressed, yet 

needful items?

Dynamite?

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President Obama: a Boy in Hawaii