A Wonderful Thing

A  L  O  H  A!

" The animals already

 live in harmony. 

They are waiting for us

 to join them there. "

Julie Draper

"  A pessimist is a man 

who thinks all women 

are bad. . .

 An optimist is a man 

who hopes they are. "

Chauncey Mitchell Depew 

" There's no such thing as nerves

 when you're playing games. "

 Shaquille O'Neal 

 =^..^=

This week

the European Union

Banned

cosmetics with

ingredients tested 

on animals.

This is as historic

in my opinion

as any Civil Rights law.

How we treat

the helpless

expresses

what we are made of.

The rest of us

need to push for this

in our own

nations.

Congratulations, Europeans!

 

Link   

> < } } (°>

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How Much You Have

A  L O H  A  !

" It's not how much you have
 that makes people 

look up to you,

 

  it's who you are. "

Elvis Presley

=^..^=

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Grandma's Ha

A  L  O  H  A !

Always worth another look: 

My Bike. Built for me. Inspired.

Inspiring.

Lives forever in me.

Hawaiian Feathered Cape  LINK

Decades become like potato chips,

piquant, smaller, and more precious

at the bottom of the bag.

 But don't make ostentatious,

crumple-y mournful noise,

others are still enjoying the show!


" There are only about 1,000 people
 of pure Hawaiian descent left 
in the world. "

NPR.org

Grandma's  Hands

Grandma's laugh,

that propulsive, authentic exclamation

is coming out of my mouth these days.

Her hand, holds my husband's

and he knows it, knew her,

 says:

"Look at Claire's hand

typing."

That was a great song.

When we were little,

the 1930's, her glory days,

were black & white History,

Rudy Vallee, rudimentary "automobiles."

Get with the space age, grandma!

I do the quiet math, discovering that

yes, she was younger then. . . . 

than I am today (there I said it).

Decades become like potato chips,

piquant, smaller, and more precious

at the bottom of the bag.

But don't make ostentatious,

crumple-y mournful noise,

others are still enjoying the show! 

"Get with the tech world, Mom,"

our kids say.

But they don't have to say it.

We've already made Blogging,

and the iphone uncool

by liking them so much. 

Fashions shift to exclude us,

as they should,

don't you GET that?

We had the same imperative.

Healthy life-stage stuff.

And unlike grandma

we act laid back and cool

in the face of the suddenly

incomprehensible.

We cruise with it.

They'll have grandma's,

grandpa's hands, laughs,

jokes,

"far" in their future.

We quietly know what they don't;

It's a faster, longer, twistier ride

than anyone could ever know.

So laugh, beloved grandma in my soul

who is at this time becoming me.

Join me everyone, every creature;

Frolic hours, days, seasons,

one of them is a fraud.

But ain't this moment here

GRAND!

Strike up the band.

  > < } } (°>                                             
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IF

A  L  O  H  A !

" If these posts

 repeat themselves, 

then so does Spring. "

Rumi

  > < } } (°>

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Right Click Wonders: Tabs

A  L  O  H  A !

Click photos to imbibe

" Do I contradict myself? 

Very well, then, 

I contradict myself.

 I am large. 

I contain multitudes. "

Walt Whitman

" Things turn out best 

for the people

 who make the best 

of the way things turn out. "

John Wooden

click to enlighten

" Commonsense 

and good nature 

will do a lot 

to make the pilgrimage of life 

not 

too difficult. "

William Somerset Maugham

click this one to see the floating fruit

" Bear in mind

 that you should 

conduct yourself in life

 as at a feast. "

Epictetus

   <(-'.'-)>
                                                                < ° ) } } > <(

Now some tips about tabs.  

How many do YOU have open right now?

 If you hit the "Cntrl" key 

(bottom left corner of your keyboard)

and the letter "T"    

a new tab will open!

Accidentally closed the wrong tab in your browser? Want it back?

Just hit "CTRL"  and the "SHIFT "  and  "T"  to instantly re-open that tab!

 If you repeat that action,  it’ll open the tab you closed before that, and so on.

You can also just right-click on another tab and use the “Reopen closed tab” option!

This should work in all three major browsers — Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

To get answers to your tech questions visit 

HTG:  How To Geek

  Link

 > < } } (°>
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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

)> < 3 3 3 ( ° >

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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