Fun had by all at these two different African weddings

How's this for wedding dance fun?

Or this one?

A National Day of Mourning

Two aircraft lost in less than four months.

All souls lost those two terrible days.

Wherever you are. Whoever you are.

We are thinking of you.

RIP MH370 and MH17

Immoral not to abort if foetus has Downs syndrome....

Scientist says a mother has a responsibility to "abort it and try again" if she knows her baby would have DS.

What would you do? What would I do? Who is he to tell a woman what to do with her body, her child? Maybe the woman should be told? And the father? Does he have a say? Does religion have a role to play?

I don't know the answers. I just hope that those in this position have the strength to make the right decision. And whose ethical dilemma is it? Who decides who is the moral authority when it comes to life? And death?

Read the full story in today's The Guardian here

RIP James Foley

You were a true hero to the very end.

You knew the risks we all fear in this profession.

You faced your execution like a man. 

You looked death in the eye. And never blinked.

May God rest your soul.

Read the BBC story here

A True Story: Pushing my Limits

Kashmir's Death Valley

I was very close to serious injury, perhaps even death, had I not been rescued by a mule. 

Sheltering from the wind among the large boulders in Kashmir, India, I could hardly move.

I was quickly turning hypothermic in the high-altitude desert of the Indian Himalayas.

Lying on the ground, covered in dust and dirt, I waited for help.

I set my compact camera to video mode and recorded a short message for whoever found me.

While the contents of that message remain private, I still keep it on my computer hard drive to remind me of how close I was to death.

I felt like I had run a marathon and couldn’t catch my breath. For every step forward, I needed to stop to take a dozen deep breaths.

I had to stop, balancing heavily on my trekking poles for support.  I had to lie down, before I collapsed.

Acute Mountain Sickness, or AMS, can be deadly if you don’t know what you are up against.

It can hit you at altitudes of only 2300-meters. I was at double that. The lower pressure of the oxygen in the air at altitude is the danger.

I didn’t have any swelling in my limbs or face, or a nosebleed. Yet. My appetite was still huge, and I was sleeping very well with no headaches at all.  I was fighting fit, until that morning.

Now I couldn’t move my body. Despite months of training and a couple of weeks of acclimatizing to the altitude, AMS had struck me down when I least expected it. And I now had a pounding headache.

I could be dying from fluid on my lungs, hence my great difficulty in breathing. Or perhaps I just had a brain swelling?

The only way to avoid AMS is to descend to a lower altitude. And the only solution was to trek over the next mountain pass and down again. But I couldn’t move. And my guide was about half my size.

So he had gone ahead to look for one of our expedition’s mules that had overtaken us.

That mule was to be my saviour. The smelly, flea-ridden animal would carry me to safety.

The hour-and-a-half it took him to return with the mule was possibly the longest and most worrying 90-minutes of my life. I owe that mule.

It’s good to push your limits and feel alive.

But take notice when your body starts to misbehave. It’s a warning that your adventure may soon take a serious turn. Always have a buddy on hand to help out. Or a mule.

Children held in Nauru immigration detention camp

Nearly 200 children are being held in an immigration detention camp on Nauru Island in the South Pacific, due to Australian immigration violations.  Some without their parents.  

Most are from Iran, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, among others.

Their drawings and letters tell their story of their search for freedom in Australia. Please click here for the full story in today's The Guardian.

TGI Friday music quiz with Liam Gallagher

Liam Gallagher (bless him) is well known for his cutting and insulting comments made of other singers.

Find out who he doesn't rate in today's quiz here

Fortysomethings....according to Pamela Druckerman

I like this NYT writer's insight. Click here to read.

People, please. Be Kind.

Facebook "Unfriended" (updated)

I've used FB for four years. I was slow to take it up. And fast to stop using it. Its an oxymoron to call it social media.

I've always made a point to only "friend" people I have met in the flesh and known for a while. Only one of my friends was a "virtual" friend, but I had four "real" friends in common with him. The others I know from personal "physical" contact. At least I thought I did. 

Photos of puppies, cats and babies are cute.

Boasting of holidays, new purchases and personal achievements are okay, too. We all do it. Although now I know which of you are of substance, and those who are not.

What became my tipping point was how people realized that because they can self-publish, they can write whatever they wanted, with little regard for the consequences. Every one has a right to express themselves, but please use your brains, people.

And be sensitive to others. You may be a moral authority who believes they have the right to troll and flame whenever and wherever you wish to.  But most people are not as thick-skinned as you are.  Please be kind to one another. At the very least, courteous.

Worst of all, you simplify current affairs and problems in the world that have existed for centuries into Internet memes that are but a snapshot of reality, so as to suit your weak and unsupported arguments. 

But you got 58 "Likes" so you must be right. Are you Pavlov's dog?

Worse still you "Share" what you have not fact-checked with at least three reliable independent sources.

Sorry "friends". But the misguided, ignorant, misinformed, uneducated, narrow-minded, racist, bigoted, prejudiced, and xenophobic comments that you increasingly make, have opened my eyes to the real you(s).

As a writer, you have a responsibility, even as an amateur. If you don't know that and the reason why, you do not deserve to share a skill, a love, that some of us use for a living and take very seriously. You have spoiled it for everyone.

Rant over.  Goodbye! 

Today's column on music

To read, please click here

Best of Good Morning Vietnam....

Hilarious!

To see the best clips, please click Here

Carpe Diem

You will always make me laugh, cry, think and write.

You know who you are.

Twins

A dream you dream alone, is only a dream

A dream you dream together, is a reality

(YO)

Claire de Lune (Claude Debussy): it still works for me.... :)

To listen to this wondrous sound,  please Click Here

Hell...

"Hell is other people." JPS

Love this. Always.

To listen, please Click Here

The "moment" is at 3:50"

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

(JL)

The Power of Punctuation

I Love This: Amazing MP3 Literature collection

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in MP3 format.  Each reading passage may also be downloaded as a PDF and printed. A very useful tool if you're teaching. Click HERE

Today's epiphany

I've just read an interview with Jack Johnson.  Cat Stevens is a major influence on his work, and Cat's song Father and Son was the first he learned to play on guitar. 

I have loved Cat's music from young. Now I understand better why JJ's music is as special to me. My favorites are still Cat's Moonshadow Here, Morning has Broken Here, and Oh Very Young Here.

If you get it, enjoy, and please tell me why.

Bird Rescue: A Friend's Disney Moment

So I rescued this injured hummingbird and spend 45 minutes feeding it a capful of sugar water before he recovered enough to fly off. 

Now ask me if the ungrateful little sh*t stabbed me with his natural spike bayonet. 

Go on, ask me. No, of course he didn't. 

He hovered for ten beautiful heartbeats right in front of my face, looking at me eye to eye, a bonding between the two of us, a breathtaking moment of unspoken gratitude, a spiritual connection I will always remember, before he turned and flew off through evening scent of the heavy jasmine blossom.

Honestly, I felt like I was in a Disney movie.

LOL...Nah, he stabbed me.

(IH)

What is a Beautiful Mind?

A beautiful mind is a tortured soul.

It can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

Discovering that balance is its journey.

Its search for its twin, is its reason.

(ADL, with line 2 courtesy of JM)

Is it Love or Lust, When I Kiss Your Eyes?

Click Here to listen to Paolo Nutini

Candy

I was perched outside in the pouring rain,

Trying to make myself a sail;

Then I'll float to you, my darling,

With the evening on my tail.

Although not the most honest means of travel,

It gets me there nonetheless;

I'm a heartless man at worst, babe,

And a helpless one at best.

Darling, I'll bathe your skin,

I'll even wash your clothes,

Just give me some candy, before I go.

Oh, darling, I'll kiss your eyes,

And lay you down on your rug, 

Just give me some candy,

After my hug.

Oh, I'm often false explaining,

But to her it plays out all the same,

And although I'm left defeated,

It gets held against my name.

I know you got plenty to offer, baby,

But I guess I've taken quite enough;

While I'm some stain there on your bed-sheet,

You're my diamond in the rough.

Darling, I'll bathe your skin,

I'll even wash your clothes,

Just give me some candy,

Before I go.

Oh, darling, I'll kiss your eyes,

And lay you down on your rug,

Just give me some candy,

After my hug.

I know that the writing's on the wall...

But, darling, I'll bathe your skin,

I'll even wash your clothes,

Just give me some candy,

After my hug.

Oh I'll be there waiting for you [x5]

Oh I'll be there,Waiting for you [x3]

[Speaking]

[In background:] I'll be there