The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

A smile

A smile is something you can't give away....it always comes back to you.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

It takes strength to love. It takes courage to be loved.

The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.

We Wear the Mask

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it,
better keep yourself clean and bright;
you are the window through which you must see the world.

You have it in your power to raise a human being from a state of actual suffering to such unspeakable beatitude as only generous, noble, self-forgetting love can give.

Modesty

Modesty:
the gentle art
of enhancing
your charm by
pretending
not to be
aware of it.

When someone demands blind obedience, you'd be a fool not to peek.

"The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle." - Anais Nin

The Beauty of Mathematics

Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers.

One day Alice came to a fork

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Some good rules of life

Some good rules of life:

1. Never give yourself a haircut after three margaritas.

2. You need only two tools. WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the tape.

3. The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship "I apologize" and "You are right."

4. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

5. When you make a mistake, make amends immediately. It's easier to eat crow while it's still warm.

6. The only really good advice that your mother ever gave you was, "Go! You might meet somebody!"

7. If he/she says that you are too good for him/her... Believe them.

8. Learn to pick your battles; ask yourself, "Will this matter one year from now? How about one month? One week? One day?"

9. Never pass up an opportunity to pee.

10. If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance!

11. Living well really is the best revenge. Being miserable because of a bad or former relationship just might mean that the other person was right about you.

12. Work is good, but it's not that important.

13. And finally... Be really nice to your friends....You never know when you are going to need them to empty your bedpan.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

Charles Justice

In 1898, Columbus prison inmate Charles Justice helped build and install Ohio's only electric chair.

Justice finished his sentence and returned to society, but irony caught up with him. Thirteen years later he was back in prison, and on Nov. 9, 1911, he was executed in the same electric chair he had helped to build.

Harry Houdini

When he wasn't escaping straitjackets, Harry Houdini spent a lot of time debunking spiritualists.

Shortly before his death, he made a pact with his wife, Bess: If possible, he would contact her from the other side and deliver a prearranged coded message.

When he died, Bess lit a candle beside his photograph and kept it burning for 10 years, holding séances every Halloween to test the pact. Harry never spoke.

In 1936, after a final attempt on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, Bess put out the candle.

"Ten years is long enough to wait for any man," she said.

New York gang names

Colorful New York gang names, 1825-1920:

• Baxter Street Dudes
• Car Barn Gang
• Corcoran's Roosters
• Crazy Butch Gang
• Daybreak Boys
• Forty Little Thieves
• Gas House Gang
• Gopher Gang
• Hudson Dusters
• Humpty Jackson Gang
• Italian Dave Gang
• Mandelbaum Gang
• Squab Wheelman Gang
• Yakey Yakes

Golden Gate Bridge

Jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and you'll fall for four seconds and hit the water at 75 mph.

More than 1,300 people have attempted suicide in this way, and as of 2003, at least 26 have survived the jump. Many say they changed their minds in midair.

Actors who appeared in The Conqueror (1956) and subsequently died of cancer:

Actors who appeared in The Conqueror (1956) and subsequently died of cancer:

• John Wayne
• Susan Hayward
• Agnes Moorehead
• Pedro Armendáriz
• Chief Tahachee
• Dick Powell

The movie, in which John Wayne played Genghis Khan, was shot in in St. George, Utah, downwind of Nevada open-air nuclear testing, and producer Howard Hughes had 60 tons of dirt shipped back to Hollywood for use in reshoots.

By 1981, 91 of the 220 cast and crew had developed some form of cancer, and more than half of them were already dead.

"With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic," said University of Utah biologist Robert Pendleton. "In a group this size you'd expect only 30-some cancers to develop. … I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law."

When the demons comes to get you run!

So you think you are in for some smut?

Dave says, "Gina... Tut tut!
So you think you are in for some smut?"
Well this five-line dittie
Will honor your tittie,
And take note of your cute little butt.

How to appeal a insurance denial of care

This is a big deal with my job daily.

• Follow the companies procedure for referrals and appeals. Understand your coverage! This will save a lot of time and pain.

• Appeal through your plan. Companies may have different procedures for different kinds of appeals. Learn the rules and stick to them.

• If you're not satisfied with the internal appeal process, get an external review. External review programs vary by state to state, so learn the rules in your neck of the woods.

Here are some links to better explain things

How to appeal denials of care
A Consumer Guide to Handling Disputes with Your Employer or Private Health Plan, 2005 Update

Air Force said to seek $50 bln emergency funds

Another source familiar with the Air Force plans said the extra funds would help pay to transport growing numbers of U.S. soldiers being killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Air Force is spending … $50 million per body?

Some days you just don't want to get out of bed, but when you do strange things happen.