Chicken Soup for the Office Worker's Soul

The first day Andy came to work, he saw a 17-inch screen sitting on his desk, and there were no speakers, and his mouse had no scrollwheel. But Andy made it through the day anyway, checking up on his email and performing other mundane office tasks.

When Andy returned home, he told his wife of his work day. “What,” his wife uttered, “You don’t have a scrollwheel, and a big screen? You must tell your boss, and request better equipment!”

The next day at work, Andy knocked on the boss’s office door. When the boss invited him in, Andy in quiet voice told the boss that he would need better equipment to become more effective at work. “I need a mouse with a scrollwheel, and speakers, and a 19-inch screen,” he said. His boss nodded, said “Makes sense!” and made sure that Andy would receive all that. When Andy returned to his desk after lunch, he found his desktop equipped with a larger screen, a better mouse, and hi-quality stereo speakers.

When Andy returned home, his wife was already waiting to hear Andy’s story. After Andy finished, his wife frowned, and said, “But you still don’t have an ergonomic keyboard and comfy chair... this is impossible!”

The next morning, Andy knocked on his boss’s office door again, and made another request for better equipment. “I need a comfortable chair so I can sit and work in a relaxed manner... and I need a keyboard that will cater to my hand’s comfort.” The boss looked at Andy and said, “Makes sense.” And thus, an hour later when Andy returned to his desk, he found a new chair and keyboard in place.

Returning home that day, Andy found his wife away, but she left a note: “If you got all the new stuff we talked about, also ask for a raise and your own office.”

Hence the next day, Andy knocked at his boss’s door once more, and requested a raise and his own office room. “Because my work is excellent, and I need to fully concentrate while typing.” His boss looked at him for some seconds, and nodded, once more, and said, “Makes sense Andy!” And a little while later, Andy moved his computer, chair, keyboard and mouse and everything else to his new room, free from much of the surrounding noises of his former cubicle.

And Andy was quite happy about the state of things as they were. And after a hard day’s work, he returned home, and his wife was already awaiting him. After Andy told her the day’s events, she gave him a long, hard stare; “Why,” she said, “you have a high income, your own office, an excellent chair and everything... you should be boss!”

Andy was briefly worried but found the logic to be irrefutable, and the next morning at work, he knocked on his boss’s door. “Boss,” he said, “to be an even more effective worker, I think I should be boss.” And Andy’s boss looked at Andy with a puzzled face for a moment, and then replied, “You’re fired.” And when Andy returned to his old office room a while later, he found his computer, chair, mouse and everything else gone, and to this day, Andy is really happy all that happened because in the end he didn’t like this office work all that much anyway because of the constant deadlines and headaches and shouting and everything and he’s now running a successful but undemanding business selling flowers at a little shop.

 

 

... as they said, never ask for too much.

All in a Day's Work (Chicken Soup for the Soul)

I was reading this story from Chicken Soup for the Soul regarding love at work and hell I was moved. Just want to share this one.

All in a Day’s Work

"Naomi Rhode"

He was admitted to emergency receiving and placed on the cardiac floor. Long hair, unshaven, dirty, dangerously obese, with a black motorcycle jacket tossed on the bottom shelf of the stretcher, he was an outsider to this sterile world of shining terrazzo floors, efficient uniformed professionals, and strict infection control procedures. Definitely an untouchable.

The nurses at the station looked wide-eyed as this mound of humanity was wheeled by, each glancing nervously at Bonnie, the head nurse. “Let this one not be mine to admit, bathe and tend to…” was their pleading, unspoken message.

One of the true marks of a leader, a consummate professional, is to do the unthinkable. To tackle the impossible. To touch the untouchable. It was Bonnie who said, “I want this patient myself.” Highly unusual for a head nurse—unconventional—but the stuff out of which human spirits thrive, heal and soar.

As she donned her latex gloves and proceeded to bathe this huge, very unclean man, her heart almost broke. Where was his family? Who was his mother? What was he like as a little boy? She hummed quietly as she worked. It seemed to ease the fear and embarrassment she knew he must be feeling.

And then on a whim she said, “We don’t have time for back rubs much in hospital these days, but I bet one would really feel good. And it would help you relax your muscles and start to heal. That is what this place is all about… a place to heal.”

The thick, scaly, ruddy skin told a story of an abusive lifestyle: probably lots of addictive behavior with food, alcohol and drugs. As she rubbed those taut muscles, she hummed and prayed. Prayed for the soul of a little boy grown up, rejected by life’s rudeness and striving for acceptance in a hard, hostile world.

The finale was warmed lotion and baby powder. Almost laughable—such a contrast to this huge, foreign surface. As he rolled over onto his back, tears ran down his cheeks and his chin trembled. With amazingly beautiful brown eyes, he smiled and said in a quivering voice, “No one has touched me for years. Thank you. I am healing.”

Last Flight Out - Plus One

I just had a sweet reminisce of this boy band song in the year 90's. I know I sounded old but I am not. I just had the sweet memories of this song and it sounds good as years passess by. ^_^

	last flight out plus one .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

"Last Flight Out"

Plus One

I'm so scared that you will see

All the weakness inside of me

I'm so scared of letting go

That the pain I've hid will show

I know you want to hear me speak

But I'm afraid that if I start to

I'll never stop

I want you to know

You belong in my life

I love the hope

I see in your eyes

For you I would fly

At least I would try

For you I'll take

The last flight out

I'm afraid that

You will leave

As my secrets

Have been revealed

In my dreams

You'll always stay

Every breathing moment from now

I know you want to hear me speak

But I'm afraid that if I start to

I'll never stop

I want you to know

You belong in my life

I love the hope

I see in your eyes

I cannot hold back
The truth no more

I let you wait too long

Although it's hard and scares me so

A life without you scares me more

 

25262NTFVPWU

Website submission has pay?

I have been thinking of way to submit my website to all the search engines thats possible. But it seem's like thats very impossible to do. Good thing there's website that actually offers search engine submission. They are actually effective especially for the ones that actually give you confirmation of whats happening to the submission that they are doing. Make sure that when you do use a search engine submission, it is for free. You should or can actually browse or submit website for free cause search engines doesn't pay or requires you to pay something just to have your site be publish. I just hate those scumbags who actually make a fool of other people who doesn't know stuffs about the www world. Here is one example of what I am explaining about.

JYCO Directory

Search, Browse or submit your website for free.

Anyways, I am off for now. I still have work to do. Tata!

Fringe

I am so in love with the series Fringe which I just started watching a couple of weeks ago. I live the series and how it was deliberately explained making it a “so good to be true” series. My comparison for this series is more likely the modern and updated X-files with more action blended on it. If X-files deals about some mystery and deaths on secret stuffs, Fringe handles the security and terrorism of the secret stuffs that X-files are protecting. So that is why I am thinking this could have been related to the old series show.

Currently they are on Season 2 which shows a more descriptive explanation which answers the fragmented questions that were done on Season 1.

If you want to read more on the plot of this series, just click here.

If you want to know the characters and their role, click here.  

Beautiful - Bethany Dillon

Love this song. I heard this one danced by Ellenore Scott from So you think you can dance season 6.

beautiful bethany dillon mp3 | lyrics

free music downloads | music videos | pictures

Beautiful

"Bethany Dillon"

I was so unique

Now I feel skin deep

I count on the make-up to cover it all

Crying myself to sleep cause I cannot keep their attention

I thought I could be strong

But it's killing me

Does someone hear my cry?

I'm dying for new life

[Chorus]

I want to be beautiful

Make you stand in awe

Look inside my heart,

and be amazed

I want to hear you say

Who I am is quite enough

Just want to be worthy of love

And beautiful

Sometimes I wish I was someone other than me

Fighting to make the mirror happy

Trying to find whatever is missing

Won't you help me back to glory

[Chorus]

You make me beautiful

You make me stand in awe

You step inside my heart, and I am amazed

I love to hear You say

Who I am is quite enough

You make me worthy of love and beautiful

My Regrets

I have a lot of thoughts racing through my mind today. I don't know. It seems like the memories of my past haunts me back under no circumstances. Its showing me a lot of regrests of my past. Bad things that could not be undone but can only show remorse of what had happened. Things that maybe time can never find to close. 

at home.. 

I realized that if I had learn to fought back when I was kid. I was never be bullied. With the brains and fighting spirit that I have today, I don't think I am a person who could easily be underestimated. I just realized that today when I started blaming everybody in home, I should be blaming myself. I know they would say that because I am a kid or dont have conscience yet of what was happening but who cares. Whatever happened to me now is because of my fault and ignorance nor innocence saved me from it. 

at family..

I could have save my relationship with my dad. Until now, I wish I did. Seriously, when I was a kid I use to entertain him while he drunks himself to liquor and he was correcting my mistakes in the song. Those are things that I only could remember with him. Then I realize, those moments are something that I should treasure. Something that I shared with him all through my life for the past 20+ years, cause after it was was pride and coldness replaced.

our family business..

Then I realize that my dad's bread and butter has already come to an end. Sigh. I remember the days when my dad would treat us somewhere and how my dad lavish expense. I guess that's one trait I got from my dad. 

my self..

I just came to think that what I am right now is somewhat an achievement. Of course everybody thinks so. With all the things I had in my life today, I could have achieved something more and something better than what I have right now. Honestly, I am hiding in a shell full of lies and immorality. I use to say I hate people misconducts which could had been prevented. Then I realized I should also be hating myself first before hating others. Sigh

Boredom Killer Tips

Have you ever had the day when you fill like your tired of doing anything. Like everything is in front of you, just waiting for you to be touch and kinder with but you dont feel like doing it. Or  maybe a day where you dont want to do anything physical or productive. Boredom, boredom boredom.

Seriously, nobody beats boredom in one day. Like everyday they exist in anytime, anyhow like anywhere. Things to beat boredom, I dont know. But certainly there are things that we could do to beat boredom. I got this funny and humurous stuff to beat boredom. Then I realize, I am already doing some of those boredom killers. Thanks to Urban75.org. Here are some tips you can enjoy to kill boredom.

DISCLAIMER: Oh, and just a reminder. On the footnote of the website where I got this article, somebody actually did some stuffs here seriously. And I don't know what happened but it feels like it didn't went good. Just a reminder, these tips are mostly humurous and some kind of absurd but they are all just for fun. Please dont exaggerate. Thank you

 "THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING"

• Blink wildly and then close your eyes really tight for an interesting light show

(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)

See a variety of blobs, stars and flashes. Try to make out shapes and see if your subconscious is trying to send you a message (perhaps that funny shape is saying, 'send all your money to urban75.com'?)

• See how long you can hold a note

(Amusement Potential: 4-20 minutes)

Not that much fun, but it sure passes the time. Play with a friend, or try to beat your own personal best. Inhale deeply and then try and make a noise for as long as you can. Earn extra points for making your partner laugh or ending on an amusing note.

• Try to not think about penguins

(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)

This is especially hard, because by trying too much, you remember what you were trying to avoid thinking of. If you try too little, you end up thinking about penguins anyway.

• Use your secret mind power

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Pick a passing by and try to use your mind power to command them do something, like drop their bag or knock into someone. The law of averages dictates that sooner or later one of your mind commands will come true, so you can convince yourself that you really have super human powers and waste even more time trying them out.

• Pretend you're a robot

(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

Walk down the street with mechanical movements, adding 'zzzzzt' sounds with each motion. Pretending to have a motor broken in, say, your left hand can add at least 30 seconds more entertainment.

• Scratch yourself

(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

Go ahead, scratch yourself now. Even if nothing itches, go ahead. Doesn't that feel pretty good?

• Rate passers by

(Amusement Potential: 10-15 minutes)

Secretly award passers by marks out of ten as you go along, offering (unsaid) expert criticism over their clothing, hairstyle and footwear choices.

• Repeat the same word over and over until it loses its meaning

(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

Pick a random word out of a magazine and say it aloud to yourself until it becomes a meaningless set of noises.

• Pinch yourself

(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

What is pain? Why is it unpleasant? There's nothing physical about it - it's all in your mind. Plus, after pinching yourself for awhile, boredom will seem nice next to being in pain.

• Try to swallow your tongue

(Amusement Potential: 1-2 minutes)

There's not much to say about this one. It is possible, but really stupid.

• Pretend to be a car

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Make appropriate revving noises in your head as you walk along and add a racing commentary as you pass strangers in the street. Use blinking eyes as indicators for extra authenticity.

• Make Star Trek door noises

(Amusement Potential: 1-2 minutes)

Stand by an electric door to a bank or something and make that silly "Scccccccchwop" sound heard whenever people popped on to the bridge to hang with Captain Kirk.

• Look at something for awhile, shut eyes, study after image

(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)

Another great time waster. It takes about 30 seconds of staring to create an after image, and the image is then viewable for about the same length of time. Fun to combine this one with pushing on your eyes.

• Get yourself as nauseated as possible

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Best achieved by looking straight up and spinning around. Try to be so dizzy you can't even stand up. This is also entertaining due to the "makes boredom seem a lot better" effect (see "Hurt Yourself").

• Invent a weird twitch

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Adopt a bizarre twitch (e.g. flicking your head irregularly, twitching with eye or busting out sporadic cough noises) and try it out when you go shopping.

• Make a low buzzing noise

(Amusement Potential: 15-30 minutes)

Hours of fun in libraries! Keeping a totally straight face and looking nonchalant, make a low pitch humming/buzzing noise and see who reacts.

"THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH VERY LITTLE"

• See what's in your neighbour's rubbish/trash

(Amusement Potential: 20-30 minutes)

You can learn a lot about people by what they throw out. You might uncover some dark secret about them. Plus, they might be throwing out something with value that still works, like a VCR or some porn mags.

• Watch TV, repeat everything said in Italian accent

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Sort of entertaining. Include flamboyant shoulder shrugs for added impact, or go for a Marlon Brando set of grunts.

• Send spooky emails

(Amusement Potential: 15-60 minutes)

Look up someone's CV on the web, do some research on them via Google and then send them an email full of personal references claiming to be an ex-work colleague who fell in love with their shoes. Or something.

• Play our useless games

(Amusement Potential: how long have you got?)

Waste away the hours with our collection of useless games

• Make prank phone calls

(Amusement Potential: 20-60 minutes)

Very entertaining, but requires discipline. Remember - vulgarities don't make a call funny, but getting the other person to believe a ridiculous story will. Try seeing if you can get them to make noises to 'test' the line. One to get you started off: Call McDonalds with weird complaints about their food.

• Pretend all humans will die except for people in room with you

Amusement Potential: 10-20 minutes)

What would you do if this really happened? Would the group stay together, or would there be factions? Who would join what group? Remember, there would only be power for a few days before the plants ran out of fuel or broke. To travel, you would always have to be near cars to siphon gas out of. Best to do with people you know.

• Step off a curb with eyes shut, imagine it's a cliff

(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)

To get any benefit out of this one, you have to have a good imagination. Don't step off immediately, build up to the jump. Study the ravine below. Feel the winds at that altitude. Step off and...AHHHHHH!!!!!

• Try and sound Welsh

(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

The key to sounding Welsh is to make sure that your voice goes up at the end of the sentence, so that everything sounds like a question. Throw in a superfluous 'isn't it?' at the end of everything you say and you're halfway there. Isn't it?

• Burn things with a magnifying glass

(Amusement Potential: 5-30 minutes)

Ants are always fun to use for this, but burning the face of someone you don't like, under some circumstances, can be just as entertaining.

 "THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH ANOTHER PERSON"

• Have a water gargling contest

(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)

Put a glassful of water in your mouth and see how long you can keep gargling for. Award yourself extra points for loud and amusing gargling noises, and minus points if you laugh.

• Stare at the back of someone's head until they turn around

(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)

This works on the "I have the feeling I'm being watched" principle. Conduct an experiment-does this really work?

• Have a "Who is less competitive" competition

wonder (Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)

Trying to win at this will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose which makes you win which makes you lose.

• Pick up a dog so it can see things from your point of view

(Amusement Potential: 3-5 minutes)

Think about it: your dog has only seen the house from a viewpoint from 6" to 2' high (15 to 60 cm for all you metric fans). It's never seen the tops of counters, what you keep on your desk, the tops of shelves, etc. Try looking at things from its point of view, too.

• Pull out a hair, stick in someone's ear

(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)

Best done to sleeping people. Added challenge in having no one else around, because then you can't blame it on anyone else. Try to beat your record number of times before the person catches on.

• Pour water in hand, make sneeze noise, throw water on back of person's neck

(Amusement Potential: 5-15 minutes)

Always a good gag. For an even bigger reaction out of the person, act like you're not sorry at all for what they think you did. Comment instead on how big that sneeze was or about how there was a lot of mucus in that one.

5 Heroes of Newerth Beta Keys

Yes, you read it. 5 Heroes of Newerth beta keys up for grabs. So if you need one, you've come to the right place.

I just figured out how to actually have or collect the beta keys that I should have from HON. I had it collected  and sent out to my e-mail. I just need to use one of it and I still have spare 5 beta keys,. But because I feel good, I am giving it away and send it to your e-mail addresses. 

But hold your horses, I am not giving it like a dash. Then comes my evil grin on how to get it. 

How to get it, easy. Give me 5 good reasons why you should have it. I am asking for a reason and make sure you dont give me a very brief answers unless its comprehensible. I know my friends always hear me saying those 5 good reasons stuffs but its your turn to answer it. Enjoy


EDIT:

I just had one person received his beta key. Hopefully, he enjoys the game as much as everybody does and negate all those stupid players that keeps trashing down newbies. Thanks Rian Christer Cruz for participating and enjoy. That leaves me down to 4

Life Factor: Humiliation, Initiation and Appreciation

Humiliation

Humiliation is literally the act of being made humble, or reduced in standing or prestige. Humiliation is not in general a pleasant experience, as it reduces the ego. The term has much in common with the emotion of shame.

Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role.

Appreciation

Recognition of the quality, value, significance, or magnitude of people and things.

Sometimes in life, people have to live by rules. Honestly, its not easy living. And to be known, you have to climb through a ladder, move your way up by a magic carpet or bury yourself and be known. Thats the way life goes. We have to admit, life has its own beauty and suffering.

9 States dusted with Snow; Hawaii's the holdout

Weird event. I am actually thinking or smoking up of something well bit too extraordinary. And I'm not going to share it here though I shared it with somebody as well. It would sound crazy but there's a point of it. Anyways, I had read this one from Yahoo News and its quite fascinating.

"9 States dusted with Snow; Hawaii's the holdout"

Forget red and blue — color America white. There was snow on the ground in 49 states Friday. Hawaii was the holdout.

It was the United States of Snow, thanks to an unusual combination of weather patterns that dusted the U.S., including the skyscrapers of Dallas, the peach trees of Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle, where hurricanes are more common than snowflakes.

More than two-thirds of the nation's land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned yesterday, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50.

At the same time, those weird weather forces are turning Canada's Winter Olympics into the bring-your-own-snow games.

Who's the Great White North now?

"I'm calling it the upside-down winter," said David Robinson, head of the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Snow paralyzed and fascinated the Deep South on Friday. Snowball fights broke out at Southern Mississippi University, snow delayed flights at the busy Atlanta airport, and Louisiana hardware stores ran out of snow supplies. Andalusia, Ala., shut down its streets because of snow. And yet, Portland, Maine, where snow is usually a given, had to cancel its winter festival for lack of the stuff.

Weather geeks turned their eyes to Hawaii. In that tropical paradise, where a ski club strangely exists, observers were looking closely at the islands' mountain peaks to see if they could find a trace of white to make it a rare 50-for-50 states with snow. But there was no snow in sight.

Hawaii's 13,800-foot Mauna Kea volcano, which often gets snow much of the year at its higher elevations, is the most likely place in the 50th state to have snow, but there "is nothing right now," said research meteorologist Tiziana Cherubini at the Mauna Kea Weather Center. It has been a few weeks since there has been snow in the mountains, and none is in the forecast, ruining a perfect 50-for-50, she said.

The idea of 50 states with snow is so strange that the federal office that collects weather statistics doesn't keep track of that number and can't say whether it has ever happened. The office can't even say whether 49 out of 50 has ever taken place before.

Snow experts at the Global Snow Lab were combing their records but said it may be days before they find out if there has ever been a 50-for-50 snow day. Their best suspect — Jan. 19, 1977 — had snow in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, but then Robinson looked for snow in South Carolina and couldn't find any.

As of early Friday morning, 67.1 percent of the U.S. had snow on the ground, with the average depth a healthy 8 inches. Normally, about 40 or 50 percent of the U.S. has snow cover this time of year, Robinson said.

It snowed for only 10 minutes in Century, Fla., just north of Pensacola, barely enough to scrape a few snowballs from the hood of a truck. But that was enough for 6-year-old Kaleb Pace.

"I've only ever seen snow on TV till now," Kaleb said, smiling.

This is after a month that saw the most snow cover for any December in North America in the 43 years that records have been kept. And then came January 2010, which ranked No. 8 among all months for North American snow cover, with more than 7.03 million square miles of white.

The all-time record is February 1978, with 7.31 million square miles. There is a chance this February could break that. There is also a chance that this could go down as the week with the most snow cover on record, Robinson said.

Stay tuned. The weather pattern is in a snow rut.

At least in Washington, where snow is now measured by the yardstick, more snow may be coming soon. It looks like a little more snow on Monday and maybe a lot more about a week or so after that.

"As long as this pattern persists we have potential for additional storms," said Dan Petersen, lead winter weather forecaster at the National Weather Service prediction center in Camp Springs, Md.

To count as snow cover, snow has to stick on the ground and be recorded at special stations at specific times when meteorologists check, Robinson said.

The strange snowfall pattern is produced by the El Nino weather phenomenon and its Arctic counterpart, Robinson and Petersen said.

During moderate to strong El Ninos like the current one, more moisture is pumped into the subtropical jet stream across the South, increasing precipitation, Robinson said. Then there's the Arctic Oscillation, the Northern cousin to El Nino, which shifts cold polar air south. That cold air can turn a rainstorm into a snowstorm.

A snowy winter doesn't disprove — or prove — global warming, Petersen and Robinson said. This is weather, which is variable, not long-term climate, and there is a huge difference.

"This has nothing to do with long-term trends," Petersen said. "This is just a several-week period."

Patrick Marsh, who is working on his doctorate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, has been trying to collect photos of snow on the ground in all 49 or 50 states. After his effort was publicized, he was flooded with photos and videos.

"It just shows that deep down inside, all of us is a weather weenie, a weather fanatic," Marsh said. "This is just an awesome weather event."

___

Associated Press Writer Melissa Nelson contributed to this report from Pensacola, Fla.

The Tomb Curse and its Fact

Now the story below is just an urban legend but still debates are arising with the real deal of such things. Here is the update report that I collated within the websites that detest this mummy talk:

"The Curse of King Tut's Tomb"

Although people are often frightened of mummies, it is untrue that finding a mummy can lead to a curse on the discoverer. Author Christine El Mahdy believes that those who first expressed fear of mummies were the Arabs, who conquered Egypt in A.D. 641. Arab writers warned people not to tamper with mummies or their tombs; they knew that Egyptians practiced magic during funerals. And the paintings on the walls of Egyptian tombs seemed to suggest that mummies could return to life and seek revenge. Got this one from Mummy Tombs.com

The idea that mummies had magic power eventually appealed to the imaginations of authors. After the first ghost story about a mummy's curse was published in 1699, many more followed. But the longest lasting episode involving a mummy's curse was the discovery and opening of King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1923.

This story has been told many times, but fact and fiction are usually blended. Two recent authors who have separated the facts from the myths are Christopher Frayling and Nicholas Reeves.

First, the facts: Lord Carnarvon, who had funded the search for King Tut's tomb, and archaeologist Howard Carter entered the king's burial chamber on February 17, 1923. On or about March 6, Lord Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito on his cheek and became ill. Reported in the media, this event caused many people to jump to the conclusion that King Tut's tomb was cursed.

Many famous people volunteered their theories to the press. For example, Marie Corelli, a popular novelist at the time, expressed her thoughts in a letter published in New York and London newspapers. In part, her letter read:

I cannot but think some risks are run by breaking into the last rest of a king in Egypt whose tomb is specially and solemnly guarded, and robbing him of his possessions. According to a rare book I possess . . . entitled The Egyptian History of the Pyramids [an ancient Arabic text], the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb. The book . . . names 'secret poisons enclosed in boxes in such wise that those who touch them shall not know how they come to suffer'. That is why I ask, Was it a mosquito bite that has so seriously infected Lord Carnarvon?

Corelli reported that the Egyptian author also warned: "Death comes on wings to he who enters the tomb of a pharaoh."

Her concerns seemed to be on target when Lord Carnarvon's condition worsened. The mosquito bite became infected, he contracted pneumonia, and on April 5, he died. The legend of the curse became fact and was enhanced by many rumors. Here are five of the most famous rumors - and the real truth behind them:

Rumor 1: On the day of the tomb opening, Carter's pet canary was eaten by a cobra (a symbol of the ancient pharaohs). The truth is that, although Carter had a pet canary, he gave it to a friend named Minnie Burton to watch, and she gave it (alive and well) to a bank manager.

Rumor 2: At the moment that Carnarvon died in Cairo Hospital, the lights across Cairo went out for five minutes. Actually, around the time that Carnarvon died, the hospital lights did go out for a few moments. Within a few weeks' time, this fact was twisted into the more interesting rumor. As Christine El Mahdy points out, the lights in Cairo are notorious for going out without warning - even today.

Rumor 3: Carnarvon's dog Susie, back in England, howled and dropped dead at exactly two o'clock in the morning, the time that Carnarvon died. No one knows whether this story is true or not, but it seems suspicious, especially since Egypt and England do not share the same time zone. The story might be a bit more believable if Susie had died at two o'clock Egyptian time.

Rumor 4: Over the door to King Tut's tomb was an inscription that read "Death shall come on swift wings to him that toucheth the tomb of the Pharaoh." Notice that this inscription closely matches the quotation Marie Corelli cited from the ancient Arabic text. Even today, it is easy to find books that report this inscription as fact. For example, in his recent book about mummies, author John Vornholt writes, "In an outer chamber, they [Carter and Carnarvon] found a clay tablet that read: 'Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the Pharaoh.'" This is simply not true.

Rumor 5: Most of the people present at the opening of the tomb met untimely deaths. Again, Vornholt writes that "13 of 20 people who were present at the opening of King Tut's burial chamber died within a few years." Vornholt does not give his source for this information, but it is clearly incorrect. The truth is that the newspapers at the time had a field day with the curse. Whenever anyone related to Carnarvon or the discovery of the tomb died, the death was taken as proof that the curse was in effect.

 However, Egyptologist Herbert E. Winlock examined the evidence some 12 years after the tomb's opening. Of the 26 people present at the opening of the burial chamber, only 6 had died within the next 10 years. When King Tut's sarcophagus was opened, 22 of the 26 people were present, but only 2 of them had died within 10 years afterward. Finally, only 10 of the 26 people had watched the unwrapping of the mummy. And none of them had died within the next decade! In fact, many of the people who had the most contact with the king's mummy lived long and productive lives.

Perhaps the last word about the Carnarvon curse should belong to Sir Henry Rider Haggard, who wrote at the time that the idea of the curse was simply nonsense and "dangerous because it goes to swell the rising tide of superstition which at present seems to be overflowing the world."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, there never is a last word on such a famous curse.

In 1998, another theory was proposed in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A French scientist (Sylvain Gandon) who had studied the apparent long lifespan of deadly bacterial spores (such as anthrax) published an article in which he wondered if Lord Carnarvon's death "could potentially be explained" by his coming into contact with "a highly virulent and very long-lived pathogen." This thought was also on the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), when he suggested long ago that Egyptian priests may have placed spores in King Tut's tomb to punish graverobbers.

Did Carnarvon die after a mosquito bite became infected (as has been thought)? Or could he have inhaled anthrax spores in the tomb?

A Canadian doctor (James McSherry) agreed with the French scientist: "A malignant pustule in the oropharyngeal area could well produce an illness similar to the tragic event that caused Lord Carnarvon's demise." He went on to explain that "anthrax certainly existed in ancient times and is often assumed to have been responsible for the fifth and sixth plagues of Egypt, which are described in chapter nine of Exodus. Anthrax spores could well have been present in the tomb, and there would have been a real risk of exposure once the ancient dust was stirred."

When Tut-expert Nicolas Reeves (author of The Complete Tutankhamun) was asked what he thought about this possibility, he pointed out that Carnarvon was already in poor health when he arrived in Egypt. He also discounted the idea of the curse, indicating that most of the people who explored the tomb with Carter and Carnarvon survived without any appearance of "the curse."

In the end, the scientist and the doctor who have presented anthrax spores as a cause of King Tut's curse are only guessing...and ignoring the fact that relatively few people who entered the tomb became sick and died.

King Tutone: The Curse of the Mummy

Here is the famous urban legend story of the Curse of the Mummy:  

The curse of the mummy began when many terrible events occurred after the discovery of King Tut's tomb. Legend has it that anyone who dared to open the tomb would suffer the wrath of the mummy. Because mummies have been associated with many magical powers throughout history, some of the mummies found from Egypt were ground into a fine powder and sold as this mystical mummy powder. It's believed the powder had magical healing powers and it wasn't until the discovery of King Tut and the hype of the media that things would change forever.

The hype began when Lord Carnarvon, the person who funded the discovery of King Tut’s Tomb, died shortly after the discovery. The path to his death began in the spring of 1923 when he was bitten on the cheek by a mosquito. During his morning shaving routines, he further aggravated the mosquito bite. It soon became infected and Lord Carnarvon found himself ill. He suffered a high fever and chills. A doctor was sent to examine him but medical attention arrived too late and Lord Carnarvon died. At that exact moment the lights in Cairo mysteriously went out.

Once Carnarvon died the media went wild with stories of his death. They claimed King Tut wanted vengeance and announced a mummy's curse, which targeted those who had entered the tomb. Not only did the death of Carnarvon get all the people in an uproar but other stories began to surface as well. Of the stories that surfaced, two remain prominent. One of the prominent stories is that a cobra killed Howard Carter's (explorer who discovered King Tut’s tomb) pet canary after the discovery of King Tut's tomb. The other story is that Lord Carnarvon's dog howled and dropped dead at two in the morning when Carnarvon died.

What is interesting is that Howard Carter lived a decade after this major discovery. So what happened to Howard Carter during all this hype? Howard Carter spent his last years logging and recording every artifact found in the tomb. Why didn't he suffer the curse of the mummy? He was, after all, the first to enter the tomb.

Did King Tut's Tomb really unleash a curse? New findings are showing that bacteria on the wall of the tomb might have been the cause of the curse. The bacteria would release spores into the air allowing it to be breathed. This in turn caused people who came into contact with these spores to become ill. Could this be what killed Lord Carnarvon? It appears that this could have contributed to his demise, as well as the fact that he was not in the best of health.

Whether the mummy’s curse is fact or fiction, this story seems to interest people even today. The myth of the curse has remained with King Tut and continues to make people question as to whether the curse was really unleashed. What is known is that when you mix propaganda, facts, and hype you get a story that can be exciting. It all really boils down to one question. Do you believe in the curse of the mummy? We will leave that for you to decide.

Mangudadadatu vs Ampatuan in Davao Mall

I heard about the news the night after the incident from one of  my friend when we were exchanging text. They are prolific threat to the city that I grew up with. Destroying every known peace in the city and the outrage that they are exhibiting is quite pathetic. Wish all of them would just mysteriously disappear to end all things up. They're not even in their own city to bring fear and rage. They should be taught with a very good lesson that they won't forget. Got the news from Yahoo.com.

Mangudadatu escort kills 'Ampatuan hitman' in Davao Mall

(Updated 9:51 p.m.) A member of the the powerful Ampatuan clan allegedly attacked Maguindanao gubernatorial bet Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu in a Davao City mall on Thursday evening, but ended up being shot dead himself by a Mangudadatu bodyguard.

Mangudadatu told GMANews.TV in a phone interview that he was at the Gaisano Grand Citimall Ilustre in Davao City when a man assaulted him.

"Kasama ko ang anak ko. Namimili kami ng damit para sa February 14 (I was with my children, buying clothes for February 14 when the incident happened)," he said.

Authorities identified Mangudadatu's alleged attacker as Tamano Camalindan a.k.a. Tamano Mamalapat, a resident of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, and reportedly with a standing warrant of arrest against him.

Mamalapat is also reportedly a nephew of suspended Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr, who is among the 197 people charged with murder in connection with the November 23 massacre.

Mangudadatu claimed that Mamalapat was the clan patriarch's "hitman."

According to Mangudadatu, his two bodyguards protected him, with one of them shooting Mamalapat. "Nag-agawan sila ng baril ng bodyguard ko (One of my bodyguards and the suspect fought for the gun)," he said.

In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, Davao City police said they received a report about the shooting incident at around 7 p.m.

Responding police arrived at the site together with Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, radio dzMM reported, and are still investigating the incident as of posting time.—Andreo Calonzo/JV, GMANews.TV

Life and Nuisance

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings. - Arthur Rubinstein.

This is certainly true and I could attest to this. I remember those days when I hear people crying and ranting out why life is unfair and why they get all the sufferings and burden. I would merely laugh at them because I know life only gives what it gets. When they were all crying out loud of their sufferings, here I was figuring how to deal with it. It saved me all the energy that I need to live my life instead of ranting out. I am pretty sure I won't get anything from impeccably whining.

Maybe that explains my apathetic emotion when I see people having none or less food. I am sensitive but due to struggling I become insensitive. But it doesn’t prohibit me from showing emotion. For me emotion should be used in a fluctuant manner. I believe emotion is powerful enough to damage or help people so it should be use wisely.

I don't believe in reasons that life is this because of that. If you know how to worked it out, I believe tables could be turned around. Nobody could stay on the top forever nor success would last long. Everything is expensable but the value of what we had achieved is sentimental.

Live life and understand life like love; know what it brings and accept it, in the end you'll understand how happiness work. That’s my side for such quote. How bout yours?

Smart Loan Load Credit

I was just informed about this with one of my friend when he ran out of load and suprisingly it works.

You can actually get 4 Smart free load which is good for 1 day free. You can use this during emergencies that you need to. The bad thing is it will be credited the next time you top up it will be deducted to it.

What you need to do:

• 
  
  just dial *767
• 
  
  you will hear like a beep on your phone then the call will get cut off. (that's normal as it processess the and the VDN is actually reading your phone number)
• 
  
  wait for the text telling you that you have 4 text credits and it will tell you that they will be deducting it on the next payroll.

Fair enough, right?

My New Home

I almost cried thinking I screwed up everything in hosting this website to another webhosting company. But I finally made it and I am so happy. Thanks for the author's of the links who helped me go through with this burden:

• Bloggergeeze - for the realization of what I had miss
• Bloggerbuster - for the initial guide
• Radhna Krishna Reddy - for the nameservers and the 15 easy steps which I followed
• Godaddy - of course for the hosting services and some useful tips as well
• Compender - for the picture support and some assistance as well
• And of course, to my ever friend Chenee who had been patient enough to be my outlet for my woes and trouble. I know she knew that I wasn't listening as well to what she was saying. Ha ha.

Welcome to my new home!!

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Something to ponder and helpful tips to protect your so called “privacy” especially when using the most famous social community site, Facebook. I got this one from AllFacebook.com. And mind you, this is updated with the new security settings that they have today.

"10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know"

Everyday we may receive an email from somebody about how their account was hacked, how a friend tagged them in the photo and they want a way to avoid it, as well as a number of other complications related to their privacy on Facebook. Over the weekend one individual contacted me to let me know that he would be removing me as a friend from Facebook because he was “going to make a shift with my Facebook use - going to just mostly family stuff.”

Perhaps he was tired of receiving my status updates or perhaps he didn’t want me to view photos from his personal life. Whatever the reason for ending our Facebook friendship, I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy.

#1 - Use your friend list

Can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. For those not aware of what friend lists are, Facebook describes them as a feature which allows “you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.” 

There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists: 

• 
  
  You can add each friend to more than one friend group
• 
  
  Friend groups should be used like “tags” as used elsewhere around the web
• 
  
  Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them

A typical setup for groups would be “Friends”, “Family”, and “Professional”. These three groups can then be used to apply different privacy policies. For example, you may want your friends to see photos from the party you were at last night, but you don’t want your family or professional contacts to see those photos.

Using friend lists is also extremely useful for organizing your friends if you have a lot of them. For instance I have about 20 friend lists and I categorize people by city (New York, San Francisco, D.C., Tel Aviv, etc), where I met them (conferences, past co-workers, through this blog), and my relationship with them (professional, family, social, etc).

#2 - Remove Yourself from Facebook Search Results

My mom is a teacher and one of the first things she asked me when she joined Facebook is how she could make sure her students couldn’t see that she was on the site. Understandably my mom doesn’t want her middle school students to know what she’s up to in her personal life. There are numerous reasons that individuals don’t want their information to show up in search results on Facebook, and it’s simple to turn off your public visibility.

How to Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results

Now that you’ve decided that you would like to remove yourself from Facebook’s search results, here’s how to do it:

• Visit your search privacy settings page
• Under “Search Visibility” select “Only Friends” (Remember, doing so will remove you from Facebook search results, so make sure you want to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can select another group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I believe is the default.)
• Click “Save Changes”

By default, Facebook makes your presence visible to the network you are in. Frequently, people aren’t aware of their visibility, so this is one of the first settings that users wish to modify. By selecting “Customize” from the search visibility drop down you can make your settings even more granular.

# 3 - Remove Yourself from Google

Facebook gets A TON of traffic from displaying user profiles in search engines. Not all of your profile is displayed though. Currently the information displayed in the search profile is limited to: your profile picture, a list of your friends, a link to add you as a friend, a link to send you a message, and a list of up to approximately 20 fan pages that you are a member of.

For some people, being displayed in the search engines is a great way to let people get in contact with you, especially if you don’t have an existing website. Facebook also tends to rank high in the search results, so if you want to be easy to find, making your search profile can be a great idea. Many people don’t want any of their information to be public though.

By visiting the same search privacy settings page listed in the previous step, you can control the visibility of your public search listing which is visible to Google and other search engines. You can turn off your public search listing by simply unchecking the box next to the phrase “Create a public search listing for me and submit it for search engine indexing” as pictured in the image below.

# 4 - Avoid the Infamous Tag Mistake

This is the classic Facebook problem. You let loose for a few hours one night (or day) and photos (or videos) of the moment are suddenly posted for all to view, not just your close friends who shared the moment with you. The result can be devastating. Some have been fired from work after incriminating photos/videos were posted for the boss to see. For others, randomly tagged photos/videos have ended relationships.

At the least, a tagged photo/video can result in personal embarrassment. So how do you prevent the infamous tagged photo or video from showing up in all of your friends news feeds? It’s pretty simple. First visit your profile privacy page and modify the setting next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Select the option which says “Customize…” and a box like the one pictured below will pop up.

Select the option “Only Me” and then “None of My Networks” if you would like to keep all tagged photos private. If you’d like to make tagged photos visible to certain users you can choose to add them in the box under the “Some Friends” option. In the box that displays after you select “Some Friends” you can type either individual friends or friend lists.

# 5 - Protect Your Album

Just because you’ve uploaded photos doesn’t mean that you’ve accurately tagged every photo correctly. This setting is more of a reminder than anything else. Frequently people will turn of their tagged photo visibility to certain friend lists yet keep their photo albums public to the world. If you are trying to make all your photos invisible you must do so on an album by album basis.

There is a specific Photos Privacy page from which you can manually configure the visibility of each album (as pictured below). This is an extremely useful configuration option and I highly recommend that you take advantage of it. This way you can store your photos indefinitely on Facebook yet ensure that the only people that can view your photos are the ones who you really want to see them.

# 6 - Prevent Stories from Showing to your Feeds

Oh, did you really just break up with your girlfriend? I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure all of your friends and business contacts are also sorry to hear that. I can’t tell you how many awkward relationship status changes I’ve seen. The most regular one I’ve seen recently is when an attractive female ends their relationship and numerous guys hop on the opportunity to console her.

I’ve also seen the end of marriages, as well as weekly relationship status changes as individuals try to determine where their relationship stands with their significant other. My personal policy is to not display a relationship status, but many like to make a public statement out of their relationship. For those individuals, it can be a smart move to hedge against future disasters.

There are a number of ways to control how your relationship status is displayed. The first thing that most people should do is uncheck the box next to “Remove Relationship Status” in the News Feed and Wall Privacy page. In the rare instance that a relationship does uncomfortably end, you can avoid making things more uncomfortable by avoiding a friend notification about it.

Second, your relationship status falls within your “Basic Information” section of your profile. You can control who can see your basic information next to the “Basic Information” setting on the Profile Privacy page. Keep in mind that other relevant profile information like your gender, birth date, networks, and other settings are visible within your basic information section.

Making your basic information completely invisible to friends probably isn’t a good idea, but removing the news feed stories about relationship changes most likely is.

# 7 - Protect Against Published Application Stories

This one is a little more tricky to manage but I’ll explain the issue at hand. Frequently when you add an application, a news feed item is immediately published to your profile. One way to get instantly embarrassed is to visit the “Have Sex!” application (found here). This application has no purpose besides telling your friends that you are interested in having sex with them. Without taking any action, the application will post a news feed story to your profile which says the equivalent of “Nick just published to the world that he is having sex!”

This is surely something that none of your professional contacts if any of your contacts are interested in seeing (honestly I’m a bit confused about that application, but that’s a different story). That’s why it’s important to monitor what takes place after you install an application on Facebook. Once you install an application you should visit your profile to ensure that no embarrassing notification has been posted to your profile.

More often then not, nothing will be posted but there are many applications on the platform unfortunately that publish stories without you knowing it. There are two ways to avoid having this happen: don’t visit applications or scan your profile every time that you do. Ultimately you shouldn’t be concerned about applications that you’ve built a trusted relationship with but any new applications could potentially post embarrassing notifications.

# 8 - Make Your Contact Information Private

Personally use Facebook for professional and personal use and it can frequently become overwhelming. That’s why I’ve taken the time to outline these ten privacy protection steps. One of the first things I did when I started approving friend requests from people that I hadn’t built a strong relationship with, was make my contact information visible only to close contacts.

The contact information is my personal email and phone number. It’s a simple thing to set but many people forget to do it. Frequently people we don’t know end up contacting us and we have no idea how they got our contact information. Your contact privacy can be edited right from your profile. If you have chosen to enter this information, you should see a “Contact Information” area under the “Info” tab in your profile.

If it displays, you simply click “Edit” and then a screen like the one pictured below will show up.

For each contact item that you have in your profile you should set custom privacy settings (as pictured below) so that contacts that you aren’t close to don’t have access to your phone number and/or email. It’s a small change but it can save you the hassle of being pestered by people you don’t know well. Also, protecting your privacy is generally a good practice to get in the habit of doing.

As a side note, this is a great area to take advantage of friend lists. By getting in the habit of grouping your friends, you can ensure that you are navigating Facebook safely through privacy settings that are attached to your friend lists.

# 9 - Avoid Embarassing Wall Post

Just because you use Facebook for business doesn’t mean your friends do. That’s why once in a while a friend of yours will come post something embarrassing or not necessarily “work friendly” and it can end up having adverse effects. That’s why Facebook has provided you with the ability to customize your wall postings visibility. You can also control which friends can post on your wall. There are two places you can control these things.

Adjust Wall Posting Visibility

Within your profile page you can control who can view wall postings made by your friends. To do so, click on the “Settings” icon on the wall in your profile page. Next, find the box pictured in the image above and adjust the setting which says “Who can see posts made by friends?” I’d suggest using a strategy similar to the one outlined in the previous step regarding contact information.

Control Who Can Post to Your Wall

In addition to controlling who can view wall postings published by your friends, you also want to control which friends can post on your wall. Not everybody needs to do this, but occasionally you simply want to prevent some people from posting on your page. If you visit the Profile Privacy settings page, there is a section labeled “Wall Posts”.

From this area you can completely disable your friends’ ability to post on your wall. You can also select specific friend lists that can post on your wall. Personally, I don’t really care who can post on my wall but I can understand the need to control who can see those wall postings. If you want to limit who can post wall posts on your profile, this is where you can do it.

# 10 - Keep Your Friendships Update

While it’s fun to show off that you have hundreds or thousands of friends on Facebook, some of your friends don’t want to live public lives. That’s why it’s often a good policy to turn off your friends’ visibility to others. I’ve had a number of individuals visit my profile and then selectively pick off friends that are relevant to them for marketing purposes, or other reasons.

Whatever the reason they are doing it, just know that they are … it’s part of what makes Facebook so addictive: the voyeuristic nature. Also, your friends are frequently visible to the public through search engines and exposing this information can ultimately present a security risk. To modify the visibility of your friends, visit the Profile Privacy page.

Navigate down to the setting which says “Friends” and then modify the setting to whatever is right for you.

These are just ten ways that you can protect your privacy on Facebook. While there are a few other small things to keep in mind, these ten settings are most important. Keep in mind that while you may have turned off the visibility of many profile sections, there is no way to prevent all photos or videos from being visible if friends of yours make the images visible.

The best way to prevent embarrassing items from showing up on Facebook in the future is to not make bad judgements in your personal life. We’re all human though and being completely paranoid about every choice you make is probably not the best way to live your life. Be aware of what privacy settings are available and be conscious of what your friends may be publishing about you.

While you may not want to configure all of the privacy settings outlined, simply knowing how to do so is a great step in the right direction. By following the 10 settings listed above you are well on your way to an embarrassment free future on Facebook!