Relaxation at the Work Place

Relaxify? Relaxify. Relaxify!

Love that word. Okay, wordsmiths, I know - if it were a word, I’d love that word.

Even more than the would be word, I love all that it stands for - CHILLIN’. Irregardless of what’s going on around you, with you, to you, or (my favorite) - because of you - to relaxify is to sort of shake off the stress and settle on down into your own little groove.

LifeHack.org has a great post dealing with this very thing. It’s all about “setting” a relaxifying scene around your workspace. There are some really great tips that we all could use from time to time.

I keep things around my workspace that serve to make me smile (like a little stuffed bison) and/or chill me out when life gets cute (like a stack of pictures taken from Pensacola Beach or Kentucky Lake - I’m not sure why, but water relaxes the bejesus out of me).

Have an amazing and relaxifyng day! ~Joi of OfficeFreaks

The Benefits Of Blogging

By Yaro on Yaro Starak

Any blogger who has taken their blogging seriously has earned some amazing results. Personally I have been literally blown away by the opportunities that have come my way as a result of just blogging. What makes it even more amazing is that nearly every opportunity was offered to me without me actually asking for it.

Here’s some examples of how blogging has benefited me:

• I have been approached for consulting work yet I am not a consultant nor do I advertise myself as one.
• I have been asked to be on the board of directors of start-up Internet companies.
• I’ve been mentioned and linked to from various other blogs and websites, including some high profile sites, and listed as an expert in my field (although once again I never sought out the publicity).
• Online and offline magazines have contacted me asking for contributions to their publications.
• I’ve been approached to join blog networks.
• I’ve been offered paying contract projects.
• I’ve been invited to be a speaker at small networking events and even large seminars.
• Other business owners have contacted me for advice or just to network with me, opening doors to literally hundreds of business opportunities and relationships.

And of course I’ve also made money, established a readership and given myself a fantastic platform of credibility and reputation to leverage for future business projects.

It’s hard not to like blogging.

The return on investment is pretty spectacular if you do it well.
Yaro StarakBlogging Benefactor

The Real DaVinci Code

Our friend over at WIRED.com wrote a cool article about the real-life DaVinci Code.
The Codex Trivulzianus, one of Leonardo Da Vinci's oldest notebooks, is out from under lock and key, offering the world a rare look into the mind of a genius.

Normally hidden away in a library at Sforzesco Castle and reserved for scholars' eyes, the 55-page collection of sketches and writings is on public display for the first time in nearly a decade.

It includes character studies, drawings of church domes and military machines, and even a self-improvement guide. See highlights from the LEONARDO DA VINCI - Codex Trivulzianus

Read the WIRED column, The Real DaVinci Code

Here's an answer to Junk Mail

Postman Roger Annies hated delivering junk mail, so he told the people in his route how to opt out - his bosses at the Royal Mail (who made millions of pounds a year from junk mails), however, were not amused and sacked the 10-year veteran!

Mr Annies decided to act after receiving dozens of complaints from householders who were fed up with the piles of junk mail dropping through their letter boxes everyday.

So, hoping he may have the answer to their prayers, he delivered his own leaflet to residents in Barry, South Wales, explaining how they could opt out of getting mailshots known as ‘door-to-door’ items by filling out a form. …

Within days his local sorting office was inundated with at least 70 completed forms demanding an end to junk mail. Curious, his bosses decided to make a few inquiries and discovered the leaflet produced by Mr Annies. He was then suspended on full pay pending an investigation into alleged misconduct.

Great Quotes

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting."

Charles Bukowski

100 Steps to 99 Years

Earlier tonight, after a good meal with the family, we went for a walk along the beach.

It's so nice to walk at night, especially when the sun is going down.

As we walked Zhannie reminded me of the Chinese saying:

"Fan hou san bu huo yi bai."

This means: If you walk after dinner, you can live to be 100.

Zhannie's mother overheard us talking and quickly gave a Chinese saying on the same topic. This one means almost the same thing - but rhymes a bit.

Goes like this: "Fan hou bai bu zou huo dao jiushi jiu."

Translation: After dinner walk 100 steps and you will live 99 years."

Great wisdom in these sayings, my friend. No more do I need say, eh?

Best,

Matt Furey

P.S. If you don't have the Chinese Long-Life System yet - be sure to
take a look at http://www.chineseculturesecrets.com/long_life.html

Dream Time Touts

"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements".

Napoleon Hill - Author 'Think and Grow Rich'


So what is your dream ? Here's some doors to the dreamtime & your soul purpose ... (my dream is a "dancing planet " + thanks for your good vibes "for the trees" gathering last week ) ...

FINAL OUTBACK SAFARIS THIS SEASON -
· NEW TOUR September 1-8 7N/8D Uluru via Flinders Ranges - from Sydney (or Melbourne or Adelaide) to Uluru

Full details at: http://www.spiritsafaris.com/

Albert Einstein - Quote

Quote of the Month:

"All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination
and then works its way out.
Imagination is more important than knowledge"

Albert Einstein

Thanks to Andrew Bryant of www.selfleadership.com

Begging Email or a Scam?? You decide

Hello all,

I am emailing everyone either on my emailing list or those who have sent me emails.

I keep reading that scammers and ripoff merchants are making thousands of dollars every day from the internet. I cannot believe that people out there are prepared to send money to these scammers but ignore people like myself who are asking for help via emails.

I have been sending my help email to everyone from whom I receive an email or those on my mailing list asking for assistance. So far I have only had one response so I am still in the same situation. Yet the scammers and rip off merchants are still making huge amounts from the internet but my plea for genuine help is either overlooked or ignored.

So I am now resending the email to everyone hoping that some help and support will be received and I can get my life back to normal. I need your help. I am suffering a very serious cash flow problem which has left me in a very bad situation where I am facing foreclosure and have already had my car repossessed. You can check out my story on this web page

I am asking each of you who has received this email to make a donation to me of between $1 and $5 (or between 1 and 5 of your countries unit of currency) to assist me at this time. I am quite sure that none of you will miss such a small amount but if some of you respond then it will help me get back on track with my life which is certainly facing a serious crisis at the moment.

If you are in a position where you feel you can make a larger donation to help me out then please feel free to make whatever contribution you believe will assist me.

You can either send the money to me by mail(cash, money order, cheque) or deposit it in my Paypal account. If you are paying through Paypal you can make the payment through the Paypal payment link on the webpage listed above.

I thank you all in advance for your help. If you are sending me your donation by mail please email me so I can watch out for your letter. If you make a deposit into my Paypal account Paypal will inform me and I will send you a thank you email and keep you informed of my circumstances.

Regards to you all,

John

PS This is not a scam but a genuine plea for help. I am looking forward to some help and assistance from some of you.

Orchids - The Glory of Nature

This spectacular orchid has just bloomed to cheer up my back yard - the work of the green thumb in our household Joanne.

SpiritSafaris - Beautiful Australia

* FINAL OUTBACK SAFARIS THIS SEASON -

NEW TOUR September 1-8 7N/8D Uluru via Flinders Ranges - from Sydney (or Melbourne or Adelaide) to Uluru

· September 18-24 - 8 days Uluru & Communities, Rainmaker & Outback Art - From Alice Springs to Yuendumu via Tanami Track - visit Art centres, Warlukurlangu Arts at Yuendumu, 3 nights Uluru for sunset, sunrise walks, community welcome, return to Alice Springs.

· September 23-30 8 or 5 days Uluru Heartlands & MacDonnell Ranges - Uluru 3 nights, Kings Canyon, Gosse Bluff, Hermannsburg, Palm Valley, Ormiston, Serpentine Gorge, Stanley Chasm, Simpsons Gap, Alice Springs 8 days/7 nights or 5 nights (3 nights Uluru, 1 Night Kings Canyon, 1 N Alice Springs, excludes Western MacDonnell's tour)

· October 1-8 8 or 5 days Uluru & MacDonnell Ranges - Uluru 3 nights, Kings Canyon, Gosse Bluff, Hermannsburg, Palm Valley, Ormiston, Serpentine Gorge, Stanley Chasm, Simpsons Gap, Alice Springs 8 days/7 nights or 5 nights (3 nights Uluru, 1 Night Kings Canyon, 1 N Alice Springs, excludes Western MacDonnell's tour )


Feel free to send this on to people you think may be interested. Links & format are preserved by using the forward option below.

Ask about tours - Call us at local rates - see numbers below

thank you & stay tuned !

Richard T O'Neill Director
Spirit Safaris - Song & Dance Adventures

Tel 02 8213 3225
03 9017 6862
07 3137 1607
08 6364 365

from John Cleese to the Citizens of the United States

G'day Wayne,

I think I would like to see the following letter sent, but somehow I doubt it ever will be.

Sandy McDonald
Managing Director
Home Visits for Sick Computers

Subject: Message from John Cleese to the Citizens of the United States of America:

"In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new prime minister, Tony Blair, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how
wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter "u" will be reinstated in words such as "favour" and "neighbour". Likewise, you will learn to spell "doughnut" without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffixise.

Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up vocabulary).

The same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft
spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter "u" and the elimination of -ize.

You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.

July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

You will learn to resolve personal isssues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) - roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.

You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called
crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys.

Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similaritiies to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.

You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation."

‘Dinky Di Aussie’

Hi Wayne,

Good stuff as always and in keeping with the Aussie spirit (pardon the pun) of this newsletter I thought you might like to know that we have won 2nd place in the Childrens’ section of the Unisong International songwriting contest (held in the USA) with one of our true blue songs ‘Dinky Di Aussie’.

Have a look at www.unisong.com

Apparently, this was out of 600 entries! In fact you can vote for our song as part of a seperate competition if you would like to!!

There are quite a few Aussies in the mix actually which is great - who needs the Soccaroos??

Cheers

Phil Splitter

40% of all milkshakes made are chocolate.

In a past life and the good old days of Sales tax I was selling packaging materials and food containers to restaurants and take away food outlets.

The sales tax, like today's GST , had to be shown separately on the sales docket. Unlike GST it was calculated on the cost price of the article ie our buying price. On a typical order there would be no tax on some items (white paper for wrapping fish and chips), 5% on some items (plastic takeaway containers) and 15% on some items (hot chip cups).

On writing a sales docket (yep writing) one had to have the selling price, the cost price and the tax rate for each product. Just to make life interesting, the sales tax on milkshake containers was 15% on 60% of the wholesale cost.

Why?? Because chocolate was exempt and someone had decreed that 40% of all milkshakes made were chocolate.

Keep up The Spirit

Paul

Great Drawing Course from Jenny Gibson

Thanks for another great read. Love the Maverick Spirit - Good to hear that some of those nutters lost their court cases I guess.

Remember the drawing book ABC of Art Skills we talked about a few months back? I still have the electronic rights to it I’ve turned it into an E-Book and am marketing it online.

The good thing from that perspective is that now if you would kindly review it and give it 5 minutes of fame in your email you can also do it as an affiliate and be paid for your trouble.

This is the website http://www.abcyoucandraw.com/

Let me know if you’re still interested. I could use a helping hand to get started as an online success, that’s for sure!

It is always good to “Pay it Forward” and I’m searching for ways to make this venture profitable.

Thanks tons in advance,
Jenny Gibson
jennygibson.com

The year is 1906.

Hi Wayne... thought you would like this for your blog.

Sandhan

Subject: 1906

Show this to your children and grandchildren
If you disagree with any of it, keep it to yourself
You might show your age! Teee heeee!

This will boggle your mind!
The year is 1906.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1906

The average life expectancy was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage was 22 cents per hour.
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used
borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."

(Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !

Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and went to you and others all over the United States and Canada and the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS THE MIND, EH?

Great Newsletter - Music Theatre Australia

Welcome to the 5th edition of MTA's e-news

It has been an exciting few months down at the MTA office. With the creation of our spellbinding new show "MUSE", the Commonwealth Games rush for gold and the addition of several new acts to our ever-growing national portfolio, time has flown and we have just realised that August is here! We are continually updating www.MusicTheatreAustralia.com.au with new acts, video footage and music clips, so remember it is a great place to start looking for entertainment ideas!
· MTA Website

· MTA Act Directory

· Pot-Pourri Website

· Subscribe

· Email us

August edition features:

Theme of the month - Masks, Music and Magic
New Concept Feature Act - MUSE = music + enchantment
Book Your Christmas Entertainment Now
Bob's Corner - Magic Trick
QLD & NT On Show
Spring Festival of Song, Theatre and Cabaret

Competition
What's more, this Newsletter is linked to the website. So click on the the heading of each section to go to the relevant web page and see the photos, videos and / or sound clips for that act!


Theme of the Month -

Masks, Music and Magic

Stuck for a theme for your next event? A simple yet fabulous theme is the Masquerade, where all guests are requested to wear a mask, their true identities hidden until such time as you request all masks to be removed. Guests can either wear their own masks, or we can supply them as they arrive. To go along with your Masquerade theme pick your favourite Magician for some intriguing close-up magic or a fabulous illusion stage show. Of course no event is complete without some music, either as a sophisticated back-drop to enhance the elegance of your event or simply to get your guests up and dancing the night away. Whatever you decide to do with your event, MTA can organise the best of everything for you to make it your most wonderful event ever!

Find out more here: http://www.musictheatreaustralia.com.au