Is the bird alive?

Every day I find the words and thoughts of Paulo Coelho inspiring... today his 10 sec read was:



Is the bird alive?



The young man was at the end of his training, soon he would go on to be a teacher.

Like all good pupils, he needed to challenge his teacher and to develop his own way of thinking. He caught a bird, placed it in one hand and went to see his teacher.



‘Teacher, is this bird alive or dead?’



His plan was the following: if his teacher said ‘dead’, he would open his hand and the bird would fly away. If the answer was ‘alive’, he would crush the bird between his fingers; that way the teacher would be wrong whichever answer he gave.



‘Teacher, is the bird alive or dead?’ he asked again.



‘My dear student, that depends on you,’ was the teacher’s reply

Murphy's Laws

Murphy's First Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks Murphy's

Second Law: Everything takes longer than you think

Murphy's Third Law: In any field of endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Murphy's Fourth Law: If there is a possibility that several things can go wrong, then the one that will cause the greatest damage will be the one to go wrong

Murphy's Fifth Law: If anything absolutely can NOT go wrong, it will anyway.

Murphy's Sixth Law: If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

Murphy's Seventh Law: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse Murphy's

Eighth Law: If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Murphy's Ninth Law: Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.


Murphy's Law's

New life at 19 years old... Nisha

Twitter allows you to meet people all over the world... and usually share with them travel stories, tales of afflulence and of battles fought, won and lost. And usually you are sharing stories of a life where you want for nothing.

However, I have become friends with Nisha when she asked me to donate to her project to raise money for fresh water in African villages... she has raised nearly $2,000 which is no mean feat. But as I have gotten to know Nisah, she is not your normal 19 year old.

Here is part of her bio:

My name is Nisha, I am nineteen-year-old for my South Africa and this is the story of how I became who I am. WARNING: My life has more twists in it than a rollercoaster.

At six months I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP) - an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement. As a result of having Cerebral Palsy I am unable to walk and my right-arm has reduced functionality. Growing up I used to watch other kids playing on the playground I used to be so envious and as I grew so did my anger towards God.

When I was 13 I was diagnosed with advanced Scoliosis – a medical condition in which a person’s spine is curved from side to side – and within weeks I was on the operating table undergoing surgery in which a metal rod was placed between my vertebrae to keep them from fusing together and was subsequently bedridden for a year after that. As you can imagine being bedridden wasn’t exactly fun - I got into a mini-depression and put on a bit of weight – until a family friend of ours – who is now passed on God bless his heart – came to visit and told me I looked a little ‘plumpy’ – at first I was really hurt and then I took a good look in the mirror and realized that there might have been some truth in what he was saying and I made some changes in my life.

Just 2 days ago, Nisha decide to become independent... here is day 2 of that journey:

Day2 : Yesterday was the day of my rebirth because I finally understood that history only starts becoming history once you stop reliving it every day – yesterday I chose to change my story and in doing so create a new history and because of that I went from being an utterly helpless disabled girl to being a girl who can now eat breakfast, lunch and dinner all by herself – what a difference 2 days make

It’s 10:05 AM on day 2 of my journey towards independence and I’ve already eaten my All-Bran Flakes – good for the digestive system – and learned how to write my name on a piece of paper – which was another thing on my list –I wrote my name and initials and even through it took a couple of tries before I was finally satisfied with the result I cried – literally – when I saw it because being able to write your name is like saying to the world this is who I am.

It’s only the second of my journey and I have already learned something that I will carry with me forever – I may spill cereal all over my white t-shirt or have to rub out my name a few times before I get it right but I will eventually get it right and that’s what I want you to know – you will get it right eventually – whatever the it happens to be for you.

Read more abut this remarkable girl at here blog:

Adventures of me: http://nisha360.wordpress.com/

New Twitter oh shiiiiiish another one to learn

In a presentation that was slower than paint drying, beamed live to the world by Robert Scoble on ustream.tv , I watched as the boy winders behind twitter announced a new interface.

What all the fuss was about I am not sure but they sure need some presentation skills [ maybe www.prezi.com ] and if that is the inside of a company worth a $1b and with $160m in the bank... well I am amzed at the austerity!!

Just as I get to know how to use a certain set of rules, they go and change it on me. Facebook, iTunes, iPhone, LinkedIn groups, and now Twitter... geez enough of the change guys!!

Seriously, the world waits for no-one and if you want to keep up you need to follow Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki who degeek the good stuff and tell it like it is... Scoble says, and I agree, "There are some things, though, with new Twitter design, that are regressions (IE, worse than before)."

So, the only constant is change!

How Much an Hour Do you Earn Daddy?

I love reading Paulo Coelho's 20 Second Reads... this is todays:

Paulo writes: (the story below was a comment in “The fisherman and the businessman” by Benseddik. I liked it so much that I decided to post it in the main page)

A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?
“That’s none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.

“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?”

The father was furious. “If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. I work long, hard hours everyday and don’t have time for such childish games.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy’s questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep son?” he asked.
“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here’s that $10.00 you asked for.”
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. “Oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills.
The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.

“Why did you want more money if you already had some?” the father grumbled.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.

“Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?”