I recently put out some bird food. It is the coldest part of winter but I guess some birds don't fly south for the winter. Interestingly, a red bird appeared soon after. I had never seen such a bird in my area before. I believe it is a cardinal by virtue of its red head. Where has it been all these years to suddenly show up after I left a little bird seed outside? Interesting.

QuizBot: 50 seconds left.
marie23: italy
Reuben_James: france
QuizBot: The answer is: Malaysia
QuizBot: Ending the game...
QuizBot: Rankings:
QuizBot: 1. reuben_james (122) 2. marie23 (10) 3. sweetpaul (7) 4. crazy3 (3)
Reuben_James: gg all
marie23: Reuben you the man :)
crazy3: am first fron bottom
sweetpaul: he is unreal
Reuben_James: thanks

First Time - Lifehouse

We're both looking for something
We've been afraid to find
It's easier to be broken
It's easier to hide

Looking at you,holding my breath,
For once in my life,I'm scared to death,
I'm taking a chance,letting you inside.

Feeling alive all over again,
As deep as the sky, under my skin
Like being in love, she says
For the first time
Maybe I'm wrong,
But I'm feeling right where I belong
With you tonight
Like being in love
To feel for the first time

The world that I see inside you
Waiting to come to life
Waking me up to dreaming
Reality in your eyes

Looking at you,
Holding my breath,
For once in my life
I'm scared to death,
I'm taking a chance,
Letting you inside.

I'm feeling alive all over again
As deep as the sky under my skin
Like being in love, she says, for the first time
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm feeling right
Where I belong with you tonight
Like being in love to feel for the first time

We're crashing
Into the unknown
We're lost in this
But it feels like home

I'm feeling alive all over again
As deep as the sky under my skin
Like being in love, she says, for the first time
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm feeling right
Where I belong with you tonight
Like being in love to feel for the first time

Youtube - Video

It was September 1996 and I met this girl Beatrice. I'll admit I was looking for a girlfriend. Then I started talking to Beatrice that Friday evening. I knew she was the one for me within a minute or two I guess. She flirted with me and that was all I needed. I told her she should be my girlfriend probably within 5 minutes of meeting her. That is completely unlike me. I have been known to play coy for a couple of years with girls I was interested in. Beatrice got all flustered when I said that, but in a good way. She was acting all nervous and saying things like don't say that when I knew she really wanted me to keep saying it. She told me she was living with her boyfriend. I told her no problem, leave him and go with me. I could write a whole bunch of stories about that scenario, but not now. We had a whirlwind romance over two years but ultimately things couldn't resolve the old boyfriend situation. The song Don't Speak by No Doubt was popular at the time. Once during one of the many times when I professed my lover her this song came on. Beatrice said to me Don't Speak and now I know she was talking about the hurt that we would ultimately experience.

No Doubt - Don't Speak

Youtube - Video

Don't speak
I know just what you're saying
So please stop explaining
Don't tell me cause it hurts
Don't speak
I know what you're thinking
I don't need your reasons
Don't tell me cause it hurts

Some people think the songs of the Moody Blues were pretentious nonsense. Others like me found utter inspiration in their lyrics and melodies. I found this song when I was a teenager looking for answers about life. It was about questions but also provided a glimpse of some answers. If you are young and looking for something meaningful, or older and looking for meaning, you may want to give a listen to this song.

The Moody Blues - Question

Youtube - Video

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the wall of love is for.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be.

And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true.
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me through.

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me.

But in the grey of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew.
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our souls.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way you really mean it
When you tell me what will be.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?

Here in New York City there is an all-sports radio station called WFAN http://www.wfan.com . For the Super Bowl they have a contest where you have to answer some SB questions for a free trip to the SB. There is an unofficial message board devoted to the station and I post on the board as I listen. During the contest, people post the questions with possible answers to help any members who might play.

Now I didn't try or win the contest. But the guy who won today, before he answered the last question and won the contest, said he wanted to thank me and another guy on the message board for help with the contest. Actually I didn't help him with that question but man what a thrill to get a shout out on the station. Made my day!

I bought some food for the birds and the squirrels. You can get so much positive energy by nurturing them.

I just saw them on Conan and knew the song from a car commercial. It is pretty terrific:

Phoenix - 1901

Youtube - Video

1. Visualize the power of intention. Invite your visualization of the field of energy, which is the power of intention, to appear in your mind. Be receptive to what appears as you visualize your concept of this field of energy. Recite the seven words that represent the seven faces of intention: creative, kind, loving, beautiful, expanding, abundant, and receptive.

2. Be reflective. Consider being like a mirror, and reflect that comes into your life without judgment or opinions. Be unattached to all who come into your life by not demanding that they stay, go, or appear, at your whim. Discontinue judging yourself or others for being too fat, too tall, too ugly - too anything.

3. Expect beauty. This suggestion includes expecting kindness and love along with beauty to be in your life by deeply loving yourself, your surroundings, and by showing reverence for all life. There's always something beautiful to be experienced wherever you are.

4. Meditate on appreciation. Cherish the energy that you share with all living beings now and in the future, and even those that have lived before you. The wisdom of your soul as it responds to your meditation on appreciation assumes command and knows every step that must be taken.

5. Banish doubt. When doubt is banished, abdundance flourishes and anything is possible. We all tend to use our thoughts to create the world we choose. If you doubt your ability to create the life you intend, then you're refusing the power of intention. Even when nothing seems to indicate that you're accomplishing what you desire in your life, refuse to entertain doubt.

I haven't but once I was detained by the police for about an hour. I was in a place where the police thought there was illegal activity going on. But there really wasn't. So for an hour or so I had my hands on my shoulders, then was frisked, and let go. Was I traumatized by the experience? Nah I went back often to the same location.

This is a song most people have never heard of, but it's a great one from 1986. It has one of the best lyrics ever:

All my friends keep asking
why I'm quiet when you're around
But they don't know I feel so lucky
to stop myself from falling down

Weak In The Presence of Beauty - Floy Joy

Youtube - Video

Today the doorbell rang and there were two pleasant African-American women at the door. My first thought was Jehovah Witnesses and I was right. But they had a different approach this time. They handed me an envelope with my name and address and said they had wanted to give it to me but had missed me. They said goodbye and left. They did not try to talk about their religion.

In the envelope was a printed letter personally addressed to me. It had the typical Jehovah Witness topics in it like "How can you find real happiness". So it is the same message but a unique way of reaching out for potential converts, by making a personal appeal. I give them credit for that though I don't think I will be converting.

Someone on Facebook wants me to join New Farmville Lake. I don't know if it is a game, a scam, or something else.

In accordance with a Catholic tradition of over 1,300 years, a series of thirty Holy Masses, known as Gregorian Masses, is offered on thirty-consecutive days exclusively for the repose of the soul of a departed person.

The name derives from Pope St. Gregory the Great who was the first to popularize this pious practice. St. Gregory relates in his Dialogues how, when he had finished the series of thirty Masses for a departed monk, the monk appeared to tell he had thus gained entry into glory on completion of the Gregorian Masses. The hallowed tradition has been declared "a pious and reasonable belief of the faithful" on the authority of the Sacred Roman Congregation on Indulgences.

The Church in its canon law has prescribed these conditions regarding the Gregorian Mass series:

I. The Gregorian Masses can be offered only for ONE DECEASED person.

II. The Gregorian Masses must be offered one each day for 30 consecutive days. Should the series be interrupted for any reason, it must be started again. (During the Triduum of Holy Week the church does not consider the masses to be interrupted.)

III. The Gregorian Masses cannot be offered for several deceased, nor for all the faithful departed.

The 30-consecutive Masses in the Gregorian series need not be celebrated by the same priest, nor at the same alter; however, they must each be offered for the same departed person for each of the 30 consecutive days.

Every day say to yourself:

Nothing is more important than that I feel good. The better I feel, the more I am allowing all of the wonderful things of life to flow to me.

Sandy, that waitress I was seeing lost her desire for me
I spoke with her last night, she said she won't set herself on fire for me anymore
She worked that joint under the boardwalk
She was always the girl you saw bopping down the beach with the radio
The kids say last night she was just like a star in one of 'em cheap little seaside bars
And I saw her parked with lover boy out on the Kokomo

Dj'hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
For me this boardwalk life's through baby
You ought to quit this scene too

I bought my first digital camera awhile ago. I am getting into picture taking again and loving it. One of the things about photography is that you find yourself looking at normal things to see what would make a good picture. Suddenly you start seeing beauty all around you that otherwise you take for granted. There really is a lot of beauty.

In the comments section of my profile I put up a picture of the administration building of my (and Jerry Seinfeld's) alma mater, Queens College. It is part of the City University of New York and is a great place for a liberal arts education. I had a great time there and it was the first place where I really succeeded. Jerry Seinfeld as well as I and all other Queens College student have climbed the steps in the picture many times. I don't remember seeing Jerry there but who knows? :)

Before you were born, God knew you. He has planned out all your days for good. Don't let your potential lie dormant. Tap into that buried treasure. Share your gift with the world. You have more in you. There is talent you've not yet discovered. You may have had some great victories in your past, but that is nothing compared to what God has in your future. If you will see yourself as a fully loaded person, totally equipped, then as you stretch your faith, God will show up and show out in amazing ways.

I know you are not average. You are not ordinary. You are fully loaded. And I'm declaring that the treasure buried in you will come out. I'm calling forth the dreams, the gifts, the talents, the businesses, the ideas, the inventions, the books, the songs, the movies. I'm calling forth your untapped potential.

You will be stepping into a new season. You will have a confidence to do things you wouldn't do before. You will feel a supernatural strength. Supernatural doors will open for you. Supernatural opportunities are coming your way. Don't shrink back. Don't be intimidated. The Creator of the universe has not only equipped and empowered you, He's also breathing confidence. He's breathing ideas. He's breathing restoration.

God is saying to you what He said to Joshua: "Be strong and of good courage, for the Lord your God is with you."

You may have been told a thousand times what you can't do. But I'm here to tell you what you can do. You can overcome every obstacle. You can prosper in spite of the economy. You can be healthy and whole once again. You can recover from a fall. You can become all that God has created you to be. You are a can-do person fully loaded and fully equipped.

But if you don't understand who you are, then you'll never have the confidence to get out of your comfort zone and take steps of faith. This is imperative to fulfilling your destiny. I've learned that when I make a move, God will make a move. When I get out of my comfort zone and stretch my faith, the God will release more of my favor. When I think bigger, God will act bigger.

Joel Osteen - It's Your Time

I picked up this book today and it's got some good information about creating what you want to have in your life. I really believe there is a lot of truth in what it says. The main principle I have read today is this:

For any desire to be realized by you, or before anything can manifest in your life experience, there must be vibrational compatability between your desires and your beliefs. (A belief is really only a thought that you keep thinking.)

The New York Jets are 1 game from the Super Bowl. In terms of football talent they are probably a slightly above average team. Their coach, Rex Ryan, has been using visualization very publically to motivate the team, and it has gotten them this far. It is a very powerful tool.

Speaking of the Breakfast Club movie, when I was in college I was working on a class project with 5 other people and we met everyday for 3 or 4 weeks to work on it. We all had different backgrounds but we got along great. I have never worked with a group of people better than them. At the end of the project we got the highest grade in the class. We only got together once more after the class, when we met for lunch. I didn't see any of them after that. Well there was one more time....

This was graduate school, and I really enjoyed it. So much, that I kind of dragged it out and stayed another 4 years after that class. By then, everyone I had known at the school had graduated. However I was still excited about my graduation. I had a small rooting section in the audience which included my mother and 2 of my neighbors. After the ceremony, I even went to a reception they had for graduate students. That was a bit out of character for me because I am not big on things like that, and as I mentioned, everyone I had known had already graduated. So I enter the reception room, and lo and behold, there is Susan, one of the people I worked with on that project 4 years before. I hadn't seen her once since then. I wasn't best friends with Susan, and in fact we had a little tension at times that came from working on a deadline. But the joy I had that day of celebrating the good times I had at the school, with family and friends, and seeing Susan had reached a peak. When we saw each other we literally ran into each other's arms. We hugged like long lost lovers, which we had never been. It was the culmination of celebrating the good times and the bond we had made, even though we hadn't seen each other in those 4 years since. Susan had gotten married since then, and her husband was also at the reception. I am pretty sure he understood our embrace was just old friends...an unexpected reunion. That was one of those times when I felt pure joy and did not want to let Susan go, and she hugged back just as much.

Well all good things do come to an end, and we departed once more. No false promises of staying in touch when we knew that probably wouldn't happen. But that afternoon when I got home I turned on the TV, and the movie playing was.... The Breakfast Club.

Shine On, Shine the Light on me,
In all of my Life so that much more I see
In the Light of his Love
In the Light of reflection
Oh what a world
Or sometimes oh so it seems

Youtube - Video

Dear Mr. Vernon:

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.

Youtube - Video

Today is a milder day in New York and I washed my car. One thing I have noticed is that when you clean road salt off your car, the car shines like you waxed it. I guess the salt is slightly abrasive and removes the dirt, but not abrasive enough to scratch the finish.

Teddy Pendergrass was the lead singer with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. This song is one of the best he or anyone has ever made:

Wake Up Everybody

Youtube - Video

I bought 2,000 shares of some stocks yesterday. Today they went up 35 cents and I sold. My recent stock trading strategy has been to buy some stocks that I think are undervalued, wait for a 5% or more one day bounce, then sell. When there is some profit taking and the price goes down, I buy again. This strategy has been working.

Here is a great little song from the 80s that is pretty much forgotten. Don't mind the asian characters in the video title, it is the original english video.

Howard Jones - Life in One Day

Youtube - Video

I recently registered at youtube and posted a few comments. Someone read those comments and sent me this nice reply. It made me feel very good.

"I saw your two comments. They were good comments. I came to your profile page. I saw you had commented on 'Guantanamera' by The Sandpipers. I had never heard of 'Guantanamera' or The Sandpipers but straight away, I knew the song. That video is now the 24th addition to my favourites. I think that says it all. Thanks."

I had 2 experiences today of people or companies that are incompetent. First I bought something online from Sears with the intent of picking it up in a local store. It is a bit quicker to do it that way than to go to the department and find the item. But this time I get a call back saying the item was out of stock. This was despite the website saying there was 1 in stock, and getting an email from Sears saying the item was ready for pick-up.

I call Sears back and the customer service rep says when the website says it has 1 item that means they are out of stock. Now that makes a lot of sense and is a great way of handling an online sale. Meanwhile I have already paid for the item online, so she gives me the phone number to call and cancel. I call and there is a recorded voice saying something in spanish, then a girl comes on speaking spanish and I hear the word "Sears". I have no idea why Sears would answer the phone speaking spanish in NYC. I say I am sorry I am looking for Sears in english. The girl says "Oh I speak english too". So I give her my information and she says she will cancel the order and issue a refund to my credit card. I have my doubts.

The second example of incompetence is Verizon DSL. I have been having this problem recently where it suddenly stops working. When I call Verizon, their tech support has me do some things to re-program the DSL modem with my username and password and it works again. However the last time I did that it worked for only 2 days, so I think something else is wrong. I called up Verizon today and explain the situation. It appears that all of Verizon's tech support is outsourced to India. Some woman claims to be "Rochelle" which is interesting that a girl in India was given a Jewish name.

I explain the situation to Rochelle and she says that the modem does not have to be reconfigured. Of course this was what had to be done only 2 days ago, but she says that is not necessary. Instead she says that she will connect to my computer and download another browser to my PC and/or "clean" my browser. I told her to have a good day and I hung up on her.

One of the best ways of creating the life you want is through visualization. By picturing what you want to happen it can often materialize in the real world. I first read about this in a book and I wanted to learn more. I went to a bookstore looking for a book specifically about visualization. The one I found is probably the most definitive book on the subject. It is called "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain.

About a year later I found myself in a seminar given by none other than Shakti Gawain. I believe that is just another manifestation of visualization - to recently learn of the subject, find a book on it, then find the author is giving a lecture in my city. I went from knowing nothing about visualization to standing next to the expert on it.

Of course I recommend Shakti's book, and many other self-help and religious books touch on the subject. But even without formal training, it is a useful method, to imagine the things that you want to happen. Even more amazing, it is not a lot of work. I think the results of visualization are often better without trying too hard.

This is one of my favorite stories. I couldn't have planned it in a million years. It's about the time a friend of mine and I played and beat 2 basketball players on a top team. OK there is more to the story but it was still a once in a lifetime event.

In the spring of 1993 I was working at Citibank. They sent a bunch of us to an offsite conference at the Glen Cove conference center on Long Island where we also stayed during the conference. The center is in one of the old "Gold Coast" mansions that were a part of Long Island a century ago, the kind that was the setting of the Great Gatsby. It also happened that during our stay there, the St. John's college basketball team was lodging in preparation for the Big East basketball tournament. In 1993, St. John's was still a top 25 college basketball team. The last 10 years or so they haven't been a very good team but back then they were.

My friend Rich and I used to go bowling all the time. It turns out, the mansion at Glen Cove had 2 bowling lanes in the basement. So we quickly found them and started playing. Before long, a couple of the St. John's team found their way to the basement and you could tell they wanted to bowl. Rich and I knew who they were and we gave each other a look like what do we have here. So we asked them if they would like to bowl with us. Two of them, Carl Becker and Sergio Luyk said sure. We then found ourselves bowling against some real athletes. As if that wasn't fun enough, Rich and I beat them! Now I know bowling at best is a quasi-sport, and they would have beat us bad in basketball, but it was still fun to beat a world class athlete at something. One of my memories was after I got a strike I high-fived Carl Becker. Man I felt like I was an athlete too.

Well the conference ended a few days later and I was back home. I got a kick out of watching St. John's play on TV and see the athletes I had bowled with play on TV. Carl Becker was a star of one of the big games in the tournament, and after the game he was on the back page of Newsday with the caption "King Carl". This is the guy I had high-fived a couple of days before. St. John's went to the NCAA tournament that year and won a game before losing.

One sad footnote, I googled the players names a few months ago and I found out that Sergio Luyk, one of the players we bowled against, had passed away from cancer. Still, that time is a great memory for me.

I am going to share a tip for success with the ladies that I have closely guarded since I found out about it. What is it? Simply using the right cologne. Now I am not going to say what works, but I know what works for me. I will give a hint though - stay away from the cheap stuff.

How do I know it works? Well before I started using cologne, I had occasional success with the ladies with long dry spells. After using cologne, massive success. I was still the same sam!!, with the same great looks, intelligence, personality and sense of humor. But suddenly I had women asking me out. I had girls leaving their boyfriends for me. I had success with young and not so young ladies. Within a year I had a rock chick literally falling asleep in my arms. And I do mean sleep as in curling up in my arms to fall asleep. Coincidence? I know it works. I think the right scent works on a part of the brain that triggers attraction. I do stress that it must be the right scent, and you have to know how much to use. Too much can be worse than none at all. Cheap stuff is worse than nothing. Do your research and experiment.

I'm desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Forgetting all I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me now

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you

There's nothing else to lose
There's nothing else to find
There's nothing in the world
That can change my mind

There is nothing else
There is nothing else
There is nothing else

I'm desperate for changing
I'm starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you

Just hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment
Hanging by a moment here with you

Youtube - Video

I bought 2,000 shares of some stocks yesterday. Today they went up over 50 cents. I sold. They went up some more. That's OK I will buy again if the price drops again. :)

If I lay here
if I just lay here
would lie with me
and just forget the world

Youtube - Video

When I first heard this song I was captivated by the opening lines of the girls saying "no, no, no". I couldn't imagine that a few years later I would meet real life Tesla girls.

Tesla Girls - O.M.D.

Youtube - Video

I'm in love with Tesla girls
Now and then they watch TV
Now and then they speak to me

This year is the Year of the Tiger, or the Year of the Cat. In 1976 Al Stewart had a big hit called "Year of the Cat". If you like the song, you MUST check out the mp3 below where Al Stewart talks about the song as it plays. I love the song and this makes it even better. (You may have to cut and paste the entire URL into your browser since the link doesn't seem to show up completely. It's worth it.)

Al Stewart explaining his song Year of the Cat:

http://www.musicradio77.com/other/cat_+_narrative[1].mp3

On a morning from a Bogart movie
in a country where they turned back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Pete Lorre
contemplating a crime

QuizBot: [QUESTION] Which large species of scavenger bird can fly for hours without flapping its wings? (Genre: Zoology, points: 4)
Jakey-Jake: vulture
andrew777: condor
QuizBot: The answer is: Griffon Vulture
QuizBot: Ending the game...
QuizBot: Rankings:
QuizBot: 1. sam!! (146) 2. andrew777 (14) 3. joe2 (13) 4. rabbitkiller (4)
QuizBot: 5. funnybutterfly (2)
sam!!: wd all
Funnybutterfly: wd
andrew777: congrats sam!
Jakey-Jake: I said vulture
sam!!: ty andrew777 gg
andrew777: ty sam
Funnybutterfly: yay! 2 points!! :D
MrsFlo: well done
andrew777: wd funny
sam!!: tyty wd MrsFlo
Funnybutterfly: ty
Jakey-Jake: thank you
andrew777: gut gemacht
sam!!: it's all in this game of love
Funnybutterfly: jo~~

This is an exquisitely beautiful song written by the great Pete Seeger and performed by the Sandpipers. An all time classic.

Oh and one of the comments on youtube is mine. I won't say which one. :)

Guantanamera - The Sandpipers

Youtube - Video

Yo soy un hombre sincero...