"The heights by great men reached and
kept, were not attained by sudden
flight, but they, while their companions
slept, were toiling upward in the night."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Barbara Powell is an excellent teacher and she keeps her classes lively and entertaining.  She never hesitates to stop and help a student who asks a question.  She is a certified Bob Ross instructor and teaches the bob Ross method.  Barbara has her own website.  I highly recommend going to her website and signing up for her classes.  If you don’t live where you could take her classes, please find a good and qualified teacher and take an art lesson.  I’m sure you won’t regret it.

I attended Barbara’s classes every Saturday for four weeks, and I produced four paintings that I am proud of.  It was absolutely amazing to go in on a Saturday morning, learn what I could from an amazing teacher, and bring home a completed painting in the afternoon!  It was an awesome experience that I can thank my mother for sharing it with me and encouraging me to try it.  I highly recommend taking at least one art lesson whether you think you can do it or not, you just might surprise yourself like I did.  Thanks so much mom!!!

“Make your now wow, your minutes miracles, and your days pay, and when you die you will have made a difference.”
  ~Mark Victor Hansen

Learning Tai Chi from the internet is certainly not the easiest, and most likely not the best, way to learn it.  However, it is a place to start when one can’t locate an instructor.  In researching, it seems that the three most important things to pay attention to are your breathing, balance, and movement.  It also seems to require developing you own self-discipline.

I chose to start with learning qigong form, the opening moves called awakening the chi.  I have been using the website: http://www.everyday-taichi.com/qigong-opening.html#intro (also check out my list of interesting websites for a link to the every day tai chi website that I am using).  Their explainations of the moves are easy to understand, though I am not sure if I am actually doing them correctly without the benifit of feedback from an instructor.  And again “practice makes perfect”, requiring self-discipline.

I still didn’t seem to be “getting it” though, so now I have clicked the link and signed up for the free qigong course at the everyday tai chi site.  With a little extra help, I hope to make some actual progress in both learning and understanding Tai Chi.  I will let you know how it works out for me in my next post.

While there is an abundance of information out there concerning various aspects of the crisis in Japan, it is actually difficult to sift through it all. It is even more difficult to actually comprehend the severity of the crisis in the day to day lives of those who are directly affected by it all. Therefore it is difficult to figure out how would be the best way to help. As of this posting, I have located two potential sources for people of varying abilities and walks of life who wish to help.

The first potential resource I have chosen to list is a website called Design 21 Social Design Network. They are in partnership with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). There seems to be a multitude of ways to help with the Japan Crisis (as well as other causes) on this site, it is well worth investigating. Their web address is: http://www.design21sdn.com/

The second potential resource I have chosen to list is an article from a website called Newswise (their web address is http://www.newswise.com). The particular article that I found is at this URL: http://www.newswise.com/articles/japan-crisis-experts-from-the-university-of-chicago . This is article begins by stating that the University of Chicago has numerous experts who can comment on the scientific, social, political and cultural dimensions of the ongoing crisis in Japan.

It is often difficult for children to imagine their parents as ever having been anything but their parents. My youngest daughter got this book and we started having these ‘conversations’.  It is a wonderful experience for both of us.  She calls me and we each make coffee and sit down and get comfortable and begin going through the book.  We share special moments together despite the distance of the miles, we laugh, talk, share smiles and hopes and dreams.  She is starting to get to know some things about me that she hadn’t known before.  It is a special bonding experience.  I am so looking forward to our next ‘conversation’.  I fully intend to get both this book and the ‘Conversations With My Father’ book so I can share this experience with both of my parents also.

Here’s to the passing cowboy, the plowman’s pioneer;
His home, the boundless mesa, he of any man the peer;
Around his wide sombrero was stretched the rattler’s hide,
His bridle sporting conchos, his lasso at his side.
All day he roamed the prairies, at night he, with the stars,
Kept vigil o’er thousands held by neither posts nor bars;
With never a diversion in all the lonesome land,
But cattle, cattle, cattle, and the sun and sage and sand.

Sometimes the hoot-owl hailed him, when scudding through the flat;
And prairie dogs would sauce him, as at their doors they sat;
The rattler hissed its warning when near its haunts he trod
Some Texas steer pursuing o’er the pathless waste of sod.
With lasso, quirt, and ‘colter the cowboy knew his skill;
They pass with him to history and naught their place can fill;
While he, bold broncho rider, ne’er conned a lesson page,—
But cattle, cattle, cattle, and sun and sand and sage.

And oh! the long night watches, with terror in the skies!
When lightning played and mocked him till blinded were his eyes;
When raged the storm around him, and fear was in his heart
Lest panic-stricken leaders might make the whole herd start.
That meant a death for many, perhaps a wild stampede,
When none could stem the fury of the cattle in the lead;
Ah, then life seemed so little and death so very near,—
With cattle, cattle, cattle, and darkness everywhere.

Then quaff with me a bumper of water, clear and pure,
To the memory of the cowboy whose fame must e’er endure
From the Llano Estacado to Dakota’s distant sands,
Where were herded countless thousands in the days of fenceless lands.
Let us rear for him an altar in the Temple of the Brave,
And weave of Texas grasses a garland for his grave;
And offer him a guerdon for the work that he has done
With cattle, cattle, cattle, and sage and sand and sun.

James Barton Adams

Such bridges are found in rural areas throughout the United States and Canada, but are often threatened by arsonists, vandals, and flooding. In the United States, Pennsylvania has more covered bridges (over 200) than any other state, many of which can be seen in Bedford, Somerset, Washington, Chester and Lancaster Counties. The U.S. states of Vermont and New Hampshire have more covered bridges per square mile than any other place in the world. Oregon has the largest number of historical covered bridges in the western United States. They are also common in places such as Elizabethton, Tennessee; Lane County, Oregon; Madison County, Iowa; Parke County, Indiana; and Blount County, Alabama. Parts of California, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the New England states have surviving covered bridges.

In the wild, the giant panda is a terrestrial animal and primarily spends its life roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in the hilly Sichuan Province. Giant pandas are generally solitary, and each adult has a defined territory and females are not tolerant of other females in their range. Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine. The giant panda is able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices but does not establish permanent dens. For this reason, pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures. Pandas rely primarily on spatial memory rather than visual memory.