Forbes Thought Of The Day

“ A great leader never sets himself above his followers except in carrying responsibilities. ”

— Jules Ormont

Resenting in the Present

I went to bed last night feeling like I was crap. I felt that way because I have to do everything all the time for other people and get forgotten every time.
When I was 9 my aunt fell and broke both of her arms. At the time, my uncle was working at Bell Atlantic and smoking crack. I ended up being the person that HAD to take care of her. Emphasis on HAD because I had no choice. I love my aunt to death but I had to do everything for her. When I didn't want to do the dirty jobs she would get mad and curse. That went on about 6 months.
When I 12 I had to live with my aunt because my Nana (great grandmother was moving into senior living building. This time it was even worst because I was a little older. I had to cook, clean, get my cleaning criticized, make sure garbage was at the curb, do laundry. I even had to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner.

National Pecan Day

Interesting Food Facts about Pecan

1. Pecans come in a variety of sizes – mammoth, extra large, large, medium, small and midget.
2. Before a shelled pecan is ready to be sold, it must first be cleaned, sized, sterilized, cracked and finally, shelled.
3. There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans.  Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Choctaw and Shawnee.
4. Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919.
5. 2 Pecans provide nearly 10 percent of the recommended Daily Value for zinc. 

Fun Fact:

Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the U.S. Albany hosts the annual National Pecan Festival, which includes a race, parade, pecan-cooking contest, the crowning of the National Pecan Queen and many other activities.
The U.S. produces about 80 percent of the world’s pecan crop.
Native Americans utilized and cultivated wild pecans in the 1500s. It is the only tree native to North America and is considered one of the most valuable North American nut species.  

10 Homemade Organic Pesticides

1.  Neem
To make your own neem oil spray, simply add 1/2 an ounce of high quality organic neem oil and ½ teaspoon of a mild organic liquid soap (I use Dr. Bronners Peppermint) to two quarts of warm water. Stir slowly. Add to a spray bottle and use immediately. 

2.  Salt Spray

For treating plants infested with spider mites, mix 2 tablespoons of Himalayan Crystal Salt into one gallon of warm water and spray on infected areas.

3.  Mineral oil

Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. Stir and add to spray bottle. This organic pesticide works well for dehydrating insects and their eggs.

4.  Citrus Oil and/or Cayenne Pepper Mix

This is another great organic pesticide that works well on ants. Simply, mix 10 drops of citrus essential oil with one teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1 cup of warm water. Shake well and spray in the affected areas.

5.  Soap, Orange Citrus Oil & Water

To make this natural pesticide, simply mix 3 tablespoons of liquid Organic Castile soap with 1 ounce of Orange oil to one gallon of water. Shake well. This is an especially effective treatment against slugs and can be sprayed directly on ants and roaches.  

6.  Eucalyptus oil

A great natural pesticide for flies, bees and wasps. Simply sprinkle a few drops of eucalyptus oil where the insects are found. They will all be gone before you know it.  

7.  Onion and Garlic Spray

Mince one organic clove of garlic and one medium sized organic onion. Add to a quart of water. Wait one hour and then add one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and one tablespoon of liquid soap to the mix. This organic spray will hold its potency for one week if stored in the refrigerator.

8.  Chrysanthemum Flower Tea

These flowers hold a powerful plant chemical component called pyrethrum. This substance invades the nervous system of insects rendering them immobile. You can make your own spray by boiling 100 grams of dried flowers into 1 liter of water. Boil dried flowers in water for twenty minutes. Strain, cool and place in a spray bottle. Can be stored for up to two months. You can also add some organic neem oil to enhance the effectiveness.

9.  Tobacco Spray

Just as tobacco is not good for humans, tobacco spray was once a commonly used pesticide for killing pests, caterpillars and aphids. To make, simply take one cup of organic tobacco (preferably a brand that is organic and all-natural) and mix it in one gallon of water. Allow the mixture to set overnight. After 24-hours, the mix should have a light brown color. If it is very dark, add more water. This mix can be used on most plants, with the exception of those in the solanaceous family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.)

10.  Chile pepper / Diatomaceous Earth

Grind two handfuls of dry chiles into a fine powder and mix with 1 cup of Diatomaceous earth. Add to 2 liters of water and let set overnight. Shake well before applying.

If you have some easy recipes for making your own organic pesticides, we would love to hear them.

My Top 10 Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

10.  A great man is always willing to be little.

9.  A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

8.  Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. 

7.  If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

6.  In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

5.  Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

4.  People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. 

3.  Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

2.  For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

1.  To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. 

ACCEPTANCE

WHAT IS ACCEPTANCE?

Acceptance in human psychology is a person's assent to the reality of a situation, recognizing a process or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit. The concept is close in meaning to 'acquiescence', derived from the Latin 'acquiēscere' (to find rest in).^[1]

Acceptance is fundamental to the core dogma of most Abrahamic religions, the word "Islam" can be translated as "acceptance", "surrender" or "voluntary submission" ^[2][3] and Christianity is based upon the "acceptance" of Jesus of Nazareth as the "Christ" and could be compared to some Eastern religious concepts such as Buddhist mindfulness. Religions and psychological treatments often suggest the path of acceptance when a situation is both disliked and unchangeable, or when change may be possible only at great cost or risk. Acceptance may imply only a lack of outward, behavioral attempts at possible change, but the word is also used more specifically for a felt or hypothesized cognitive or emotional state.

DEFINITION

The term acceptance is defined as a noun, in which it shows to have three different meanings.

The first is known as the act of taking or receiving something offered. For example, if someone is giving you a gift and you receive it, then you have accepted the gift; therefore, having acceptance.

Another definition of acceptance has to deal with positive welcome; favor and endorsement. In which, a person could like someone and, have acceptance for them due to their approval of that person.

The third description of acceptance is that it can be an act of believing or assenting.

Acceptance - "An express act or implication by conduct that manifests assent to the terms of an offer in a manner invited or required by the offer so that a binding contract is formed. The exercise of power conferred by an offer by performance of some act. The act of a person to whom something is offered of tendered by another, whereby the offered demonstrates through an act invited by the offer an intention of retaining the subject of the offer." (Chirelstein, 2001)

This definition overlaps with the definition of the quality known as toleration. Acceptance and tolerance are not synonyms.

E. Tolle (Power of Now, etc.) defines acceptance as a "this is it" response to anything occurring in any moment of life. There, strength, peace and serenity are available when one stops struggling to resist, or hang on tightly to what is so in any given moment. What do I have right now? Now what I am I experiencing? The point is, can one be sad when one is sad, afraid when afraid, silly when silly, happy when happy, judgmental when judgmental, over thinking when over thinking, serene when serene, etc.

Top 10 Albert Einstein Quote

This guy is brilliant. Albert Einstein said every thing I say when no one hears me.  So I had to extend my Top choices to 10, YES!!!  I love the brilliant, mad Scientist.

10.  I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace…. Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe, such as war? 

9.  Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. 

8.  A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

7.  Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work...

6.  I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.

5.  Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. 

4.  Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.

3.  Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

2.  The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man—though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.

1.  The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits.

Tornado Alley

THEME FOR ENGLISH B By Langston Hughes

THEME FOR ENGLISH B

By Langston Hughes

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple? 
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. 
I went to school there, then Durham, then here 
to this college on the hill above Harlem. 
I am the only colored student in my class. 
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem 
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, 
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, 
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator 
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me---we two---you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me---who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records---Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white---
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me---
although you're older---and white---
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.
1951

Top 5 Bill Gates Quotes

5.  When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.

4.  Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

3.  I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

2.  Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we'd want to get involved.

1.  I'm a geek.  (Me too!)

My Top 5 Aristotle Quotes

5.  Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

4.  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

3.  Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. 

2.  You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

1.  The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.