I'm still trying to get over this new change in my life................

Hydrogen and oxygen are distinctly different elements,
but sometimes they combine to form water. Something similar
is true for motivation and talent.

Motivation is what we LIKE to do naturally.  Talent is what
we DO well naturally.  They can exist independently, but when
they combine, they create something special.  They create
motivated talents.

People often are naturally good at something (talented), but it
just doesn’t turn them on.  For example, Heather is good with
numbers, but she doesn’t go out of her way to find tasks calling
for that talent.  Most people have such talents.  But then there
are those talents that we really enjoy using.  These are the
motivated talents, and this is where the magic is.

We use motivated talents every chance we get.  Most of the time
we don’t even think about it.  For example, Larry has a motivated
talent for conversation, and he naturally engages both friends and
strangers in dialog.  He doesn’t consciously determine to do so;
it just happens.  It’s natural and unforced.  He enjoys it, and
he’s good at it.  That’s the hallmark of a motivated talent.

Motivated talents tend to be irrepressible.  They find expression.
In fact, if you’ve ever tried to stifle a motivated talent (either
yours or someone else’s) it probably felt like you were trying
to hold two dozen ping pong balls under water at the same time.
Motivated talents pop out, even if no one else is asking for them.
And doesn’t that make sense?  After all, it’s what we do well
AND enjoy.

The following is a short story that my teacher told me on my last day of school. I have taken it as a lesson for life, and i hope it will others who read it too. There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the ! day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence He said, 'You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.

Regardless of how you feel about Al Gore as a politician, this documentary is worth seeing because of the gravity of the issues discussed. Gore proves to be a worthy spokesman and his arguments are clear and concise at the beginning of the film. In other words, you do not need to be a scientist to understand what he is saying about the environment and the consequences of global warming. He is an effective communicator and good at explaining the problem in layperson's terms.

The problem with the film is, ironically, too much of Al Gore himself. Less than halfway through I began to ask myself "Is this a documentary about global warming or about Al Gore?" There is a shift from the message to the messenger; global warming fades into the background while Al moves to the front and center. While a brief personal portrait (family background, political career) could have enhanced the story, in this documentary the focus on Gore dilutes the film's central theme.

Towards the end, Gore's examples become slightly disjointed as he tries to "throw too much into the bag" (ex: overpopulation). I blame this more on the editing of the film than on his live presentations (people have criticized the movie as being "about a slideshow", but seeing the film made me want to attend one of Mr. Gore's presentations in person!). Thankfully, "An Inconvenient Truth" ends on a positive note. That alone makes this documentary recommended viewing.

Even when most human beings go through pretty much the same crisis points in life, each individual has a completely different set of experiences, situations and circumstances that makes him or her unique from others – or so we like to think.

Research has proven time after time that there are more similarities between humans than our minds feel comfortable accepting. Still skeptic? Take a look at the following list and tell me how many of these common human traits apply to you…

Common traits - Most people consider themselves:

• Reliable, dependable and hard-working
• Friendly and fun to be around
• They feel they’re not as satisfied as they could be
• They feel they’re not as recognized as they should be
• Considerate to others and with good people skills
• Honest and loyal to their friends and family
• Have a moderate amount of self-esteem
• Good problem solvers
• Proficient at completing tasks
• Adaptable to most situations
• Overall capable and generally smarter than others
• Good leaders (many think of themselves as natural leaders)
• Resourceful and skilled
• Good-natured
• Proficient in their communication skills
• Family-minded
• Likely to respond positively to flattery
• Likely to respond positively to enthusiasm
• They never question their own belief systems
• Have a deep fear of rejection
• Worry about what others think
• They all cherish the past, complaint about the present and fear the future
• They consider themselves good-intentioned, even when behavior is negative
• They want to make decisions that will make them look good in the eyes of others
• They think about sex far more than they will ever admit
• Almost everyone is afraid of growing old and dying
• Only those in some sort of pain work to change their status quo
• Most are not 100% satisfied at what they see in a mirror
• They will continue with a bad habit until it pains them
• They dislike the feeling of being controlled or manipulated
• They dislike doing things that don’t make sense to them
• They dislike change without a clear benefit or outcome

This list of human similarities is very powerful .

 The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by a line from Florida to the islands of Bermuda, to Puerto Rico and then back to Florida. It is one of the biggest mysteries of our time - that isn't really a mystery.

The term "Bermuda Triangle" was first used in an article written by Vincent H. Gaddis for Argosy magazine in 1964. In the article Gaddis claimed that in this strange sea a number of ships and planes had disappeared without explanation. Gaddis wasn't the first one to come to this conclusion, either. As early as 1952 George X. Sands, in a report in Fate magazine, noted what seemed like an unusually large number of strange accidents in that region.

In 1969 John Wallace Spencer wrote a book called Limbo of the Lost specifically about the triangle and, two years later, a feature documentary on the subject, The Devil's Triangle, was released. These, along with the bestseller The Bermuda Triangle, published in 1974, permanently registered the legend of the "Hoodoo Sea" within popular culture.

Several books suggested that the disappearances were due to an intelligent, technologically advanced race living in space or under the sea.

The only problem was that the mystery was more hype than reality. In 1975 a librarian at Arizona State University, named Larry Kusche, decided to investigate the claims made by these articles and books. What he found he published in his own book entitled The Bermuda Triangle Mystery-Solved. Kusche had carefully dug into records other writers had neglected. He found that many of the strange accidents were not so strange after all. Often a triangle writer had noted a ship or plane had disappeared in "calms seas" when the record showed a raging storm had been in progress. Others said ships had "mysteriously vanished" when their remains had actually been found and the cause of their sinking explained.

More significantly a check of Lloyd's of London's accident records by the editor of Fate in 1975 showed that the triangle was a no more dangerous part of the ocean than any other. U.S. Coast Guard records confirmed this and since that time no good arguments have ever been made to refute those statistics. So the Bermuda Triangle mystery disappeared, in the same way many of its supposed victims had vanished.

Even though the Bermuda Triangle isn't a true mystery, this region of the sea certainly has had its share of marine tragedy.

Code of Conduct on a Pirate Ship:
The rules of each pirate captain were clearly stated to each member of the crew. There was little ambiguity about acceptable behavior among pirates on a typical pirate ship. When a rule was breached, the crew was often without pity or remorse in punishing a guilty crew member. Although in cases of particularly useful pirates such as skillful fighters, exceptions were inevitably made. Below, a sample code of conduct is provided. Outlined below is a sample.

Sample Code of Conduct:  

• Every man shall obey civil Command; the Captain shall have one full share and a half in all Prizes; the Master, Carpenter, Boatswain and Gunner shall have one Share and quarter.

• If any man shall offer to run away, or keep any Secret from the Company, he shall be marroon'd with one Bottle of Powder, one Bottle of Water, one small Arm and shot.

• If any Many shall steel any Thing in the Company, or game, to the Value of a Piece of Eight, he shall be marroon'd or shot.

• If at any Time we should meet another Marrooner (that is Pyrate) that Man that shall sign his Articles without the Consent of our Company, shall suffer such Punishment as the Captain and Company shall think fit.

• That Man that shall strike another whilst these Articles are in force, shall receive Mose's Law (that is 40 stripes lacking one) on the bare Back.

• That Man that shall snap his Arms, or smoak Tobacco in the Hold, without a cap to his Pipe, or carry a Candle lighted without a Lanthorn, shall suffer the same Punishment as in the former Article.

• That Man that shall not keep his Arms clean, fit for an Engagement, or neglect his Business, shall be cut off from his Share, and suffer such other Punishment as the Captain and the Company shall think fit.

• If any Man shall lose a Joint in time of an Engagement he shall have 400 pieces of Eight; if a limb 800.

• If at any time you meet with a prudent Woman, that Man that offers to meddle with her, without her Consent, shall suffer present Death.