Don't Hold Your Views Too Firmly - Commentary on Balthasar Gracian

Let's take this advice from a master in two chunks:

"Every fool is fully convinced, and every one fully persuaded is a fool: the more erroneous his judgment the more firmly he holds it. Even in cases of obvious certainty, it is fine to yield: our reasons for holding the view cannot escape notice, our courtesy in yielding must be the more recognised."

We are not apt to think of people as fools if we're honest. It's just not good copy. But someone who stubbornly holds the wrong or even a slightly incorrect view is behaving foolishly. Likewise, if you can be talked around by simple rhetoric and not be contained by fact, it doesn't look good. Truth can't be contested. That's why it is called 'fact'.

It is fine to yield even when we're in the right. If someone won't let go of the issue what point would there be in maintaining your (truth-filled) view? In these cases, no matter how right we are, we can still relent and protect a relationship -- if we choose. It all depends on our reasons, for they will be more memorable to onlookers than whether we were wrong or right. We can be 100 percent right and still look like a villain. For trying to 'champion truth' leads easily to 'rudeness' instead...

"Our obstinacy loses more than our victory yields: that is not to champion truth but rather rudeness. There be some heads of iron most difficult to turn: add caprice to obstinacy and the sum is a wearisome fool. Steadfastness should be for the will, not for the mind. Yet there are exceptions where one would fail twice, owning oneself wrong both in judgment and in the execution of it."

Quirkiness is fine for a change and even adds to the humour of a funny situation; folk would not be 'folk' without being quirky. Yet, add quirkiness to pigheadedness and inflexibility and it drives people nuts. We're right in being steadfast when it is right, when all the planets are in alignment, but a fixed mind for the sake of it is a solution to no problem.

View From My Ecuadorian Apartment Window

I started this update yesterday morning. I was sitting writing it at my desk which overlooks the Tomebamba river. The views are fabulous and I think how lucky we are to have such a view. The early part of today was a beautiful sunny 23 degree day. I could see clearly to the mountains. No clouds or rain were on the horizon. You never can tell here - it often rains later in the afternoons, and that is exactly what it did. It absolutely bucketed down in some parts, and the water in the river rose very quickly to its highest level that we have seen since arriving here.

But I digress. In the morning, before it rained, I enjoyed the view and the people-watching. Women were busy washing in the river and a family nearby was washing their taxi cab. The Dad would take the bucket down to the river for water, and then the wife and daughter helped wash the car. I know this makes this place sound like a real third world country but it's not. Not everyone washes their clothes in the river or takes a bucket to collect water to wash their cars. This local custom, as one local mentioned, is also dying out and in the near future you will not see this being done.

I love shopping as it always amazes me at the price on items. Some are the same as at home and others are much cheaper. Here is some shopping trivia: I can now buy 12 roses for $2.25 at the supermarket. The price has actually gone up since we were here in February. A dozen cost me $1.45 then. They are cheaper at the flower markets in the city. And yesterday I bought two large sheets of Xmas paper, two black biros and a packet of sticky labels. The price for this was $1.00. I knew it was not going to be expensive but I was even a little surprised at how cheap this was.

There is really nothing much that I miss from my old home in Australia. My moisturizer may not be available here, but then I just make sure that any friends that come over from the US bring me some. People often ask what the bad things we find here are. Well to be quite honest with you I don't find anything bad. If it's not to my liking then it's my problem. I chose to move here and so I accept everything as it is, and enjoy the changes and challenges.

Unleashing the Humour in Your Life

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else." - Will Rogers.

The reality of things is that not everyone laughs at life the same way. This reveals the fact that some people have a higher acceptance of some things in life. Not all fingers in a hand are the same as individuals view things differently. Different folks have got different strokes. What one person thinks of a funny or why that event is funny is called a 'sense.'

Senses are the physiological methods of perception. This would mean that a sense of humour is purely your own personal perspective. Your very own past experience would be a proof of this perspective. If you focus your attention for a moment thinking of all your past experiences in a negative way, you might be stressed out and soon become uncomfortable.

An important lesson is to not be affected by any stressful situation. Treat the situation or event as external and not internal. Try not to be a participant and get affected by the stressful circumstance. Instead of falling into the trap of wallowing in self-pity or getting into the vicious habit of complaining about life's frustrations, try to take each situation separately and laugh about them. If something is so frustrating or depressing, do not let it affect you. Remember to look back on it and just laugh, picturing in your mind that it's a ridiculous thing. Why do we have to be a victim of those circumstances? Think of how it will sound as a very funny story you could tell to your friends, and then see if you can laugh about it in various forms of laughter. With this shift in attitude, you may also find yourself in a totally different state. You would feel more light-hearted and relaxed. It is important that you are in control of your own circumstances so giving yourself a good laugh and those around you more to laugh about. Approach life in a jolly way and you will find that you are less stressed out by the negative events that occur around you. What would be simply amazing is that you will achieve the health benefits of laughter.

Steely Dan - Music With a Sense of Humour

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker "Steely Dan" have been writing music with a sense of humor since they first began there amazing partnership. With song's that can make you laugh, make you cry, make you wonder and make you dream, these two brilliant artists have it all sown up. These two guy's have an amazing chemistry together. "They are made of music"

With song's like "cousin dupree" from the Grammy Award Winning Album "two against nature"released in 2000, about an old keyboard player come oil tanker driver who go's back home to Aunt Faye's couch to set up his next move in the world, when he see's his little cousin Janine walk in the room, he can't believe how much she has grown, and all he can say is ow-ow-ouch. Cousin Dupree walks around the room with her little tops on and wearing her tight ("capris") a style of pants usually worn in warm weather, like a pair of long shorts that fall over the knee's. This song is very funny and yet quite controversial as in the song, all Dupree want's to do is kiss his little cousin Janine.

Steely Dan will go from the funny side into an totally different tangent that can also be very dark and unhappy like one song in particular that comes to mind called "everything must go" released in 2003 from the brilliant album of the same name. This cleverly written song talk's of corporate disaster from the perspective of the corporate guy, about his major pain and suffering and on to his poor old self-esteem being shattered, "cause where going" out of business, everything must go, a song that ring's so true today as all the major world corporations struggle to survive in this maddening economy, everything must go is a deep and true song, and after it fall's apart all he can do is light those Luckies (cigarettes) up and crank up the afterglow as it all crumbles around him.

Steely Dan also take a cynical view to all thing's "superstitious" with the song "Black Friday", from the album Katey Lied released in 1975, this particular song is another beauty. When Black Friday comes, I'll stand down by the door and catch the grey men when they dive from the fourteenth floor, when black friday falls. don't let it fall on me, a very clever song.

Best Presentation Ideas That Can Express Your Views Effectively

Multi-media presentations are very helpful in discussing a lot of data in a way that is easy to understand as compared to the traditional pen and paper methods. However, a presentation that is able to grab the attention of the audience and also put across the view effectively is very difficult to create. Sometimes presentations lack proper distribution of information. Often either people use loads of information in the presentation that makes it boring or it lacks data at all and makes it completely baseless. So, here are some basic presentation ideas that can prove to be helpful to create a perfect presentation.

These presentation ideas can help to discuss important information with investors, employees or other people that matter to the company. Some of the ideas include that one should have complete knowledge of the presentation, use fewer titles and to add a bit of humour one can appoint a cartoonist who could draw alongside on a flip board.

Have complete knowledge
One of the best presentation ideas is that one should be able to explain the presentation blindfolded. This not only shows that one has complete knowledge but also shows how confident one is. One can grab the attention of the audience by adding a bit of humour. This helps one to gain points as a good re-presenter.

Minimal use of titles
It means that the presenter can explain the idea by himself. It is most useful while conducting an interactive session with the employees of the organization. One can cross question to keep the audience attentive and also to test their knowledge. Such a presentation will keep the audience transfixed to the presentation and also encourage them to participate. It is important to understand that excess of anything can ruin the whole idea. So this idea should be used in some of the slides and also one can leave the title mid-way for the audience to complete.

Flip board cartoonist
When the presentation is being made at the same time the cartoonist can draw the pictures in accordance to the topic; this will bring life to the presentation. This is one of the presentation ideas that can help to win the hearts of audience. Instead of slides one can ask the cartoonist to draw images alongside one explains the topic. This is an out of the box idea that can make the session interactive as it enables the presenter to directly interact with the audience. So, one can hire a cartoonist and discuss what images to draw and the timing.

Layman's View of Prostate Cancer

I find that most articles on prostate cancer seem to be from the clinical point of view. This doesn't always placate the poor soul who has just been diagnosed and, as far as he is concerned this is a death sentence. The odds in favour of survival have increased so much over the past few years that there really should not be any doom and gloom about this disease that attacks so many men, and, I am told, an increasing percentage the older you get. And I realise that it is not something that is whispered about in corners any more, if it gets a mention. It is so eminently survivable that all men should take some simple precautions to ensure that they catch it in time.

Some Early Warning Signs
There are plenty of early warning signs that should not be ignored. I can only be classed as a layman, but, having been there, I feel I talk from a position of strength. I knew that I was having to get up more often in the night than before, but was quite happy to assume the advancing years were responsible. My PSA count was about 7, so I was not too alarmed. However, working hard in the garden I did notice some blood in my urine, which should have warned me. But that was only one occasion, so, again, not too alarmed. The sudden lack of ejaculate should have been the final sign, but that was only a couple of weeks before proof positive of the problem. Like most men I was a little slow to grasp what had happened. There was no difficulty in urinating, just more frequent, so I took a little longer than I should have going to the doctor.

Treatment
Luckily for me the cancer had not spread away from the prostate. Leaving it any longer could have been fatal. After having the cancerous cells scraped away a treatment of radiotherapy followed by regular injections and a daily pill is keeping things under control. But before I had been fit and healthy, not really a day's sickness in years and I had been eating all the sorts of fruit and vegetables guaranteed to be very helpful in combating all sorts of cancer. It just goes to show that being open about the disease and an early visit to the doctor, if only to find that all is well, would not have been wasted.

Sports Personality Of The Year - A View From The Audience

The walk from the train station to the N.E.C. seemed to take forever, I didn't know what to expect but that was all part of the excitement. This was the first time members of the public were able to witness the annual Sports Personality of the Year awards and I felt privileged to be going.

Outside the arena there was a buzz of anticipation, who was going to win and who do you want to win were the questions on everyone's lips. We were handed a voting card for the individual and team awards and I made my selection.

After what had seemed a lifetime we finally got to our seats. The view was much better than I had expected, even though the public were sat in a ring behind the V.I.P's and sports stars. The stage itself was glowing and the camera crews were making last minute preparations. Behind them sat the BBC concert orchestra who were tuning up ready to entertain the crowd before the event. Surrounding the stage were four giant television screens playing clips of the sporting events which had defined the past twelve months.

Having practiced when to applaud, how long for and having listened to the orchestra belt out some classic sporting anthems it was time for the live show to begin. Garry Lineker, Sue Barker and Adrian Chiles appeared on stage to guide us through the next two hours of celebration and reflection.

At times the atmosphere was electric with huge applause for the heroes we had watched on our television screens. They had provided us with so much joy and excitement over the past year and this was a small way in which we could thank them. On other occasions it was a hard to hold back the tears, some couldn't as we witnessed stories and tributes about Heather Clarke, Paul Hunter and Earl Woods.

There were sections reviewing each sport and the various awards were handed out. As it got nearer to the end and the announcement of the individual winner the atmosphere began to build. David Walliams received a special award in recognition of swimming the channel for sport relief, in the warm up before going live he had joked that his was the fastest time ever, despite his humour you could see that the sport relief charity was something that meant a grate deal to him.

Money Can't Always Buy You Good Health - Taking a View on High Blood Pressure

In the overall scheme of things you have to put being given a diagnosis of High Blood Pressure into perspective. On the scale of being told you have terminal and potentially fatal illness High Blood Pressure has to be looked at in the right way.

Now by saying all of this I do not wish to be accused of trying to downplay the potential risks and harm that can be caused by ignoring the signs and symptoms of High Blood Pressure. Far from it, I suffer from High Blood Pressure myself and hence know more than most the downside of being told you have this condition, it is just that having or being told you have just got High Blood Pressure (Hypertension or HBP) should not be taken as the "Death Sentence" it once was.

You can do a lot to deal with the situation and to be brutally blunt by and large how you react and deal with the diagnosis and how you move forward is by and large down to your own control. There are positive measures that you can take and you can wrestle control back into your life quite easily.

Perhaps my slightly brutal view point comes from having a friend who has just been advised that the Breast Cancer she thought was in remission has just returned and had spread. This dear friends and readers is serious, a damn site more serious than being told you are a few pounds over weight and hence your blood pressure is up!

Now before I find my email inbox flooded with correspondence from irate readers all accusing me of a cross between heartlessness and gallows humour let me repeat my earlier statement.

I have been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure, I know what it is like, I know what it is like when you forget to take your medication - my wife loves this especially. I used to forget every now and then to take The Calcium channel Blockers that I was initially prescribed and boy could you tell after about 6 hours or so. By that time I would be at the "ripping heads from Babies stage" but that also taught me a few things as well.

Why So Many MLMers Get No Views on Their Videos

Posting videos on the free sharing sites can get great publicity and plenty of eyeballs. But most network marketers fail spectacularly and get virtually no views. Here's how to do it right...

Posting videos on the free sharing sites can get great publicity and plenty of eyeballs. But most network marketers fail spectacularly and get virtually no views. Here's how to do it right...

People visit the internet for just two primary reasons. They are looking for either information or entertainment. Now, if you can pitch what you have to offer, to appeal to one or both of these reasons, you will score spectacularly.

The good news is most of your competitors out there have not got a clue and they are producing garbage. As a result they are getting a tiny number of views. This means that you can come in, produce your videos properly and clean up.

Commonly, your competition will record themselves. They shout at the camera, yell why their opportunity is the best and scream you why you should be working with them. There is no information here, just a blatant sales pitch. There is no humour either, well not intentionally anyway.

Don't forget either 'first impressions count'. If you are wearing dirty clothes, haven't cleaned up your house, haven't fixed your hair or have left spinach in your teeth, don't go in front of a camera.