Dovestar

September 30, 2010

Thinking of Friends

Sometimes I just sit here and think of all the friends I have known through out my life and wonder where all of they are and how they are doing now. All those friends from my childhood and teen years that I moved away from back in the late 80’s those that I hung out with after school and those that were just a school acquaintances. I wonder if any of them ever think about me if even remember me. It is very interesting how we form friendships and alliances during our youth and how easy the friendships and alliances disappear through both the progression of time and the increasing of the distance of space between. Then there are a few friendships that seem to never be effected by the test of time. I also find it funny how our memories can be distorted by time and even fade into fuzzy recollections as we age.

Looking older is never been much an issue for me but the one thing that does bother me about growing older is the loss of the friendships I had and the slow increase in loneliness i feel due to the lack of friends. I miss having the group of friends I hung out with at times and I feel as if my world is shrinking day by day. So many friends I had have died or were lost to time and distance. I guess humans are generally social creatures and as we get older the social aspect of being human becomes less and less as we go through life. I have a few friends left from my childhood and teen years but they are far away and busy with their own lives as much as I am so we communicate less than I would like us to. This is mostly my fault due to my busy schedule so I enjoy the time I have to communicate when I can.

Sometimes I sit here and remember the days when I and my friends had so much fun and faced the challenges of growing up together. I hope all of them are doing well and hope to see all of them at least one more time in this short life we all live. I wish them all well and that they have a great life along with happiness in their life and the lives of their loved ones.

May Peace and Understanding Guide you All Though your Lives.

Ray Barbier

Friendship (socyberty.com)
Teens today prefer friendship in groups (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Remember what Friendship really means (abusiveviews.wordpress.com)
Reasons Why Friendships End (socyberty.com)
So falling in love costs us friends? Good – most of us need to cull (independent.co.uk)

September 28, 2010

Orb Networks – Multimedia Software

Orb is a easy way to listen to your music files and watch the video files on your home pc remotely across the internet. Very useful if you travel allot and want to take your media library with you without taking up the hard drive space on your laptop or netbook. To help explain further below is an excerpt from Orb Networks FAQ located at http://www.orb.com/pdfs/press_kit/OrbFAQ.pdf

What is MyCasting™?
Orb MyCasting is a free service from Orb Networks that makes it easy for consumers to remotely view and share their live and recorded home and Internet TV, music, videos, photos, podcasts and other digital media stored on their PC, from any Internet-connected device, be it a mobile phone, PDA or laptop. MyCasting is the opposite of broadcasting, allowing you to stream your digital media when (time), where (place), and how (device) you want it.
What’s unique about Orb?
Orb Networks is the first company to offer a single solution for enjoying virtually all of your digital media remotely, using the devices you already own. There is no need to choose which technology path to go down to access your media remotely; other options are cumbersome and require an additional investment in yet another “cool” technology. Orb is free and begins with one easy download: there is no hardware or software required, and no additional time needed to catalog and categorize your digital media. You get instant access to the digital media that’s already on your PC. Just download Orb and start MyCasting.

If you wish to give Orb a try (Free Software and free service) go to : http://orb.com/en/download_orb or just http://orb.com

That’s all for now
Peace
R. Barbier

Orb Networks System Streams iTunes and Pandora to Any Home Stereo (thetechscoop.net)
Orb Networks Introduces MP-1 Orb Music Player (pcworld.com)
Orb’s Streaming Music Puck Shoots, But Will It Score? (nytimes.com)
Orb’s Streaming Music Puck Shoots, But Will it Score? (gigaom.com)
Orb Networks introduces MP-1 Orb Music Player (macworld.com)
Orb MP-1 streams audio using iPhone as remote (news.cnet.com)
Orb MP-1 music player pulls Sonos-like tricks for way less than a Benjamin (engadget.com)
Orb MP-1 $69 WiFi media streamer takes on Sonos (slashgear.com)
Tech Talk Podcast: Cookies and Orb (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)

September 27, 2010

Just a rant about congress

I find it quite interesting it is the rich politicians who want to raise the retirement age on social security once again. If they had to rely on the Social security as their primary if not only source of retirement and their salary was the minimum wage if they would still want to raise the retirement age and strike down a national health care system. I wonder if they would see things different and not be so against entitlements if they were not making those 6 digit salaries. I still am a firm believer in the idea of setting term limits on the congressional seats. If the president has a term limit why shouldn’t the congress. The congress is becoming like a stagnant pond, the same senators and house representatives been in there for way too many years. Time for newer , younger and more creative blood in the congress. New ideas and hopefully less party polarization would be the outcome of such new blood.

Well that’s just my 2 cents worth of political thoughts for today.

Peace and Prosperity to you all

R. Barbier

Cutting Benefits Isn’t the Way to Save Social Security (politics.usnews.com)
How Can We Fix the House and Senate? (unbiasedtruth.net)
Another Ill-Informed Front Page Washington Post Editorial on Social Security (seminal.firedoglake.com)
If Tea Party Members would only take five seconds to consider the source of their movement: David Koch, Dick Armey, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck (iflizwerequeen.com)
Fox: 78% favor term limits on congress (minx.cc)
Terry Newell: Throwing the Bums Out Won’t Work (huffingtonpost.com)

September 25, 2010

Food City Joins in Nuval Scoring System

Food City has joined in the Nuval Scoring system which makes good nutrition easy by providing comprehensive nutritional information in a single number.

To help Explain Nuval a bit here is an excerpt from the Nuval site

How the Scoring Works

NuVal™ Scores summarize comprehensive nutritional information in one simple number between 1 and 100. Each NuVal™ Score takes into account more than just the nutrition fact panel. It considers 30-plus nutrients and nutrition factors – the good (protein, calcium, vitamins) and the not-so-good (sugar, sodium, cholesterol). And then it boils it down into a simple, easy-to-use number; a number you can trust to make better decisions about nutrition in just a few seconds.

for further information on Nuval go to http://nuval.com

NuVal Turns Local Grocers Into Nutritionists (food.change.org)
Market Street Welcomes National Nutrition Month with NuVal Nutritional Scoring System Debut (eon.businesswire.com)
United Supermarkets Becomes First Texas Grocery Chain to Launch NuVal Nutritional Scoring System (eon.businesswire.com)
The Latest Nutritional Adviser: Your Grocer (online.wsj.com)
New Nutritionist: Your Grocer (online.wsj.com)
New Nutritionist: Your Grocer (online.wsj.com)
Healthy Shopping: Supermarkets Track Your Choices (abcnews.go.com)
Market Street Spices Up Summer School with Culinary Camps, Classes for Kids of All Ages (eon.businesswire.com)
Nutrition Terms (lifescript.com)
Market Street Colleyville Hosts Art Exhibition Highlighting Local Talent (eon.businesswire.com)

August 24, 2010September 6, 2010

Prayer, Faith and His Will or Ours

I used to wonder why that sometimes it seemed GOD sometimes wouldn’t answer my prayers. I figured out he was answering them it was that some prayers he answered no to and others he answered in ways I didn’t understand at the time. Then there were many prayers that were unanswered due to my lack of faith in him. God loves all of us regardless if we believe in him or not, Just like a father he loves his children both the good and bad. He helps all of us both by answering our prayers and by brining us experiences in our life to enrich us or teach us.

A friend of mine once stated like many others had done, If god exists and loves us then why would he allow famine, war and disease on earth. It is man who brings war and allows famine to be in this world. Mankind’s will is what spawns the majority of our sufferings. The problem is Man chooses his own will over that of God’s which pretty much says Man thinks he is the master instead of God. There are many who put God’s will before their own, yet its a very small amount of people compared to who that don’t. We are yet his children and even though we ignore his advice and will, He will still help us in times of need. But due to ignoring his advice and will we will have much more problems to face in our life.

If a father tells his son, Son do not drink alcohol it will eventually consume you and your life and the son ignores the warning usually that son will have a very high chance of alcoholism and possibly the related health issues related to drinking. If the son heeds the fathers advice he avoids all the pitfalls of drinking. This is similar to what god has done, he has warned us in the bible of the pitfalls of both sin and putting our own will above his and most of us chose to ignore it. Though we will have to face many of the negative aspects of our choice to not follow God’s will he still loves us.

Have faith in him and pray for his will to be done on earth as in heaven, Repent and ask for strength to resist the temptations of life.

God Bless

Ray Barbier

August 22, 2010September 6, 2010

Guilt, Mistakes and Self Forgiveness

Self forgiveness is something that very few of us ever practice, forgiving one’s self seems to be a much harder task than to forgive others. Why does it seem that to forgive some one is much easier than to forgive our own mistakes and transgressions? For some reason we tend to be much harder on ourselves than we are on other people. We must realize that like everyone else we are not perfect and therefore we will make mistakes and should learn from those mistakes but not allow those mistakes to control our lives. We can focus on our positive attributes and our achievements instead of on our mistakes and our negative aspects. Mistakes being a part of the natural learning process that we all go through and they are beneficial in learning what we should not do. So making mistakes is something that we all must face in this life that we live.

Guilt which is an aftereffect of making a mistake is suppose to be a short lived emotion to help us remember that we had made that mistake. Guilt is not supposed to be a lifelong emotion and if it becomes one it changes from a beneficial emotion into a destructive emotion. Suffering Guilt for a long period of time is devastating to a persons self-esteem and their personal happiness. Accept the mistakes that you have made, then learn from them and try not to repeat them is about all one can do. Everybody makes mistakes and everyone faces guilt from time to time and that my friend is what being human is all about.

Well till next time

Peace R. Barbier

Learning to Forgive (lifescript.com)
Purpose of Forgiveness (dragonintuitive.com)
Understanding the lost art of repentance and its urgency (jta.org)
7 reviews of Guilt (rateitall.com)

August 21, 2010September 6, 2010

Just Rambling on about emotions.

Anger serves a purpose but is meant to be a temporary state of emotion not a way of life. Anger is designed for the purpose of self preservation and defense , It is a response to a negative force we encounter and usually turns off after the event. Sometimes anger will linger and cause great physical distress which is not its true design. Instead of anger we are supposed to have a memory of the incident and the mistrust or caution mentality. To hold on to anger for too long of time it creates a negative effect on your social and physical well being. To allow any emotion to be in control of you and your daily life is unhealthy. Emotions should be under your control not the other way around. Taming emotions that have gone wild and has gained control of your life is not an easy task. But like any challenge we face in life it is possible with determination and allot of self control. Though meditation, hypnosis and plain common sense one can regain control over their emotions within time. The first step is to realize that your emotions are in control of you and that you need to regain control of them.

Some people choose to ignore or try and shut off their emotions and this also creates problems for your body and mind. Learn to experience your emotions when they come and then learn to let go of them once they are no longer necessary. Mankind has always had to deal with their emotions and how they can both be beneficial and devastating to the individual who experiences them. Too much emotions is bad just as too little of emotions is also bad. Find a balance between both extremes and learn to be the master of them and all will be well. When a emotion becomes too strong and uncontrollable find a way to express that emotion and to get it out of you. Writing, exercise, and any form of artistic expression usually are good ways to express and release the emotions you are dealing with. There are many other ways to deal with the overbearing emotions one can experience and each person needs to find the best way for them.

Depression is one of the most devastating emotions one must face and when facing it I would suggest not doing it alone, Talk to your family and friends about your sadness and ask them for help and if it is a very severe case do not feel ashamed to go ask for help from your physician or a therapist. Being depressed may be natural from time to time but it is not normal to be depressed all of the time.

Well enough rambling for today.

Peace.

R. Barbier