Life is short

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers came in thick and fast.. 20 grams.. 500g....

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. "In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later, after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"

I can sleep when the wind blows

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.
He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were
Reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the
Awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received
A steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached
The farmer. "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him.
"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help,
Hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from
Dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.
Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.
Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed
Next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the
Little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming!
Tie things down before they blow away!"
The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No
Sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on
The spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.
To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had
Been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens
Were in the coops, and the doors were barred.
The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his
Hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while
The wind blew.

Moral of the story

When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically,
You have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the
Wind blows through your life?
The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he
Had secured the farm against the storm.
We secure ourselves against the storms of life by
Grounding ourselves in the Word of God.
We don't need to understand, we just need to hold
His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.

Mourinho's best quotes

Jose Mourinho treated the football world to a number of entertaining quotes during his stint as Chelsea manager.

"Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one" - Mourinho introduces himself to the English press after arriving from Porto in summer 2004.

"We have top players and, sorry if I'm arrogant, we have a top manager."

"If I wanted to have an easy job... I would have stayed at Porto - beautiful blue chair, the UEFA Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me."

"There are only two ways for me to leave Chelsea. One way is in June 2010 when I finish my contract and if the club doesn't give me a new one. It is the end of my contract and I am out. The second way is for Chelsea to sack me. The way of the manager leaving the club by deciding to walk away, no chance! I will never do this to Chelsea supporters." - When asked if success in the Carling Cup Final might mean it would be the last trophy he would win for Chelsea.

"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal." - After a 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

"If he helped me out in training we would be bottom of the league and if I had to work in his world of big business, we would be bankrupt." - On Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Poor people

"Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is poor people in the world trying to feed their families. Working from dawn till dusk just to feed their young. There is no pressure in football." - Speaking in a post-match interview.

"Everybody wants Chelsea to lose a game. When they do they should declare a public holiday." - Speaking in a press conference about Chelsea's leading Barclays Premier League start in the 2005-06 season.

"We are on top at the moment but not because of the club's financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work."

"I am more scared of bird flu than football. What is football compared with life? I have to buy some masks and stuff - maybe for my team as well." - Speaking soon after H5N1 spread to Britain, and when Chelsea's league lead over Manchester United had slipped to seven points.

The melon

"Young players are a little bit like melons. Only when you open and taste the melon are you 100 percent sure that the melon is good. Sometimes you have beautiful melons but they don't taste very good and some other melons are a bit ugly and when you open them, the taste is fantastic." - Mourinho's melon metaphor on young players, 9th June 2007.

"It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs - no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem" - Shorn of the likes of injury victims Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba, Mourinho cooked up a surreal analogy ahead of Tuesday's fateful draw with Rosenborg.

Google Search tricks

When it comes to the Google search box, you already know the tricks: finding exact phrases matches using quotes like "so say we all" or searching a single site using site:lifehacker.com gmail. But there are many more oblique, clever, and lesser-known search recipes and operators that work from that unassuming little input box. Dozens of Google search guides detail the tips you already know, but today we're skipping the obvious and highlighting our favorite obscure Google web search tricks.

Click Here to continue reading the article...

One of the best motivational speeches you'll ever hear.

Al Pacino in 'Just another Sunday'

I dont know what to say,really,
3 minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives,
All comes down to today
Either, we heal, as a team, or we're gonna crumble
Inch by Inch,
Play by play
Till we're finished,
We're in hell right now,
Gentlemen, believe me
We can stay here,
Get the shit kicked out of us
or
We can fight our way back
into the light
We can climb outta hell one inch at a time
Now, i cant do it for you
I'm too old
I look around,
I see this young faces,and i think
I mean,i've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make
I..I pissed away all my money,
Believe it or not
I chased off anyone's who's ever loved me
And lately,I cant even stand the face I see in the mirror
You know, when you get old in life,things get taken from you
Well thats..thats part of life
But, you only learn that,when you start losing stuff
You find out, life's a game of inches
So is football
Because, in either game,life or football,
the margin for error is so small,

I mean, one half a step too late, or too early, and you dont quite make it,
One half second too slow, too fast, you dont quite catch it,
The inches we need are everywhere around us...
They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second....
On this team, we fight for that inch...
On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us,
To pieces for that inch...
We claw with our fingernails for that inch...
Because we know,when we head up all those inches,
Thats gonna make the fucking difference, between winning and losing!

Between living and dying!!
I'll tell you this: in any fight,
Its the guy who's willing to die,who's gonna win that inch...
And I know, if im gonna have any life anymore
Its because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch...
Because, thats what living is!
The six inches in front of your face...!!

Now, i cant make you do it,
You gotta look at the guy next to you,
Look into his eyes! Now
I think you're gonna see a guy,
Who will go that inch with you...
You're gonna see a guy, who will sacrifice himself,
For this team, because he knows,
When it comes down to it,
You're gonna do the same for him...

Thats a team, gentlemen...
and, either we heal,NOW, as a team, or we will die...as individuals...thats football, Guys...thats all it is...now, what are you gonna do?

Vodafone - Elevator Song

A neat little song from a vodafone Ad. Does anyone know anything more about it?

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...

There is an interesting sequence in the movie 'Taare Zameen Par', when Aamir talks about bringing down trees by just screaming at it . Curiousity got the better of me, and i decided to google for it. Here's what i could find.

The following is a chapter from the book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum. Thought that many of you out here may also find something in this:
quote:

In the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific some villagers practice a unique form of logging. If a tree is too large to be felled with an ax, the natives cut it down by yelling at it. Woodsmen with special powers creep up on a tree just at dawn and suddenly scream at it at the top of their lungs. They continue this for thirty days. The tree dies and falls over. The theory is that the hollering kills the spirit of the tree. According to the villagers, it always works

The Solomon Islanders may have a point. Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. It's hard to believe, but i feel there is a lot of truth in it.

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred."Forward, the Light Brigade!"Charge for the guns!" he said:Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"Was there a man dismay'd?Not tho' the soldier knew Someone had blunder'd:Their's not to make reply,Their's not to reason why,Their's but to do and die:Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,Cannon to left of them,Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd;Storm'd at with shot and shell,Boldly they rode and well,Into the jaws of Death,Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,Flash'd as they turn'd in air,Sabring the gunners there,Charging an army, while All the world wonder'd:Plunged in the battery-smokeRight thro' the line they broke;Cossack and RussianReel'd from the sabre stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd.Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,Cannon to left of them,Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd;Storm'd at with shot and shell,While horse and hero fell,They that had fought so wellCame thro' the jaws of DeathBack from the mouth of Hell,All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered.Honor the charge they made,Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.

- Lord Alfred Tennyson

Where The Mind is Without Fear

This is one of my personal favourites.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore

This poem is from Gitanjali, literature. Offering of Songs, published in English in1910.Biography: Tagore, Rabindranath (1861-1941), Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate, was born in Calcutta, into a wealthy family. He began to write poetry as a child; his first book appeared when he was 17 years old. After a brief stay in England (1878) to study law, he returned to India, where he rapidly became the most important and popular author of the colonial era, writing poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. He composed several hundred popular songs and in 1929 also began painting. Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but translated many of his works into English himself. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature, and in 1915 he was knighted by the British king George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre of 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops. Some of his more famous works are 'Balaka', 'Sonar Tari', 'Chitali', and 'Gitanjali'. His selected poems 'Sanchaita', and selected short stories 'Galpagucha' were published in India 1966. Two of his songs are national anthem of India and Bangladesh. In 1901 Rabindranath Tagore founded a school at Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, which later developed into an international institution called Visva Bharati, where he tried to revive the spirit of education of ancient India, the famed "Gurukula" system, when students spent their childhood at their teacher's house and studied there.