We should never discount the impact of the $5, $10, or $15 we designate to Missions every month.  Think about the 'what if's'.  What if this lady's life is changed and she accepts Jesus along with her children.  Generations will be changed.  What if one of these children grows up and develops a cure for AIDS.  What if these children, set free from the bondage of poverty and illness, become change agents in their country and generations of Rwandans are set free.

Maybe these are lofty dreams, but 'what if' they aren't!  We never know what will be the result of the life we impact.  That's why we strive to impact as many lives as we can wherever we go; here in the US or halfway around the world.

En mi caso serían supuestamente 83 segundos los que aguantaría, aunque al parecer en apenas 15 segundos perdería la consciencia:

In the first 30 seconds any fluid on the surface of your body would begin to boil due to lack of ambient pressure, this includes the saliva on your tongue and the moisture in your eyes. Your eardrums would most likely burst due to the pressure in your body trying to equalize with the vacuum outside. Unlike what some science fiction films have suggested, your body would not explode.

After the first 15 seconds you would lose consciousness. If you held your breath you could potentially stay alive longer but you risk pulmonary trauma. If you didn't hold your breath you'd pass out sooner, but your lungs might have a better chance of avoiding permanent damage.

The pressure in your veins would rise until your heart no longer had the capacity to pump blood, at which point you'd die.

En fin, no está de más saberlo, ya que uno nunca sabe lo que se va a encontrar por ahí.

I'm back! What a rush!  I finished a humorous essay for an on-line magazine just in time! Deadlines are my BFF.  Trying setting deadlines for yourself, it will keep you motivated.

Here are your writing prompts for the weekend:

1. Switch up the ending of your favorite book. If it ended happily, turn it tragic. If it ended sad, make the heroes get what they were after. Keep asking the question: "what if?"
2. Imagine your main character is invisible. What benefits would he/she have? What problems? Write about it!
3. Write from the point of view of an inanimate object (a tree, a basketball, a toilet!) What would this "character" say? What would be it's biggest complaint or joy? Have fun with this one!
4. Start keeping a journal of your dreams. Not dreams "I wish I was a famous rock star." Dreams you have when you sleep! Take some images from those and create a wild story.
5. Make 4 lists on 4 separate sheets of paper: list#1: write as many jobs (or occupations) as you can think of: athlete, teacher, writer, actor, doctor, plumber, etc. list #2: write as many action verbs as you can come up with: running, playing, singing, eating, giggling, washing, etc. (use the dictionary if you need more!) list #3: write down as many emotions as you can think of: sad, jealous, happy, excited,scared, angry, etc. (your dream journal may have more) list #4: write down settings for stories: an alley, an attic, a forest, snowy field, school gym, etc.  NOW: highlight one word from each list without thinking about the connection. Put them in a story.

Have fun with these ideas. Please feel free to share more with us! I love to read what you can come up with and the stories that are born from these prompts. Share! Share! Share!

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What if the standard weekend was Wednesday and Thursday.

Would it be ...

- Wednesday Night Fever

- T.G.I.T. (Thank God It's Tuesday)

- Sunday as Humpday

- Friday morning blues

- Wednesday Night's Alright (For Fighting)

- Ruby Saturday

- Thursdaes

- Tuesday the 13th

note: Don't worry, I won't do the months next.

double note: image from here.

triple note: The Bay City Rollers would have had to clap one more time!

quadruple note: pop-ups and pin-ups: know the difference.

quintuple note: Yes, I know there is a "." above the first sentence. It's really a bug that I squished on the monitor. It's dead, but it's still bugging me.

SPECIAL NOTE: nathaliewithanh has got another Japan entry up on her blog! Check it out here.

http://humor-blogs.com/

This meaning can exist on a multitude of levels. While I attended school in North Carolina I still remained close friends with the people I have come to call "my family," but it is undoubtedly so that I have become more meaningful to those people by reentering their lives, in moving back to Michigan. Every man makes a choice, or a series of choices that determine what matters most in his life. We may say this or that of our intentions, but it is not our intentions that define who we are and what we think of the person we have become, rather decisions, or actions. I prioritized the people that mattered most in my life before a good job in a great city, in a great climate, and it was without a doubt the right decision for me.

I am not saying we must limit ourselves inorder to maintain meaningful relationships with the people we love, rather we must recgonize what matters most to ourselves, utilizing that realization as the framework to the rest of our lives. To reference Jean Paul Sartre, it would be "in-authentic" of ourselves to build a life around anything other than our hearts desires. It is inevitable that we shall dwell over past decisions, curious of what could have been, but if able to recognize that the passing present moment has been reached through choices whose origin are your heart, there can be no regret.

1. What if every sin we committed Christ felt the crack of that whip again?
2. What if every sin we committed we felt the pain?

How much do you love God? Is he worth ridding yourself of every unrighteous anger, lust, greediness, laziness, and all the other sins we commit each and every day!

• What if we loved beyond anyone's understaning?
       Can you love those that despise you?
       Can you love those that offend you?
       Can you love those who are unlovable?
• What if like the disciples Christ is calling on YOUR name to change the world
• Could you handle the hardships that Paul, and Peter faced?

Revelation 2:3
You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

He needs us as a people to change this dark world.......

Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.

HUMC will evaluate their opportunities to build a diverse medical institution around a for-profit hospital that will compliment their Hackensack hub. Starting with the opening of their Pascack Valley 'satellite' ER this week, it will enable them to lead the way in exploring a new business model for New Jersey's ailing hospital market.

Legacy Hospital Partnership has a signed Letter of Intent (LOI) with HUMC and is purportedly in discussions with another hospital that may include Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. Whether Legacy's dual effort causes any conflict of interests from HUMC's perspective will be of interest to watch.

HUMC and Legacy's LOI has yet to be publicly formalized beyond the intent stage. Obviously, the successful transfer of PVH's hospital license with its Certificate of Need (CoN) is a prerequisite for that process to move forward.

Bearing in mind the potential for other 'what-if' moments, the governing body's concern should refocus the key goal of the previous hospital ordinance. -- Asserting a hospital on site supported by medical ancillary uses. Considering that Englewood and Valley Hospital have publicly announced their intention to fight a new hospital opening in Westwood, the community's determination should be unquestioned from all vantage points.

Area residents are reminded to sign the petition to show their support for the return of a hospital. (Please click HERE to sign that petition.) Don't let HUMC's competitors decide the Pascack and Northern Valley health resource needs!

If our country weren't facing some very serious crises at the moment this would be the best campaign ever.  By that, I mean the one with the most entertainment and comedic value.  If it had been a sitcom or a reality show the ratings would have been OK.  Then, enter Sarah Palin, the unknown ingenue who brought the comedic value of the show to new heights.

Silly woman, doesn't know what a vice president does, but she's sure she can be one because she lives just across the canal from Russia and Putin flies his planes over her state.  Oh I do hope they bring in another character to be surgeon general, who isn't a doctor and has no medical experience other than having had an appendectomy and a hangnail.  Hillary cracked the glass ceiling but Sarah's going to break it...with her shrill, obnoxious voice.  She has made her own personal contribution to over population by popping out five kids, and I wouldn't be surprised if before the show ends she doesn't pop out yet another.  Won't it be fun to see her and her teenaged daughter raising their babies together?

Let's not forget the star of the show, John McCain.  The lecherous but lovable, forgetful, confused, old guy who dumped his first wife when she was disfigured in an auto accident and looks at Palin like he wants her bad.  He wants us to think he chose her because she has a good head on her shoulders.  He was either thinking with the little head, or maybe she gave good head..I'm just saying.  That wild and crazy guy got his marriage license to his new wife before he was divorced from the first one...oops!  Hey Cindy, better keep your eye on this one.  At least we know this is a guy who can make up his mind.  He knows what he wants and he goes after if...at any price.  I believe that is something he and Sarah have in common.

I loved the episode where the financial shit started hitting the fan.  Everyone knew the country was in deep financial doo doo for quite sometime...except the key players on the show...because they are very wealthy and completely out of touch with reality and they helped us get there.  One of my favorite lines was from Grampy McSame when he said, "The fundamentals of our economy our sound."  Then a few hours later did a 360.

Speaking of the financial disaster, I'm hoping the writers of the show about the bailout add some intrigue.  Since the world financial markets could collapse if we do nothing imagine how great it would be if one of the characters on the show about dumb people turned out to be smart enough to use this as leverage, you know, hold the world hostage...if we don't get something we want out of this we just let the whole thing collapse.  SO THERE!

I don't know if the show will be canceled in a few weeks or if America will vote for this group of misfit miscreants so we can watch another four years of the pathetic three ring circus that has been running this country...into the ground.

People are stupid, that's all I have to say. 

PostSecret's new stuff is good.  Lately hasn't been quite as good as it's been before, but this weeks are pretty good.  Some of them anyway.  I like them.  For the same reason everyone else likes them - we all find what we did (or didn't know) about ourselves that we dont' want to admit to others.
So, that's the fact of the matter of it all.
That, and the fact that so many people's handwriting looks the same - unless there's a lot by one person, which isn't the case.... 

Don't ask why, but I felt like listening to "Stay" by Sugarland.  
Good song.  Sad song.  But good song.  I won't go into details.  

I hate how long it takes Wikipedia to load on my internet.
It's really annoying, because when you do a google search, that's pretty much where it takes you first.

Anyway, today is just blah.
Like yesterday.
A lot like yesterday.
I don't know what was goin' on yesterday.
Just blah blah blah.
More blah blah blah.
I do keep having paranoid thoughts.  Of course I can make them go away, by proving them wrong, but they do pop up a lot more often than they used to.  No idea why.  But oh well.  I used to be paranoid-er than I am now - for I am rather paranoid as it is.  
I guess there's nothing I can do about it, for it's been here since like 7th grade.  
Ain't goin' away anytime soon either, obviously.  

Is it odd to still have imaginary friends at the age of 17?  
I've been thinking about that since I flipped.  Feels like that was a long time ago, but it was only a little over a week ago, if I remember correctly.
Anyway....When I was talking to Chambers afterwards, he had asked me if I had ever been to counseling.  I said no, but my mom threatened me with it when I was like 7, cuz I would talk to my imaginary friends outloud.  Come on, I was an only child, I was 7, didn't know any better.  Anyway, I told Chambers that I stopped after that - well, stopped doing it outloud, I kept it all in my head. 
Which, I still do that.  
Of course they're not made up people.  They're real people I know, just how I want them to be.  Like, if this and this and this happened, what would  happen next.  That sort of thing.
Is that normal?  
Or should I be worried?
You should understand that I've never told this before.  
But I'm curious.  Because I want to know.  I don't find it as weird, for me it's normal.  And I can't stop it.  I've tried and tried, but it doesn't work.  Every so often I have an episode, where my brain (someone in there anyway) is like you know this isn't real, none of it's real, and none of it is ever going to happen, and then I try to make myself stop doing it, but I can't.  And then I have this war in my head, and it's all very confusing.  
So........?

Tomorrow there is no school.
Thank goodness.
I don't think I'll be ready for that place again by the end of today.  
The weekends are too short, the weeks are too long.  
The confusion ensues.
And I get stupider and stupider.
Thanks, life.

Why did this masterpiece never get made?

1) It became a toy show.  For the Superman suit, kids were brought in to decide which variant of a black suit they should use based on its toyability.

2) Tim Burton is kind of a douche.  He was hired to direct the script Kevin Smith (Clerks) wrote.  And so of course he had a huge rewrite done.  And was a jerk to Kevin Smith.  And almost doubled the budget from $100M to $190M, spending $30M on almost nothing, since the script never even ended up finished.

3) Nic Cage is better than Superman.

The way they talk about the Singaporean Government, makes you wonder what would have happened should it have been a Malaysian production. hmmm..... =)))))))

Heads up to the approval of the video. :)

What if... I learn that due to health and time issues I can't participate in everything that sparks my interest.

What if... I realize that my crazy quilting started veering away from traditional a long while ago.

Jude on her "what if.." blog offered a challenge to her readers to redefine crazy quilting.  The results from the CQR (crazy quilt revisited) group have been interesting and inspiring.  All of the goings on of the past month or so haven't been conducive to participating in this challenge and I've come to the conclusion that I need to cut back on new projects and concentrate on current ones. 

I need local stitch buddies.  Other people that I can bounce ideas off of and to personally view their work, thus relieving me of the need to try every new technique just so I can see first hand what it looks like.  Since moving a couple of years ago and leaving the Skrappy Ladies, small stitch/quilt group, I haven't met any local stitchers.  I don't want to join a quilt guild because my interests have changed directions from most quilt groups and I'm not really up to dealing with the politics.

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The plains of "][/caption]

What if the above scenario or one of the 50+ other potential 'tie' scenarios plays out when the electoral body meets in January? How would the president and vice president be picked? Who would have that power?

As drafted in the Constitution, under the electoral college system if the results end in a tie the decision to select a new president is passed to the House of Representatives. There is a period of time before the house gets a chance to take up the topic however. During that time electors have a chance to try and coax one another to change their votes, but such an occurrence is unlikely and would be political suicide. Also, it should be noted that many states do have laws that require their electors to vote for the candidate that won their respective state's popular vote.

Upon no electors changing their minds the House receives the issue and must than decided the next president. Here is where it gets interesting. Each House member does not get a vote on the matter, instead each state delegation receives a vote. California gets one vote, Hawaii gets one vote, Nebraska gets one vote, and so on. Each state delegation casts one unifying vote, if a state delegation cannot pick one candidate to vote for they must forfeit their vote entirely. The question here is, would state delegations honor their state's respective popular vote decisions or would they honor their party?

The vice president on the other hand is decided in the Senate. Yes, the two are selected separate of one another and in the end it could result in having a bi-partisan executive branch. The senate meets while the House is debating the president and picks a vice president, if there is a tie in the Senate the sitting vice president will cast the deciding vote. This is likely to eliminate a lengthy vice president selection process since a tie breaker is relatively simple. Similarly, the question here is, would the senators choose to honor their state's respective popular vote decisions or would they honor their party?

Also, according to the Constitution if the House is unable to choose a president by March 4th, the newly Senate appointed Vice-President will become president in the same manner he/she would if a sitting president were to die or leave office for any other reason.

Interesting eh...

]]> http://webwarescratchpad.wordpress.com/?p=240 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:52:32 +0000 Paul Adamson http://webwarescratchpad.pt.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/creative-book-asks-what-if-and-brings-communities-together-through-philosophy/ [/caption]

What if? project book via issuu.com - a very creative book to promote a social project in tandem with a local primary school. Using Philosophical Enquiry to bring communities and neighbours together.

What if? Philsophical Enquiry in Communities

You buy a train ticket in the morning at 9am. You wish you could buy at '2 hourly', but your class goes for 2 hours so you have to buy a daily. You buy a daily concession ticket. You finish your uni class for the day and start your journey home. It's only 11:30am and you know that you have plans for the rest of the day, that only involve you at home. You get off the train at your stop and see a box at the top of the platform. It has 4 compartments which read:

Conc. Daily - Full. Daily - Valid 'Other'

You purchased a daily. It's only 11:30am. You have no use for this Metcard now at all. Do you throw it out, wasting another $3.50 and help Connex get rich? No. You put it in the 'Conc. Daily' compartment. This way, the next Tom or Eliza can come to the train station on their way out, and pick up someone's used card. As long as it's still valid, who said we can't share?

This is my dream for a project I'm calling WHAT IF ? ... I will start small scale of course, at my local train station. Once I am not arrested by the council or Connex, and I push to get my story on Today Tonight, I will grow a team of box makers and monitors at more stations on more lines, until hopefully we cover everywhere from Toorak to Hurstbridge.

Of course I will build up to some swanky boxes or cupboard type things once I get a sponsor or whatnot, but I'm sure it will be fine to start out as a cardboard box, I can make myself. I found a handy little HOW TO MAKE A BOX site here. These are some 'mood pics' to show what kind of thing I'm going for:

Why hasn't this been done before? Is it illegal? No idea and I don't think so. From what I've researched, there's nothing to say you can't pass on a ticket to a friend. And in answer to the first bit, I just think no-one has bothered to come up with this before. It's a really simple concept. I'm just all about giving. Follow the PAY IT FORWARD model and we ALL benefit. 

Please let me know if you want to get involved in this project with me. It could rock. Also please email me your 'WHAT IF' dreams! stepback-entertainment@hotmail.com

*Copyright and I.P registered to JMAC 23/9/08*