Phi for All

If the pudding didn't help, or if you have the monkeys (those odd little thoughts that pop-up in your mind and race around in your skull when you are trying to go to sleep), think of a fantasy to play in your mind. You could be a superhero or a secret agent or a world-class lover or just about anything. Just make sure it doesn't remind you of anything that is currently keeping you awake (it shouldn't be about school, or a current love, or anything that will fixate you on real problems). If you find yourself thinking about reality when you're trying to sleep, keep going back to the fantasy. Practise and build on it and you should get pretty good at blocking out the thoughts that keep you from sleeping. I've never been good at emptying my mind, but this is the next best thing, I've found.

I just reread this whole thread. Some great stuff. Sorry, it's been awhile since I checked back. Pangloss, to me, the neo-con agenda seems very scary indeed. It ties in with how immense businesses are being awarded contracts only they can fulfill because of how easily they can pull political strings and get the contract parameters set in their favor. Why, in the final analysis, don't they scare you?

This is positively, ninja-lutely true. Shuriken is a collective term for all the ninjas throwing darts, knives, etc, which I simply wanted to point out was not only the little spinny, wheely things that Hollywood has ninjafied.

Fill a large tub with pudding (any flavor), climb in, wiggle your toes, plug in your laptop and visit this thread: http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5069&page=1&pp=20 Compose some mind-soothing haikus and post them, and if you still feel stressed, then visit this thread: http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1911 Read them all and if you know one that isn't in the thread, post it. Laugh long, laugh loud, laugh often.

Just a tip: any sword that is only $80 is only fit to decorate your wall. Not that there is much else to do with them, short of mayhem, but I like to collect weaponry that won't break the first time you were forced to use it. Throwing stars (shaken) are fun but not very accurate. Knives (shuriken) are more accurate but require more practise. Swords are fantastic for cutting your own leg off, unless you're willing to practise every day. Not having that much time to invest (lazy), I prefer the spear (yari) or the staff-mounted blade (naginata). Longer reach is the key, never let a ninja within 3' of you, I always say. Pointy-end toward the enemy, keep it between them and you.

A guy sticks his head in the barber shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop and says, "About two hours." The guy leaves. A few days later, the same guy sticks his head in the door and asks, "How long before I get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop full of customers and says, "About two hours." The guy leaves. A week later, the same guy sticks his head in the shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop an says, "About an hour and half." The guy leaves. The barber looks over at a friend in the shop and says, "Hey Bill, follow that guy and see where he goes." In a little while, Bill comes back into the shop laughing hysterically. The barber asks, "Bill, where did he go when he left here?" Bill tells him, between bursts of laughter, "To your house!"

The widow takes a look at her dear departed one right before the funeral and, to her horror, finds that he's in a brown suit. She'd specifically told the undertaker she wanted him buried in his blue suit. She demanded that the corpse be changed into the blue suit she'd brought especially for that purpose. The undertaker said, "But madam! It's only a minute or two until the funeral is scheduled to begin! We can't possibly take him out and get him changed in that amount of time. The lady said, "Who's paying for this?" The reluctant mortician wheeled the coffin out, but then wheeled it right back in a few moments later. Miraculously, the corpse was in the proper blue suit. After the ceremony, a well-satisfied widow complimented the undertaker on the smooth and speedy service. She especially wanted to know how he'd been able to get her husband into his blue suit so fast. The funeral director said, "Oh, it was easy. We'd accidentally dressed another body in your husband's blue suit, and your husband in his brown one. All we had to do was switch heads!"

The young clerk's responsibilities included bringing the judge a hot cup of coffee at the start of every day. Each morning the judge was angry that the coffee cup arrived two-thirds full. The clerk explained that he had to rush to get the coffee delivered while it was still hot, which caused him to spill much of it along the way. None of the judge's yelling and insults produced a full cup of coffee, until he finally threatened to cut the clerk's pay by one-third if he continued to bring one-third less coffee than the judge wanted. The next morning he was greeted with a cup of coffee that was full to the brim, and the next morning and the morning after that. The judge couldn't resist gloating over his success and smugly complimented the clerk on his new technique. "Oh, there's not much to it," admitted the clerk happily, "I sip some coffee right outside the coffee room, and spit it back in when I get outside your office."

Personally, I think the whole Threat Level system aids the terrorists more than it aids us. It keeps people fearful, and I don't like how easily led we become when we're afraid. I don't think any of the alerts are fake. But if the Intelligence community has some specific information about an attack, they should try to keep it as local as possible, let the people know in the affected area only, instead of telling the whole country to be on the alert, signalling the terrorists to try again some other time. I agree that kind of alarm makes us numb after awhile. Car alarms are a good example. Too many, too often.

YES!

True, but AL was singled out previously and personally by yourdadonapogos, who attacked his patriotism for standing up for the right of others to vote. Not that AL needs defending by the likes of me, but it's easy to see if you check out AL's past posts that he is a thoughtful member of this community, like many, but unfortunately not like all.

More stifling of free enterprise and smaller business, ensuring that the mega-corporations get mega-bigger. The argument that costs are cut by dealing with just one company doesn't cut it with me. Coordination administration and documentation may increase slightly but overall costs would be drastically cut by having several companies compete for smaller chunks of the work.

Eat all of them now, since carrots improve eyesight. Pick right pot next time.

Perhaps you could explain that to us all. If it weren't for the misspells (no big deal), I would have thought you pasted it in from some obscure economics text. Are you saying that because Halliburton got the job during the present admministration, they'll do anything to support the administration so the contract stays intact?

You know, I never mind a spirited debate over issues, but time and time again, you, yourdadonapogos, seem to make your attacks personal, and that is bad for the whole SFN community. It's people like you that make our guests refrain from joining, fearing attacks by trolls who can't stick to subject and draw inane conclusions based on the flimsiest of evidence. I'm getting really sick of your righteous crap. If you have something worthwhile to add (for a change), then post it, otherwise please refrain from spewing garbage. Just as a scientific experiment, try looking at AL's posts and their high quality throughout the forum and compare them to yours.

You really have your panties bunched about people who speak more than english. The problem with your law is how vague the term "conversational english" is. By whose definition? About which subjects? What types of conversation? Any conversation you're involved in? You pass a law like that and soon it will used as a tool by people with all kinds of prejudices.

If it's presidential business (including vacations) you're paying, if it's for re-election, his campaign pays the equivalent of a first class ticket for each campaigner aboard, you pay the rest (first class from Dulles-IAD to Austin-AUS is $2656.19US non-stop round trip from United Airlines departing 10/19/04 and returning a week later).

Anytime. It occured to me that it must cost a fortune to fly Bush back and forth from all those vacations to his three retreats since he has to use Air Force One for security reasons. I couldn't find the actual per trip costs of Air Force One with the Secret Service detail and all the high security screening measures. Apparently, when he's campaigning, he has to pay the equivalent of a first class ticket for every member of his capmaign staff out of the campaign budget, but that's just a token payment, since the incumbent is forced to use the plane. One official said $170 million wouldn't be enough to campaign on if the real costs of using Air Force One were added in. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/22/perks/

An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any interest in his paintings currently on display. "I've got good news and bad news," the owner replied. "The good news is that a gentleman inquired about your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death. When I told him it would, he bought all fifteen of your paintings." "That's wonderful!" the artist exclaimed. "What's the bad news?" The gallery owner replied, "The guy was your doctor."

Two old men, one a retired professor of psychology and the other a retired professor of history were relaxing. Their wives had talked them into a two week stay at a hotel in the Catskills. They were sitting around on the porch of the hotel wearing shorts and watching the sun set. The history professor said to the psychology professor, "Have you read Marx?" To which the professor of psychology said, "Yes, I think it's the wicker chairs."

A string walks into a bar with a few friends and orders a beer. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, but we don't serve strings here." The string walks away a little upset and sits down with his friends. A few minutes later he goes back to the bar and orders a beer. The bartender, looking a little exasperated, says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve strings here." So the string goes back to his table. Then he gets an idea. He ties himself in a loop and messes up the top of his hair. Then he walks back up to the bar and orders a beer. The bartender squints at him and says, "Hey, aren't you a string?" And the string says, "Nope, I'm a frayed knot."

Alcohol, drugs, nicotine, it's all poison to the body, and the only thing that matters is your tolerance of it. People with a low tolerance tend to stop before it becomes anywhere near lethal. Thankfully, most people have a low to moderate tolerance level for most poisons. A few drinks or the occasional joint is not going to hurt you and may help if you relax and stop stressing whilst imbibing. If you notice that you have a particularly high tolerance level to any of it, you are in grave danger, because you will consume more than the body can handle to reach your tolerance point. And your tolerance only gets bigger over time the more you consume. Addiction is usually a matter of very high tolerance levels. The body is funny that way, since it doesn't want you to stop consuming the poison even though it could be killing you.

Hard to believe they'll register your claim for an acre with mineral rights, do all the certification AND give you a map with an actual X on it to mark your plot, all for only $29.95. It just seems too good to be true.