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Is there such a thing as soul purpose or life’s work? Do we listen to the calling rumbling deep with in our souls? How often do we instinctively deny our inner truth to follow the simple path, one that is well worn and comfortable. In essence, we are guilty of conforming.

These poems speak of my inner prodding to have the courage to share what I have learned. I encourage others to do the same.

Unexpected

Unexpected heartfelt truth
Scurrying to the forefront
In the web of what was
And now what is meant to be

A moment of stillness
Brought on by the fright
A flash of sorrow
Interspersed with light

How did it happen?
When, where, and why?
What was the purpose?
Why do I cry?

Time keeps passing
Adrift, I do feel
Everything is floating
Nothing seems real.

Advice

Gather your senses
Speak the truth
You are meant to share
You are not meant to prove

We are your subjects
Willing and strong
You are spokesperson
Stop taking so long

Our truth is your truth
Together we ride
Uncharted waters
Inward we glide

Why are you watchful?
Apprehensive, nervous, and shy
Have faith in our message
Don’t just stand by

Time

It is time to circumvent the arrangement of sequence thus spent.
To incorporate untold stories true of nature and the nature of you.
Behold what is present, ask what is past,
Glimpse the future, then just relax.
All that has come has been foretold by your past.
Actions whilst mild or bold, present, as seeds are to growth.
Know that to wonder is yet to behold.

The future is ours, a breath at a time.

The present is the future, about to unfold.
I am/I was/I shall/I’ll be is all one needs to understand me.

I have served as a teacher of individuals with autism for 18 years. They have taught me to question past perceptions, and open myself to the extraordinary. If you are interested in learning more about my unconventional ideas related to severe autism, please check out my articles. Comments and questions are always appreciated.

Thank you,
Mary Ann Harrington

Mary Ann Harrington

web.mac.com/maharrington web.mac.com/maharrington

Hrithik Roshan was born on 10 January, 1974 in mumbai. Hrithhik’s father is Rakesh Roshan, a bollywood actor, director and producer. Hrithik Roshan is one of the most talented, handsome, macho personality as well as a good dancer in the bollywood film industry.

Hrithik was first seen on the screen when he was six years old as an extra artist in a dance sequence in the film “Aasha” in 1980. After that film he did two more small characters in the films “Aap ki Deewane” and Bhagwan Dada” in 1980 and 1986 respectively.

Hrithik started his bollywood career as a full time actor when he played the lead role(double character) opposite Amisha Patel in the film “Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai”. The first two weeks after the release of the film were not good enough. From then gradually the film rose to top position and became the biggest success in 2000. And It was the highest grossing film in that year. That film made him an overnight superstar and he was thought to be the next big name in Bollywood. The film also won as many as eight awards in various contests. He was awarded the Filmfare Best Debut Award as well as Filmfare Best Actor Award. After that film and in the same year he also acted in the films “fiza” and “mission Kashmir”. They didn’t do well good at the box office. Hrithik acted in “yaadein” in the year 2001 and it resulted a big flop at box office. Later he acted in Karan Johar’s “Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham” With the big names Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan and that film was a sucess and he got much praise for his acting in that film. 2002 was a very bad year in his career for all his three films were big box office flops.

Hrithik came back with his another blockbuster movie “Koi Mil Gaya” in 2003 directed by his father Rakesh Roshan. That film was the biggest hit of that year and also earned him as many as six best actor awards in various contests including his second Filmfare Best Actor Award as well as Best Actor Critics Award. In 2004 he only acted in one film “Lakshya” directed by Farhan Akthar. Its result discouraged him a little as it didn’t do well at the box office. But he won the praise of critics as the best performance by him to that date.

Hrithik took two years rest after the the film “Lakshya” and was back with “Krrish” in june 2006. The movie was again directed by his father Rakesh Roshan and was the sequel to his movie in 2003 “Koi Mil Gaya”. It was a again a big hit for both his father and himself.

Hrithik’s most recent movie is Dhoom-2, which is the sequel to the 2004 blockbuster Dhoom, in which he acted the role of John Abraham in the first part. Dhoom-2 was a major success in 2006 and has already been the highest grosser of the year.

His forthcoming films, that are scheduled to release in 2007 and are currently on sets are “Jodha-Akbar” and “Kismat Talkies”.

Hrithik got married to Suzanne Khan, his childhood friend and the daughter of actor and director sanjay khan. They were classmates at school. She is the sister of actor Jayed Khan. They had their baby boy on March 28, 2006 at Leelavathi Hospital in Mumbai. The boy was named “Hrehaan”. Hrithik has an extra thumb just beside his thumb on his right hand. Hrithik has a sister called Sunaina.

bollywoodpoint.com/ bollywoodpoint.com/

OK, I said it out loud and to a few people, now what do I do? Will the truth set me free? I’m a cliche, a statistic and why don’t I hear people talking about this more often. Is this socially acceptable behavior since its not out in the open as much as physical abuses?

I’ll start with the highlights of my background. I’m not your typical woman that you would look at and suspect that anyone would be capable of abusing me in the slightest way. I’m lively (almost bubbly), driven, confident, slightly adorable with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. When I met my husband to be I was 24 and an Executive Producer of my own radio show in Los Angeles which shortly thereafter I started a print modeling agency with my then partner Dr. Donald Plance, my hero who discovered 5 years earlier that I had two rotting tubular pregnancies in my fallopian tubes and held my hand in and out of hospitals for over two years to save my life. I should have know when he refused to be any part of the wedding and never welcomed (lets call him) Richard in his practice…ever. I was the girl that got promoted every 6 months no matter where I worked. I would work 24 hours a day if I needed to get ahead. Second to that, the other embarrassing truth that I’m sure most of you could understand the concealment, is that technically…I have an eight grade education. Which, I later went back to community college where I was told that I had dyslexia and I tried but I couldn’t pass my math requirements so I gave up trying. Thus, the need for someone to edit when and where my comma’s are supposed to go but I am a very good speller on my own…thank you very much. I left school in the first semester of ninth grade. Primarily because my parents had long forgotten looking after me for years and there wasn’t anyone there to encourage me to stay in school and also because my only brother Johnny had his skull cracked open in a motorcycle accident and laid in a convalescent hospital trying to kill himself every day. I would sit with him trying to feed him baby food and play ball with him while he would call me a filthy slut and tell me to go fuck off. Ten years later he decided it was all to hard for him and he drank himself to death. My father was a used car sales man who wore slick suits and my mother was a dancer in those swanky sort of clubs. Both of my parents are alcoholics but my father was a particularly bad one, he was a binge drinker and would stay drunk for literally an entire month and during his binges it was very bad times in the Cavalier household. He was very violent when he drank and even though my mother was little she never let him beat her without him getting hurt as well. I never hid my bruises from anyone, they were like battle wounds and I suspect I thought people might let me get away with stuff since they would feel sorry for me, but everyone in the neighborhood was just used to it and nobody paid much attention. Until, one day he almost beat my dog Sachmo (who was a cross between a Poodle and a Schnauzer) to death one day for taking a shit on the living room floor after waiting patiently by the back door for a day. I decided the best way to get back at my dad was to ruin everything he loved…his home, his TV, his Johnny Mathis vinyl collection. I waited until I knew he wasn’t going to be home and I went through the entire house and tossed every last item into the swimming pool. I mean every last item, toaster, chairs, lamps…everything. I got the worst beating that night but my mom saved me just before I went unconscious and I didn’t see him again until I was 18. For me, I won. I fought back against a very stronger man and I made him MAD. That was pretty much the last man that ever struck me and after that I was hella feisty and nobody ever messed with me, I was now a defiant angry teen. I was also a heart breaker and a cheater. I pretty much cheated on every boyfriend that I ever had and simply stated that I wasn’t married yet and how would I know that I had THE ONE if I didn’t take chances when I met someone that I had chemistry with.

When I met Richard at the radio station for his interview my boyfriend at the time was the host of the show who was a used up 80’s drummer with a big mouth who was perfect for the gig. Richard had a girlfriend in the studio. When I walked down the hall Richard turned to the host and asked him, “Who the hell is that girl” and he confidently assured him that I was his. Richard sent his apologies but when I walked in the room Richard and I had instantaneous love lock. I continued to go and watch Richard’s band play at the local pub on Fairfax in LA. Richard had to meet a series of my new boyfriends of mine as Richard got engaged to his gal. We never once did anything more than hug one another. Not him, he was all or nothing in my eyes. Richard called me up for lunch one day during my hectic modeling agency days, but I moved everything to make the lunch. There he poured his heart to me about breaking up with his girl and that he was renting a part of a living room from his best friends girlfriend which he just happened to be shagging as well. I remember on the walk back from lunch, he grabbed my arm and said “LINK ME”, which brought me closer to him than ever before and while the both of us were actually single. By this time, I had already purchased my first house at 25 and was feeling pretty secure about my future. Days later I invited him out for a drink and he declined. I responded by telling him that there would be no need for us to be friends then, if we couldn’t have a few drinks together to loose my number. He quickly agreed to have that drink but his hesitation proved to be right on the mark. Our whirlwind romance started just then and didn’t slow for a very long time.

Richard was raised in Ireland and had been moderately successful in a 80’s English rock band with some rotation on MTV and had since run through all of his money. He was an only child to two aging people and his sweet father passed when he was just ten years old leaving him with a cold, depressed and bitter drunk mother whom he said never told him that she loved him. He took over the male role in the house by cooking and trying to keep it together but she never seemed to notice. He would come home with black eyes and never question to what happened. Right when his 80’s band started to take off he found out that a girl that he was trying to break it off with was pregnant. They married but he admittedly to me told me that he had several affairs but that was only because he was never in lover with her. Soon after, he quitted his band, first wife and son and moved to America. He always drank, every night but to me he was a poet. I believe that was my initial justification to his heavy drinking. He was definitely a depressive and was on Prozac when I first met him which he told me made it hard to write songs and make love so depression seemed the better way to go. I was in love and nothing in my soul could push him away. We would fax love letters back-n-forth every day to each other. We were rarely apart. The people in the band immediately became jealous and felt like I was taking him away from their intentions. Even though he never missed a rehearsal or a gig my presence was very threatening to them and they weren’t very nice to me in the beginning. He even wrote a song that went on his second album asking how could everyone be against something so beautiful. Soon, they found out that the nights that I wasn’t there he would be a mean bastard. His manager would tell me that he knew it was going to be a good show because I was there.

Then about 6 months into our relationship we were home drinking pretty heavily and he just turned to me and started to tell me that I was stupid and retarded and that he couldn’t have any worldly discussions with me. I’d ask him to teach me, that I was a quick learner and he would say that it was worthless to even try that I was so dumb it would be a waste of time. He said I would never be book smart. I was completely devastated and speechless by what he was saying. I mean, I was truly in shock and it felt like my world just stopped. My body trembled, my hands clammy and my face was soaked with tears and in the heat of it I ran to the kitchen and pulled out what I thought was a butter knife and grabbed my wrist and sliced it but it wasn’t a butter knife, it was a serrated knife and I cut myself pretty good. I went to Dr. Plance to sew it up (17 stitches) and I begged him not to turn me in. Richard didn’t talk to me for a few days even though by that time we were living together. I thought I had lost him forever so I stayed quiet as a church mouse until his eyes turned back to their normal color. Every time I saw him I would just bow my head with guilt for making him that mad at me. I would wait until he would be all hugs and kisses and love me again and I would sincerely love those times. As days would pass and a gig would come up we would go out with the gang and he would get on stage and do a beautiful dedication to me and tell everyone how much I meant to him. I would feel redeemed again. Richard’s world was pretty messy when I met him, he was illegal in the country, had no drivers license, owed thousands on back taxes, and had a 20K bill on his credit from his ex-girlfriend. These were all messes that I needed to help him clean-up. He worked during the day at a tow yard filing paperwork for 10$ an hour. He would come home from his long drive, pop open the bubbly and make us dinner. I would try not to share in the drinking, but he would get insulted since he spent time cooking, and it would ruin the meal. There really wasn’t an option for me…we were drinking that night. He didn’t like me to talk to him when he was cooking and he refused to show me what he was doing-saying it was his time, his therapy. Yes, I’m a pretty bad cook but I wished that someone would teach me. At dinner, it was one or the other “I love you”, “You are my angel” or the other which would start out by saying I was “boring”, “ridiculous”, “useless”, and a “loser.” When the bad times would happen I would feel it coming, he would start posturing towards the dark guy and I would try everything to change his mood. Going to a pub always helped but that meant we weren’t leaving until at least 4:00 in the morning and that wasn’t good for me or my career. When he got into these moods he seemed to be in a slight trance, his eyes would go dark and when he would look at you it felt like something else was looking at you. Sometimes I would just come home from work and in a great mood and as soon as I would walk in I would feel the energy and a tightening in my throat like I swallowed a potato and I would clench my fists with my thumbs inside really tight until they turned white. My vocal cords would tighten up and it felt as though there was a rope from my throat to my heart and it was constricting. I would think to myself “Not tonight, please not tonight”. The “God you bore me” would start and the only thing that I could do was let the tears fall out of my eyes. I might be able to get out a “Why are you doing this to me?” Where had the fighter gone?

By this time I had lost the modeling agency and was now just a personal assistant making more than 1/2 of what I was making. We were actually almost poor, I went from couture to thrift stores. I encouraged Richard to take time off work even though we needed the money so he could stay home and write songs for the band. Our plan was for him to make it and then I could concentrate on writing and other things I wanted to do. I had never been such a big drinker and now I realize how lucky I was when I was younger. I was very skinny my entire life and never weighed more than a healthy size 4 maybe 6 at the most. Since he was a vegetarian and he cooked I became a vegetarian and my body was all out of whack. I had no idea that I needed to replace protein and I didn’t even know what a carbohydrate was. I remember the day that I was at the store and I had a size 10 in my hands and I had to ask the girl for one more size up. I looked to the girl and I said “Do you know if beer is fattening”? Of course she just looked at me like I must have been kidding, but since I never had a weight problem I didn’t understand what was happening. Now, with that…I lost my confidence, my strength, my soul was now fat and thus couldn’t fight for me anymore. A girlfriend of mine told me that she thought he wanted me to gain weight so when he was on the road nobody would try and hit on me. At the time, I thought it was the craziest and meanest thing I had ever heard but now I’m not so sure that she wasn’t right. I was being controlled one move at a time.

He was very jealous but he never and I mean never showed this in public, but when we got home he would question me on who was looking at me and who he thought wanted to sleep with me and what a slut he bet I really was. I can say that the whole ten years we were together I never even simply kissed anyone else ever. I was always faithful to him. Then he had a certain girl in the band who I knew never wanted me around for reasons that now are very apparent. She is a very cold person and a big drinker as well, she was mean to everyone and many people didn’t like her. To give you an example of how she was, she never spoke to the bass players girlfriend until she got pregnat three years after they went out and the girlfriend would live on the bus with them sometimes. One night after a show she called me a “Bitch” and I went crazy and told Richard I wanted to leave immediately and he said no that he wanted to stay. He never stood up for me whenever there was any confrontation, it was always my fault. It was more important that everyone thought he was a great guy. There was little manipulations that he would do that I can see now such as “How can you think that I would ever do that to you”. The strange thing is that he would tell everyone that he came in touch with that I was his everything. He would cry and say that he sees my face in every window, that I was his light, that I clipped his wings of insanity. I would have strangers from around the world of where they would have played that would tell me they would die to have someone love them as much as Richard loved me. I really wanted to believe all of that. But the truth was I was very sad and lonely. The band started to take off, making more money and he started to be gone weeks at a time, then months and then many months.

It was our second anniversary and I was going to fly to New York to meet him and I hadn’t seen him in awhile. I was so excited. I had never been to New York and I had found a precious original signed letter from one of his favorite writers George Bernard Shaw and had it specially framed. It cost a whopping $700 and was the most expensive present I had gotten anyone before. I wanted this to be special. I put the present right next to my bed and my flight was leaving at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. The phone rang at 3:00 a.m. and it was Richard. The conversation started out very nice and all of a sudden he just went off. Telling me that he didn’t want me to come out that I would just be a pain in the ass and he would have a better time without me and that there wasn’t room for me on the bus. I remember falling to the ground with my heart racing. My whole body was shaking, I was hyperventilating and I called a friend of mine whom is a very stable person and asked them what I should do and she said to get on that plane and go get my husband and that he couldn’t treat me like that anymore. Richard didn’t know if I was going to show up at the venue and truthfully I was terrified but I felt like if he wanted to end it he should have to look at me to do it. Of course, when I got there he was amazed and delighted with a long face and flowers for me. I hadn’t seen him in so long that I just wanted to enjoy the time and that he was feeling sorry for what he had done. I took the good times not knowing it was just another set back.

I started to have to watch what I said to everyone about everything. It just started out as simple looks like ‘Don’t You Dare”. It made me almost paranoid and I thought intensely about everything that came out of my mouth. If I even indicated that he was less than a perfect person he would make his attack later when we were alone. Next, I became nervous to buy anything substantial in the house without his approval. I was now no longer Gina, I lost who I was, my own identity everything was about the rock star that I lived with. So, what did I do? I tried to make our world even better, I tried to be the best wife I could so that there wasn’t anything for us to fight about. I was always cheerful, supp

Thank you for your ears, your brain cells and your heart and soul for taking time to read my story. Regards, Gina

Digital SLR Camera or Digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera is an ideal camera for professionals and amateur photographers. They usually having interchangeable lenses and are known for capturing superior quality images. They come with many advanced features like megapixels, zoom, memory cards, batteries, comfort and more. One of the great appeals of digital is the ability to shoot in “raw” format.

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Before you buy a digital camera, you should equip yourself with its complete feature, brand and price information. Find out the best brands and compare the features. Here we have for you some useful information that will help you enhance your knowledge about digital SLR cameras.

Lens Interchangeability
Digital slr camera has a unique and powerful feature of lens interchangeability. This feature enhances the digital slr camera ability to shoot on a wide range. For example, using Digital slr camera with different lenses one can take wide-angle, telephoto, or close-up shots.
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Autofocus
Digital slr camera has another feature called Autofocus that allows you to focus manually. It enables Canada digital camera to automatically focus. But if one wants to change the focus point you have to simply select the AF points which are in the middle and set them accordingly. To view the subject’s details like its display, colors, expressions, etc. you can view them by using viewfinder. The image output makes a Digital SLR camera better and a serious camera as compared to point-and-shoot camera.

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Reflex Mirror
Digital SLR cameras have a reflex mirror that swings up when you press the shutter button. It allows light from the lens to pass through to the sensor. The picture is then recorded. Since a single lens and a reflex mirror are used, this type of camera is called “single-lens reflex” (SLR). Noise is almost always more prominent in the shadow parts of an image, and this is the first place to go looking when evaluating an image.

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In Egypt the greyhounds were mummified and buried with their masters. The Egyptians viewed them as supreme among all animals. The greyhounds also find place in the literary works of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Homer.

In England, greyhound was considered as a status symbol back in 10th century. Only noblemen were permitted to hunt with them. Later, Queen Elizabeth I made rules regarding the use of greyhounds to chase hares. In early 1900s Patrick Owen became the first one to introduce the concept of greyhound racing. Later, the first circular track was made in California in 1919.

The greyhounds are kept in the paddock before the race begins. After the pre race tests and procedures, the greyhounds are put in individual compartments in the starting box, called traps. These traps have automated doors. When the race starts the dog is made to chase a lure. A lure is a mechanical device that moves around the track at a considerable distance from the dog. The lure resembles either a bone or a rabbit.

After the race, the greyhound is provided with water and an open area to walk. The winner is called in the winner’s circle.

The registration and identification of greyhounds is the duty of the National Greyhound Association. It is a non profit organization and carries its work in North America. Only registered owners can enter into an exclusive contract with a registered kennel. These kennel in turn contract with the tracks. The tracks decide the schedule for the race fro a season.

There are certain states like California and Maine that prohibit greyhound racing. Other States prohibit the use live rabbits and other small animals as a bait for the dogs in the race.

The way the greyhounds are handled and trained is also a matter of controversy. While some greyhounds are naturally fit to race, the others lack killer instinct. the dogs unfit for racing are either killed or given in laboratories for experimentation. In certain cases the dogs is starved in order to develop in him an impulse to kill the small animals for food.

The World Greyhound Racing Federation ( WGRF) was established in 1969. it is a non regulatory organization and is dedicated to providing information and promoting the sport nationally and internationally. Various nations participate in the Bi- annual World Greyhound Racing Conference. At the 2003 conference the organization has adopted a welfare charter which aims at promoting the mental and physical well being of the dogs.

Greyhound Pets of America is another non profit organization that finds home to the retired greyhounds. It advices the owners of these pets how to take care of the greyhounds and helps it fit in the new environment.

The American Greyhound Council is responsible for researching diseases that infect the greyhound and providing well trained professional and veterinarians to better take care of the dogs. It also employs inspectors to check any mistreatment of greyhounds.

Like in horse racing, betting in greyhound racing is also quite prevalent. The betting game has its own terminology like bookie, beards, quiniela etc. Betting, being a wager can never be foolproof, but one cam increase his chances to win by playing smart. For example, a dog with a consistent performance can be good to bet on. The medical history and the appearance of the dog can be another parameter. Success cannot be guaranteed in the game of betting, but doing a little homework never hurts.

Mansi aggarwal writes about dogracingbets.com greyhound racing topics .

What exactly is a Gong?

The gong is a musical instrument in the percussion family.
A gong can have either a definite or an indefinite musical pitch. Usually gongs that produce a definite, specific tone are played with other specific-tone gongs in a setting like traditional Gamelan, or an innovative rock concert like the Grateful Dead.

Are there different types of gongs?

Gongs come in a variety of sizes, styles, and shapes. Like dialects of language or sects of religion, the instrument evolved differently in each location and culture it was used.
Many gongs are flat, but some have a central dome, also called a nipple. The outside rim of the gong is usually turned down; it is not sharp-edged like a cymbal.

Generally, you can think of gongs as having two basic styles: Suspended and Bowl.

Suspended gongs, which are more flat, are called such because they are literally suspended. They are hung vertically using a chord that is passed through holes close to the rim. Suspended gongs are played with a mallet or bamboo stick.

Bowl gongs are called such because they are literally bowl-shaped. They can rest on the ground or special cushions. Bowl gongs can be played in several different manners. A musician can bang a bowl gong with a mallet, but might also rub the rim with his or her finger to elicit a whole other sound.

How are they made?

Gongs are constructed of hammered metal. Most are made out of bronze or brass, but with an amalgam of other metals.

Although a lot of gongs are made in China, they are not mass produced like televisions or plastic toys. Each one is handmade.

If you hear a particular gong, like it and order that style, you must expect that the one you get may not sound exactly like the first one you heard. Minor differences are to be expected, and should be embraced. Don’t worry though! Most gong styles, thanks to design specifics, maintain a similarity of tone to the untrained ear.

Andrew Borakove is a media writer and gong aficionado. He also is the proprietor of the internet store, Gongs Unlimited. gongs-unlimited.com gongs-unlimited.com

You can find more info on Gongs there, and all kinds of gongs and related instruments for sale.

The music poster has become inextricably linked with the bedroom walls of teen fans and student dorms. A poster can depict a simple glam-shot of a pop chart diva or some obscure image that only those in the know can de-cipher. But what makes hang up those music posters in the first place?

When we put a music poster up on the wall what exactly are we doing? Usually it’s because we have some kind of liking for the artist. It could be the music (Coldplay), the image (Marilyn Manson) or maybe we find them attractive (Beyonce). In any of these cases, we are displaying behaviour associated with being a fan, which is of course short for fanatic.

I have come up with the following list of fanatics, which should cover most categories of poster hangers, but please feel free to add your own.

1. The teeny. These are early teenage girls who, as yet, are unable to find any suitably mature similarly aged boys to fall in love with, so they fall in love with a poster instead. Their main targets are boy bands, ex boy band solo artists and female solo artists if they’re in ‘girlie-crush’ mode.

2. The mid-teen. This is where rebellion starts. For the girls, it’s the biggest, ugliest rap star they can find which will be guaranteed to upset their parents. For the boys it’s the most disgusting thrash metal group they can find which will be guaranteed to upset their parents.

3. The late teen. By now, serious prejudices have been formed and allegiance to one particular type of music is essential. Having, or not having, the right poster on the wall can mean the difference between social acceptance and rejection and will confirm the tribe that you will now be in for many years to come, if not the rest of your life.

4. The student. A little like the late teen, but in a very different way. Has allegiances, but dare not admit them. Will therefore put up ‘ironic’ posters usually only considered by the teeny which thus become cool because they are in a student dorm – a bit like bricks in an art gallery.

5. The obsessed. Can be any age, diagnosed by the fact that all available wall space of their bedroom or study is plastered with posters of one particular band or artist. All possible additional memorabilia will have been purchased and will occupy any available floor space in their bedroom or study. They only come out of their bedroom or study for comfort breaks.

6. The trendy. Can also be any age, but has only one motive for poster hanging – to be in with other people. Easy to spot as there’s no allegiance to anyone other than themselves. Also they often get it completely wrong.

7. The musician. Usually male and will have a select set of ‘heroes’ posters on the wall which reflect his aspirations as a singer, lead guitar player etc. When you go and see him perform he bears no resemblance to these heroes whatsoever.

Some people pass through several, if not all of these categories during the course of their life, I must admit to a couple of them myself. There’s nothing wrong with being a fanatic, but just be aware that it’ll always give other people the opportunity to poke fun at you.

John Webber is editor for music-on-posters.com music-on-posters.com where you can find articles on posters, original band biographies and poster merchants in the USA, UK and Europe

Chapter Nine

The Shaman

Many things during these eighteen months were developing. Yes, I hate to say but I will, all the women accept Little Bird-turtle were with child again—even Half-bird—and Toma, for some odd reason got spiritual. Now with the nineteen-members of the Assemblage he started to preach, to share his insights. And in a short period of time he was, or probably could be considered and was measured for the most part in being the world’s first Shaman; yes, yes indeed, you might say, anyone in the group might say, he was becoming the spiritualist or better yet, a medium, medicine man— in the makings; any of those terms would do, although, Little Bird-turtle, was still considered the resolving personage of issues per se, within the group: Toma, was now the one that helped with physical ailments—save for the fact, most was in their heads anyway, and so he was inadvertently doing more talking, and taking, or seemingly trying to take, the place of Little-bird, when he could.

Yes, yes indeed, it just happened that way, like that—abruptly, suddenly, overnight. He even started dancing to liven up his inner spirits, conjure up his hot blood, so he said, so he could perform his art better, get into the head of the other person—and shoo away the evil spirits, the ill winds, and the evil-eye.

Spawned with the touch of insanity or the healing abilities of God Himself, he walked as if he was now a selected servant of the gods, for poor old mortal men. What god’s he was talking about was not yet discovered, but Stern-toes had heard of the Eve God, as the one God from his brother Short-legs. But he didn’t think he was referring to Him, but maybe referring to Nature as god.

—Big-chest thought it was a bunch of crap, but he didn’t’ care one way or the other how he acted, as long as the work got down, and he didn’t’ hurt anyone, or get into his way—he also had heard about the One God that drove out two people from some invisible garden, and potential He drove in the Stone-people too, but that is as far as he knew, other than a few minor details he felt insignificant. He looked at him sometimes strangely, as if he was a little on the loony, or batty side of life [not in his right mind], with his deep set-in cheeks bones, and teeth missing, he could become quite gruesome and scary, like Jaguar-eye’s father was when he’d dance around the fire, trying to incite his people to do evil. As far as spirituality, or religion went, in attendance, there was none per se, yet, Stern-toes learned about the one God—as I have mentioned, his brother talked about [Short-legs], and so he was a bit confused when Toma started going a bit crazy, almost pretending he had an open door to the Heavenly God, and if he was His representative, then God was crazy, and Short-legs would have relayed that to him, and he didn’t so it was obvious he had the bad-spirit in him, and in a way, Stern-toes started to keep his distance from him. But Big-chest said very little as long as he would not force anyone—especially him—to dwell on his or her likings. If anything the attention Toma got, must have been comforting, and possibly that was what he was really after, episodes of attention, which were liken to: care giving, and helpfulness was what Toma was providing in a nutty way.

The Cosmic Spirit

As I said, many things were taking place during these eighteen-months, if not simply everyone testing the water to see if they had the freedom to do what they wanted to do—and wanting to be part of the big picture and if they were allowed to be; that is, a new and original civilization in a way was developing, or in the makings, and everyone was testing to see what rights they had, and responsibilities, and Big-chest had no trouble with giving them all the rights in the world, as long as they kept with their responsibilities. Not quite democratic, but not a totalitarianism either.

Having said that, Stern-toes, was not above this either, with his quick eyes, as his brother would say: taking pictures of everything around, so he created something within his mind as a new and unique experience, and drew pictures on rocks.

Stern-toes, remembered back when he was younger and he left the Garden of Eve, and he had had of course told his brother Short-legs all about his adventures while in the garden, and in turn, Short-legs told him a story about a great lizard that went into this garden, and when it came out it had no legs.

He also remembered the Stone-builders worshiping it for its wisdom. He never did believe it had wisdom, but it was a good symbol if anything. And some nights he’d look into the night and see strings of stars, they looked similar to those huge worms with no legs, lizards with no legs that is what they were. And so he was putting together in his minds-eye a symbol. Thus, he saw two things in life, and in the serpent: a blessing and a curse. Man was cursed to walked the earth, and dominate it or be dominated by it, and also, he saw that life in itself was a blessing, just to be given a chance to have lived, to have met his brother, his mother, and now these people. So if it was to be a symbol, then let it represent both sides of the egg, or should I say their or his innovative society, settlement, and the dugouts.

So he started carving on a stone, a huge rock a picture of what he called Ronin, his snake image for his people: for the King to have; when he brought it to the bonfire in the evening when all were to sit down and eat, and talk, he showed it to them, and thus, it became their first symbol.

“Awa, si,” he said with grunts and squeaks from his voice, with his hands doing more talking than him: and I shall translate:

“See, see I have created for us art, and possibly symbols for our children to remember us by.”

And each and every member hand Tattoo-woman put a tattoo on their upper part of their legs, to show one another they belonged to the Assemblage. It was of a double serpent, a twin stuck together; and as Stern-toes tried to explain [translated]:

He hummed somewhat: “Hmmm, this is for us.”

Life would continue to be a hardship, and there would be moments of merriment, but for the most part, when in the valley of bliss, it is usually short lived, and so he told himself to grab onto his life, and to share this moment of unity with his people, and they all loved it, even Big-chest. If anything it was a distraction for the group, a testimony they were all still united, all one, and one for all: the journey was taking a long time and where and when they’d stop was up to Big-chest, even though he felt he was not smart enough to lead at times, he was cleaver enough not to let anyone know this, and cleaver enough to take in information from others, and he had senses better than most for survival: and in his mind’s eye, he’d know when it was time to stop.

See Dennis’ web site: dennissiluk.tripod.com dennissiluk.tripod.com

If you don’t own a digital camera buy a digital camera now and throw the old camera for film out – or – better, try to sell it for the little money you might be able to get for it in time.

Digital cameras are becoming completely dominating the scene of photography - for good reasons. A digital camera is much cheaper to run because you don’t have expenses for buying film and development. You just have to pay for prints, whatever you are printing with your own photo printer or go to a photo shop or photo mail service.

Buy a good digital camera but not a digital camera that are too complicated or too high priced because the development of new digital cameras goes very fast. For every year you will get a better digital camera for less money.

I can hear you ask: Why then buy the camera now? Why not wait for another year for a better digital camera with more features and better performance?

My answer is, and I am sure other professionals will join me when I answer, that the medium priced digital cameras are already of a quality and standard that are more than enough for the serious general photographer. The medium priced digital cameras are offering a picture quality that matches the professional digital cameras for a few years ago for a tenth of the price or less.

The file size is determined partly by the number of pixels produced by the photo sensitive chip in the digital camera. 5 so-called Mega pixels will do well for most family use. Many good digital cameras of even medium price offer much more than that. You can find reviews of some of the best digital cameras at dpreview.com

One of the most versatile aspects of the digital camera is the ability to show the new picture just after it is taken. In that way you are always in command of what you get, as it costs you nothing to take a new picture with a digital camera. Yes, in fact you can take 100 digital pictures with your new camera and delete the 99 picture files and just keep one - hopefully a super good digital picture.

The digital camera uses a memory card to keep the digital files. There are different sizes and types. The so-called compact flash card (CF card) is very common. A CF card of 1 GB (gigabyte) will hold many hundreds of digital pictures, depending on the file size you are using. You can choose between having one very big flash card or a few of lesser size.

Personally I like to have a number of flash cards (I have to use CF cards for my Canon digital cameras) as I feel I am distributing the risk if something goes wrong with a card.

Reality is that flash cards are much more robust than old-fashioned fill rolls. But the flash cards are also tiny and I am afraid of dropping the card.

Jump to your camera dealer in the street or find an online-camera dealer and order a nice digital camera for your photographic enjoyment the next years.

Soren Breiting is a stock photographer, see Soren’s azfotos.com/stock-photos.htm high quality stock photos taken with Canon digital cameras at azfotos.com A-Z Fotos and learn about DigitalPhotographyAndPictures.com digital cameras at DigitalPhotographyAndPictures.com

If you don’t know what to do with the many digital photos that you have stored on your hard drive, do what my daughter did. Using Windows Movie Maker, for father’s day, she chose the best pics and added descriptions with some some of my favorite music, and put it in a movie. She then saved it to a CD and gift wrapped it. Wow! It was wonderful seeing flashbacks of our family life in that fashion.

If you’re not happy with the outcome of some of your digital photos, but would still like to use them, why not use many of the free utilities or software available to put some finishing touches to them. They are not that complicated to use and are cheap - actually free. There are quite a few of them, but here we’ll focus on the most popular choices and user friendly. With these softwares, you’ll be able to store and organize, edit and share, all of your favorite little treasures.

There’s a software called Picasa (picasa.google.com), probably named after Picasso. Picasa from what I’ve gathered is a full-featured application, very sophisticated, giving high-end results, and extremely ‘user friendly”.

With it’s easy to use buttons, sliders, and fade-out transitions, its got to be one of the easiest software in digital imaging to use. It does all the basics such as sorting, organizing, viewing slide shows, resizing for emails, and CD photos, but does much more and with such ease.

You can also add keywords or keyword phrases, captions, create collage, back up your work. You can crop, do fill lighting, highlighting, colour temperature, and yes soft focus. It’s a very impressive image editor for the price - free.

Digital imaging can be lots of fun and with the ability to create slide shows on cd’s, it also makes for great gifts. In addition, aside from arranging a number of photos or images in a sequence, you can ‘pan’ across a still image giving the illusion of motion. You can also vary the time that the images stay onscreen using a timeline, and add audio, whether it be some voice track for narration or your favorite music track.

You want to keep in mind when creating a presentation such as my daughter did, that less is better. Pick a few well-chosen images that will make an impact. What she did was choose images of all of my kids growing up in family situations and fun. It may me realize how time had flew by and how quickly they grow up. It actually brought a tear to my eyes. It told a story of our family life and brought a lump to my throat. I didn’t realize it then, but there was a message in that presentation. I couldn’t have received a better gift!

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