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Ramble On - Or How I Get Through This Life
How did the word "scrotum" become so controversial? The US Census Bureau International reports there are approximately 3,324,891,271 males worldwide and barring incidences of health or criminal related castrations.... that's a lot of scrotum. The maelstrom ensued over a passage in Susan Patron's award winning children's book The Higher Power of Lucky. This is the story of a 10-year-old girl in rural California and her quest for "Higher Power
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The last couple of days there has been quite a bit of media attention regarding blogging as a viable therapeutic intervention. The PEW Internet and American Life Project estimates 11 million Americans have already created blogs with some 30 million readers. According to a recent survy sponsored by America Online "nearly half of bloggers consider it a form of therapy." Read article
As a therapist by profession, my clients report using blogs to connect with other folks with similiar issues...single parenthood, cancer survival, crime victim advocacy etc... Some clients use it as a personal diary to commemerate their daily thoughts and lives. Blogs are interactive and designed to communicate with the blogger's audience and combines two recommended techniques for people to work through problems: writing in a journal and using a computer to type out thoughts. Some bloggers say the extra dimension of posting thoughts on the Web enables them to broach difficult subjects and garner support from a virtual community of people they don't know.
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Welcome to Texas' Dumbest News
1993 -- David Bridges, 24, was arrested in Grapevine, Texas, in January and charged with stealing a television set from a home. That getaway had been successful, but he was caught and arrested after he went back to the home because he had neglected to take the remote control.
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Tonight as I watch the tearful speeches given by the Oscar winners it got me to thinking. Why not put gratitude in our daily lives? Why wait for that award, life circumstance, birth of a child, death of a parent for the opportunity to be grateful? There has been a flurry of research regarding the link between gratitude and happiness.Link to research Researchers have found that those individuals who practiced acts of gratitude feel better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the upcoming week, reported higher levels of positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, and determination compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.
The spiritual practice of gratitude has been called a state of mind and a way of life. Gratitude is an underlying structure that helps us construct and make sense out of our lives revealing a system of relationships linking us to others, the divine, and to every other part of creation. I think that the formula is pretty straightforward
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I have been a card toting member of the insomiac club as long as I can remember. Becoming an insomniac isn’t as easy as it might appear. I often thought about what exacerbated this condition in me and how I can make this into a marketable skill.
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Adrian's recent posting got me to thinking of an article I had read regarding the XXXchurch. This ministry is attempting to address the issues surrounding the porn industry as well as those who have chosen it as a career. XXXchurch began its ministry in January of 2002 at the AVN porn show in Las Vegas. This group rents booth space inside the shows and "mans these booths with a team of men and women with the common goal of sharing hope with everyone in attendance".
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Collaborative Law is a relatively new option for divorcing couples in the US. It is a process where the husband, wife and both their attorneys agree to resolve all issues in their case without litigation. The parties generally utilize a mental health professional to keep proceedings “neutral
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Long ago, I made a pact with myself to tell folks how much they mean to me while they are alive to hear it and not over their freshly dug grave or newly freeze dried flesh. This morning I was scheduled to have an end of life discussion with one of my long time friends and colleague who is terminally ill.
My friend told me that she had called me because I was not going to "let her down by crying" and I would uplift her by laughing. And laugh we did. Upon entering the room my friend asked if I were an angel bringing healing light (secrely we knew it was the morphine) I was thinking that if she were having a olfactory hallucination she could probably smell the sulfur in that question. I told her that I liked how the community hospice center was located smack dab betwen a retirement home and a funeral home. How convenient. You can wheel your beloved across the field from one center to the other. She said that due to her illness and being off work for so long, her house is in foreclosure and would be auctioned off in two weeks. We laughed at the absurdity of that. We decided that she was going to have to go ahead and die because she did not have a home to go to. We discussed her coffin that had been purchsed at Costco and the fact that it was sitting in her garage. She said that she was going to be buried in a "healing shroud" just to anger her fundamentalist parents. She told me that her two motherless children were going to have rooms at her brother's house. She said that it was the least toxic environment she could find so we decided that dying had a way of lowering a person's expectations
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Over the weekend The Wozz and I watched one of my favorite movies....Dogfight. The movie, Dogfight is a virtually unknown feature starring River Phoenix that is often overlooked being over shadowed by some of his other hits. This film released in 1991, is one of the sweetest and most touching yet dark non-romance romances ever made. Set in 1963, primarily during their last night stateside, four young Marines San Francisco, naïve to the horrors of that await them in Vietnam decide to participate in the game, "Dogfight." The rules of the dogfight were simple: Everyone puts in fifty bucks and the guy with the ugliest date wins. The film focuses mostly on Birdlace (River Phoenix), who, while looking for a victim, stumbles into a coffee shop and meets Rose (Lili Taylor), an introverted and awkward young woman who hides behind frumpy clothes and her love of folk music. They start to talk, and Birdlace asks her to come to a party, she agrees to it, not believing that someone would actually be interested in her.
That is only the beginning of "Dogfight," a quiet, flawlessly made film, in which not much more should be said, except to say that Birdlace begins to actually like Rose, and it develops into much more of a complex story than it originally seems. The onscreen chemistry between Lili and River is so nonexistent at first glance, that it's overwhelmingly pure and true. This is how two people with nothing in common, yet everything in common would act together. Although the basic plotline may sound cruel and mean-spirited, and it is, at the center of the story is a wonderful, sweet, poignantly written, story about relationships. It opens you up to the awkwardness of the potential of love. The love scene with Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" (one of my all time favorite songs) really exemplifies the fragile nature of love
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I am a successful woman who through hard work and perseverance and with the help of a wonderful staff and supportive friends and family has built up a successful mental health clinic. I have flown in commercial airplanes as well as private jets my whole life. I travel frequently due to lecture and book promotion efforts. Because of events that occurred in young adulthood and then events post 9-11, I am at best ... a "wiggly" flyer.
Flying is generally considered to be one of the safest forms of public transportation currently available in the United States. Statistics compiled by the Department of Transportation have led to the claim that airline travel is safer than driving an automobile
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My colleagues and I were staffing our intimacy issue clients when we began a "lively discussion" regarding mix tapes made by therapists to enhance their clients' lovemaking. This is a very common practice whereby therapists put together a 20 song mix tape of songs tailor made to meet clients "end goals."
We grouped the songs in the following categories
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I adore my hair stylist. She is a dryer toting cowgirl adorned with twenty plus tattoos and over thirty piercings all over her 5'3" body. She chats me up during every appointment discussing everything from broadway music, softball, her annoying friends, to her family. One thing I really admire about her is the absolute devotion she has towards her mother. She updates me regularly about her mother's health as she is currently ending a third round of chemotherapy treatments for stage three breast cancer . A double mastectomy will be performed at the end of the month. We began to talk about the physical as well as emotional scars this procedure will leave.
When I returned home, I came across the reference in a book to a woman who had received a mastectomy, and gotten a tattoo, a very lovely crane to go along the scar of the mastectomy surgery. I was thinking that this would be an incredible transformative way to deal with very traumatic situation. In best of circumstances, tattooing can be a powerful symbol of triumph and survival when done on or around scars. Tattoos and scars are external marks of our life experiences. For many women, the experience of transforming her scar into beautiful art is an empowering and affirming experience
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Zoos put a new twist on Valentine's Day yesterday with 'Jungle Love' tours. Zoos around the US promoted non-G rated zoo "experience". Think animal porn. San Francisco calls it "Woo at the Zoo." New York City's Central Park Zoo calls it "Jungle Love" and the zoo in Boise, Idaho, named the tour "Wild Love at the Zoo." Couples "learn" about mating rituals of certain animal species while sipping on Champagne by candlelight and nibbling on chocolate-covered strawberries. There are visual aids and a lively discussion Philadelphia Zoo link
Animal Sex: They don't take time with the dating bullshit and get right to it
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"Love" is an incredibly powerful word. I am afraid that many have overused it. Like a salutation or sign off and in some regards has been relegated to a more impersonal realm.
After reading sugary sentiments that are rotting my teeth as I type, I thought I would set the record straight. There will be no baking heart-shaped food items. I will not be making a "100 reasons why I love you" list. We will not be reading love poems together at a local bookstore. We will not be sharing romantic greeting cards. I will not send you a singing or stripping "Love o Gram". I will not be making you scrolls of love or sappy unexpected text messages. I will however remind you that I do not say "I love you" foolishly, half heartedly, or without meaning. I will continue to let you know personally how much you mean to me and how grateful I am to have you all in my life. So take that ....... 
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I have observed recently how our incredibly "lookist" society has excerbated body image issues in both men and women. We are measured by things we can't control. We are measured by the way our body curves or does not curve, by where we are flat or round. We are measured in inches and ages....by all the outside things that don't ever add up to who we are on the inside. If I am to be measured let me be measured by the things I can control, by who I am and who I am trying to become.
Thought that I would share with you some of my favorite sentimental songs from the South in honor of loved ones in my life this Valentine's Day. Here goes... Let me know about any songs that touch you in some way...(Southern or not!)
10. Falling in Love: Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
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I recently saw the movie Kinsey for the second time and thought I might share my review with you guys. The "miracle" of Dr. Kinsey's work was that it occurred 50 years ago. America was awash with sexual activity but only a small portion of which was sanctioned by society. Even less was discussed. He studied not only sexual habits but brought to the forefront information regarding masturbation, fellatio, homosexuality, and normalized the concept of sexuality.
At that time in history sex=bad or dirty. (We have not come that far however..) After publishing his report public opinion turned on him -- thanks to bitter campaigns by academics and members of the religious right. I think his greatest accomplishments were in his theories regarding female sexuality. Sex was not an equal opportunity activity. Apparently, Kinsey's reports haven't been fully absorbed into mainstream sexual knowledge, even today. Even now, sex research earns relatively limited funding, which makes research on the scale of Kinsey's especially hard to reproduce
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I watch quite a bit of late night television due to insomnia. I heard the following on various late night shows during the hosts' monologues:
Jimmy Kimmel
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I was reading about the an Amsterdam gym who that allowing naturists to work out in the nude on Sundays. I know that back in the Golden days of Greece, the Olympic games athletic events were almost totally conducted in the nude. but I did not realize that there were legions of exercizers wanting to do this now. Link to CNN article
I have a couple of questions regarding this "practice".
What about safety
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Prince's performance spawned a flurry of discussions with Wandering friends regarding the club scene in the early eighties. We were reminiscing about where we would go, how we would dress, and what a typical evening was like.
In Dallas, I frequented Starck Club, Tango, and Popscicle Toes. These clubs were places to see and be seen. They were definitely "beautiful people" clubs. I would go with my drop dead gorgeous friends who would literally "part the seas" upon their arrival. I learned at the club about the female hierarchy being friends with these girls. Girls generally know how hot they are on a relative basis. At the club when women met my friends, a look passed between them that communicated who was dominant and who was submissive based on the self-assessment each made. Who was above whom in the Hierarchy was normally clear cut. Problems arose when a woman asserted her claim to a higher position than that of which she was worthy. Fortunately, I always knew my place, so I was at least approachable and never lacked for dance partners
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Gladys reviews movies and gives us a recipe for her beer enhanced meatloaf YouTube link.
Wandering friend gave me a great hostess gift.... the book Time Out Ladies by Dale Evans Rogers wife of Roy Rogers. This 1966 gem puts forth that this book is "a heart to heart talk about the intimate problems of women." Here is a poem written by Mary Caroline Davies
Women are door mats and have been;
The years those mats applaud
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It started as a telephone call from Ellen Video link here
Then the Austin Statesman ran this article Link to article
Monday February 5th, Ellen will call her again. Exciting. I don't give a crap who she is, if she is 88 or not, or if she is male or female, real person or "representative." She is a breath of fresh air (and reminds me of many of my relatives). I will update everyone on Monday
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This past week I heard about a nearby parish who had a Polka Mass. I guess that this was one way to elevate one's spirit to God. Maybe this is one of the Church's greatest offering to God. Maybe Clown," "Disco" , Thrash metal, or broadway music will be next!
Roll Out the Barrel for Christ
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I was reading an article in the Costco magazine regarding "do it yourself funerals" and read that Costco sold not only urns but also caskets. Although I am not in the market for one, I was intrigued. When talking to my dad about this we had questions.
1. Dad wanted to know if all funeral homes would accept a Costco casket. I did not have an answer so I called the Costco "Casket help line" and was told that the Federal Trade Commission required funeral homes to accept "outsourced" caskets. The cheerful voice on the other line informed me that caskets can be shipped overnight (unless there is weather related conditions, acts of God, or states of emergencies that might delay it's shipment).
2. Dad and I agreed that consumers are sometimes prone to "overbuying" at warehouse grocery stores so we wondered if there is some garage somewhere that is loaded with caskets "just in case
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309 Posts dating from April 2005
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