After being a member for a couple of days I understand the allure but I am befuddled as to how the millions of participants keep up with all of the (trivial) information that courses through the veins of this internet monstrosity.

As one of my oldest friends on the site scribbled on my wall, “facebook, where life is a constant one liner”. One could not have said it any better. Since joining, I have been bombarded with a whole new dictionary of facebook euphemisms and acronyms. Sigh. It seems as if our communication skills are truly headed down a path of one liners and abbreviations.

Facebook makes it so easy to meet new people and find new relationships, it is a little unnerving. I had always felt that true friendships are like fine wine that take years to develop and mature. In this new world of fast paced meetings and convenient interactions, is there any room left for truly deep and meaningful human connections?

By simply taking time to relieve our minds of all this extraneous “junk” can help in reducing stress and making our minds work better. Much like a computer’s memory works more efficiently when we do a clean up or delete some unused program and files.

There are several methods one can use to accomplish this task which are very easy and well worth doing.

Meditation – There are many methods, so you are bound to find one that works for you and it can be done in a matter of minutes. You basically just need a quiet place to start.

Mindfulness – Similar to meditation, this study can be beneficial to those who are extremely busy. It calls for one to slow down rather than stop completely. Clearing out a room or organizing some books would be considered effective mindful exercises.

Expressive Writing – Putting to pen to paper and just letting your thoughts flow out can be a very good mind clearing process. Keeping a diary on hand or a journal can be a helpful way of examining your problems and assist in overcoming them.

Distraction – By allowing your mind to change its focus, from negative issues, you can give it time to address the situation and reduce the magnitude of the dilemma. Try tai chi or judo. Both activities will clear the mind and allow you to refresh and refocus in on the difficult task ahead.

By utilizing these tactics you will give your mind healthy boost of energy and allow it to become stronger and work more efficiently.

In this week’s “Above and Beyond”, I have opted to post a very personal event as something out of the ordinary that changed many people’s lives.

In 1957 my father, born and raised in Jamaica, West Indies decided that he wanted a better existence for his family. He ventured to the U.S.A. to find work and search for a place he could make home. Unfortunately or fortunately he decided that Florida was not the place for him and he returned home. The following year he voyaged to the U.K. and for some reason, believed that this was the place he could put down roots.

Several decades later four generations of “Burtons” now exist, living quite happily in England. My father had to endure many years of hard labor and weather he wasn’t used to, so that his descendants could have an upbringing and life he was not initially privy to. He is a very proud man and living in a society where he was a pioneer of sorts, could not have been easy to say the least.

Accomplishments come in all shapes and forms, big and small. In my mind, his achievement may not have contributed to the salvation of mankind but it is just as vital to society. It is these small and generally over-looked events in history that make our world better and create a stronger and more diverse community for us all to share in.

It defies belief that a middle-aged woman who looks like she couldn’t hurt a fly would be so cruel. In the video the cat actually comes up to her and whilst she is smoothing him, he sticks up his tail and seems excited and happy with the human contact.

Her reason for mistreating the cat seems unclear. The R.S.P.C.A. have got involved and she was arrested shortly after wards, as this was all caught on Britain’s CCTV. In my view she had it in for her neighbors and took it out on their cat. She could also just be a very mean person. Either way it seems inexcusable, in my view.

In fact I can remember as far back as the late eighties, that there have been issues with cleanness in these types of institutions. It would be crazy to assume that anything radical has changed, since very little has been done on the legislative level.

What it comes down to is that these companies have been left to their own devices for decades. They have been allowed to cut corners in order to increase profits, at will, and without any real ramifications.

It’s all big business in the egg making industry. If you can’t turn a blind eye then you’ll end up walking on egg shells straight out the door and out of a job. That’s one anecdote no one wants to be telling in this mud-dredged economy.

As a personal anecdote, my other half and I have been following meteor showers for several years. It is something that we enjoy very much. Tonight we have already observed several meteors from the main event but we have also been lucky enough to see a couple from two other showers that have already peaked.

If you haven’t already seen a meteor, otherwise known as a falling star or fireball, you don’t know what you are missing. Check it out tonight, right now as a matter of fact. Mother Nature’s show is spectacular!

According to the Poker Bible written by my other half, Mark, the definition is as follows: -

An irrational play that wins. It usually involves a call after significant action and where the probability of the underdog reasonably or rationally thinking they have best hand is extremely low. And also where the actual percentage of  the underdog having the winning hand is extremely low.

One way to avoid getting a bad beat is to become a student of the game and thoroughly learn how to play texas hold’em. There are many avenues and means of doing this and once you have mastered the basics you will be more able to survive the bad beat and come out on top.

I’ve never been a huge berry fan but since we have started eating more of them, I have come to realise just how tasty and healthy they are. For breakfast we usually have a combination of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and bananas topped with yoghurt.

The blackberries remind me of a childhood anecdote, where our parents would take us out for hours on end picking wild blackberries just outside the city. They were sweet, sticky and delicious. Despite the thorns we had to endure to get to the tasty fruit in the bushes, the end result was well worth it.

It’s memories like this that make it all worth it in the end.

It is a little disconcerting though because there’s the looming concern of global warming and the effect it is having on our weather. So as much as I adore being able to hang outside and bask in the Sun’s warmth, it concerns me…

I remember a summer back in the UK in 1976. It was so hot cars were sinking into the tarmac on the roads and schools closed with no air-conditioning back then. The temperature topped 90°F (32.2°C). To add to the misery of a heatwave, we were also in the middle of a drought and with the water shortage, it was complete madness!

Luckily we all survived, so no doubt we’ll survive this one as well. Trouble is I’m not so certain that our Earth will be as resilient the next time round.

My first ride ended up with me getting off at the wrong stop, thus prompting this week’s anecdote. In our area the buses run on a flag-down system, which means that you can hail one down anywhere along the route, as long as it’s safe for the driver to stop.

Getting off at the wrong stop was the least of my worries. We ended up having to hike across what was an actual dual carriageway (four lane highway), to get to the final destination. It was madness!

After finally arriving at our destination and cooling down after a hike and a half, on what was probably the hottest day of the year so far, a light bulb went off in my head. The walk from the bus stop was great exercise and I had survived it with very little after-effects. The return ticket on the bus was $2.50 – pittance compared to the buses back in the UK or even New York, where we lived for twelve years.

So the bus ride put it all in perspective. We had saved money, burned off a few calories and lessened our contribution to the gaping hole in the ozone layer.

All in all, I’d say we’d done good!