The Elephant Rope

I love animals (don't we all?) and believe we have much to learn from them.  And so I was interested in this article I saw on Wimp.com, a website dedicated to inspiring or just plain fun pictures and videos.  

How do you control an elephant?  Turns out it might be easier than you think. 

The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. "Well," trainer said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free."

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.  Nor should we attempt to be something we are not.

It doesn't fool anyone anyway.

As the always delightful Dolly Parton says....

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

You might be amazed at what you are capable of.

Truly amazed!
 

 

 

 

Check out more funny animal pics at Johnlund.com

All The World's a Stage

I know someone who owns a pair of dinosaur PJ's.  Not PJ’s with dinosaur pictures, mind you.  No. This person owns pajamas that make him/her look like a dinosaur.  I can only visualize it, not having had the pleasure of actually seeing it. 

Something like this, I guess.

 

 or maybe this

 

or, heaven-forbid, this

 

According to this person (who for some reason, chose not to be named), this type of garment is worn in Japan as a kind of robe around the house.  

Seriously?  I had to do a little research on this.  Here's what I learned....

These garments are called Kigurumi and are described as full-body hooded animal pajamas styled after animals or cartoon characters.

Sometimes called "disguise pajamas" or onesies, the clothing is normally worn non-commercially as Japanese street fashion or as sleepwear, and is not intended to function as a performance costume.

The pajama outfits are made of fleece material, usually in an oversized "one-size-fits-all", and conforms to the body in the manner of normal clothing. The hoods do not cover the face.  Kind of like Bambi mated with a snuggie.

I have to admit, I think this is totally cool!  I mean really.  Why slouch around in a ratty old bathrobe when you could be this?

Or this.

 or one of these

I wondered if I could get a Kigurumi of my favorite all time animals - a pomeranian.  I did a google image search for Kigurumi Pomeranian and this came up.

That's pretty realistic.  Hmmmm.     Maybe I'll wait until they perfect the Kigurumi Pom before I put it on my Christmas list.

I don't know, tho.  It might be worth the look on Steve's face to have this to wear around the house.  At least every now and then!

Zippy



One of the nicest things about my workplace is the break room which has floor-to-ceiling windows.  It's pretty awesome. Most days, on our break, we stand with our granola bars, coffee, or what have you, and look out.

 

The view starts in our parking lot, extends across a busy road and carries over to the property surrounding LexMark.  Sometimes we speculate on the number of cars in the parking lot.  Often we search the sky, like sailors, wondering what weather is coming our way.  Lately, the subject has turn to fall colors and which trees are showing their glory.

 

But almost always, there is Zippy, or talk of Zippy.

 

"I see Zippy!"

 

"Don't see Zippy today.  Must still be sleeping."

 

Zippy is a groundhog we have all become rather fond of.  He/she apparently lives under a large shrub on the LexMark property, and is a source of entertainment to us.

 

We see Zippy in the morning.

 



 

And in the afternoons. 

 

He's too far away to even notice us.  At least, we assume so.

  

 

I was watching Zippy this past Monday on my afternoon break.  It was probably 3:20 or so.  He sat beside his bush as usual.  It was obvious he put on weight.

 

 

A lot of weight.  Getting ready for winter.

 

 

As I left work that same day at 5:30, I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the busy road.  Ahead, I spotted a large brown lump in the middle of the street.  A groundhog. A big, Zippy sized groundhog.  Dead.  Not squished or anything.  Like it had just walked out onto the road, laid down, and died.  (The same could not be said when I drove back to work the next morning - but we won't go there.)

 

I frantically called my co-worker in the car behind me.  Then, at the next light, I texted other co-workers. 

 

ZIPPY IS DEAD ON THE ROAD :(

 

We all sighed sadly.  Sure, it might be another groundhog.  It's not like he wore a collar or anything.  But no matter how often we looked the next morning he was gone. 

 

At lunch, no Zippy.

 

I took a later lunch that day and decided to walk.  When I rounded the corner and saw Zippy's shrub, there he was!  I couldn't wait to share the news.

 

I grabbed my phone, opened the camera and took this picture, which I texted to my friends with the caption HE LIVES!

The real Zippy.

 

Is there a point to this story?  Obviously a groundhog died on the road, like so many do.  Just not OUR groundhog.

 

I don't know, except sometimes it's the little things that make us smile.  I enjoy the little spark of life that we call Zippy and we are glad he is still with us. 

 

At least until hibernation.

 

 

Disclaimer.  It probably goes without saying that all of these pictures, except one, were obtained from a Google search.  Not my property :)

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

 

I stole this quote from my daughter.  She borrowed it from F. Scott Fitzgerald.  And I assume he came up with it originally, because he is, after all, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I think it was by design that God wove new beginnings into our lives.  These are some of my favorite new beginnings.

 

Mornings..  Even when they come with the 5:30 a.m. alarm.  The smell of coffee and the wag of Bella's tail make it a happy time for me.  Right now I'm waking up to pumpkin flavored coffee - it's almost like pie.  Almost.

Birthdays.  Don't be a grumpy cat.  Might as well love them!  Embrace your age...it is who you are.

 

A new job.  I have a new job this fall!   Actually, I've had a new job every fall for the last three years.  I always make friends and learn new skills.  But this time I think I have found a home until retirement.  Of course, there is always the saying, "Man makes plans and God laughs".  I will try to keep my hands off the steering wheel.

The first day of a new school year. Back when I was in school, that meant a trip to Louisville (the BIG city) with mom to get new school clothes. We rode the Greyhound bus. Mom didn't have a license. She got one when I was about 15. Then I turned 16, got my license, and she pretty much never drove again.  She was an excellent backseat driver, tho!  I miss her alot.

So, I hope this is a time of rejoicing and new beginnings to my friends and family.

 

A quote from one of my all time favorite movies regarding this time of year.  As Tom Hanks wrote to Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail....     

 

 

Yee Haw!

It's nice to know that God and my friends love me, even though I am not as cool as a Panda on a toy horse!

Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you!

Today is Groundhog Day, and according to Punxsutawney Phil, spring is on the way. 

I'm in favor of that.  Like Bill Murray in the Groundhog movie, I find myself wanting to hurry through these winter days.  Anyone who knows me well, is aware that I like warm weather and sunshine.  Lot's of sunshine.

  

Unlike Phil Connor (Murray's character), of course, our days do move forward.  We aren't stuck in the same deary, dark day over and over in spite of all attempts to end the cycle.

 

 

Having a bad attitude to begin with doesn't help.  This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.

 



On the other hand, there would be some advantages to that scenario, as Phil discovers.   When he begins to use his accumulated knowledge to bless other people instead of twisting fate to his own advantage, he learns to be happy.

 

My favorite character from the movie is Ned Ryerson. 



"Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing. Ned Ryerson, got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson, I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple of times until you told me not to anymore? Well?

In spite of an annoying personality and (we assume) a less than immensely profitable career selling insurance, Ned possesses an eternal optimism.  Yes, he drives people crazy, but he has fun doing it. 

And why not?  Why not enjoy every day?  If there were no winter, there would be no snow.  What fun is a world without snowmen?

 

Or snow groundhogs built by favorite daughters? (Thanks, Mindy)

 



THIS is the day that the Lord has made.  Sunshine or snow, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Meatloaf groundhog.

Writing Contest

For my writer friends, this is a free contest sponsored by Writer's Digest.  The deadline is upon us, tho.

13th Free “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest (Young Adult and Sci-Fi)

 

WHY YOU SHOULD GET EXCITED
After a previous “Dear Lucky Agent” contest, the agent judge, Tamar Rydzinski (The Laura Dail Literary Agency), signed one of the three contest winners. After Tamar signed the writer, she went on to sell two of that writer’s books! How cool! That’s why these contests are not to missed if you have an eligible submission.
HOW TO SUBMIT
E-mail entries to dearluckyagent13@gmail.com. Please paste everything. No attachments.
WHAT TO SUBMIT
The first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of your sci-fi novel or young adult novel. You must include a contact e-mail address with your entry and use your real name. Also, submit the title of the work and a logline (one-sentence description of the work) with each entry.
Please note: To be eligible to submit, you must mention this contest twice through any social media. Please provide a social media link or Twitter handle or screenshot or blog post URL, etc., with your offical e-mailed entry so the judge and I can verify eligibility. Some previous entrants could not be considered because they skipped this step! Simply spread the word twice through any means and give us a way to verify you did; a tinyURL for this link/contest for you to easily use is http://tinyurl.com/a8msdw2. An easy way to notify me of your sharing is to include my Twitter handle @chucksambuchino somewhere in your mention(s) if using Twitter. And if you are going to solely use Twitter as your 2 times, please wait 1 day between mentions to spread out the notices, rather than simply tweeting twice back to back. Thanks.

Want to pitch this contest’s agent judge (Victoria Marini) in person?
Then check out the gigantic agent pitch slam as part of the 2013
Writer’s Digest Conference in NYC, April 5-7, 2013! The event
will have anywhere from 60-80 agents taking pitches.

WHAT IS ELIGIBLE?
Science fiction novels of any kind, as well as young adult novels of any kind.
CONTEST DETAILS

1. This contest will be live for approximately 14 days—from Jan. 17, 2013 through the end of Jan. 31, 2013, PST. Winners notified by e-mail within three weeks of end of contest. Winners announced on the blog thereafter.
2. To enter, submit the first 150-200 words of your book. Shorter or longer entries will not be considered. Keep it within word count range please.
3. You can submit as many times as you wish. You can submit even if you submitted to other contests in the past, but please note that past winners cannot win again. All that said, you are urged to only submit your best work.
4. The contest is open to everyone of all ages, save those employees, officers and directors of GLA’s publisher, F+W Media, Inc.
5. By e-mailing your entry, you are submitting an entry for consideration in this contest and thereby agreeing to the terms written here as well as any terms possibly added by me in the “Comments” section of this blog post. (If you have questions or concerns, write me personally at chuck.sambuchino (at) fwmedia.com. The Gmail account above is for submissions, not questions.)

PRIZES!!!
Top 3 winners all get: 1) A critique of the first 10 double-spaced pages of your work, by your agent judge. 2) A free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com ($50 value)!
MEET YOUR (AWESOME) AGENT JUDGE!
Victoria Marini is an associate literary agent with the Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency, and an assistant to the boss-ladies: Jane Gelfman, Deborah Schneider, and Heather Mitchell. Gelfman Schneider has been in business for over 30 years. They passionately represent a wide range of authors including American Academy of Arts, Edgar Awards and Pushcart Prize winners, as well as several New York Times bestselling authors. Victoria began taking on clients in 2010. Currently, she is building her list and hungry for more.
Here are some books that she has represented:
The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets by Kathleen Alcott (Adult General/Other)
Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin (YA)
OCD Love Story by Corey Haydu (YA; July 2013)
forthcoming: Loop by Karen Akins (YA sci-fi)

 

For Today

Breathe.  Pray. 

If something knocks the breath out of you, pray twice as hard.

Power to the Fluffy!

According to an article published in the Huffington Post a few months ago, looking at cute animal pictures at work can make you more productive.

 

A new study lead by Nittono for Hiroshima University, indicates that looking at pictures of puppies and panda cams and grumpy, grumpy cat videos at work doesn't just improve your mood, it can also increase your productivity.

I have suspected this all along.

For the study, a group of 48 Japaneses students were put to work completing a task similar to the American board game "Operation."  The students did the task three times.  Once after looking a series of baby animals, again after seeing adult animals and finally after seeing pictures of delicious foods.  The students who looked at the baby animals did much better at the game than the other two groups.

Why?   One theory was linked to a behavior tendency of adults to slow down speech when talking to puppies and kittens. These behaviors "may transfer to subsequent task performance," apparently increasing productivity. 

I don't really care why. I'm just happy about the study.  Now we shouldn't feel guilty if we kick back a little and sneak a few peeks of these little darlings at work.

Well, not too guilty.

Hopefully the email police won't come.

So if things seem overwhelming,

Or just aren't going your way.

Hang on.

And step back from the ho-hum.

And take a mini vacay.

Let your mind escape.

Have a laugh.

It will do your heart good.

And as to passing those pics on to our co-workers?   We should actually get bonuses for doing it! 

Everyone needs a smile.

Power to the fluffy!

The original article can be seen at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/looking-at-cute-animal-pictures-at-work-can-make-you-more-productive_n_1930135.html
Images were taken from Google.  If I stepped on any copyrighted paws, claws or hooves, I apologize!