Showing posts with label Essay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Essay. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Eradicate Deficit And Extravagance On My Mind!

Why can't we just totally eradicate the Nationwide deficit, forget about budgets and bailouts! Put everyone back on a clean slate including big businesses and banks! Instead of becoming a goverment run country, where peoples feelings are put aside, and pride is only stuck in a sinking economy! Small businesses are dwindling every day and no one is bailing them out! Let everyone be debt free, that will certainly boost the economy! Government yearns folks to spend, but how can we spend when the cost of living is going through the roof!

Politicians promises change, why can't we start over where everyone is equal. Health coverage for everyone, not just the best coverage for the rich who can afford it! Deficits and budgets are falling on deaf ears. Sick and tired of the rhetorical hype, and watching everyone sink in the pit! The American dream is still alive, but put on stranglehold until the smoke clears, if the huge ominus cloud ever clears.

Our economy has taught us one thing, do not indulge in extravagance! Growing up with bare necessities, I sure learned the value of a buck. Remember our folks always told us "Save for a rainy day!" How much wisdom they held in their words, especially today! We learned to live with less, and spent less in the long run! I never missed the absence of material things, because I always had what I needed! A well implemented upbringing, will get you through the toughest of times! We can't blame the government for our own overspending!

I just keep thinking about the mess we're in, and embracing simplicity of old ideals just might give us the change we need to forge ahead. I'm not a politian, but it appears clear and commonsence After all it's not about how much you own, but honest inner integrity which makes you great and brings forth the most happiness! What do you believe in, what are your ideals?

P.S. Just finished emailing Pennsylvania Representavies on saving our parks here! May prove fruitless, but in turn may save a few! Anyone interested see Heads Up Pennsylvanians ~ Bill 850 To Close 35 Pennsylvania State Parks for addresses!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Kicking The Smoking Habit ~ Tips For Diehard Smokers!

First you must be totally committed to kicking your smoking habit . You may fall off the wagon a few times, but persistence will prevail if your mind is totally made up. Choose a special goal day to mark your occasion, I chose Mother’s Day. Think of all the reasons you want to quit, write them down. Here are a few:

  1. Quit for yourself and your loved ones.

  2. You know smoking is bad for your health! Quit because of all the health risks to your body and for others who are subject to inhale your second hand smoke!

  3. Because you don't want to mingle around others, with your clothes and breath smelling like an ashtray. As a woman, I was always self conscious about the cigarette smell.

  4. You'll have a cleaner house and car! Surprising the amount of yellow smoke film cigarettes and cigars leave on your white sheer curtains and walls. You can imagine the damage to your lungs, which can't be thrown into the wash!

  5. Because you don't want to die prematurely, but instead live to see your children get married, and spend a good part of your life with the grandkids.

  6. The high cost of supporting your smoking habit is getting to be ridiculous!

  7. A whiter smile!

Somewhere down the line your children will learn about smoking and drugs in school. A major reason I decided to quit. Before my child reached early teens, I made my final choice to kick the habit. I didn’t want another generation of smokers in my family. My parents both smoked, and I could be the one to break the smoking generation chain. Plus you can’t stand there and tell your kids not to smoke, while puffing on a Marboro Light! My love for my child is truly deeper than my love for cigarettes.

The last thing you need is someone to preach to you, and tell what you should and shouldn’t do. I quit cold turkey, and believe me this was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. I truly enjoyed smoking, it was an exhilarating feeling. Smoking calmed me down when I was stressed or nervous. Pumped me up when I needed a lift. An upper and a downer all in one habit, almost as good as sex or chocolate. I still miss it’s euphoric effects today! Expressions only a diehard smoker would make! But here are some pointers you can focus on, when you decide to quit:

  1. Remember those hot cinnamon toothpicks we loved when we were young? I use them to help with my cravings. Target sells them online, or you can make your own! I like the cinnamon ones, helps take the edge off!

  2. Walk! Walking is the greatest and most rewarding of all exercises to me. You can take your dog or spouse on a nice hike in the woods. Especially after dinner when the urge to smoke is the greatest, and take a few hot toothpicks with you on your walk. Instead of concentrating on smoking, you'll see all the wonderful things in nature to live for! Plus your dog will love you for it, and you and your spouse may find a private spot to neck!

  3. Clean rooms in your house or garage. You have more time to beautify your home, or now as they call it crib, making every room a tidy place to be proud of!

  4. Always keep busy and active. I promise you'll have more energy, breath better, and be able to walk up stairs and hills, without losing your wind! Constantly moving around will help keep you fit!

  5. My Ultimate Life Protocol Learn To Love Yourself! Even when someone puts you down, keep being who you are! You hold the greatest power over your demons! People who can't stand by you, aren't your friends!


We’ll all face our mortality at some point in our lives, but let it be much later than sooner! Like the quote from my favorite Pink Floyd song: “Breath ~Breath in the air, Don’t be afraid to care! Leave but don’t leave me.” My longtime friend and I have a special motto: Love yourself first and the rest of your life will just fall in place! Usually it’s the opposite, we love others before ourselves, and let ourselves go. Typical adult behavior especially of women!

Remember life is our most profound gift and there’s only one uniquely you! Mother’s Day 2009 marked four smokeless years for me. My daughter was amazed at her mother for quitting a longtime habit. I look into her beautiful eyes everyday, and know I made the right decision for the both of us!

I wish you much luck on your smoking cessation endeavors!

My Related Story Post: Prohibition Regression In Economic Recession!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

U.S Gas Price Comparison Checker!

Cool Gas Price Checker I found online. MSN Auto’s site receives information from 90.000 gas stations all across the U.S.A. You can type in your zip code and compare prices in your area. PA folks can check theirs here: http://autos.msn.com/everyday/GasStations.aspx?m=1&l=1&zip=15904
You can also use the same link above, for all out of state prices too. Just type in your zip code. Displays lowest, average, and highest prices of gas in your area.

Depends on how far you are willing to drive to obtain your lowest price. You may end up spending the extra amount you save in the extra miles driving to get to the lowest price gas stations! Seems there is a slight delay in posting current gas prices. As prices continue to fluctuate, and prices are not always received daily by every gas station.

But I think it’s interesting how you can check out prices in other states. Gas in my PA area ~ Lowest price $3.87, Average price $3.94, and Highest price is $4.09. I typed in my best friend’s zip in Tampa, Florida and her area Lowest price $3.81, Average price $3.92, and Highest price $4.04! I thought the gas prices last year were high!

If you scroll down to the bottom of the MSN site page you can also see the national average: Haviland, KS is at the lowest U.S. Price at $3.49, the National Average is at $3.99, and the highest U.S. gas price is in Groveland, CA at $5.29 (Yikes!).

Since gas is the big news of the century, impacting everything in our daily lives. I plan on displaying my area (LAH) low, average, and high gas prices here on my blog highlights to the right. I’ll update it as the prices change, or as I see it change, or as I actually fill my tank. What is the LAH gas price in your area!

Make sure you sign the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less, Petition. There are over 1 Million Signatures!!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

To The Man I Love!

He's no modern day Casanova.
He's a man
in every sense of the word,
an intelligent man possessing,
a young boy's ornery humor.

Iron hands to handle any daily task,
yet so gentle when making love.

A hard working man
who never requires more,
than a long strenuous day
he constantly puts forth.

A big, strong man
who's embrace makes me feel,
like a woman,
in every sense of the word.

A proud stubborn man
who walks this earth,
with a generous heart
spanning just as vast.

And the rare tears
I have seen him cry,
brings me ever closer...

To the man
I love..
in every sense of the word.

©Jo A. True-Burkholder 2004-2008.

June 2, 2008 marked my husband and I's 18th anniversay. I wrote this poem for him for Valentines day in 2004. 18 years is a milestone in our present day and age. I'm one out of three sisters still married. I see it as the norm ,1 out of 3 marriages lasts these days. The luster has not gone out of my marriage after18 years. In fact we have only been drawn closer to each other especially over the past two years. We've lost our parents, my mother, and his father. Two really great parents, who loved to party and enjoy life to the fullest. It is our deep love that keeps them alive in our hearts. We've had our ups and downs, no one is perfect or should have to be. Life is a hard enough journey, let alone not being able to be ourselves.

I married my best friend and the man I still lust for to this day. I hope we never become a statistic. I can see us as that old couple only separated by death, and not even then. He still buys me flowers, opens doors, and carries heavy things. But most of all, he is always at my side when I need him. In this modern day when marrige is no longer an institution, ours continues to thrive. We awake to beat the odds with every passing day, and every daily hurdle we have to cross. Like they say the grass is not always greener on the other side, and a good partner is even harder to find. Trust is the key to a great marriage. Trust, patience, and a whole lot of love! Long live us hopeless romantics!!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Things Are Tougher All Over!!

Rain, rain go away!
With the planting season upon us, we have had little time to sow our seeds in our yearly Spring Garden. The ground thoroughly soaked has not only impeded our planting, but all farmers in the region.




Flower perennials and annuals my daughter and husband purchased for me on Mother’s Day, are only a quarter planted. The rain has literally delayed our regular planting season.

The high price of gas has driven already cautious consumers to the brink of insanity. We have been forced to open our pockets deeper and deeper with every price increase. I’ve never let my gas tank get under a quarter tank, and it is almost on E! Forced to try to cut into my grocery bill, which has in turn increased as the weeks go by. Stocking up on good buys for fear prices will continue to go up within the upcoming months.

Milk, eggs, bread, cheese, rice, flour, and cooking oil have gone sky high. Last week almost five bucks for canola cooking oil, hitting hard to those who are watching calories and cholesterol.
Cutting everything in the household to less and less, and our teenage daughter wonders why we don’t want to drive her halfway across the county for a birthday party!

Times are tough, and are only going to get tougher in the future.

I had passed the idea of making our garden even bigger this year to my husband. Last Summer I froze all the vegetables we did not use at the moment. Green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, and corn. I freeze them in freezer bags, and take them out as needed for sauces, soups, and stir fries. I never had the patience to can stuff. This is my modern way of canning, to freeze-fresh garden vegetables. I just used my last small frozen bag of tomatoes, for minestrone soup. As long as the vegetables are picked fresh and frozen, they keep very well. I'm hoping to freeze as much as possible this Summer. We cannot afford to waste a thing, cause things are getting tougher all over.

My friend Ochikeron has written an interesting article on her blog about the global food crisis affecting not only us, but also Asian countries.
Link to her article here:
http://createeathappy.blogspot.com/2008/05/global-food-crisis.html

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Words From A Deist

Deist~ A person who believes in God, without accepting any particular religion.

From a very young age I never felt comfortable in church. I always felt so humbled as if I were never good enough to be there. My father was a Protestant, and my mother a Buddhist. Separated and divorced when I was in grade school, my mother was the perfect example of virtue. She was also separated from her religion being here in the U.S., and disgracing her Japanese heritage by marrying an American soldier. I once asked her what she thought about religion, and her reply was "Her Japanese God, and American God are one God." "We pray to the same God from there or here." "We look to the same sky as one God for everyone." She was very wise as a lot of Japanese people are, and have a deep respect for family, and others. She was also very forgiving of those who were prejudice against her, which I could not always be.

We went to a friend’s all faith church once, and the children there teased my sisters and I for being Japanese. They would pull their eyes up and say chinks, we would always say "Get it right, we’re Japs!" I never liked the word Japs either, I felt it was the worst word you could call someone like nigger, spick ect.. We were teased enough at school we didn’t need to go to church to be teased. There are some folks who go to church, who need to go to church literally! I also don’t believe I need to confess my sins. What sins does an average person confess? “I swore 5 times this week, I had lustful thoughts for my husband, I looked at another man, I raised my voice at my child.” I don’t believe we are all sinners, I do believe we make human mistakes, and the majority of the world is filled with good people. Good people trying to live good lives, treating each other with kindness and respect, this is what I truly believe religion is.

I don’t believe I need to go to church to prove to people I believe in God, or that I am a good person. There are those who go to church that consider themselves higher on the totem poll. If you wish to do so, it is your choice, but don’t look down upon me if I don’t.

My motto is I won’t put you down for being who you are, and in respect do not put me down for being and believing in who I am.

Like in the movie Stigmata based on the gospel of Thomas:

“Jesus said... the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood... and I am there, lift a stone... and you will find me.”

An interesting Deist site here:
Deist.Info: http://www.deist.info/

Monday, April 28, 2008

Tiger Ranch 2nd Preliminary Hearing Update April 28, 2008!!

Tiger Ranch Linda Bruno Jailed Today ~ Sentencing Delayed! Update Oct 5, 2009 View Here!

Tiger Ranch Linda Bruno faces over 500 animal cruelty charges today, in her now second preliminary hearing. Due to the large amount of media, supporters for and against, and witnesses for the Tiger Ranch case, today's hearing took place in the Allegheny Courthouse. Prosecuters presented video and recordings of the raid on Tiger Ranch March 13, 2008, where the SPCA claims to have taken dozens of sick and dying cats from the premises.

Richard Manning Allegheny County Sheriffs Detective testified about the unfit conditions of the Tiger Ranch property, and also the sickly condition of the cats. He said "The majority of the cats appeared to be lethargic." 100 cats were also found in the freezer. Bruno claims that the cold ground too hard to bury the cats. She also claims cats were planted and moved to different parts of the shelter when video was taped.

Linda Bruno maintains her innocence saying "I'm blessed, humbled, and honored by my supporters." Her online petition has almost 500 signatures in support of her cause! Tiger Ranch Petition site here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/tell-pspca-to-drop-all-charges-against-of-animal-abuse-against-linn-marie-tiger-ranch-ranch2nd

Linda Bruno Quotes Today: "God says he never forsakes the righteous." "You'll see the righteous win." Her other famous quote: "Like A Phoenix From The Ashes Tiger Ranch Will Rise Again."

More testimony tomorrow, as we wait for the judges decision whether the case will go to trial!

Another link of a beautiful logo with her famous quote, and for supporter transportation here: http://www.care2.com/news/member/414880878/722099

Additional news write ups here:
Tiger Ranch April 28, 2008 Hearing: http://kdka.com/local/Tiger.Ranch.preliminary.2.710060.html
Tiger Ranch Hearing Continues:
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/16031945/detail.html

View all my new and previous Tiger Ranch posts here:
http://literallyinthemoment.blogspot.com/search?q=tiger+ranch

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Tiger Ranch April 17, 2008 Preliminary Hearing Postponed ~ New Tiger Ranch Websites!

Latest Tiger Ranch Update:
Tiger Ranch Linda Bruno Jailed Today ~ Sentencing Delayed! Update Oct 5, 2009!

According to the new DefendTigerRanch.org website, the preliminary hearing for Tiger Ranch's Linda Bruno, which was scheduled for today has been postponed. The new date has been set for Monday and Tuesday April 28 & 29th, 2008. They have moved the hearing to the Allegheny courthouse in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

New Tiger Ranch Sites which have been submitted to me are listed here in the order they were given:

DefendTigerRanch.org

Class Action Suit Against The PSPCA

Tiger Ranch Rescue Info

Tiger Ranch Petition


Thank you to all the contributors of these sites for submitting them to Literally In The Moment, and helping to keep us up to date on the Tiger Ranch Case!

View all my new and previous posts on Tiger Ranch Here: http://literallyinthemoment.blogspot.com/search?q=tiger+ranch

Friday, March 7, 2008

Women Empowered ~ International Women's Day

Women Empowered

All women are beautiful in their own uniqueness. We all love our children in the same way, striving for a brighter future. We wouldn’t be here without a woman giving birth, nurturing us through the many years of growing and learning. Do we not owe everything to the women who gave their lives, and in turn becoming mothers to give our lives to our own children?

Women born to be empowered in femininity and sexuality walking proudly in our step. To be loved for who we are, and all we can achieve if given a fair chance. Women have made many strides over the centuries, paving the way toward equality and women’s rights. Yet there are still atrocities taking place all across the international spectrum.


Imagine all women united living in modern equality. Imagine the dreams flourished in reality, imagine the world wide possibilities. Perhaps here in the near future a Woman president!

©Jo A. T.B.


Interesting Articles for International Women's Day ~ March 8, 2008

USA Today ~ Calls to end rape to mark world Women's Day

International Women's Day.com

International Women's Day NYC
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