Bill Gates Joins Board of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who became the world's richest men on very separate paths, will be working together to help guide one of the world's most successful conglomerates. Warren Buffett controls the company, which has a market value of around $130 billion, with nearly 40 percent of the stock, worth more than $40 billion. Berkshire invests in companies in traditional businesses like newspapers, soft drinks and insurance. Besides Berkshire, Buffett is on the boards of Coca-Cola Co. and The Washington Post Co., two companies in which Berkshire has large stock holdings. Bill Gates is worth more than $46 billion as founder of the world's largest software company. He owns about $300 million in Berkshire stock and was appointed to the board in December, to fill the vacancy left by the July death of Buffett's wife, Susan. Gates' appointment marks the first time he and Buffett have been on the same board, though they have been friends since meeting at a social event in Seattle in 1991. When Gates became engaged to his wife, Melinda, in 1993, they bought an engagement ring at Berkshire-owned Borsheim's jewelry story in Omaha; Buffett met them at the airport. Gates and Buffett are numbers 1 and 2, respectively, on Forbes magazine's list of of the world's richest men and share similar backgrounds. They grew up in comfortable circumstances; Buffett's father was a Nebraska congressman, while Gates' is a prominent Seattle attorney. Both built their own companies, and they share a love of hamburgers, bridge and golf, and have vacationed together, including a trip to China in 1995.

My wife works for a company that was bought and is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway. I have followed Warren Buffett since my days as a investment advisor over 20 years ago. I can distinctly remember when Berkshire Hathaway stock traded around $900 a share. Today it's close to $85,000 a share. Two brilliant men. What an amazing team.

Gonna Try Again

We had our second track meet this morning at Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn. My youngest son won another ribbon for shot put and my oldest son won one for the 400 meters. It was a lot warmer than last weekend. I didn't need gloves. After the track meet my niece had her first birthday party at my mother-in-laws. I can't believe tomorrow is May.

Baffled

I don't know what's going on but the last few times I've tried to post I keep getting cannot find server messages. I'm baffled. It looks like this blogging might be a thing of the past if this keeps up. It's too bad I really enjoyed it.

Maddux King

Greg Maddux (1-1) and Roger Clemens each did their jobs, posting quality if not overwhelming starts in just the fifth matchup of 300-game winners since 1900 and the first in the National League since 1892. Maddux went six innings, allowing two runs and seven hits while improving to 306-175. Clemens went seven innings, allowing a season-high three runs and seven hits as he fell to 329-165. By the time it was decided Friday, it was as if house painters were called in to finish the Sistine Chapel. Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens, two artists who have combined for 635 career victories, could only sit and watch as their fate rested in the hands of the likes of relievers Russ Springer, Dan Wheeler, Will Ohman, Roberto Novoa and LaTroy Hawkins. Hawkins pitched a perfect ninth for his fourth save of the season as the Cubs moved two games over .500 for the first time with a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros before a sellout crowd of 41,232 at Minute Maid Park. Jeromy Burnitz snapped a 2-2 tie with a leadoff home run in the seventh inning off Clemens (1-1).The Astros have lost six in a row. Burnitz had three hits and two RBIs. History in the making.

from article By Bob Foltman Chicago Tribune staff reporter Published April 30, 2005

Player page http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/player.jsp?player_id=118120

Jerry Seinfeld's Birthday

Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld was born April 29th, 1954. An American actor, writer and comedian from Brooklyn, New York and straight from graduation at Queen's College, Seinfeld tried out at an open mic night at New York's Catch A Rising Star in 1976. Soon after, he was appearing in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. Seinfeld had a small recurring role as "Frankie" on the Benson sitcom in 1979, but was abruptly fired from the show. A few years later, in May of 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Seinfeld then became a regular on similar shows, including Late Night with David Letterman and the Merv Griffin Show. Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1989 for NBC. The show was later renamed simply Seinfeld and became one of the most popular and successful sitcoms on American television. The show left the air in1998. The show also starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. After his sitcom went off the air, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy.

http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/tvindex.html

Arbor Day

From Sunday Chicago Tribune Magazine - April 24, 2005

Arbor Day, the last Friday in April, had its start in a relatively treeless place: Nebraska. Prominent Nebraskan Julius Sterling Morton proposed a day dedicated to planting trees in 1872, and the first Arbor Day was a big success. Morton had a son named Joy, who made his fortune in Chicago with a salt business you may have heard of. Joy Morton also loved trees, and on Arbor Day in 1922 he planted 17 of them on his estate in Lisle, Illinois along with 130,000 other plantings that spring and the Morton Arboretum was born.
Some tree trivia:

- Number of trees planted in Nebraska the first Arbor Day: 1 million.
- Most common tree in Chicago: Cottonwood.
- Estimated number of trees in Chicago: 4.1 million.
- Number of young, healthy trees whose net cooling effect is equal to ten room-sized air conditioners operating 20 hours a day: 1
- Percentage of Illinois land that was forested in 1820: 39%.
- Percentage of Illinois land forested today: 12%.

The Morton Arboretum is close to where we live and we have visited it many times. One of my college roommates is the Director of Property and Grounds and at one time lived on the grounds of the Arboretum. It's a beautiful place to visit if you are ever in the area.

Happy Arbor Day!

Kind Words

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Theresa

Longest To Finish

"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish." - J. R. R. Tolkien

Learners

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

Learn From It

"The way I see it,you can either run from it,or learn from it." - Rafikki to Simba in Disney's The Lion King

I can't tell you how many times the boys watched this movie. We have it on VHS.

In God We Trust

On this day in 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins.

Death

"I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

First Track Meet

Today was the boys first track meet and was it freezing. There were even snow flurries. We stood around outside in the cold for over five hours. My youngest son won two ribbons for long jump and shot put. Eight schools competed at Lagrange Township High School. I'm still defrosting. I hope the weather is better for the other ones.

Greatness

"Do not fear greatness. Some men are born with greatness, some men achieve greatness, and some men have greatness thrust upon them." - William Shakespeare

Why Do They Keep Score?

"If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?" - Vince Lombardi

Winning

"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." - Vince Lombardi

Think Happy Thoughts

"Think happy thoughts and you can fly." - Peter Pan

Becoming Superior

"While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior." - Henry C. Link

Moments

"We do not remember days; we remember moments." - Cesare Pavese

Moments That Take Our Breath Away

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." - George Carlin

Ray Dziubski

One of my co-workers passed away suddenly on Thursday. It was a shock. When I received the call at my other job they said they had some bad news. I was thinking layoffs or a change in schedule. I didn't think the news would be this bad. When he didn't show up for work some of our co-workers called him up and there was no answer. They called the police for a wellness visit and they found him in the hallway of his house. It appears he died of a heart attack and had been dead about 24 hours. His wake was today from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

In Loving Memory of
Raymond Edward Dziubski, Jr.
October 5, 1956 - April 14, 2005

We little knew that morning,
God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
You did not go alone,
For part of us went with you,
The day God called you home.
You left us beautiful memories,
Your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you,
You are always by our side.
Our family chain is broken,
And nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one,
The chain will link again.

Ray trained me at my job and I will miss his cheerful attitude and dedication.

May God Watch Over You Ray!

Hardest Thing To Learn In Life

"The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn." - David Russell

Fullersburg Woods

We visited Queen of Heaven Cemetery this morning for my father-in-law's birthday. He would have been 69. Then we took our Saturday hike at Fullersburg Woods. It's another beautiful weekend in the 70's. We walked along Salt Creek from Graue Mill to the bridge and back. There's some big mansions near the forest preserve. Everything is starting to turn green and there's more color and flowers. Not much wildlife, the creek is still kind of polluted. We saw ducks and geese and a squirrel. We saw a few fishermen. The have a waterfall right by the mill. The mill was built in 1852 and still functions. I remember my folks taking me there when I was kid and watching them grind corn. The Fuller house is still there. It was built around 1840. We had a nice drive home on York Road through Hinsdale and Burr Ridge.

Income Tax Returns

"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today." - Herman Wouk

Death and Taxes

"There will always be death and taxes; however, death doesn't get worse every year." - Unknown

Inspiration

"Inspiration is a guest who does not like to visit lazy people." - Peter Tchaikovsky

Were You Funny As A Child?

"People always ask me, 'Were you funny as a child?' Well, no, I was an accountant." - Ellen DeGeneres

Be Who You Are

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Be Prepared For An Opportunity

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared." - Whitney Young Jr.

Opportunity

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door" - Milton Berle

Amityville Horror Prize

I won some more movie tickets. We can't go because of track practice.

You've won a pair of passes to The Loop's screening of The Amityville Horror
on Wednesday, April 13th at 7:30pm at AMC River East Theatres in Chicago (322 Illinois St.)

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR GETTING INTO THE MOVIE.
Please do not respond to this email.You will be on a GUEST-LIST at the theater, and you MUST bring a PHOTO I.D. to gain admittance to this screening. Bring your I.D. to The Loop representative to receive a screening pass, which will be good for YOU PLUS ONE GUEST. You CAN NOT transfer your pass to anyone else, so please don't have someone else bring this email to the theater--they will not be admitted. Only you (and your guest) will be allowed into the theater.As always, please keep in mind that the theatre is overbooked to ensure capacity and we strongly recommend that you arrive early.At the theatre, seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Passes and R.S.V.P.'s DO NOT guarantee seating. No one will be admitted without a pass and no one will be admitted after the screening begins. Seating is not guaranteed. Theatre is not responsible for overbooking. No children under 6 years old will be admitted.Enjoy the film.

Wisdom

"The doors of wisdom are never shut." - Benjamin Franklin

Wisdom

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk."
-Doug Larson

Keep Trying

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie

Early in my sales career I took the Dale Carnegie Sales Course and came back twice as an assistant instructor. It was a great learning experience.

Those Who Wander

"Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Leave The Beaten Track

"Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before." - Alexander Graham Bell

Waterfall Glen

Today's nature hike was at Waterfall Glen. We've been there a couple times before. It's close to home and we got a late start after our Saturday morning omelettes. We didn't need coats it was so nice. We tied them around our waists. I told my oldest son "a waist is a terrible thing to waste." I'm so clever and he thinks I'm a dork. We saw a couple of their classmates riding bikes. The water at the waterfall was pretty low. We didn't see much wildlife probably because it was later in the morning. We saw a duck and a hawk flying around in the sky. There were some pretty wildflowers.

Practice Safe Blogging

Personal Web Blogs Are Hugely Popular.
They're Also Landing Some People In A Heap Of Trouble.
April 8, 2005: 12:57 PM EDT By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Add blogging to the list of extracurricular activities in need of some protection. As many as 40,000 personal Web diaries -- dubbed "blogs" -- crop up each day, reports Technorati, a San Francisco startup that tracks Web logs. Overall, there are just over 8.5 million virtual diaries, up from 100,000 two years ago, as Average Joes, CEOs and political foes turn to blogs opine on everything from Pope John Paul II's death and "First Twin" Jenna Bush to the Red Sox and housing costs. Blogs are shaking up the Internet but they're also raising a lot of alarms -- and, in some cases, landing their authors in hot water. A Google employee lost his job after gabbing on a blog about internal goings-on at the Internet search engine giant. Last month, Apple Computer won a court order seeking the identities of bloggers who revealed on-line confidential information about a company product in development. Families too have been known to find out on a blog more information than they ever wanted to know about a relative's uncensored sex life. Clearly there's a need for a few rules of the "blogosphere" road. On Thursday the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco digital rights group that wants to protect bloggers, released a guide to help virtual diarists avoid the wrath of Mom, the boss or just about anyone else. "If you blog, there are no guarantees you'll attract a readership of thousands," states the manual. "But at least a few readers will find your blog, and they may be people you'd least want to expect....And there may be consequences." Below, a few tips from "How to Blog Safely (About Work and Anything Else)":

A is for Anonymous First, the "no duh" warning: don't post any pictures reveal your name or even confess you work for cautions the guide. Posting using a pseudonym is smart but, if you think using "Leanne" when your name is Annalee is a good idea, think again. Technology as alibi superficial disguises go only so far when every wannabe pundit also has a unique -- and, unfortunately, traceable -- Internet address. The good news is, there are services like www.Invisiblog.com, www.Anonymizer.com and Tor that specialize in helping you keep your address and your identity under wraps.

Be Exclusive You don't have to let the whole world watch. You can set up a blog that is password-protected. Blogging services such as LiveJournal let you decide who gets to see all or parts of your blog. Turns out, you can also block Google and other major search engines from listing your blog in Internet search results. To do so, you need to create a special file called a "Robots Text File."

Have a Blog and Keep Your Job Mark Jen, the fired Google worker, isn't the only blogger to land on the unemployment lines. Delta Air Lines, Microsoft and Friendster, the on-line social networking service, have all allegedly canned hired help for blogging. Countless other employers are taking steps to prevent loose-lipped workers from disclosing company information on the Internet.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the First Amendment protects against censorship by the government, not employers or any other private party. In most states, employment is considered "at will," which means that employees can quit and employers can fire anytime and for any reason. And no states have laws to protect bloggers from job or any other discrimination, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There is some good news, but not much. Most states specifically protect workers' political activities and opinions. Using a blog as a unionizing tool is also protected. Workers who blow the whistle on illegal activities by their employers also enjoy certain safeguards, but should "notify somebody in authority about the sludge (their) company is dumping in the wetlands first, then blog about it," the guide states. And, of course, government workers are free to carp all they want online as long as they don't reveal classified or confidential information. The safest way of all this isn't in the how-to blog guide, but remember the old days of paper and pen diaries? True, the audience is limited to the authors themselves and maybe a snooping sibling or two. Ones with a lock and key work best.

Be careful fellow bloggers.

Mass For The Pope

I took the boys to the 6:30 p.m. Mass they had at our church for the Pope. Our priest mentioned our church's connection with the Pope. On the silver jubilee of our church he had asked someone he knew in Rome to get a silver chalice in honor of the church's silver jubilee. This person was able have the Pope consecrate it and the Pope used the chalice in a Mass. For this Mass for the Pope the priest used the same chalice. The church also had an autographed picture of the Pope at the altar. The prayer we said at Mass for the death of John Paul II was:

God of mercy and kindness, your servant John Paul II echoed in your church the words of Jesus "Do not be afraid" and "Put out into the deep." May these words find a home in our hearts and encourage us as we move into the future. Direct your Church by the power of the Holy Spirit and raise up a supreme Pastor who will confirm his brothers and sisters, who will feed and strengthen them with word and sacrament, who will stand strong in witnessing the Gospel before the world, and who will be a sign and source of unity for your Church. Bless us your people with grace and determination to continue the mission of your Son Jesus and to be "a people brought into unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Amen.

Kung Fu Hustle Prize

Another Prize:

You've won a pair of passes to:
The Loop's screening of Kung Fu Hustle on Monday, April 11th at 7:30pm
at Loews 600 N. Michigan Theatres, located at 600 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR GETTING INTO THE MOVIE. Please do not respond to this email. You will be on a GUEST-LIST at the theater, and you MUST bring a PHOTO I.D. to gain admittance to this screening. Bring your I.D. to The Loop representative to receive a screening pass, which will be good for YOU PLUS ONE GUEST. You CAN NOT transfer your pass to anyone else, so please don't have someone else bring this email to the theater--they will not be admitted. Only you (and your guest) will be allowed into the theater. As always, please keep in mind that the theatre is overbooked to ensure capacity and we strongly recommend that you arrive early. At the theatre, seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Passes and R.S.V.P.'s DO NOT guarantee seating. No one will be admitted without a pass and no one will be admitted after the screening begins. Seating is not guaranteed. Theatre is not responsible for overbooking. No children under 6 years old will be admitted. Enjoy the film.

Evil

"Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil." - Jerry Garcia, The Grateful Dead

Recover A Lost Post

Sometimes, due to circumstances beyond your control, your post may seem to vanish into thin air. The Internet is a dangerous place: browsers can crash, network connections can go down just when you click "Publish," or you may just accidentally move on to a new page without realizing you had an unfinished post left behind you. Luckily, Google has a nifty little feature that can save you from a lot of these cases. Periodically, as you write a post, the text of your post will get saved to a cookie on your browser. That way, even if something crashes, you may still be able to get your text back. Just go back to the posting form and look for the "Recover post" link. Click that link, and anything that was saved in the browser's cookie will be filled into the posting form. You're saved!

Notes:
This feature is not guaranteed to work every time you lose a post, but it's always worth a shot.
You'll need to be logged in to the same blog that lost the post, and on the same browser, in order for this to work. Don't type anything new in the posting form before trying to recover or that new text may overwrite your old cookie.

The Value Of Life

"Anyone who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life." - Charles Darwin

ZZZs Puh-Leezz!

...It's a real eye-opener what some do in pursuit of quality shut-eye
I found this in an article
By Judy Hevrdejs Chicago Tribune staff reporter Published April 3, 2005
The routines and rituals readers use to coax themselves into dreamland are varied, for sure. Teas and tonics, warm milk and watermelon. Purring air purifiers and fans; all-night radio and CDs. That we have created so many routines isn't surprising. Getting a decent night's sleep is a challenge for half of adult Americans, according to the 2005 Sleep in America poll released last week by the non-profit, Washington, D.C.-based National Sleep Foundation. (And that poll, conducted late last year, doesn't even include the 60 slumbering minutes we just lost in the switch to daylight-saving time.) A recent study by mattress-maker Sealy found 67 percent of pet owners let cats and dogs into bed. One reason for our miserable nights may be that we're not chilling out before we hit the sack, a process that sleep experts say could help alleviate some problems. Instead, the Sleep in America poll found that on at least a few nights of the week, nearly 9 out of 10 adults spent the hour before bed watching television. Other activities include fiddling around on the Internet (28 percent), doing work related to their job (18 percent), drinking alcoholic beverages (13 percent) and exercising (11 percent). About half of us read. Just 27 percent say they have sex. And the rest of us? Seems lousy sleep is messing with our relationships. The poll of 1,506 adults found that for partnered adults, sleep problems can be doubly disruptive. If one has a sleep problem--say, snoring--the other can lose, on average, almost an hour of sleep a night. And that, my friends, is not good, for the study also found sleepiness can make one or both partners, well, too sleepy for sex. Analyzing rest Such numbers don't surprise Dr. Phyllis Zee, who has been studying our sleep issues for 15-plus years. What did interest Zee, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a professor at Northwestern University and a spokeswoman for the National Sleep Foundation, was the poll's focus on the impact sleep habits have on "interpersonal relationships and quality of life." "We have so much to do and so little time to sleep that we don't realize how sleepy we are and the consequences of being sleepy," she said. Those interpersonal relationships and our family relationships--particularly with our children--can affect family dynamics, she added. "You're sleepy. You're irritable. You're a parent that comes home [to a] child who waited all day to ask you a question about homework or perhaps they had a little problem at school," Zee said, "and, boy, you're irritable, you're tired and you just can't deal with one more little problem and you snap." For the child, she added, "That is totally undeserving." But do we solve the problem by getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours sleep? Nope. In fact, most of us barely get 7. Instead, we drive while drowsy, nod off at work, mess up our moods and strain relationships all because we're not getting a good night's sleep--that mix of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (as in REM or dreaming) sleep. And that's just part of it. Beyond the brain"Until five or six years ago, sleep was thought to be mostly for the brain and not so much for the rest of the body. You needed sleep to be awake and alert the next day and not feel tired," said Eve Van Cauter, a University of Chicago professor of medicine and sleep researcher. "Now we understand that you also need sleep in order to have normal body functions--including cardiovascular, hormonal, metabolic." Added Dr. Sheila Dugan, an assistant professor at Rush University Medical School and spokesperson for the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: "You need to get into a deep restorative sleep in order to allow your muscles to repair, just like you need your psyche to repair in REM sleep." My patients that are sleep deprived don't heal as well or as quickly. "In fact, because most of our research has been with young, healthy men so far," Van Cauter said, "one of our major efforts right now is to understand better the sleep needs and the implications of too little sleep in middle-age people and in older people and in women." They might want to check with a woman whose bedtime routine is, well, calculating. "I read a book every night," she e-mailed. "But before I turn out the light, I note what page I'm on and what chapter I have finished. Then to put me to sleep, I calculate the percent of the book I have completed in chapters and in pages. I usually calculate the percentage on chapters first. Then determine how many pages I am ahead or behind on average. As I tend to wake often in the middle of the night, I always have an additional calculation to work on."
Some numbers we hope don't put you to sleep
4: The day in April designated National Workplace Napping Day.
16: The day in April designated National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day.
67: Percent of pet owners who bed down with their cat or dog.
10: Hours a night, on average, that people slept before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.
6.9: Hours a night, on average, that people sleep today.

Fast Food Facts

From Super Size Me, the movie: Each day,
1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant
In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than 110 billion
McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain
French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America
You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac
In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour
60 % of all Americans are either overweight or obese
One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime
Unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America
Obesity has been linked to: Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Adult Onset Diabetes, Stroke, Gall Bladder Disease, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial, Breast, Prostate and Colon Cancers, Dyslipidemia, steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, breathlessness, Asthma, Hyperuricaemia, reproductive hormone abnormalities, polycystic ovarian syndrome, impaired fertility and lower back pain
The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year
Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar
Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat
McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
Diabetes will cut 17-27 years off your life
Quote from McDonald's: "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods"
The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic
Eating fast food may be dangerous to your health
McDonald's calls people who eat a lot of their food "Heavy Users"
McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries on 6 continents
Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's
Surgeon General David Satcher: "Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic"
Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month
40% of American meals are eaten outside the home
McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market

I found this on a blog when blogsurfing. Some things to think about

Nap Fact

An American's nap will usually last around 31 minutes, compared to a European's nap which usually lasts 84.

Find 100 Ways

Compliment what she does
Send her roses just because
If it's violins she loves
Let them play
Dedicate her favourite song
And hold her closer all night long
Love her today
Find one hundred ways
Dont forget, there could be
An old lover in her memory
If you need her so much more
Why don't you say?
Maybe she has it in her mind
That she's just wasting her time
Ask her to stay
Find one hundred ways
Being cool won't help you keep a love warm
You'll just blow your only chance
Take the time to open up your heart
That's the secret of romance
Sacrifice if you care
Buy her some moonlight to wear
If it's one more star she wants
Go all the way
In your arms tonight, she'll reflect
That she owes you the sweetest of debts
If she wants to pay
Find one hundred ways
Love her today
Find one hundred ways

Here's the lyrics to a great song I just heard this on WNUA www.wnua.com by James Ingram

Nutrition Source Site

nutrition source

This site is maintained by the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Aside from not smoking, the most important determinants of good health are what we eat and how active we are. The site is designed to get you started down the path toward the healthiest diet possible by exploring the latest science about healthy eating for adults and by answering key questions about what you should eat: Should you still be concerned about fat intake? Should you eat more or fewer carbohydrates? What about eggs? Fiber? Calcium?

Smoking

"One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying." - Unknown

Dying Sends Out Loud And Clear Message Of Life

By John Kass Chicago Tribune Published April 3, 2005
So many bitter words were shouted across America last week, as a young woman starved to death in Florida. Some were ugly and short, hurtling past curled and unthinking lips. Others were slyly dressed up, pretending to be tolerant, which made them just as sour. Then, across the world, an old man in Rome died. Immediately, the volume was lowered, the world was put on notice and the bitter words were put away, at least for a while. Earlier, as the young woman died, the angry words around her were fit into sentences. These were formed into complicated proofs, positions, essays and arguments about life and who is worthy to live it and whether death is a personal or public matter, and whether the disabled are next. Some arguments were based in reality, others were abstract, theoretical. Others were based on faith, and others were purely political. Folks on all sides were passionate--except those who search for safe passage along the middle ground and think they'll find it. After the past angry week, the consensus was that we're a people divided, irreconcilable. Yet through all those bitter words, on all sides, there was a common thread. Fear. I'm sure many folks will insist they are afraid of nothing. And I'm sure that there are those who aren't afraid. But most of us are. Humans are naturally afraid of pain, and suffering. We fear becoming a burden to those we love, of losing our dignity at the end. And most of us are afraid, too, of the knowledge that the end of our days and those of our loved ones is inevitable, and there is nothing we can do. Words alone can't help. They offer no real measure of protection from what's coming. They offer no control over what really bothers most of us--which is ultimately the loss of control, and what waits for us afterward when our bodies are cold. But the old man in Rome wasn't afraid of losing control. He was a man of words, of letters, a poet--but he knew the limits of words. And he was comfortable moving beyond them while dying, knowing that sophisticated arguments and reason couldn't help him get to where he wanted to go. He welcomed the suffering too. He considered it a gift. He was a teacher and communicating was central to his life, yet at the end, he could not speak a word. Old, infirm, in pain, he'd make it to the window of his apartment and look out at the throngs of people standing in the square below, his actions were captured on television and broadcast around the world. There, at the window, he would teach. He'd teach without talking, just by appearing, by holding on to a life many would have considered not worth living at the end. By doing this, he taught that all life is worthy, and he reminded his people of something they'd been taught almost 2,000 years ago: They didn't have to be afraid of death. You know this is about Pope John Paul II, and his dying after so much bitterness surrounding Terri Schiavo, the woman with brain damage who was legally starved to death in Florida. At first I wanted to avoid any comparison between them, for fear of stretching things to suit my purposes. They approached the end differently, he welcomed it, and she was oblivious. They were connected by a common faith. Their lives were connected, too, at least briefly, by the use of tubes to feed them. But most of all, they were connected at the end by a public message from her family, and from him, that human life is sacred. As he lay dying, I heard his legacy being chipped by some talking head on TV who called him the conservative pope. Such labeling reveals more about news bias than it does about the pope. Was it liberal of him to stand against communism in Eastern Europe and smash it, or to stand against abortion and embryonic stem cell research? Was it conservative of him to forgive the man who tried to kill him, or to condemn a conservative-led war in Iraq, or capital punishment? Was it conservative to reach out across faiths, to apologize to Jews, to Eastern Orthodox, to women, for offenses committed by the Western church? Chicago is a Catholic town and I'm Greek Orthodox, not Catholic, but I remember when he crossed the Southwest Side, and the Polish people there crowding the curbs, proud of their Polish-born pope, reaching, yearning to glimpse him, to claim him. And so, for today, I'd like to claim him too. I don't think I'm alone. Many of different faiths--and those without any faith--will mourn him. We can all agree on his goodness, hoping some of it remains behind, where we're in need of it. You don't need to ask permission to light a candle. All you do is close your eyes, and go to that place inside yourself where there are no words, where words don't matter, where they don't reach.

A good perspective on the past week.

Wide Awake

"Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day." - Anonymous

New Doctor

"I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away." - George Carlin

Pay A Compliment

"Don't wait for a funeral to pay a compliment. You may not make it in time." - Harvey Mackay

I have a few books autographed by Harvey Mackay and heard him speak in Chicago

Getting Tired

"Life is one long process of getting tired." - Samuel Butler

Early Morning

With the time change we were up really early today 6:15 a.m. (5:15 a.m. pre-daylight savings time time.) My youngest son was an altar server at the 7:00 a.m. Mass. After Mass I got to Meijer's early. There was nobody there. I asked the cashier "Where is everybody?" She said it starts getting busy after 10:00 a.m. I picked up the Sunday Chicago Tribune with the big headline: John Paul II Dies. After Meijer's I got my wife's minivan washed to surprise her. It was another beautiful morning. I told the boys to get outside and enjoy their last day of spring break. Back to school tomorrow.

Best Just Got Better

Illinois 72, Louisville 57
By EDDIE PELLS
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The best season in a century of Illinois basketball just got better. The Illini moved one win from the first championship in their 100-year history Saturday thanks to Roger Powell Jr. and Luther Head, who scored 20 points each to spark a 72-57 victory over Louisville and keep coach Bruce Weber's magical bus ride going straight through the title game. The Illini (37-1), the best team in the country all season, got the tough test they expected from the Cardinals (33-5) and Rick Pitino, who made history by taking his third different program to the Final Four. But Head and Powell made the difference as Illinois pulled away in the second half. Head, one of three guards who make his team tick, made his first four 3-point attempts in the second half to help the Illini on an 11-0 run for a 61-49 lead with 6 minutes left. Powell, meanwhile, proved Illinois isn't just about guards. The 6-foot-6 forward hit a pair of 3s and powered underneath for a few more buckets to help the Illini pull away and give them an edge on the inside in an otherwise very even game. Next for Illinois, a matchup Monday against either Michigan State or North Carolina for the championship. If the Illini win, they'll become the first team since the 1974 North Carolina State Wolfpack to win the championship without getting on an airplane in the postseason. Indeed, this one felt a lot like a home game for the Illini, whose Orange Crush fan base has followed them around the country this season, especially over the last three weeks, when they've played in Indianapolis, Chicago and now St. Louis _ all just a bus ride away. Head's backcourt mates, Deron Williams and Dee Brown, each struggled, shooting a combined 5-for-17, and just 3-for-14 from 3-point range. But, as usual, they did the little things. Williams, who scored Illinois' first and last bucket of the game, finished with nine assists and five rebounds to go with his five points. Brown ran the point and took care of the ball, adding four assists. Williams, Brown and Head also put some major `D' on Louisville. Francisco Garcia, the Cardinals' best player most of the season, finished with four points and ended the season with two subpar games, this one coming on top of the come-from-behind win over West Virginia in which he fouled out and watched the last 9 minutes from the bench. Taquan Dean and Larry O'Bannon picked him up in that one, but not this time. Dean never found his touch, going 4-for-15 and only making two 3-pointers as part of a 12-point night. O'Bannon went 4-for-10 for 12 points. Forward Ellis Myles led the Cardinals with 17 points, but that was the problem: Louisville simply doesn't win much when it has to look to its forwards for the bulk of the scoring.

Yip! Yip! Yip! Yahooie! Championship Monday Night.

The Present

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present." - Unknown

A Minute Ago

"It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago." - Jim Bishop

Procrastination

10 Things To Know About Procrastination
By Hara Estroff Marano from eDiets
April 2, 2005
Spring has sprung. There are many ways avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Why would people do that? I talked to two of the world's leading experts on procrastination: Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, and Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Neither one is a procrastinator, and both answered my many questions immediately.

10. Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators.
For them procrastination is a lifestyle, albeit a maladaptive one. And it cuts across all domains of their life. They don't pay bills on time. They miss opportunities for buying tickets to concerts. They don't cash gift certificates or checks. They file income tax returns late. They leave their Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve.
9. It's not trivial, although as a culture we don't take it seriously as a problem.
It represents a profound problem of self-regulation. And there may be more of it in the U.S. than in other countries because we are so nice; we don't call people on their excuses ("my grandmother died last week") even when we don't believe them.
8. Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. "Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up," insists Dr. Ferrari.
7. Procrastinators are made not born.
Procrastination is learned in the family milieu, but not directly. It is one response to an authoritarian parenting style. Having a harsh, controlling father keeps children from developing the ability to regulate themselves, from internalizing their own intentions and then learning to act on them. Procrastination can even be a form of rebellion, one of the few forms available under such circumstances. What's more, under those household conditions, procrastinators turn more to friends than to parents for support, and their friends may reinforce procrastination because they tend to be tolerant of their excuses.
6. Procrastination predicts higher levels of consumption of alcohol among those people who drink.
Procrastinators drink more than they intend to -- a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. That is over and above the effect of avoidant coping styles that underlie procrastination and lead to disengagement via substance abuse.
5. Procrastinators tell lies to themselves.
Such as, "I'll feel more like doing this tomorrow." Or "I work best under pressure." But in fact they do not get the urge the next day or work best under pressure. In addition, they protect their sense of self by saying "this isn't important." Another big lie procrastinators indulge is that time pressure makes them more creative. Unfortunately they do not turn out to be more creative; they only feel that way. They squander their resources avoiding.
4. Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part.
Checking email is almost perfect for this purpose. They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.
3. There's more than one flavor of procrastination.
People procrastinate for different reasons. Dr. Ferrari identifies three basic types of procrastinators: Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush. Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability. Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.
2. There are big costs to procrastination.
Health is one. Just over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu, more gastrointestinal problems. And they had insomnia. In addition, procrastination has a high cost to others as well as oneself; it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful. Procrastination destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships.
1. Procrastinators can change their behavior -- but doing so consumes a lot of psychic energy.
And it doesn't necessarily mean one feels transformed internally. It can be done with highly structured cognitive behavioral therapy.

Well I don't have to procrastinate anymore. I passed my test. What a relief.

Circumstances

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." - George Bernard Shaw

The Day After Tomorrow

"The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life." - George Carlin

The Last Minute

"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done." - Unknown

Decision Making

"Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results." - Scott Adams

No Present

"There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past." - George Carlin

Authority

"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it." - George Carlin

Stop Procrastinating

"I'm going to stop procrastinating ... once I get around to it." - Unknown

A Hunch

"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something." - Unknown

Make Ends Meet

"About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends." - Herbert Hoover

Facts About John Paul II

Posted Friday, April 01, 2005
BASIC FACTS
· Pope John Paul was born Karol Jozef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920.
· He is 84 years old.
· He has been pope for 26 years. That puts him in the top three longest-serving in history.
· John Paul is the 263rd pope.
Pope John Paul II waves to faithfuls as he leaves the Vatican, in this Aug. 8, 2001 file photo, after his traditional weekly audience.
· He is fluent in Polish, Italian and Latin. He also speaks conversational English, French, German and Spanish.
· He is the first non-Italian pope since 1522. He is the first Slavic pope in history.
HEALTH
· The pope suffers from Parkinson's Disease.
· That's a degenerative nerve disease that makes it hard to control muscles and causes tremors.
· He was sent to Gemelli hospital in Rome February 24 for testing.
· Vatican sources say he was suffering breathing problems.
· His suite at Gemelli hospital includes a chapel, kitchen and sleeping quarters for his aide.
· The pope had spent February 1 - 10 there for problems related to the flu.
· Some medical experts speculate the pope is suffering from some form of pneumonia.
· On Oct. 3, 2003, the Vienna archbishop said the pope was nearing the last months of his life.
· On September 11, 2003, the pope faltered while speaking in Slovakia.
· Someone else finished the speech.
THE POPE'S JOB
· He is the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
· He is also the Bishop of Rome.
· In addition, he is the head of state of Vatican City.
RECORDS AND MILESTONES
· Pope John Paul II has traveled to 170 countries, more than any of his predecessors.
· Some call him the "pilgrim pope."
· He has set the record for the largest Mass ever, with 1.2 million people in Dublin, Ireland on September 30, 1979.
· He has encountered more people than any pope in history. More than 17.6 million people have attended his general audiences alone.
· He's had 737 meetings with heads of state.
· Pope John Paul II has named 482 saints.
· He has created 232 cardinals.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
· Karol Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, Poland.
· Both parents were strict Catholics.
· His mother, Emilia, was of Lithuanian descent.
· His father, Karol Wojtyla, Sr., was an army sergeant.
· Karol was the third of three children.
· But his sister, Olga, died as a baby before Karol was born.
· He experienced significant loss as a child. His mother died when he was 9.
· And his older brother, Edmund, died when Karol was about 13 years old. Edmund was a doctor.
· Karol's father died when he was about 21 years old.
EDUCATION
· The young Karol excelled at sports, theater and in his studies.
· In 1938, he enrolled at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland to study literature.
WORLD WAR TWO
· To keep from being deported to Germany, he worked as manual laborer in a quarry 1940-44.
· In the last months of German occupation, he worked in a chemical factory.
· In 1942, Karol secretly began studying to be a priest.
EARLY PRIESTHOOD
· Karol was ordained in Krakow in 1946.
· He was first assigned to work in France with young people and Polish refugees.
· Karol then studied at Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome.
· After that he returned to Poland, teaching ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin.
RISE THROUGH THE CHURCH
· In 1958, he was made an auxiliary bishop of Krakow. He was about 38 years old.
· In 1962, Bishop Wojtyla was put in charge of the archdiocese. In 1964, he was officially appointed as archbishop of Krakow.
· He gained attention after addressing the pivotal Vatican Council II several times.
· He became a cardinal in 1967, appointed by Pope Paul VI.
BECOMING POPE
· Pope Paul VI died August 6, 1978.
· The College of Cardinals then appointed Pope John Paul I. But he died September 28, 1978.
· October 16, 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope.
· He accepted the position with tears in his eyes.
· At his first public appearance as pope he said, "I was afraid to receive this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and in the total confidence in his mother, the most holy Madonna."
· He refused a largescale coronation.
· And on October 22,1978, he was installed as pope in a simple mass in Saint Peter's Square.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
· On May 13, 1981 (at 5:19 pm) the pope was shot in St. Peter's Square.
· He was severely wounded and doctors operated on him for six hours at Gemelli Hospital.
· The would-be assassin was a young Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca.
· On May 17, the pope prayed "for the brother who shot me, whom I have sincerely forgiven".
· The pope credited Mary with interceding to save his life.
· He was shot on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima.
· On May 13, 1982, the pope made a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal and recited a prayer consecrating and entrusting to world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
· In December, 1983, Pope John Paul visited Ali Agca in prison and prayed with him.
IMAGE AND VIEWS
· Pope John Paul II is credited with revolutionizing the papacy, especially by reaching out across the world.
· He ardently opposes communism and some call him pivotal in the break-up of the Soviet Union.
· While he has had a modern image, he is also known for conservative values.
· He strongly opposes contraception and abortion.
· Pope John Paul II firmly believes priests should remain celibate and should only be men.
· He is a vocal advocate of human rights around the world.
· He's been especially strong in calling on rich nations to share their wealth with the poor.
· The pope openly opposed the U-S invasion of Iraq.
· And he has called for an independent Palestinian state.
· In the sexual abuse scandal, he released a statement calling the abuse a "crime."
· But the 2002 message fell short of saying which priests should be removed.
· In March 2000, the pope visited Israel and said the Catholic Church was to blame for fostering anti-Semitism leading up to the Holocaust.
NOTABLE AWARDS
· The pope was named Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1994.
· In 2004, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush. It's the highest civilian honor in the United States.
WRITING
· He has written five books:
· "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (October 1994)
· "Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination" (November 1996)
· "Roman Triptych - Meditations", a book of poems (March 2003)
· "Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way" (May 2004)
· "Memory and Identity" (2005).
· He's also written 14 encyclicals , 15 apostolic exhortations , 11 apostolic constitutions and 44 apostolic letters
(Sources: http://www.vatican.va/holy-father/john-paul-ii/index.htm.)

Be Not Afraid

Pontiff's lifelong message: "Be not afraid!"
By Steve Kloehn Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published April 2, 2005, 2:31 PM CST
Pope John Paul II, who changed the course of the world through faith and sheer dint of will, will be remembered as a bold pontiff who towered over his century, then led his church into a new millennium. Shaped by his childhood in rural Poland and fired in the kiln of World War II, the young priest Karol Wojtyla rose to lead the world's largest church, striding the globe with an authority that transcended Catholicism. Some in his own church complained that he was a throwback to an earlier kind of pope, imperial and autocratic, bent on quashing dissent. Others said he was ahead of his time, traversing the world many times over to spread his message, the first jet set pope. But few men in any realm have ever wrestled with the leaders and movements of their eras the way Pope John Paul II did. From Nazi Germany to Soviet communism, from consumer culture to the slide into moral relativism, Wojtyla pitted himself against each of the great forces that swept over the world during his 84 years. "Be not afraid!" he called out, in his first mass St. Peter's Basilica on Oct. 22, 1978. Those were among the first words he spoke to the world as pontiff, and they became a refrain in each of his 104 trips abroad, in each of his 14 encyclicals and more than 60 other major papal documents. "Be not afraid!"--part command, part prayer--became the driving force of his 26-year papacy, an epic reign that energized and polarized the Roman Catholic Church. He stared down dictators and clamped down on critics. He was credited with toppling the totalitarian government of his native Poland in 1989, leading to the fall of communist Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He was blamed for alienating women and liberal Catholics in the West with rigid stances against women in the priesthood, abortion, birth control and homosexuality. Church insiders chafed against the growing power of the Vatican during his pontificate, and a narrowing of debate. He made new efforts to reach out to Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims, and he went out of his way to forgive the man who shot and almost killed him in 1981. His ill health did take a toll on his work. Insiders say that in his last years, the pope focused only on those tasks he felt central to spreading the Gospel, while delegating the governance of the church to aides. That withdrawal led to confusion on some doctrinal issues and left the pope a virtual bystander during the crippling sexual abuse crisis faced by the Catholic Church in the United States. But for most of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II embodied the power and tradition of Catholicism at a time when the institutions and influence of the church were in flux. Some of his best work carried the essence of the church's titans--the searing clarity of Aquinas, the mysticism of St. John of the Cross--freshening their ancient messages for 1 billion Catholics from Africa to India to Latin America. He never let his followers forget that he was human. As scandalized aides looked on, the muscular, mountain-climbing pope of the early years would sometimes clown around, pantomiming that he was watching a crowd through binoculars, or donning a sombrero as he did in his first trip to Mexico in 1979. The bent figure of the final years showed his humanity in other ways. One cardinal marveled at the pope's willingness to display his infirmities to the world, preferring that the world see a pontiff who might drool or lose his voice midsentence to a pope who withdrew to the privacy of his Vatican palace. In the opening lines of "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," the 1994 book-length interview that became perhaps the first international best seller penned by a pope, he paused to note his own sinfulness, his feeling of unworthiness of God's love. "Every man has learned it. Every successor to Peter has learned it. I learned it very well," he said. "Of what should we not be afraid? We should not fear the truth about ourselves." Karol Wojtyla was born in 1920 in the small agricultural town of Wadowice, Poland. His father, a lieutenant and clerk in the Polish army, was 40 at the time; his mother was 36. His only brother was 13. They were devout Catholics, especially his mother, who wanted young "Lolek," as she called Karol, to become a priest someday. But his mother was sickly from the time he was born and died when Karol was 8. Karol's older brother, a young doctor he greatly admired, died just three years later, and his father was dead when Karol was 20. By then, death was all around him. The Nazis had invaded Poland two years earlier, and Wojtyla did forced labor in a quarry and later a chemical factory. At one point during the war, he was struck by a German army truck, an event that was never clearly determined to be accidental or intentional. Amid that horror, Wojtyla found a secret life, as an actor in an underground theater group and in a budding spirituality that drew him to illegal prayer meetings. Both callings tugged at him. In 1942, he surprised his friends by saying that the choice had been made for him: He would be a priest. On Nov. 1, 1946, Wojtyla was ordained a priest of the archdiocese of Krakow. He spent the next two years in Rome, earning a doctorate in theology, before he returned to Poland to work as a pastor. He began in a small farming parish and then moved to a university parish, where his love and talent for working with young people became legend. He also continued studying, eventually becoming a faculty member in theology at the university. When Krakow's archbishop died in 1962, Wojtyla became the temporary head of the archdiocese, just in time to give him a seat at the formative event of 20th Century Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council. In time, he became the spokesman for the 10 Polish bishops at the council. When it came time to appoint a new archbishop of Krakow, Poland's communist officials--who had tacit veto power-- ignored the list of candidates provided by Poland's ranking hierarch, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. They dismissed the second list the cardinal submitted. And then they suggested the politically detached intellectual serving temporarily as bishop--Wojtyla--believing he would be easier to manipulate. Eventually, Wyszynski gave in, and Wojtyla was appointed archbishop of Krakow in January 1964. The young archbishop--who quickly gained the attention of Pope Paul VI with writings following Vatican II and work on the pope's special commission on birth control--was elevated to cardinal in 1967. Even with that quick rise to power, only a few people have ever been brave enough to claim that they believed Wojtyla would become pope at all, let alone so soon. The conclave that elected Pope John Paul I in 1978 took just four ballots to find a man who satisfied the cardinals, a man seen as more pastoral than ideological. But his death, after just one month in the Vatican, left the cardinals in a much more difficult position. It was a given that the next pope would be Italian--it had been more than 400 years since a non-Italian had been made the bishop of Rome--but there was a sharp split between two Italian factions. As the cardinals began to search for a way around that disagreement, one name began to be mentioned more and more frequently: Cardinal Wojtyla, a relative unknown and very young at 58, but bright and winning. At a time when the church in the West was divided and dispirited, Wojtyla had brought vigor and growth to a church under communist repression. On Oct. 16, 1978, the college of cardinals chose Wojtyla to be pope, and he, in turn, chose the name John Paul II, in homage to his predecessor. Pope John Paul II quickly became known as one of the most approachable popes in history. Soon after he became pope, he officiated at a marriage ceremony for two "commoners" simply because they had asked him. He made Vatican history on Good Friday in 1980 by putting on a regular priest's vestments and hearing worshipers' confessions for more than an hour and a half. In one of his first public appearances as pope, he pushed his bodyguards aside, saying, "I don't want gorillas around. I know how to defend myself." His security team's worst fears materialized on May 13, 1981, when a convicted murderer from Turkey, already on the run, lunged out of the crowd that had gathered in St. Peter's Square for the weekly general audience, and shot the pope twice, bringing him to the brink of death. For years, investigators tried to find out whether Mehmet Ali Agca was part of a larger conspiracy against the pope, perhaps one inspired by Eastern European communists who feared--rightly--the effect of Pope John Paul II's calls for freedom and human dignity. No link was ever proved. The pope focused his attention instead on learning from his suffering, and forgiving his attacker. On Dec. 27, 1983, the pope visited Agca in a Roman prison for 20 minutes. At the end, the pope once again offered the gunman his forgiveness, and Agca dropped to his knees, kissing the pope's hand. Even more than his personal style, the aspect of Pope John Paul II's papacy that stood out most clearly from his predecessors was his visibility around the world. He made 104 trips outside Italy, more than 150 within Italy, and personally visited almost all of Rome's 334 parishes. One of his first trips abroad, in the autumn of 1979, brought the pope to Chicago. He was the first pope to visit Chicago, but it was his third trip to the city, where he had courted the huge and loyal Polish population on two previous visits as bishop and archbishop. They turned out in droves for his papal visit, lining Milwaukee Avenue and cheering wildly. To the rest of Chicago's Catholic population, and indeed most of the world, the new pope was something of a mystery. But Chicagoans turned out in force nonetheless, filling Grant Park with hundreds of thousands of worshippers for the papal mass. The pope traced his tireless appetite for travel to an experience he had on his first trip abroad as pontiff, a visit to Mexico in 1979. At the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he spent more than an hour praying before the dark-skinned image of the Virgin Mary that is said to have had a profound impact in the conversion of Latin America during the 16th and 17th Centuries. There, the pope later said, he had an epiphany, suddenly understanding that it was his mission to become the pilgrim pope, bringing the word of God to people around the world. The pope made it one of his first imperatives to visit his homeland. Though Poland had been for centuries one of Europe's most devoutly Catholic countries, no pope had ever been there. Nor had any pope ever traveled to a communist country. In June 1979, the pope arrived in Poland for what would turn out to be nine days of jubilation unlike anything the nation had ever known. The homecoming carried strong undercurrents of pre-communist patriotism and genuine workers' movements that would challenge the ideology of the government. More than a million people came to see him in Krakow. It was a turning point in Polish history, one recognized not only in the throngs, but in a disturbed Kremlin as well. The fire ignited during that visit flared up here and there in the months that followed, most notably in the shipyard labor strikes that were led by workers carrying posters of the pope. From Rome, the pope supported the strikes, sending public and private messages. So when the pope returned to his homeland in 1983, both the communists and the pope knew that it would be more than a simple, pastoral visit. The late auxiliary Bishop Alfred Abramowicz of Chicago traveled with him. Near every stop, Abramowicz recalled, the communist government of Poland had mobilized tank battalions, ready to move in and crush anything that looked like a threat to government control. Crowds gathered in dangerous numbers. The pope never blinked. "He was a man who identified himself with the peasant, with the scholar, with the artist. You name it, he was intimately interested in these people. He became one with them," Abramowicz remembered in 1999. "His talks were bold, almost revolutionary, and yet he controlled the crowds completely. There was no violence, no uprising. It was more like a strengthening of convictions." In the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, journalists and scholars have debated just what role the pope played in the demise of Soviet communism. Most have argued his biggest influence on the political situation was through his uncompromising, theologically based preaching for a society that would put human beings first, giving them the freedom of worship, speech and thought. "I believe he was absolutely central to [the fall of communism] ... central to why it happened in the 1980s, and why it happened non-violently," said George Weigel, a Catholic scholar in Washington who was granted more than two years of regular interviews with the pope in preparation for the 1999 biography "Witness to Hope." The pope, Weigel said, saw his own role in Poland as "a spark in a tinderbox," lighting the intellectual fire that kept the social labor movement Solidarity alive through years of vicious suppression. Pope John Paul II tried to provide that spark wherever he encountered oppressive governmental regimes, from Chile to Haiti, the Philippines to Nigeria. Seldom did he point fingers or explicitly side with political factions; he was careful not to embarrass his hosts or provoke a government backlash that would further harm the people. But starting from Gospel passages and church teachings, his speeches and homilies would hold up an ideal of life in which governments served people, not vice versa. Through his trips abroad, covering more than 720,000 miles, the prevailing mood was one of euphoria and adoration. But some observers worried that the enthusiastic greetings the pope received had more to do with celebrity worship than with any particular devotion to the message he was carrying. "The real question one has to ask is: What kind of lasting effects do these trips have? Is there any evidence that his visits have a lasting effect on the local churches?" said Richard McBrien, a theologian and papal scholar at the University of Notre Dame. If it is difficult to estimate the lasting effects of a pope's personal presence, there is little doubt that his teaching has shaped the church for generations to come. By volume alone, his writing is bound to wield influence over a wide swath of issues that face the church. He wrote 14 encyclicals, the highest form of papal discourse, along with 13 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions, 42 apostolic letters, hundreds of more minor documents and several popular books. Like his prayer life, writing was a discipline he practiced rigorously, devoting hours each morning to working on whatever project was at hand. In one encyclical, "The Splendor of Truth," the pope made an impassioned argument against the moral and metaphysical relativism that has seeped through modern culture. In another encyclical, he put the church's traditional teachings on wealth and work into a modern context in which capitalism has triumphed while globalization undermines the most basic assumptions people have about their livelihoods. Lesser works have included a landmark apology to Jews, including a controversial discussion of the role of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust; a letter that emphatically declared that women cannot be priests; and others touching on the nature of Catholic colleges, war and peace, the future of the church in Africa. Perhaps his most ambitious piece was "Faith and Reason," an encyclical released in the fall of 1998, on the eve of his 20th anniversary as pope. In more than 100 pages of complex but lucid reasoning, the pope makes the case for why religion is not only possible, but a necessary response to scientific advancement, post-modern doubt about the nature of truth, and all that has transformed human attitudes in the 20th Century. Pope John Paul II thought often about the new millennium, more often as it approached. He declared 2000 a Jubilee year, in which Catholics could earn indulgences by making pilgrimages to the holiest sites of the faith. He also saw 2000 as a time to look beyond Roman Catholicism. He put special emphasis on mending relations with Orthodox Christians, making his first visit to an Orthodox nation, Romania, in 1999. He also made major overtures to other Christians, Jews and Muslims. The heart of the Jubilee, and one of the crowning moments of his papacy, was a series of trips retracing the story of Christian faith. While political difficulties prevented a proposed trip to a site believed to be the ancient city of Ur, in modern Iraq, the pope traveled in February 2000 to Egypt, to walk in the footsteps of Moses. In March 2000, he traveled to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, his first visit there as pope and only the second papal visit to the Holy Land. Two events in Jerusalem cemented his bond with the Jewish people. First, the pope went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, where he prayed and met with survivors. Then, on his last day, he went to the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. , There, the pontiff bent his head near the pitted stone and prayed silently before leaving a small written prayer stuffed into a crack in the wall, surrounded by the thousands of notes and prayers Jews leave there every day. Only briefly did that triumphant journey silence the growing hubbub about the pope's health, however. For more than a decade he had been troubled by symptoms that appeared to observers to indicate a form of Parkinson's disease. By the last few years, he had been bent into a permanent hunch, his walk reduced to a shuffle and his hands beset by tremors. The syndrome also slurred his speech and limited the expressions of his once-lively face. Still, the journey continued. In October 2003, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of his pontificate. Even as Vatican officials sought to extol the virtues of the pontificate, the pope shifted attention away from himself by choosing to beatify Mother Teresa the same weekend, pushing a contemporary and kindred spirit on the fast track to sainthood. By March 2004, his pontificate was longer than all except Pius IX's 31 years and St. Peter's estimated 34 years at the helm of the church. The pope often referred to his approaching death. But almost always he said it with a smile and with a window held open by his unshakeable faith in God. In 1999, after a crowd of Poles wished him 100 years of life, he joked, "Don't set limits on divine providence!" And as so many times before, hundreds of thousands of adoring followers broke out into joyous cheers.

I still remember watching on television the Pope's visit to Chicago in 1979 and thinking what
an amazing influence he has been on the world.

Oldfield Oaks

We took our first Saturday nature hike of the year. There's a forest preserve close to home that's not even open yet. It's still under construction. I didn't know a forest preserve could be under construction. They are putting down gravel hiking paths and it looks like they are just about done. It will be real nice when it's done. I drive by it every day on the way to and from work and I've been wanting to explore it since I first saw them start working. After our Saturday morning omelettes we parked and started hiking at about 10:00 a.m. My wife saw a deer right away camoulflaged by the woods. We saw a small snake warming itself on a piece of wood. There was also a hawk flying around it the sky. There was a big open area where they did a controlled burn. It's bigger than I expected. There's also a swamp where you could hear hundreds of frogs. It was a beautiful morning and we hiked for about an hour before we headed home. One of my projects this weekend is putting together a list of places to take our Saturday morning hikes. Last year we went to Waterfall Glen, Willowbrook Nature Preserve, The Little Red Schoolhouse and the Naperville Riverwalk. We hope to hit some new places this year.

Zig

"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." - Zig Ziglar

Heat Wave

"If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?" - Steven Wright

Some Puns

Energizer Bunny was arrested and charged with battery.

A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.

Without geometry, life is pointless.

When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red.

A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.

What's the definition of a will? (Come on, it's a dead giveaway!)

A backwards poet writes inverse.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.

With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft, and I'll show you a flat minor.

When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.

He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

Every calendar's days are numbered.

A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

He had a photographic memory that was never developed.

The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.

When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.

Acupuncture is a jab well done

Optimist Creed

This is what I see when I turn on my computer at work every weekday morning:

The Optimist Creed Promise Yourself -

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as your are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear an too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

It's gonna be a great day!