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George Eliot: “The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.”

Erich Fromm: “Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.”

Francis Maitland Balfour: “The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.”

A. Whitney Brown: “I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.” 😉

Rebecca West: “There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.”

It is no secret that music plays a big role in my life, both listening as playing, and Misha is sharing that; he simply ‘has to’ dance whenever a tune is on (haha, even if it is the automated beatbox of the keyboard), he sings along with almost any song and *loves* playing his keyboard or guitar whenever I pick up mine. We did that this afternoon, and then a friend sends me the following YouTube video this evening…telepathy! (thanks Ingrid! 😉 )

Unfortunately I am not as good of a guitar player and singer as the father in the video below, or else it could be Misha and me in the clip…brilliant and hilarious!! LoL

Mother Teresa: “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”

William Hazlitt: “Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.”

Anonymous: “Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day.”

It has been a while since Misha was at the doctors (healthy and happy boy that he is 😉 ) and so far these doctor visits have been regular, scheduled health check-ups…today he had his ‘2 year health check-up’ and, no surprise, the doctor confirmed the obvious; the big little angel is doing great! 😉

The whole wide world catches his interest, though there are three activities he loves most these days; playing soccer (basically anything that involves a ball 😉 ) , dancing and playing the piano…as you can see he is very focused when playing the piano, doesn’t need any sheet music and he is, by using some creativity, even able to use the volume pedal! 😉

Wayne Dyer: “Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”

Julie Morgenstern: “How we treasure (and admire) the people who acknowledge us!”

Telegraph.co.uk: “Google is used by millions of people to navigate the web every day, but how many of us really put it through its paces?”

There are many gems hidden in Google’s search engine, and even though Google is Evil (and has been for a while 😉 ), these features can come in quite handy…15 of them are listed in the article (a nice read) and below:

1. Calculator
A pretty powerful calculator

2. Site search
By using the ‘site:’ keyword, you can make Google only return results from one site.

3. Conversions
Currency conversions and unit conversions, for instance: ‘1 GBP in USD’, ’20 C in F’ or ’15 inches in cm’ and get an instant answer.

4. Time zones
Search for ‘time in ‘ and you will get the local time for that place, as well as the time zone it is in.

5. Translations
A quick way to translate foreign words is to type ‘translate … to …’. For example, ‘translate pomme to english’ returns the result apple, and ‘translate pomme to spanish’ returns the result ‘manzana’.

6. Search for a specific file type
If you know you are looking for a PDF or a Word file, you can search for specific file types by typing ‘ filetype:pdf’ or ‘ filetype:doc’

7. Check flight status
If you type in a flight number, the top result is the details of the flight and its status. So, for example, typing in KL 1141 reveals that KLM flight 1141 departs Amsterdam at 07.00h tomorrow and arrives at Oslo at 08:45h local time.

8. Search for local film showings
Search for film showings in your area by typing ‘films’ or ‘movies’ followed by your postcode.

9. Weather forecasts

Type the name of a city followed by ‘forecast’, and Google will tell you the weather today, including levels of precipitation, humidity and wind, as well as the forecast for the next week, based on data from The Weather Channel.

10. Exclude search terms
Type a ‘-‘ before a search term and exclude results containing that term.

11. Public data
To see trends for population and unemployment rates of different cities and counties, type ‘population’ or ‘unemployment rate’ followed by the location. So for example, typing ‘unemployment rate uk’ returns the answer 7.7 percent, and shows a graph of unemployment rates over the last 10 years

12. Related search
To search for web pages that have similar content to a given site, type ‘related:’ followed by the website address into the Google search box. For example, typing ‘related:telegraph.co.uk’ gives a list of other UK newspaper websites.

13. Package tracking
If you have a package tracking number from the USPS, UPS or FedEx, simply plug it into Google Search and it will provide a convenient link for you.

14. Define
Google’s dictionary function allows you to type define:term and get definitions of words. So a search for define:discombobulated tells you that it is the past participle, past tense of discombobulate, which means to disconcert or confuse.

15. Barrel Roll
Simply type “do a barrel roll” into the search bar and Google dutifully obeys. Warning: this Google trick is known to make grown men squeal with delight.

David M. Ogilvy: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.”

Well, not *everything* was better in the past…but some things definitely were, poor cat (see below)! 😉

John F. Kennedy: “The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'”

phonebloks.com: “A phone only lasts a couple of years before it breaks or becomes obsolete. Although it’s often just one part which killed it we throw everything away since it’s almost impossible to repair or upgrade”

Cool concept though I doubt that ‘the masses’ will go for it; most people are design/fashion-oriented rather than tech-oriented, and seriously…who wants to trade Apple’s iPhone for anything else? 😉

Marie De Vichy-Chaconne: “It is only the first step that is difficult.”

Today is World Animal Day (celebrated on October 4 since it is the feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals)…one animal in particular was on my mind today: once again, thank you Nikky for being a friend!

And obviously Kwibus and Pluis got extra hugs and attention!

Laugh of the day: check out the funny animal mishaps below… 😉

George Orwell: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”