I hate people who talk about other people they hate

- and I have no tolerance for intolerant people!

Why didn't you tell me I wasn't listening?

I keep forgetting that I have a good memory

I like to reminisce about people I've never met and places I've never been

It's best not to take advice from people who tell you not to take advice from other people

There are a couple of things I always seem to forget, I just can't remember what they are right now

Actually, I really do need to do some more procrastinating... I just keep putting it off

I have a lot of rules in my life - and I like to follow my rules. One of my favorite rules is that, every once in a while, I can break my rules

I like to talk about Silence

A Gagillion is a Bazillion Bajillions, ... or is that a Gazillion?

67.23% of all statistics are inaccurate

23.21% of those are made up on the spot

I wonder if the Irish Republican Army has Individual Retirement Accounts

Why do people kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?

Interesting Facts:

Right handed people live, on average, 9 years longer than left handed people do!

Wasps sleep by biting into the stem of a plant, locking their jaws and stretching out at right angles with legs dangling! They do this every night.

Bees have 5 eyes! Three small eyes on the top of the head and two large ones at the front.

To give you an idea of the size of a Blue Whale - its tongue weighs more than an elephant!

Relative to size, the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue!

The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60 miles per hour (96kph)!

The Earth surface is about 70% water

There are over 5000 chemicals in tobacco smoke

The number of people on Planet Earth: 6,706,993,152 (July 2008 est.)

Population of the United States: 304,059,724 (July 2008 est.) - less than 5% of the world

36,756,666 people live in California (July 2008 est.) - about 12% of the United States

9,862,049 people live in the County of Los Angeles (July 2008 est.) - about 26% of California

The full name of the city of Los Angeles is "El Puebleo de Nuestra Senora la reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula"

80% of Madagascar's plants and animals exist nowhere else

Taken from the Calendonian Record, St. Johnsbury, VT paper - Friday, Feb. 8, 2008:

The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogence of public oficials should be controlled"
-CICERO 106-43B.C.

Quotes:

"There are many causes I am willing to die for. There is not a single one I am willing to kill for."
- Gandhi

"I believe sincerely, as soon as people want peace and are aware that they can have it, they will have it."
- John Lennon

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
- Mohandas Gandhi

"Generations come and go but it makes no difference. The sun rises and sets and hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. The rivers run into the sea but the sea is never full, and the water returns again to the rivers, and flows again to the sea...
Everything is unutterably weary and tiresome. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are not content. So I saw that there is nothing better for men that they should be happy in their work, for that is what they are here for, and no one can bring them back to life to enjoy what will be in the future, so let them enjoy it now."
- Ecclesiastes

"What is success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"As Emperor, Rome is my homeland. But as a man, I'm a citizen of the world."
-Marcus Aurelius

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consiousness."
So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."
-Carl Spackler, Caddyshack

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882)

"I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed."
-Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world"
- Ghandi

"The Doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."
- Thomas A. Edison

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
- Martin Luther King Jr., Accepting Nobel Peace Prize, Dec. 10, 1964

"There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which ... is within the souls of men."
- Black Elk

"The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent nonaggressiveness. This is called the mastery of men."
- Lao Tse

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
- Confucius

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
- Nelson Mandela

"If one sins against the laws of proportion and gives something too big to something too small to carry it -- too big sails to too small a ship, too big meals to too small a body, too big powers to too small a soul -- the result is bound to be a complete upset. In an outburst of hubris the overfed body will rush into sickness, while the jack-in-office will rush into the unrighteousness that hubris always breeds."
- Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

"As the sun is to the world of sight, the idea of the good is to the world of the mind"
- Plato, (as noted by Socrates, 469 - 399 B.C.)

"music... is the knowledge of love affairs concerning harmony and rhythm"
- Plato

"Never too many fish in a swift creek,
never too much water for fish to live in.

No place is too small for lovers,
nor can lovers see too much of the world"
- Jelaluddin Rumi, (1207 - 1273)

Advice & Decree:

I think it's important to know who you're talking to.

THE MIND OF STEVEN WRIGHT...

(If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said: "I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates." His mind sees things differently than we do - to our amazement and amusement. Here are some of his gems.)

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.

Half the people you know are below average.

99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

* * * * * * *

Dave On Religion

I consider myself deeply religious to the extent that I believe in the connection of nature and our human existance in this universe. I believe God is this connection of love. I believe that awareness of other's needs is this love. To love God is to love each other. And the deepest of this love is to love the neighbor that takes from you. Humilty, surrender, and self sarafice are key in this love. When I speak of God, love is always the formost thought.

I went to a camp in Maine for a good number of years. The following is a prayer from that camp

TIMANOUS PRAYER

We thank thee, O lord for the joy of fellowship;
For the beauty of our surroundings:
The tall trees and sparkling lake,
The life which teems around us in the woods,
The skies, and clear water.
We thank thee for the love of doing things,
For active bodies and minds alert,
For the excitement of something new
And the comfort of things which are old.
For all these we give thanks;
For the cool and quiet of evening,
The restfulness of night,
The glory of starry skies,
The new life which comes with showers,
For our mothers and fathers who have given us our homes,
And for the trials which help us to know ourselves.
For all these, we give thanks.

The following are some quotes my mom collected:

Anthology of Inspiring Thoughts, Marlee Turner

In Middle School we were asked to collect our own "Anthology" of poems - our idea of what we liked, not someone else's choices. The following are some of my choices of inspiring words, which I currently have taped to the drawers of my dresser, next to my computer. Dave said he'd like to see them.

"Forgiveness is the answer to attack of any kind."
-(author unknown)

"The only gift is giving to the poor; All else is exchange."
- Thiruvalluvar, poet (c. 30 BCE)

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves."
- Carl Jung, (1875-1961)

"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."
- Chinese Proverb

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
- Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809-1865)

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
- Buddha (c. 566-480 , BCE)

"Have patience! In time, even grass becomes milk."
- Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990)

"No one has ever become poor by giving."
- Anne Frank (1929-1945)

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."
- Peter Ustinov

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."
- Mother Teresa

"If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"Life is an adventure in forgiveness."
- Norman Cousins (1915-1990)

"He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak."
- Montaigne (1533-1592)

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer."
- Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel laureate (1905-1961)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

"If it's not fun, you're not doing it right."
- David Whitcraft

"When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always."
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

Ted said Sven, send ten tents
Sven said Ted, send ten cents
Then Ted sent Sven ten cents
Then Sven sent Ted ten tents

Parker showing Hope the ocean for her first time