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Michael Phelps’ Bong Found On Campus?

vicsicard — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:24:14 -0500

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A South Carolina sheriff’s office is investigating whether Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoked marijuana on the University of South Carolina campus.
Michael Phelps is facing a criminal investigation into whether he smoked marijuana on a college campus.

Michael Phelps is facing a criminal investigation into whether he smoked marijuana on a college campus.

Authorities will file criminal charges if the investigation determines that they are warranted, a spokesman said Tuesday.

“If someone breaks the law in Richland County, we have an obligation as law enforcement to investigate and to bring charges,” Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement.

Please who hasn’t smoked pot on campus?

Do you take responsibility for your actions?

Natalie — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:46:43 -0500

Why is it so difficult for us to accept responsibility for our actions?
We all like to feel important and have others have a high opinion of us. Some more than others develop an over-inflated view of themselves. These tendencies act to wrap us in what many call "denial", which creates a false perception of self and the inability to accept the truth about us. It then becomes painful to accept that mistakes are possible and when they do occur the first reaction is to point the finger at someone else. We refuse to think objectively and accept any involvement for our actions.

The inability to accept responsibility for our actions and behaviors is a result of insecurity. By accepting responsibility one feels they are admitting to being weak, powerless, or an opportunity to lose the respect of others. It may cause one to feel they will lose their sense of value and importance.

On the contrary, accepting responsibility earns you respect. We can't be perfect all the time, we all make mistakes. When we accept responsibility we are accepting the blame for our actions and also accepting the responsibility for making improvements in our lives. Accepting responsibility is a measure of one's self-worth, their level of security, and the true sign of strength and courage. It will empower you to grow in ways that would bring you great rewards and accomplishments in your life.

Who would you have greater respect for, a person who takes responsibility for his/her actions, owns up to it and promises to do better in the future, or someone who perpetually denies any involvement in situations when it's obvious they may be responsible?
Accepting responsibility is a sign of personal growth and maturity. It is definitely not a sign of weakness.

So, do you take responsibility for your actions or do you expect someone else to do it for you?

The monster within

starling — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:04:48 -0400

Just over 2 weeks ago my partner of 5 years told me she needed to end the relationship, that she was interested in someone else and wanted to end with me before moving on.
The person she likes is in our local pub (one of the very few places i feel safe to venture to) and at the moment i feel like everyone but me knows who this woman is.

She also said our relationship was difficult for her because i wouldnt go out socialising with her friends, wouldnt have any sexual intimacy with her beyond the lust stage. All thats true. We became companions because i have such low self esteem i feared my body would disgust her, felt too fat ugly old and not good enuff for my partner to be around her friends.

I want to be this adult who finds a way to wish eachother well and deals with my hurt without hurting others, I'm struggling!

Initially I felt the pain but totally understood that she was at a space where she needed more than i could offer. I support her in this happiness 100% but the other woman part turns me into a reactive time bomb, i send my ex horrid texts, threaten to attack the woman when i find out who she is (im terrified i will do this)

I got drunk thurs and fri in the pub and slept with an ex (she has been a close friend for 5 years) friday night, i have no recall of how sex happened only that i kept starting and stopping, even getting up to make coffee and sit in the living room playing music.
This woman wants to be with me, and im not sure if i clearly know if i want that too.

today my ex called to arrange collection of some of her stuff, i was calm apologised for the crap texts and threats. As soon as it got to the other woman i blew again, throwing at her every nasty vile hurtful thing i could. told her i was seeing someone else, that i'd cheated on her throughout our relationship. she was totally destroyed.

Sickening thing is thats when i feel better, stronger. and so the vicious circle goes round and round

can anyone relate, understand, offer feedback?

If you CAN dream it, have faith it WILL happen.

starling — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:24:52 -0500

Fw: A story worth repeating
---
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my
pocket. Their father was gone.
The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.

Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.
I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.

The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in t hat had been converted to a truck stop.
It was called the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids.
She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning.
She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people.
I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.

She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night.

As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!
There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.

Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered.

I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office.
I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five

and it still wasn't enough.

Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.
Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.
The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then
left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.

Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10!
I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.

There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude.
And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....

THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3. 'I have something better in mind.'

God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar.

You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.

The Internet was better before...

Psychaotic — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 01:39:25 -0500

...Before I had to ALWAYS identify myself and jump through the tired frigging two-way verification HOOPS for EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE that offers even a speck of PARTICIPATION Opportunity on it!

I first got Online waaay back in 1994 and back then nothing like that had to exist because there wasn't any such thing as "comment spam", there was no "COPPA" crap, and the Net was new, and the economy not in a fish-gut bucket--which all translates to: Every website maintainer in existence did NOT have to deal with the economic realities of paying for server space and bandwidth quite severely enough to have to resort to complex and dark relationships with "third parties" who, "from time to time" would be sending word of "special offers of interest".

Back then, the most annoying thing online was email spam and banner ads--which seem like nothing to me now!

I AM SO TIRED OF HAVING TO REMEMBER 29 PASSWORDS and EVERY site makes you type it TWICE when you sign in, as if that's actually going to help! and if that weren't annoying enough you usually also have to type your damn @ddress over again as well.

THEN you have to wait for a VERIFICATION, and click THAT to get to the site you wanted to interact with, and half the time, by the time that verification-mail arrives you forgot what the hell you wanted to SAY in the FIRST PLACE!

When I verified HERE, though, I sure didn't forget what I wanted to rant about even though I had to wait 20 minutes to do it, because I'm bloody sick of this!

WHY IS ALL THIS TRULY NECESSARY? I know 90 percent of it's probably about spam and preventing it, even though spam STILL happens anyway, so IS it necessary at all? Must I leave a trail with my Name/@ddress everywhere I go - connecting automatically to my IP # as well?

I remember when the Net was joyously and DELICIOUSLY anonymous. Of course, those of us wanting anonymy nowadays just get throwaway @ddresses - but we still have to keep track of THOSE to participate. And we still have to jump through that stupid set of Verification Hoops.

This sucks. So do we just have the frigging spammers to thank for it...or is it the government(s) as well, both corporate and geopolitical?! I say, we tell them all to go to Hell on a locomotive, and get rid of all this excessive keeping-track-of people.

Show me an interactive website of any kind that doesn't require this sordid process and I'm there in an instant and will hang out for life.

Tough Shit!

Natalie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:45:27 -0400

There were many, many times last year when I may have disturbed you,

troubled you, pestered you, irritated you, bugged you, or got on your nerves

with all the e-mails I send out.

So today I just wanted to tell you.....

Tough Shit!

There are no changes scheduled for 2008!

Things aren't always what they seem...

Natalie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:23:03 -0500

Two traveling angels stopped to spend ! the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement.

As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, 'Things aren't always what they seem.' The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife.
After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused.

The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die. 'Things aren't always what they seem,' the older angel replied. 'When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it.'
'Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren't always what they seem.'

Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every out come is always to your advantage. You just might not know it until some time later.

Nine Words Women Use

Natalie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:50:05 -0500

1- Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up!

2- Five minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a a half an hour. Five minutes is the only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3- Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

4- Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission..Don't Do It!

5- Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing. )

6- That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake!

7- Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. ( I want to add in a clause here -This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot'- that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome'..that will bring on a 'whatever').

8- Whatever: is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!

9- Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Merry X-mas everyone!

Just in case I haven't told you lately... I LOVE YA!!!

Dino — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:26:32 -0500

Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor.

He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.

Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad.

He didn't know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn't know how the stove worked! Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away,knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky.

And just then he saw Dad standing at the door. Big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon 's eyes. All he'd wanted to do was something good, but he'd made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him.

Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process! That's how God deals with us.. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can't stand our job, or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can't think of anything else to do. That's when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him. But just because we might mess up, we can't stop trying to 'make pancakes' for God or for others. Sooner or later we'll get it right, and then they'll be glad we tried...

I was thinking and I wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed, friendships that need rekindling or three words needing to be said, sometimes, 'I love you' can heal & bless! Remind every one of your friends that you love them. Even if you think they don't love
back, you would be amazed at what those three little words, a smile, and a reminder like this can do.

Just in case I haven't told you lately... I LOVE YA!!!

Suppose one morning you were called to God; do all your friends know you love them?

Change Has Come To America!

VS — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:43:26 -0500

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there,"

-Barack Obama