Storm Photos

Awesome storm photos from local storm chaser

http://www.stormhighway.com/june32008.shtml

WV Blogs

Check out http://304blogs.com/, a new site which has RSS feeds from a bunch of West Virginia blogs. Lots of interesting people there!

Heart Healthy Food Links

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Diet (calculate the amount of fat and calories you should be eating, learn how much of each food group to eat, neat "create a diet" activity that can help you make food choices and plan meals, tips for eating out, etc.): http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/chd/lifestyles.htm

Heart Healthy Recipes:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/other/syah/index.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-healthy-recipes/RE00098

http://www.deliciousdecisions.org/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/lf_hl_low_cholesterol/0,2495,FOOD_19756,00.html

http://www.rd.com/health/cholesterol/heart-healthy-recipes

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/collections/heart_healthy_diet.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Living/Low-Cholesterol/Main.aspx

What's draining your energy?

"Energy is equal to desire and purpose." -- Sheryl Adams

What people, events or things drain your energy? What part of you is not going with the flow? What are you resisting?

Plug your energy leaks and experience what it feels like to work on all cylinders.

For a list of energy drains and energy boosters, visit

http://www.higherawareness.com/lists/endrnrs.shtml

http://www.higherawareness.com/lists/enbldrs.shtml

"Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you." -- Wayne Dyer

www.higherawareness.com

Meditation downloads

Colette Baron-Reid has some free meditation downloads on her website.

Go to: http://www.colettebaronreid.com/

Sign up for the member's lounge (free)

Once you are logged into or have entered the member's lounge, look for the "RTF Booksite" section, which is the third box from the top. Click ENTER over on the right.

On the left are all the meditations. To get to them you have to actually click on the video link - Hi or Low. Then on the right you'll see the video and underneath it is a link to download the meditation in MP3 format.

(I post these instructions in detail because I had a really hard time finding them!)

Animal stuff

This is such a precious story about some animals rescued after the tornado in KS (I just got it in email and found it online):

http://www.heavenlycreatures.ca/blog/?p=19

And this is a great story about a pet hippo!! She is going to be featured on a show on Animal Planet tomorrow night. I hope I remember to record it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/06/19/eahippo19.xml

stuffonmycat.com

One of my kitties finally made my favorite website!

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=4007

I'm famous

I was minding my own business at Chesapeake Bagel waiting for my breakfast when a newspaper reporter came up and asked me about the mayor's proposal to raise the user fee (that you pay for the "privilege" of working in Charleston). I am against it.

http://www.dailymail.com/display_story.php?sid=2007061861&format=prn

Then a little bit ago a television station, WSAZ, called asking to interview me later! I declined. I would be too nervous!

West Virginia Psychic

This morning I saw a psychic mentioned in a newspaper article who apparently is becoming pretty well known, and he lives in West Virginia. Interestingly, the CD he listened to that started him having these dreams is one that I have. I haven't listened to it for awhile because my cheap cd player in the bedroom started squeaking. Maybe I should start again!

http://www.briansprediction.com/

http://www.myspace.com/briansdreams

Holistic Healing: Reflexology, Acupressure and EFT

I have been wanting to learn more about alternative healing, such as reiki and reflexology. I recently bought a reflexology book ("Body Reflexology") and have started to learn some techniques, and I also have been reading up on it online. My book also has acupressure techniques. I hae also been reading up on EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). It's interesting how all of these work - I think they are all related.

Here are some links:

OVERALL REFERENCE TO HOLISTIC HEALING:

About.com: Holistic Healing


REFLEXOLOGY:

Reflexology for Beginners

Foot Reflexology Chart

Reflexology Hand Chart

Reflexology & Acupressure for Anxiety and Stress

A Self-Help Reflexology Technique for Allergies, Asthma, and Sinus Problems


ACUPRESSURE:

Free Online Acupressure Guide

General Acupressure Points to Stay Fit

Facial Acupressure Chart


EFT:

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

Personal Power at Your Fingertips: Release Emotions With EFT

Heaven on Earth

EFT Tapping Procedure Chart

Meditation

The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation teaches meditation and other skills based on Eknath Easwaran’s Eight Point Program for spiritual growth. The following is taken from their website:

EIGHT POINT PROGRAM FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

1. Meditation: Silent repetition in the mind of memorized inspirational passages from the world’s great religions. Practiced for one-half hour each morning.

2. The Mantram: Silent repetition in the mind of a Holy Name or a hallowed phrase from one of the world’s great religions. Practiced whenever possible throughout the day or night.

3. Slowing Down: Setting priorities and reducing the stress and friction caused by hurry.

4. One-Pointed Attention: Giving full concentration to the matter at hand.

5. Training the Senses: Overcoming conditioned habits and learning to enjoy what is beneficial.

6. Putting Others First: Gaining freedom from selfishness and separateness; finding joy in helping others.

7. Spiritual Companionship: Spending time regularly with others following the Eight Point Program for mutual inspiration and support.

8. Reading the Mystics: Drawing inspiration from writings by and about the world’s great spiritual figures and from the scriptures of all religions.

See their website for more information: http://www.easwaran.org/

Jane Evershed

I picked up a calendar called "The Power of Women" that features the art of Jane Evershed. It's so beautiful. She has a wonderful website where you can buy posters, cards, bookmarks, etc., at very reasonable prices.

http://www.janeevershed.com/home.htm

If you go to the card collections you can click on each card and see a larger version of the painting and read the poetry that goes with it.

Akiane Kramarik

WOW is all I can say about this little girl. I haven't heard of her but maybe you all have. She is a very gifted artist.

http://www.artakiane.com/home.htm

Be sure and look at

http://www.artakiane.com/akiane_art.htm

When you click on a thumbnail, it opens a window and tells about the painting, why she painted it or what it means or a poem. Absolutely fascinating. An Indigo child, I am sure! It looks like she was in one of the documentaries about indigo children.

10 Gadgets that Changed the World

"The wheel. The plow. The gun. The electric light. The radio. The chip. The untidy march of human ingenuity and innovation has led you here, to our list of the 10 most life-altering devices of the modern era."

http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos6/2006/12/1_rca_model_630.html

Going through the list, the first one I was aware of as being something new that I didn't take for granted was the microwave oven. I don't recall them being widely used among people I knew until the early 80's, but maybe it was the late 70's.

Isabella

This catalog has such beautiful items. They have some wonderful inspriational calendars.

http://www.isabellacatalog.com/index.cfm

Showcase West Virginia

I do not have any connection to this; I just think it's a great thing and a great place to buy Christmas gifts!

From the site:

"The Center for Economic Options (CEO) is a nonprofit organization working throughout the mountains of beautiful West Virginia to help small-scale manufacturers and artists reach markets for their products and become economically self reliant.

That's why we created Showcase West Virginia in 2000. Through this social purpose enterprise, CEO is serving over 300 business owners by operating a retail store that features locally made products. Through Showcase West Virginia, shoppers can choose local over global, hand made over mass-made, sustainable over exploitative and quality over commodity.

But you don't have to visit the store to find great hand-made, really cool products. Click here to shop, to be involved in the mountain economy, and to find gifts with a human touch."

http://showcasewestvirginia.com/

Black Friday Ads/Deals

I don't shop on Black Friday (it would be like a punishment for me if I had to) but if you do, you might want to check out this site, which has some of the deals and ad scans for that day:

http://bfads.net/

Horse Whisperer

"It'd be easy to dismiss this guy with his pocket-sized dowsing pendulum and his see-through model horse. It'd be easy to reject outright his "talking" to horses -- whether in person or from a remote locale -- to have them tell him where it hurts.

It'd be downright better, sanity-wise, to skip altogether this foolishness where the horse is said to answer in good ol' American English any question Bill Northern asks in his dulcet Virginia tongue.

And yet there are believers among us, those who do not dismiss or reject but tell long, complicated stories about how their horses explained to Northern that their right leg/stomach/liver was irritated and every vet known to man had missed it but, on more careful study, lo, the reason for the aggravation emerged. And right there where Northern said it would."

Fascinating article! Lots more here: He just knows - Virginian says all he does is 'listen' to horses to learn what's wrong with them, and one is in the Breeders' Cup

His Website: Bill Northern's Website

Artist: Joe Boylard

A friend passed along an article about a gentleman I worked with at Jackson Kelly (he and I have both since moved on to other jobs) who is also an artist. His work is so beautiful I wanted to link to his website.

http://www.joebolyard.com/

The article says his specialty is "repousse" which is a type of metal work. He also paints.

West Virginia Record

I stumbled across this free newspaper in Graziano's one day. It is geared toward the legal community, I think, but I think non-legal people would find it interesting as well. Since I have worked in the legal community for over 22 years, I find it quite interesting.

What they say about themselves:

"OUR GOAL at the West Virginia Record is to cover West Virginia's legal system in a way that enables you, our readers, to make the public business your business.

As the state’s first and only legal journal, The Record will focus upon civil actions in our courts. Torts- as they’re known-- are too often ignored by the prevailing media, yet their progress has a profound impact on the people of our state.

We aim to protect the public’s interest by reporting on West Virginia’s civil justice system thoroughly and vigorously.

To be sure, whether one agrees or disagrees with the happenings at all of our courthouses, no one should believe that what happens at them is the norm. West Virginia’s courts regularly rank among the most litigious in the land."

You can find them online here: The West Virginia Record