How You Can Make Travelpreneurship Playful and Lazy.

Once in a while - especially when it's great Sunny weather -
I go to the Beach with some reading material about Internet Marketing because as an 'International Seller'
(see post Your Chance) I also am an Entrepreneur with a Home Business Lifestyle
as you can read all about at: HP's Happy HOME BUSINESS


This Is What You Want To Read
When Laying On the Beach

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FEBRUARY 14 = HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Valentine's Day in modern times is a day to express your love and affection to your sweetheart, IF you have one, or to your wife or your husband IF you have one of those. Failing that, even unattached men like myself can make an effort to have some fun with the holiday, although I've not done that too much lately. But the day is young so who knows? Back when I was a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the young ladies of SAI, the music sorority of which I was later very proud to be made an honorary member:

would prepare a very nice little reception for a rehearsal break during Valentines week with all kinds of cakes and little dainties to munch on.

Valentines Day does have some historical origins, and I discuss these below. However, all of the fun, and card writing notwithstanding, there have been some very serious events that have happened on this day.  But just for the sake of FUN... here is the lighter side of Valentines Day......

Some of the History Behind "Valentines Day":

Valentines Day has it origins in the (usually successful) efforts of the early Catholic church to eradicate pagan religions by co-opting pagan practices and holidays, and replacing them with Christian versions. In the fourth century B.C. the Romans conducted a young man's right of passage to the god Lupercus. The festival of Lupercus is described thus by the ancient historian Plutarch in his “Life of Julius Caeser”

“At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.”

According to Charles Panati, teenage girls would put their names in a box. Teenage boys would then take a name from the box at random, and the young lady whose name he drew would become his “companion for the year” for the purpose of providing "mutual entertainment and pleasure (often sexual)." At the end of the year another such lottery would be held, and so on. Needless to say the fathers of the church were determined to snuff this randy sort of business out, so they looked for a lover's figure with whom they could replace the pagan deity of Lupercus, and the whole Lupercalia – the practices associated with him.

Bishop Valentine of Interamna

They found their man in a Valentine, a martyred bishop from two centuries past. In 270 A.D., the mad Roman Emperor Claudius II (NOT the same character as depicted in Robert Graves' "I, Claudius") came to the conclusion that marriage undermined the morale of his soldiers by making them loath to leave their families on campaigns on the long campaigns needed to maintain the Empire. So instead of making enlistments shorter, or some other solution he decided to issue an edict banning the institution of marriage altogether.

Valentine, the bishop of Interamna decided that he would make it possible for young lovers to pledge life-long devotion to each other by inviting them to be married by him in secret. The Emperor found out about this, and had Valentine arrested. But Claudius found himself impressed by the piety of the young priest, so he tried converting him to Roman pagan beliefs in order to save him from execution. (Above - Saint Valentine baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano)Valentine refused to renounce Christianity, and attempted instead to convert the Emperor from paganism to belief in Christ. This of course did not work out and reinvigorated the Emperor’s scorn. So he had Valentine executed on February 24,270 (the exact date of his death is in dispute, it may have been in 269, or 273 AD). Legend has it that while he was imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, and by his devout faith miraculously restored her sight. His farewell message to her was signed "From your Valentine".... a phrase that would live on.


The Bishop Becomes the Saint

Needless to say the church viewed this man as the ideal replacement for Lupercus. So in 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius (below) outlawed the Lupercan festival, which took place during that second week in February. But, his Holiness knew that he would

have to keep some facet of the old Lupercan practice around in order to keep the Romans, who still loved a game of chance interested in a Christian version of the old festival. So, the names of young ladies in the box were supplanted by the names of saints whose lives the drawer was to emulate for a year. This was of course, a rather stuffy way to replace the old fun festival, and adolescent young men of the time were likely much disappointed by this change. But eventually the old practice gave way and the new festival, whose spiritual overseer was it's patron saint - Valentine, caught on. The old pagan time-frame of mid-February was also kept, hence the present Valentines Day on February 14. There is in fact scholarly debate on this link; some have said that prior to this reference by Geoffrey Chaucer, in his poem "Parlement of Foules" (1382):

“For this was on seynt Volantynys day_
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make."

there is no association of Valentines Day with romantic love. Whatever the actual origins of the association, the young men of Rome began offering the young ladies of their choice greetings of affection written by hand on Feb. 14, and in time the greetings became more decorative, often by the inclusion of the little character of Cupid, the naked cherub floating about and striking victims with his arrows dipped in love potion. This came about because in Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido, meaning "desire") is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of goddess Venus the goddess of love and beauty and the god Mars.


Valentines Cards, and Naughty Business

This eventually morphed into the production of Valentines cards. In 1797, a British publisher issued "The Young Man’s Valentine Writer", which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical valentines,” and a reduction in postal rates in the next century ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines.

That, in turn, made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era wherein such matters were considered neither fitting nor proper for open communication, even between married folk, let alone the unmarried kind!! This rather disreputable business got to the point where in the 1890’s the Chicago post office rejected over 25,000 cards from its delivery service, because they were deemed sufficiently immoral to make them unfit to be carried through the U.S. Mail!! However, X-rated greetings notwithstanding, the U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other than husband or wife, usually to children. Some of those more innocent cards are pictured below. On top is a “Buster Brown” card from the early 1900’s, and below, an effort from the 1960’s.

READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!! You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at: krustybassist@gmail.com I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!

Sources:

by Charles Panati, Harper & Row, New York, 1987






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentines_Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Valentine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlement_of_Foules

Pictures:
Kids on Valentine's Day =
http://utschoolswire4u.blogspot.com/2011/02/valenntine-day-celebrations-at-golden.html

Brian with SAI = Personal files of the author

St. Valentine =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St-valentine-baptizing-st-lucilla-jacopo-bassano.jpg

Statue of Cupid =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cupido4b.jpg

Valentine's Card =
http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-22683-the_unofficial_histo.html

Buster Brown Card =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buster_Brown_valentine.jpg

1960's Card =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anthropomorphic_Valentine,_crica_1950.JPG

+ 96.
+ 125.

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FEBRUARY 14 = T.R.'s Tragic Day

"There is a curse on this house! Mother is dying and Alice is dying too."

These were the foreboding words with which Elliot Roosevelt greeted his sister Corrine as she reached the home on 57'th Street in New York City at 10:30 p.m. on February 13, 1884. Their brother, State Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt would arrive an hour later to this heartbreaking scene - his mother and his young wife, Alice (above) who had just the day before given birth to their daughter Alice both on their deathbeds.

Alice and Mittie Both Were Dying

Only the previous day, Theodore's beautiful young wife, Alice Hathaway Lee had given birth to a girl whom they named Alice.  Telegrams had been sent announcing to all the birth and the good health of both the baby and the mother, leaving Theodore "full of life and happiness."  However an hour later, a more ominous telegram arrived which sent him on a hurried journey back to the home which he and Alice occupied.  He arrived to find her, age 22 dying of Bright's

Disease (a chronic inflammation of the kidneys) and barely sensible to his presence, and his mother (left), Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (known to the family as "Mittie") dying of typhoid fever. He held Alice in his arms until a little before 3:00 a.m. when he was told that his mother's end was near.  He went to her side to see her die at about 3:00 a.m.  He then returned to take his wife in his arms, wherein he remained until she too died eleven hours later at 2:00 that afternoon..........  February 14, Valentines Day, 1884.

Theodore Was Crushed....

In his superb book about the young Theodore Roosevelt, "Mornings on Horseback", author David McCullough writes of what happened the next at the State Capitol in Albany:

"The first man to rise when the Assembly convened the next day said that he had never in all his years in Albany stood in the presence of such sorrow.  Six others spoke, including three of Theodore's most hostile opponents, all visibly shaken.  In an unprecedented gesture of respect, The Assembly voted to adjourn until the following Monday."

"He does not know what he does or says." wrote one family friend of Theodore as he sat through the double funeral that Saturday. But with characteristic energy, he fought his sorrow by diving right back (Pictured above, T.R. and Alice, circa 1882) into his work at the State Assembly in Albany. He worked at a blistering pace, not wishing to discuss the tragedy with anyone. Later that year, leaving the baby in the care of his sister Bamie he traveled to the Badlands of the Dokatas, wherein he penned the following words about his lost young bride for a privately published memorial:

"She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit; as a flower she grew and as a fair young flower she died.  Her life had always been in the sunshine; and there had never come to her a single great sorrow; and none ever knew her who did not love her and revere her for her bright sunny temper and her saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender and happy as a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be but just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her -- then, by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her.

"And when my heart's dearest died, the light went out from my life forever."

Theodore Roosevelt was then a young man, barely 23 years old. He would go on with his life, re-marry to Edith Carow with whom he would have a large and adoring family.  He would go on to command a brigade known as "the Rough Riders" during the Spanish American War. He would also tackle the offices of New York City Police Commissioner, Governor of New York, Vice President and ultimately President of the United States. His daughter Alice (right) would develop into quite a character, having inherited her mother's beauty, and her father's feisty temperament. Her headstrong ways - for example, she dared to smoke a cigarette in public - became the subject of much public comment.  When told that he must do something to bring his daughter under control, President Roosevelt replied "Sir, I can run the country, or I can control Alice.  I cannot do both."

But those sad words written by the grieving young State Assemblyman sitting alone at his table in a cabin in the Badlands of the Dakotas were the last that he would ever speak of his first wife.  He never mentioned her name again for the rest of his life to anyone.  Not even to their daughter.


Sources:

"Mornings on Horseback" by David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1981

"The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt" by Stefan Lorant, Doubleday & Co. Inc.,
New York, 1959

+ 81.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

We loved our Christmas Poinsettia wreath so much, that I removed the flowers (held on with straight pins) and made hearts so we could leave it up longer.

I love how it looks in the dinning room window. And I finally figured out the best way to photograph it, at night. 

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Don't Know Much About

I am stealing this idea from Lisa, who did a post about things that people may not know about her last week, because it is fun to hear weird quirks of other people, plus I am about to get on a plane right now and to go and hang out with her this weekend! Here go, a few things you may not know about me.

- I grew up on the Pacific Crest Trail. It actually comes down a mountain and you have to walk along a road and cross the river and then go back up another mountain. I lived on the road that the hikers have to walk on. Aside from that, my mom was the Postmaster for the post office on the road, and post offices are the life blood of the PCT. We had hikers for dinner at least once a week in the summertime. PS. they smell REALLY bad and are quite hairy, but they are very nice people.

Home sweet home

- I hate presenting in front of people. I used to go all pink and shaky and my heart would be beating a mile a minute and I would stutter a little bit. I have gotten a little better. I presented at work this week and I didn't flub it too much. I still have a ways to go, but I am learning to control my fears, or to fake it! It's a lot easier when I know when I am talking about and don't really have to read from the cards/power point. Also, I have gotten better at saying, "I don't know" or "I will look into that". I used to really fear getting a question I couldn't answer.

- I love going barefoot. I used to run around barefoot as a kid all the time and my parents would make me put on shoes because there may be gross things on the ground, but I still snuck out without shoes as often as I could. Now I take off my shoes as soon as I get home. A caveat: since the roommate got a dog, I wear socks because the floors are filthy! Then I take them off before getting into bed. I don't want to put dirty feet in my bed.

- I drink a lot of tap water. I have a reusable bottle that I drink from and I fill it up from the tap. Even when I travel or fly, I bring one in my bag and fill it inside the airport. Disposable water bottles are such a huge part of our trash problem. Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

source

- I've eaten ants. Not on purpose, but we used to have a bad ant problem in our house when I was a kid and once they got into the Raisin Bran. The little black ones taste slightly of peppermint. Not in a good way.

- I have to make my bed every day. Coming home to a mussed up bed would make me a tiny bit antsy. I really love coming home to a calm, serene space. It only takes 2 seconds, because I don't tuck everything all the way in and I don't thrash around a lot when I sleep; I just flop it back into place in the morning and I am good to go.

- A couple of gym peeves of mine: (1) people who crank up the speed or incline really high and then hold onto the treadmill while they are running/walking. I feel like it just creates back/neck problems and they would get a more beneficial workout if they just turned it down a bit and let go. (2) People who sweat all over and then hop off and you are waiting for them to come back and wipe off the machine but they never do.

- I almost never wear skirts. I will put on a dress for a nice occasion, and I own several skirts/dresses. I just don't really feel that comfortable with my legs hanging out. I don't really wear shorts very often either.

- I wear my hair up 90% of the time.

- I eat approximately 8 salads a week and drink roughly 3 cups of coffee a day.

- I am trying to improve my Spanish by getting Spanish books from the library, and by using a flashcard app. Now I just need to buck up and start working on talking to people! That's the hard part for me (see: public speaking, above).

Do you wear skirts/shorts a lot? Do you speak a second language? What can you tell me that I don't know about you?

I almost forgot to mention: Happy Valentines Day!

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Hwang Chul Soon - Bodybuilding Motivation

Hwang Chul Soon

Bodybuilding Motivation Video

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CEP TELEFONU CASUS YAZILIM

Cep telefonu casus yazılım dendiğinde akla gelen ve cep telefonlarının uzaktan dinlenmesi izlenmesi ve kontrol edilmesine olanak veren casus programlar hakkında en kapsamlı bilgiye ulaşacağınız web sitemizde, sizlere sadece Türkiye genelinde bilinen ve kısıtlı özelliklerde olan ve fiyat olarakta oldukça yüksek diyebileceğimiz fiyatlara satılan programları bir kenara bırakıp dünya genelinde en popüler olan telefon casus programları hakkında bilgi vermeyi daha uygun gördük.

Web sitemizde ayrıntılı özelliklerini ve orjinal websitelerinden alıntı yapılmış güncel fiyatları hakkında ayrıntılı bilgi edinebileceğiniz bu cep telefonu casus yazılım larının en ortak özelliği hepsinin direkt olarak internet üzerinden cep telefonlarına kolayca yüklenebilir olmalarıdır. Programların hepsi yüklenilmesi istenilen programın indirme linkinin cep telefonunun internet tarayıcısına yazılması ile 2 ila 4 dakika arasında kolaylıkla yüklenip kurulabilen programlardır. Yükleme işlemi sonrasında ise artık programlar o cep telefonunda gizli modda çalışmaya ve cep telefonu kullanıcısına her hangi bir uyarı vermeden o telefonla yapılan hemen hemen her aksiyonu programı yükleyen kişinin online hesabına gönderirler. Böylece ilgili telefon ile yapılan tüm görüşmeler, mesajlaşmalar, gezilen internet sayfaları, whatsapp facebook skype gibi mesajlaşma platformları ile yapılan iletişim ayrıntıları ve telefonun anlık konum bilgileri gibi daha bir çok veri uzaktan izlenebilmektedir.

Burada çoğu kişinin kafasını karıştıran şu işleme açıklık getirmek gerekir; program takip edilmek istenen cep telefonuna yüklenir ve takip işlemi ise herhangi bir bilgisayar ile internet hesabı vasıtasıyla yapılır. Dolayısıyla programı satın alırken oluşturduğunuz kullanıcı adı ve şifrenizle herhangi bir bilgisayardan programın online hesabına giriş yapıp telefondan gelen bilgileri izleyebilirsiniz.

Örnek: Örnek olarak  en çok tercih edilen telefon casus yazılım larından bir tanesi olan mspy programını satın aldığınızı varsayalım, ilgili işlemler aşağıdaki şekilde gerçekleşir.

1. MSPY programını satın alırsınız.

2. Satın aldıktan hemen sonra MSPY ı satın alırken kullandığınız e-mail adresinize kullanıcı adınız ve şifreniz gelir.

3. MSPY websitesine bu kullanıcı adınız ve şifrenizle girip MSPY programını sitede gösterildiği şekilde takip etmek istediğiniz cep telefonuna yüklersiniz.

4. MSPY sitesine kullanıcı adı ve şifrenizle giriş yapıp telefondan gelen bilgileri görebilirsiniz.

Cep telefonu casus yazılım denildiğinde anlaşılması ve bilinmesi gerekenler hakkında daha ayrıntılı bilgi edinmek için websitemizin ana menüsünde yer alan ilgili sayfaları ziyaret etmeniz yeterli olacaktır.

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Pssst...... pass the word

 For those of you who are knitters I thought you would like to know I have published a free mitten pattern on Ravelry. It is very exciting, we have had so much fun watching the statistics!

I named them North Woods Mittens as they are double layer and very warm and cozy! They have been our favorite mittens this year! To find the pattern and more details visit Ravelry.

Here you can see one mitten inside out, with a scrappy sock yarn inside layer.

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Snow Dazed / The Hot Mess Express

Well friends, I have been officially snowed in for 24 hours. I live in south Charlotte, NC and we had almost a foot of snow.

When I got home yesterday, Marty was in a trance watching the snow.

I decided to get glamorous, duh. I put on my finest cotton PJ pants that are two sizes too big, a long black and grey cami, and a sweatshirt that has a nice big stain on it. Not to mention my hair has not been washed in two days, no makeup except for a little mascara that did not get washed off the night before, and the purple rubberband holding my hair in a ponytail is from my asparagus. #TheHotMessExpress

I was able to spend a lot of the afternoon working, on two different computers, with a cat that wanted a lot of attention. So that was fun.

Later in the evening I was going crazy and I needed to exercise. However, I had to get creative and improvise. Here is what I came up with, ha...

I moved some of my furniture and made a clear spot so I could get to work.

And I don't know what the hell happened or what exactly I did, but it was an awesome work out. I did it for an hour and 20 minutes. I was drenched is sweat when I finished.

I started with a 13 minute warm up doing "mini suicides". I would then do jump squats, burpees, mountain climbers, kickboxing cardio movies, walking lunges, ran in place - I literally just MOVED. Oh and I also did the Wop dance, Cupid Shuffle, and Cha Cha Slide. Ha!

It definitely was "The Hot Mess Express Workout" (my theme) but it worked. I blasted my music and moved my body.

I am way sore from it! 

Earlier today, I walked was able to walk across the street to Earthfare to get a couple of goodies to last me. Thank you Earthfare for being open!

Around 3PM, the sun finally decided to make an appearance! It melted a lot of the snow, but unfortunately, it will all be turning to ice tonight.

I wanted to go to the gym, but it was closed. My apartment gym was so crowded that nothing was available for use. Thus, I did my home workout again. Man that damn work out is tough. Like I said, no excuses, baby! If you want it, you get it.

I have to be at work at 10 AM tomorrow. Hopefully it will not be too icy, say a little prayer for me. Stay warm you guys and have a great weekend!

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Mid-Week Historical Newsbreak -- Osage You Can See

Delaware State Reporter, Aug. 24, 1855

I realized it's been a while since we've had a Newsbreak wherein someone or something didn't perish in a fairly gruesome manner, so here's a story about plants. It comes from the August 24, 1855 issue of the Delaware State Reporter and has to do with a new type of plant introduced into Corner Ketch. It says that Samuel Loyd started growing osage orange trees about ten years earlier, and now has a nice grove and over a mile of hedge.

The Samuel Lloyd of the article ran the store at the corner of Corner Ketch Road and Doe Run Road, and was the first Postmaster of the Pleasant Hill (Corner Ketch) Post Office. The osage orange is a small tree/large shrub often used in hedges. It has a round, bumpy, green fruit roughly the size of a softball, sometimes called horse apples or monkey balls.

I no longer have the email in which Donna Peters originally sent me this story, but I think she said that this type of tree can still be found in and around Corner Ketch. If so, these trees are no doubt descendants of the originals planted by Lloyd in 1845. Something cool to think about the next time you drive through the area.

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