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WITandWISDOM(tm) - January 21, 2004 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: If you are not thankful for what you do have, why should God give you anything else to murmur about? - Joyce Meyer Submitted by Kiri Christina Hyatt ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Some missionaries in the Philippines set up a croquet game in their front yard. Several of their Agta Negrito neighbors became interested and wanted to join the fun. The missionaries explained the game and started them out, each with a mallet and ball. As the game progressed, opportunity came for one of the players to take advantage of another by knocking that person's ball out of the court. A missionary explained the procedure, but his advice only puzzled the Negrito friend. "Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?" he asked. "So you will be the one to win!" a missionary said. The short-statured man, clad only in a loincloth, shook his head in bewilderment. Competition is generally ruled out in a hunting and gathering society, where people survive not by competing but by sharing equally in every activity. The game continued, but no one followed the missionaries' advice. When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over for him. He went back and gave aid and advice to his fellows. As the final player moved toward the last wicket, the affair was still very much a team effort. And finally, when the last wicket was played, the "team" shouted happily, "We won! We won!" America, Bless God! Norman Lawrence Source: A Dose of Inspiration, http://www.quietstones.com/mydailydose ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: No nursing home for me. I am checking into the Holiday Inn! With the average cost for a nursing home per day reaching $188.00, there is a better way when we get old & feeble. I have already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it's $49.23 per night. That leaves $138.77 a day for: Breakfast, lunch and dinner in any restaurant I want, or room service. Laundry, gratuities and special TV movies. Plus, they provide a swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge, washer, dryer, etc. Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo and soap. They treat you like a customer, not a patient. $5 worth of tips a day will have the entire staff scrambling to help you. There is a city bus stop out front, and seniors ride free. To meet other nice people, call a church bus on Sundays. For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there. While you're at the airport, fly somewhere. Otherwise, the cash keeps building up. It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today. And you are not stuck in one place forever, you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city. Hawaii? They have a Holiday Inn there too. T.V. broken? Light bulbs need changing? Need a mattress replaced? No problem. They fix everything, and apologize for the inconvenience. The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If not, they will call the undertaker or an ambulance. If you fall and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life. And no worries about visits from family. They will always be glad to find you, and probably check in for a few days mini-vacation. The grandkids can use the pool. What more can you ask for? So, when I reach the golden age I'll face it with a grin. Just forward all my email to: me @ Holiday.Inn Submitted by Barbara & Don Henry ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: One day, the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?" The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for a second one." Source: Pulpit Supply, mailto:pulpit-supply-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Blacksburg, Va. (UPI) 11/03 - Virginia Tech students fueled by soda and pizza helped build the world's third fastest supercomputer in record time and at a record low cost of $5.2 million. Most other machines of its class cost upward of $40 million and take years to assemble. Japan's Earth Simulator, the No. 1 supercomputer, is said to have cost at least $350 million. Assistant Prof. Srinidhi Varadarajan said the team used off-the-shelf components to keep the price down and hundreds of student volunteers to get the work done in a startling three months, the Indian Express reported. The students, who were paid only in food, consumed 600 to 700 pizzas, he estimated. "This is arguably the cheapest supercomputer and is definitely the most powerful home-built supercomputer," he said. The supercomputer, nicknamed "Big Mac" because it uses Apple 64-bit CPUs, can handle 17 trillion operations per second, Varadarajan said. Source: Science and Technology, http://www.arcamax.com |