you…
Act now. For now is all you have.
Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.
Action will destroy your procrastination.
All men must stumble often to reach the truth.
All nature is a circle of moods and you are a part of nature and so, like
the tides, your moods will rise; your moods will fall.
All your problems, discouragements, and heartaches are, in truth, great
opportunities in disguise.
Always let your reach exceed your grasp.
Always raise your goals as soon as they are attained.
Always strive to make the next hour better than this one.
Always take another step. If that is to no avail take another, and yet
another. One step at a time is not too difficult.
Any act with practice becomes easy.
Apply all of your efforts to become the highest mountain of all and strain
your potential until it cries for mercy.
Avoid with fury the killers of time.
Bad habits must be destroyed and new furrows prepared for good seed.
Bathe me in good habits that the bad ones may drown.
Be happy.
Be hungry for success.
Be prepared to control whatever personality awakes in you each day.
Become master of yourself.
Begin now to accent your differences.
Beginning today, you can increase your accomplishments of yesterday by a
hundredfold.
Bury doubt under faith.
Cherish each hour of this day for it can never return.
Chuckle and your burdens will be lightened.
Concentrate your energy on the challenge of the moment.
Confidence will take away your fear.
Consider each obstacle as a mere detour to your goal and a challenge to your
profession.
Consider each obstacle as a mere detour to your goal.
Count your blessings today.
Cultivate the habit of laughter.
Destroy procrastination with action.
Dismember fear with confidence.
Do not allow yesterday’s success to lull you into today’s complacency, for
this is the great foundation of failure.
Do not be satisfied with yesterday’s accomplishments or indulge in
self-praise for deeds which are too small to even acknowledge.
Do not commit the terrible crime of aiming too low.
Do not dwell on the past.
Do not judge a man on one meeting.
Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is
contagious.
Do not make vain attempts to imitate others.
Do not permit the petty happenings of today to disturb you.
Do not think of yesterday or tomorrow.
Do not waste a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, yesterday’s defeats,
or yesterday’s aches of the heart.
Drink every minute to its fill; savor its taste and give thanks.
Drive a bad habit from your life and replace it with one which will bring
you closer to success.
Each day will be triumphant only when your smiles bring forth smiles from
others.
Each failure to sell will increase your chances for success at your next
attempt.
Each frown you meet only prepares you for the smile to come.
Each minute of today will be more fruitful than the hours of yesterday.
Your last must be your best.
Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow’s good
luck.
Each nay I hear will bring me closer to the sound of yea.
Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid
them and you throw away your future.
Each struggle, each defeat sharpens your skills and strengthens your courage
and your endurance.
Enjoy today’s happiness today.
Failure does not course through your veins as you were not delivered into
this world in defeat.
Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle.
Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong
enough.
For now you know one of the greatest principles of success; if you persist
long enough you will win.
Forget the happenings of the day that is gone, whether they were good or
bad, and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of
your life.
Fulfill today’s duties today.
Good habits are the key to all success.
Grant me compassion for weaknesses in others.
Grasp each minute of this day with both hands and fondle it with love for
its value is beyond price.
Green grass grows where dry desert ends.
Greet the sunrise with cries of joy.
Happiness is the wine that sharpens the taste of the meal.
Have confidence that this will be the best day of your life.
I can accomplish far more than I have, and I will, for why would the miracle
which produced me end with my birth? Why can I not extend that miracle to
my deeds of today?
I consider poverty to be the mark of a lack of ability or a lack of
ambition.
I have a choice and I will not let my life be fed to swine nor will I let it
be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and
devoured by the will of others.
I have not time to hate, only time to love.
I need not wait for I have the power to choose my own destiny.
I shall live this day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall
to my knees and give thanks.
I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles
for they are my challenge.
I will be successful.
I will command, and I will obey mine own command.
I will do the work that a failure will not do.
I will encourage my friends and they will become brothers.
I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.
I will form good habits and become their slave.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.
I will greet this day with love, and I will succeed.
I will laud mine enemies and they will become friends.
I will laugh at evil and it will die untasted.
I will look on all things with love, and I will be born again.
I will love all mankind.
I will love all manners of men for each has qualities to be admired even
though they may be hidden.
I will love myself.
I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me!
I will love the beautiful for their eyes of sadness; I will love the ugly
for their souls of peace.
I will love the failures for they can teach me.
I will love the kings for they are but human; I will love the meek for they
are divine.
I will love the rich for they are yet lonely; I will love the poor for they
are so many.
I will love the young for the faith they hold; I will love the old for the
wisdom they share.
I will persist until I succeed.
I will persist and I will win.
I will say it is done before the failure says it is too late.
I will talk when the failure remains silent.
I will think naught of my profession when I am in my home for this will
dampen my love.
I will toil and I will endure.
I will walk where the failure fears to walk.
I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart.
I will work when the failure seeks rest.
If all things shall pass, why should I be of concern for today ?
If I delay, success will become betrothed to another and lost to me forever.
If I have no other qualities I can succeed with love alone.
If I persist, if I continue to try, if I continue to charge forward, I will
succeed.
If I stumble I will rise, and my falls will not concern me.
If you bring joy, enthusiasm, brightness, and laughter to your customers,
they will react with joy, enthusiasm, brightness, and laughter and your
weather will produce a harvest of sales and a granary of gold for you.
If you feel depressed – sing!
If you feel fear, plunge ahead.
If you feel incompetent, remember past successes.
If you feel insignificant, remember your goals.
If you feel poverty, think of wealth to come.
If you feel sad – laugh.
If you must be a slave to habit, then be a slave to good habits.
If you persist long enough, you will win.
If you waste today, you destroy the last page of your life.
Ignore the obstacles at your feet and keep your eyes on the goals above your
head.
In setting my goals, I will consider my best performance of the past and
multiply it a hundredfold.
Increase your knowledge of mankind.
It pays to be persistent.
Just as love is my weapon to open the hearts of men, love is also my shield
to repulse the arrows of hate and the spears of anger.
Just as nature made no provision for your body to tolerate pain neither has
it made any provision for your life to suffer failure.
Keep work and family separate.
Laugh and your life will be lengthened for this is the great secret of long
life.
Laugh at goodness and it will thrive and abound.
Laugh at the world.
Laugh at your failures and they will vanish in clouds of new dreams.
Laugh at your successes and they will shrink to their true value.
Laugh at yourself for man is most comical when he takes himself too
seriously.
Leave your problems at home.
Lift up a friend in need.
Lift your arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day.
Live this day as if it is your last. Seal up the container of life so that
not one drop spills itself upon the sand.
Live this day as if it is your last.
Live today as if it is your last chance to prove your love and your
greatness.
Look upon each obstacle as a lesson to be learned.
Look upon misfortune as opportunity in disguise.
Love the darkness because it shows you the stars.
Love will melt all hearts like the sun whose rays soften the coldest clay.
Love yourself!
Make every hour count and trade each minute only for something of value.
Make love your greatest weapon.
Make the hours ahead priceless!
Make this day the best day of your life.
Many face each obstacle in their path with fear and doubt and consider them
as enemies, when in truth, these obstructions are friends and helpers.
Many succumb to despair and fail without realizing that they already possess
all the tools needed to acquire great wealth.
Master your emotions so that each day will be productive.
Master your moods through positive action and when you master your moods you
will control your destiny.
Meditation and prayer feeds the soul.
My desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew, and I will
be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife
and sorrow.
Nature knows not defeat.
Never allow yourself to become so important, so wise, so dignified, so
powerful, that you forget how to laugh at yourself.
Never be satisfied with yesterday’s accomplishments.
Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he
who has never tried.
Never will I allow my heart to become small and bitter, rather I will share
it and it will grow and warm the earth.
Never will I allow my mind to be attracted to evil and despair, rather I
will uplift it with the knowledge and wisdom of the ages.
Never will I allow my soul to become complacent and satisfied, rather I will
feed it with meditation and prayer.
Never will I labor to be happy; rather will I remain too busy to be sad.
Never will I overindulge the requests of my flesh, rather I will cherish my
body with cleanliness and moderation.
Never will I scratch for excuses to gossip.
No longer shall my vocabulary include such words as cannot, unable,
impossible, and quit.
No longer will I fail to call again tomorrow on he who meets me with hate
today.
Obstacles are necessary for success.
Only a habit can subdue another habit.
Only action determines my value in the market place.
Only with laughter and happiness can I enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Only with laughter and happiness can you truly become a success.
People will always respond positively to joy and enthusiasm.
Persist and develop your skills as the mariner develops his, by learning to
ride out the wrath of each storm.
Persist with the knowledge that each failure to sell will increase your
chance for success at the next attempt.
Practice the art of patience for nature never acts in haste.
Put your uniqueness on display in the market place.
Rain cleanses the spirit.
Remember that as today’s dead flower carries the seed of tomorrow’s bloom so
does today’s sadness carry the seed of tomorrow’s joy.
Remove from your vocabulary such words and phrases as quit, cannot, unable,
impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless,
and retreat; for they are the words of fools.
Rewards are great if one succeeds but the rewards are great only because so
few succeed.
Seek constantly to improve your manners and graces, for they are the sugar
to which all are attracted.
Set goals for the day, the week, the month, the year, and your life.
Should you concern yourself over events which you may never witness? Should
you torment yourself with problems that may never come to pass? No!
Tomorrow lies buried with yesterday, think of it no more.
Sleep in peace for you have not failed.
Small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.
Smile and your digestion will improve.
So long as I can laugh, never will I be poor.
So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist.
Strive for happiness and peace of mind.
Strive for happiness, to be loved and to love, and most important, to
acquire peace of mind and serenity.
Strive to become better than you are.
Strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.
Success comes to those willing to work a little bit harder than the rest.
Success will not wait.
Suffer me to know that all things shall pass.
The height of my goals will not hold me in awe though I may stumble often
before they are reached.
The only difference between those who have failed and those who have
succeeded lies in their habits.
The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning;
and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to
reach my goal.
The problems of the market place will be left in the market place.
The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.
There are good qualities in everyone.
There are lessons to be learned from failures.
There is no room in the market place for your family, nor is there room in
your home for the market.
There is not time to hate, only time to love.
This day is all you have and these hours are now your eternity. Greet this
sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death.
This is the place.
This is the time.
This too shall pass.
Time teaches all things to him who lives forever, but I have not the luxury
of eternity.
To conquer fear I must always act without hesitation and the flutters in my
heart will vanish.
To enjoy success I must have happiness, and laughter will be the maiden who
serves me.
To multiply your value you must multiply your actions.
To surpass the deeds of others is unimportant; to surpass your own deeds is
all.
Today I begin a new life.
Today I shed my old skin which hath too long suffered the bruises of failure
and the wounds of mediocrity.
Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
Today I will surpass every action which I performed yesterday.
Today you will be master of your emotions.
Today, I will act.
Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy.
Tomorrow lies buried with yesterday.
True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.
Try again, make one more attempt to close with victory, and if that fails,
make another.
Try, and try, and try again.
Understand and recognize the moods of others. Make allowances for their
anger and irritation for they know not the secret of controlling their
minds.
Unless you act you will perish in a life of failure, misery, and sleepless
nights.
Unless you put your skills, mind, heart, and body to good use, you will
stagnate, rot, and die.
Victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.
We must have the night to appreciate the day.
Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who
forces his actions to control his thoughts.
Welcome happiness for it enlarges your heart; endure sadness for it opens
your soul.
What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant
in the river of centuries?
What is success other than a state of mind?
When an act becomes easy through constant repetition, it becomes a pleasure
to perform, and if it is a pleasure to perform, it is man’s nature to
perform it often.
When I am burdened with wealth I shall tell myself that this too shall pass.
When I am moved to praise, I will shout from the roofs.
When I am puffed with success I shall warn myself that this too shall pass.
When I am strangled in poverty I shall tell myself that this too shall pass.
When I am tempted to criticize, I will bite on my tongue.
When others cease their struggle, then mine will begin, and my harvest will
be full.
When you are heavy with heartache console yourself that this too shall
pass.
Where dry desert ends, green grass grows.
Where there are idle mouths I will listen not; where there are idle hands I
will linger not; where there are idle bodies I will visit not.
Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence?
With each victory the next struggle becomes less difficult.
With love I will tear down the wall of suspicion and hate which they have
built round their hearts, and in its place, I will build bridges so that my
love may enter their souls.
Within you burns a flame which has been passed from generations uncounted,
and its heat is a constant irritation to your spirit to become better than
you are, and you will.
Yesterday’s joy will become today’s sadness; yet today’s sadness will grow
into tomorrow’s joy.
Yesterday’s success will not lull me into today’s complacency.
Yesterday is buried forever, think of it no more.
You are a unique creature.
You are here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not
to shrink to a grain of sand.
You are nature’s greatest miracle.
You are rare, and there is value in all rarity; therefore, you are valuable.
You can accomplish far more than you have, and you will.
You can overcome seemingly impossible obstacles with ambition.
You have been given eyes to see and a mind to think.
You have but one life and life is naught but a measurement of time.
You have unlimited potential.
You may encounter failure at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind
the next bend in the road. You will never know how close success lies
unless you turn the corner.
You must fail often to succeed only once.
You must have objectives before your life will crystallize.
You must nurture your body and mind in order to fulfill your dreams.
You only have time to love.
You were conceived in love and brought forth with a purpose.
You will become great.
You won’t know how close success is unless you turn the corner.
Why being grumpy can be good for you
It may take more muscles to frown than to smile – but being grumpy is better for you.
A new study into behavioural health has discovered people who are always crabbit are less gullible and better at decision making.
Psychology expert Professor Joseph Forgas revealed his startling results in this month’s Australian Medical Journal.
His findings show even the most negative emotions, such as sadness and grumpiness, can prove more valuable than happiness and other positive feelings.
But if being like Victor Meldrew can be better for you when it comes to making decisions, what can other emotions or behaviour do for you?
GRUMPINESS
According to Prof Forgas, grumpy people make better eye witnesses, are harder to fool and will make better judgment calls than cheerier people.
He believes that a negative mood “triggers more attentive, careful thinking and we pay greater attention to the external world”.
SADNESS
Another part of Prof Forgas’ study compared the benefits of being sad to being happy. He found that a sad person can cope with demanding situations better than a happy person because of the way mood affects the brain’s information processing systems.
One of the many tests Prof Forgas used to prove his theories involved asking happy and sad people to judge the merits of urban myths spouted in movies, and found that the sad ones were less likely to be conned.
SWEARING
It might not be big, clever, politically correct or polite but, according to scientists, unleashing a four-letter word outburst can be very good for your health.
A study at Keele University found that swearing helps us deal with pain and that potty-mouthed people can endure pain for 50 per cent longer than non-swearers.
FLIRTING
A cheeky nod or wink can be good for your health – it’s official. Studies have shown an inoffensive flirt, even if you are not looking to follow it up, can be a great way to build confidence and reduce stress.
And as long as it is not intended or perceived as sexual harassment, studies have also shown it can improve office morale and camaraderie in stressful times.
GIGGLES
Laughter can be the best medicine and since 1995 a form of laughter yoga has been taught around the world to encourage the giggles. It helps with heart health and is also effective in pain management, stress reduction and fighting depression.
GRINNING
A big cheesy grin may be quite off-putting to some but the widest kind of smile is also good for you, with some incredible benefits.
These include a drop in blood pressure, a boosted immune system and a reduction in stress. It also helps produce endorphins, which relax the body, as well as the happy hormone serotonin.
CRYING
Letting go and having a good blub can be one of the best things for you. Tears include a powerful hormone, leucine enkephalin, which regulates pain and other hormones which regulate stress. So tears could be a physiological way for the body to reduce stress.
SHOUTING
A good scream is not only a good workout for the lungs but it is also good for the soul. Primal Scream therapy, popularised in the 1970s and enjoyed by people such as John Lennon, uses shouting to connect to subconscious stresses and issues and get them out.
LAZINESS
People who get up early and busy themselves all day long are heading for an early grave, says public health expert Professor Peter Axt.
He believes lazing about is the key to a long life and an antidote to professional stress, provided people are otherwise healthy.
He says: “People who would rather take a midday nap instead of playing squash have a better chance of living into old age.”
ANNOYING THE NEIGHBOURS
Blasting out loud music is the best way to upset your neighbours but it can boost your brain power.
According to researchers at Manchester University music fans are stimulating part of the inner ear known as the sacculus, which responds to the beat in music.
This gives the brain pleasure and makes us feel good – during the music and afterwards.
FIDGETING
A fidgety work colleague can drive you mad but fidgets are actually keeping themselves slim.
A study in America found that people who constantly tap their fingers or twitch and stretch are using up an extra 350 calories a day.
Endocrinologist James Levine, who led the research, said: “There are huge differences in the amount of fidgeting between people who are lean and those who are obese.”
BEING UNTIDY
An unmade bed may appear to be the height of laziness but it could help prevent asthma.
Scientists at Kingston University found house dust mites – which can bring on an asthma attack – cannot survive in the dry exposed conditions found in an unmade bed.
Nov 4 2009 Brian McIver
Trouble is a Friend
Trouble he will find you, no matter where you go, oh oh
No matter if you’re fast, no matter if you’re slow, oh oh
The eye of the storm or the cry in the morn, oh oh
You’re fine for a while but you start to lose control…
He’s there in the dark
He’s there in my heart
He waits in the wings
He’s gotta play a part
Trouble is a friend yeah trouble is a friend of mine
Ah ooh…
Trouble is a friend but trouble is a foe, oh oh
And no matter what I feed him he always seems to grow, oh oh
He sees what I see and he knows what I know, oh oh
So don’t forget as you ease on down the road…
He’s there in the dark
He’s there in my heart
He waits in the wings
He’s gotta play a part
Trouble is a friend yeah trouble is a friend of mine
oh oh
So don’t be alarmed if he takes you by the arm
I won’t let him win but I’m a sucker for his charm
Trouble is a friend yeah trouble is a friend of mine
ah ooh
How I hate the way he makes me feel
And how I try to make him leave,
I try, oh oh I try…..
Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional
If you’ve never, ever been hurt in your entire life, raise your hand. And leave this blog ASAP, because the following article is not for you. It’s for all the people who got hurt at some point in their lives. And who suffered because of that.
Suffering and pain are tied together in our minds. One is giving birth to the other. They’re like a single, osmotic being. Every time we get hurt, we suffer. And every time we suffer we create more hurt. It’s difficult to even talk about pain and suffering in a detached way, this is how deep they are buried in our subconscious mind. The mere act of reading about pain and suffering is making your brain reconnect with those feelings in this very moment.
Do you remember how you felt last time you experienced pain? What were the exact feelings? Frustration? Sorrow? Despair? Defeat? What were the words you used to describe it? Suffering? Affliction? Trauma? Grief?
Pain is one of the most avoided situations in our life. We run away from pain. We’re trying to escape the pain. To mask it, to hide from it, to cover it in superfluous, temporary indulgences. We can’t stand it. Because we don’t want to suffer.
Why Do We Suffer?
Pain is external. It’s created by things out of our control. We’ve just been hit by something. The same way we get hit by happiness, sometimes. Only this time it hurts.
Suffering is internal. It gets triggered by our own feelings and perceptions of the pain. We’re interpreting the pain in a certain way. Most of the time by resisting it.
Pain is generated by loss. Loss of confidence, loss of affection, loss of hope. Every time you get disappointed, you’re losing a dream. And it hurts. We lose things we were attached to and the main body reacts: I want that part of me back. And we get this signal under the form of pain.
Suffering, on the other part, is the attachment for what we lose. The higher the attachment, the stronger the signal we receive. Pain becomes bigger and bigger.
But, believe it or not, losing parts of ourselves is natural. This is how we grow. By losing parts of ourselves. We lose our childish body and become adults. We lose our ignorance and become knowledgeable. We lose our inhibitions and become free. Every time we lose something, we’re forced to put something in its place. We create something new. We become something new.
Our loss is the trigger for evolution. We replace the tears with something we crafted. This is how we become a new being. Most of the time a better one. Because now we know what it takes to re-create that part of our Universe.
They say you grow stronger through pain than through happiness. And that’s true. You grow faster when you have all that work to do. When you lose all your dreams and hopes, you have to get to work. Fill in the gaps. Make sure life doesn’t flow away through all those holes. Be there. Do things.
I’m not making the apology of pain as the ultimate evolutionary tool. I’m human just like you and I get hurt just like you. What I do try is to lower the suffering. Because suffering is not necessary. Pain, as hurtful as it gets, might be. But suffering is an internal artifact, a self-generated response which I have control over. I may not control pain, but I can control my own reaction to it.
By giving free way to suffering I accept to lose my energy. My whole power is hijacked by suffering. Instead of using it for creating something new on that crack, I crave for what was there before. I use my focus in a desperate attempt to freeze the Universe in the very second before the loss occurred. Like this would be possible…
I Am What I Do
Every time I get hurt, I try to see which part of me is detached. What am I losing? Is the affection of somebody? Is my confidence in somebody? Is something I took for granted but it proved to be as changeable as the whole Universe? Every loss I experience creates some pain. I know I cannot avoid it. But I also know I can create something new in that hurtful cavity of myself.
That pain is the signal I have work to do. If there’s somebody affection I lost, I start to love myself more. If there’s confidence in somebody I lost, I start to trust myself more often. If there’s something I took for granted, like when I’m disappointed by somebody, I start to make and keep new promises. All those tears are signs of unfinished work with myself.
It’s not about the other guys. The outside process of getting hurt is in fact a reflection of what’s going on inside. Blaming external conditions for my pain is just another form of suffering. The real process takes place inside.
Deep down, every pain is a pointer for something we avoided to do for a long time. We’re designed in such a way that we naturally experience growth, and most of the time we grow organically. But sometimes we get so attached that we cannot break up and grow further other than through violent actions. This is when pain occur. When we don’t want to grow anymore. At that point, a violent event blows away that part of our main body which is not necessary anymore. Forcing us to start covering it with something new, and, most important, better.
Most of my pain came in my relationships. I made bad choices. Several times. I got hurt and I’m still getting hurt. It’s nobody else’s fault. In fact, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just a pointer that I have a lot of work to do in this area. And that work is about myself. It’s about trusting and opening. About accepting rejection, if that’s the case, and creating understanding. It’s about making peace with my own failures and my partner’s failures. About acceptance and freedom.
Desperately trying to tune out the pain by temporary indulgences won’t solve my relationships problem. The cavity will still be there until I start building something new over it.
And I’m building something new over it. I’m not making huge progress, but I’m sticking with it. Every single day.
Source: www.dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated
difficult time
The real questions are the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the ones that you “come to terms with” only to discover that they are still there. The real questions refuse to be placated. They barge into your life at the times when it seems most important for them to stay away. They are the questions asked most frequently and answered most inadequately, the ones that reveal their true natures slowly, reluctantly, most often against your will.
i cry but tears did not come out. i cry but no one see me crying.
Social Justice and Social Responsibility
“My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude…”
The world as I see.
Einstien
We as Mortals
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving…
The World as I See. Einstien
50 websites you’ll wonder how you lived without
Essential sites to add to your bookmarks today
When it comes to the Internet, we’re creatures of habit – Google for search, Hotmail for email, Twitter to stay in touch and maybe the BBC’s website for news.
This means that we use only a handful of favourite sites, leaving the rest of the Internet unvisited. Let’s put that right. By the time you’ve finished reading, we promise that your list of bookmarked sites will have ballooned and you’ll be getting more from your surfing.
Software and tools
1. ThinkFree Office is a powerful suite of productivity apps that includes a robust word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool. The suite has subtle touches such as an inline spell-checker, and you can work offline if the Internet goes down. There’s also support for 11 languages and helpful PDF export capability. Most importantly, you can share documents with other users and work on files collaboratively. The suite is free if you can live with 1GB of storage, or upgrade for a nominal fee to a premium account.
2. Zoho is a highly useful web portal for being productive on the go. More than just a word processor and task manager, Zoho has a multitude of small web apps for taking notes, storing contact information and project management. There’s even a web conferencing tool. APIs are available for the web services in Zoho’s word processor and spreadsheet, too. There’s also a slideshow creator so that you can make calls from another website – for example, an accounting site could read tables from a Zoho spreadsheet. The site is one of the first to support VB macros and the document mark-up language LaTeX.
3. It’s time to ditch Microsoft Excel. EditGrid is powerful enough for basic number crunching without the extensive pivot table and worksheet functions. Its main strength, unsurprisingly, comes in how you can format cells, with image includes, JavaScript calls and a data exchange between spreadsheets and even between the spreadsheets hosted by other users. There’s a plugin that reads Excel data, templates, mash-up features for integrating data from websites like Yahoo! Finance and plenty of text formatting options. Registration is quick and there are three pricing plans: one free account, a premium account for just a few dollars per month and a multi-user company plan. Unfortunately, it does not work in Internet Explorer 6.
4. Web project management has taken a beating these last few years, especially since tools like www.basecamphq.com stress simplicity over actual features. Clarizen is easy to use and runs fast on a 3Mbps connection on a 64-bit 3GHz Vista PC, but it also has deeper features. For example, you can update your task list by sending an email to the project inbox. (You can also request a daily task list by sending an email.)
5. The original idea for SlideShare came when co-founder Jonathan Boutelle was at a conference and saw how attendees were easily sharing large videos and photo collections online, but had to physically pass around USB keys to distribute sales presentations. He created SlideShare as a way to host and store PowerPoint files. It has became incredibly popular.
6. It may not have the flare and design of Microsoft Visio, but the online flow-charting program known as Gliffy certainly has an expansive set of features. There are icons for networking, office design and organisation charts to help you put some order around any idea. Line connectors automatically snap into place, or avoid certain shapes when you move them around the screen – a powerful programming trick, especially since the site does not use any plug-ins or require you to download any software.
7. Part online presence for slideshows and part client-side tool that helps you create presentations and post them online, sliderocket.com has one major benefit: it’s lightning fast. In tests with several different PCs at different connection speeds (including one at a public hotspot), we found that we could create a detailed sales presentation with several high-res graphics in no time The site uses Adobe Flex and the AIR client. ‘Presentation analytics’ (now there’s a buzzword) tells you who saw your presentation and even how long they looked at each of your slides.
8. Scribd is not quite a word processor, although it looks like one at first. Instead, it’s actually a content creation tool that you could use to publish your own technical papers, schoolwork, or even a novel online. It’s also one of the only document management tools we have found that is free and publicly available (Scribd also offers a closed service).
Storage and files
9. Our favourite online storage portal, box.net has the most fascinating social networking features. Other users can tag and comment on your files (if you give them permission). You can use APIs to link the storage (a basic account is free, premium services cost about £4-£10 per month) to popular web services like www.zoho.com and www.picnik.com. If you do go with the premium account, you get 5 or 15GBs and the ability to see version history on files. Alas, there does not appear to be a desktop folder as with Dropbox.
10. It’s easier to understand Pando by what it’s not: you can’t sync files, store them online or make back-ups. Instead, it’s the best site we’ found for sending large fi les by email. Instead of using attachments, you just send your recipient a Pando link. Max file size is 1GB, and there’s a video sharing version for consumers and corporate users – all free.
11. Although it’s not what we really want (a full Microsoft Word client on the web), Workspace is as close as Microsoft is willing to get at this point. It’s a ’store and share’ site that is worth your time because you can archive thousands of Word docs for free and make them fully searchable online – for you or for any user you give permission to access the archive.
12. Instead of just storing your files online or syncing them between computers, MozyHome is both a web portal to view your archived files and a client-side back-up app. Its main feature is the ability to monitor important folders and archive them to the web so that you can restore them at any time, regardless of whether you are even using the same computer. MozyHome is the free version that comes with 2GB of online storage, while Mozy Unlimited costs $5 per month and Mozy Pro is a network back-up utility with several pricing plans.
13. Most photo sharing sites use some combination of web forms, HTML and JavaScript to help you organise your photos online. Zoto uses JavaScript, along with a client-side photo uploader that
14. It might be easy to dismiss EyeOS as an attention grabbing alternative OS that runs in a browser. After all, it could be argued Firefox is a kind of operating system that runs JavaScript apps. EyeOS makes easy work of common tasks like file associations and one-click access to your favourite apps. The OS includes 60 popular apps, including word processing and audio players – you can get more at www.eyeos-apps.org. Still in its infant state, EyeOS reveals a tantalising glimpse of what Windows could look like if it ran in a browser.
15. The concept of a ’social database’ might seem like a contradiction – but Blist pulls it off. You can enter vast quantities of data – the entire fantasy football roster for all your friends, for example – and then share the data between Blist users. Templates are geared for those who want to weed out duplicate data.
16. The holy grail of file syncing is the ability to drop files into a folder and have that same folder show up on every other computer you own and work exactly like a network drive – except that it’s online. Dropbox (still in beta) solves this issue. Just add a folder to your desktop and copy files. You can also share complete folders so that anyone with access to the folder sees and is able to use the shared, synced files.
17. Carbonite is a unique online back-up utility that sits in your system tray and watches important folders, such as those containing ‘dev’ files or Word documents, automatically archiving them to a secure website as you work. There is no limit to the storage space available, although the program will only upload a couple of gigabytes per day. Strangely, after install, the clientside app reboots Windows Explorer.
Graphics
18. There are no extra frills offered by dafont.com – the main draw is that the site houses over 7,000 fonts, all freely available to download for Mac or Windows. Linux users will have to convert the fonts. You can grab every single font in one eMule or BitTorrent file; just go to www.dafont.com/faq.php#howmany and look for the ‘zip’ file links.
19. Part Flickr replacement and part entry-level photo editor, Photoshop Express proves that Adobe is on a clear path toward online apps. It’s fairly basic: you can apply a handful of filters for lighting and exposure, rotate and re-size images, embed photos into a web page and share your shots with other users – even those on Flickr. The site shows huge potential: with 2GB of free storage, imagine being able to apply complex editing tasks to a series of photos where ‘the cloud’ does all the processing for you.
20. There’s a plethora of general purpose how-to sites on the web, including the fantastic www.wonderhowto.com, but Luxa is for the technical-minded Photoshop user. You may already know how to perform a Gaussian blur, but Luxa teaches you how to make neon glow effects, complex layering, text design within Photoshop and many other skills.
21. Don’t avoid Bluestring just because it’s owned by AOL: the site is an example of how the web can be a powerful ally in digital media collection. You can upload music, photos, and videos. The handy status bar lets you do a massive bulk upload and switch to a different tab, then check back to see how much data has been uploaded.
22. Ecommerce sites have changed dramatically over the years. Imagekind is a unique site that lets you preview museum art and photos on various picture frames and even different canvas materials before making the purchase. Prints generally cost about £15 each. You can also sell your own prints.
23. Web users are always in a hurry, which is what makes Flauntr so attractive. You can click one option to see multiple views of how a filter will change your photo. Using the ‘PicasR’ filter, you can pick a work of art from Picasso and apply that technique to your image. The site isn’t exceptionally fast, but the drag-and-drop interface and one-click effects are worth exploration.
24. If registering with Simplebucket could be easier, we’d be surprised. To upload photos (2MB max per image), you don’t even need an account. You just type in your email, select photos and upload. You can then view those photos associated with your email account by clicking on a secure link the site sends you. Simplebucket is free, although you can buy more ‘upload credits’ for a few dollars – you get five free per day. If you want a password, you can always upload a photo and then click ‘Settings’ to create an account.
25. 1001freefonts actually has about 7,000 fonts to pick from, each with a useful preview. You can also perform a ‘custom preview’ to see how the font looks with the text you intend using. There’s also a download option to buy 7,000 fonts all at once, which costs about a tenner.
26. InterfaceLIFT is a vast collection of icons, images, wallpapers and random clipart, which can help you add some flair to a web app or an interface. You can also just download desktop wallpapers — it’s an amazingly good collection and all the artwork is free to use.
27. Similar to Photoshop Express, Picnik goes much further with an extensive array of photo-editing effects, histograms, fine pixel alterations and colour correction. You can upload photos from your PC, a webcam and any website.
Research and e-learning
28. Not all sites have to use a flashy interface. Martindale’s reference desk is essentially a collection of links to really useful information. There’s a huge wealth of reference material on disparate topics such as banjo lessons, world clocks, time and expense calculators, eye tests for computer users, a science database, currency convertors and just about anything you can think of. As the web moves closer to a ’single use’ model where one site performs only a simple function, Martindale’s throws the book at you – virtually.
29. Ever wonder how to embed a picture to a cell in Microsoft Excel? At eHow, you can find the answer in just a few clicks. They have categories for electronics, careers, health and many others. The site is almost all text, so you can find the answers you need quickly.
30. Mashery is a hosted service for your web API – it allows you to create links between, say, Yahoo! maps and Flickr photos, or plot the location of public parks with disc golf data you pull from a volunteer site. It supports usage tracking, asset management, encryption – everything you need to link data form one host to another.
31. Amazon uses the term ‘artificial artificial intelligence’ (sic) to define what the Mechanical Turk site is all about. It’s actually a site where you can sign up to perform very repetitive tasks, such as typing text transcripts for videos. You pay just a few cents per completed Human Intelligence Task. These are generally things that a computer is not very good at. It’s a very illuminating example of where AI is faltering.
32. Agreeing on basic business principals often requires written contracts and lawyers. You can skip that chaos by using Mumboe, a site that hosts online applications for business agreements. The free account is quite limited: you can only host up to 10 agreements and only three users can apply. Pricing for premium accounts runs to about £12 to £24 per month for unlimited users, secure and searchable contracts and version control. Registration is a little clunky: you have to agree to the terms twice and the confirmation email took a while to send.
33. Not quite a web aggregator, yet more than a simple search engine, PageOnce lets you add secure sites to one page – you can see your bank balance, airline ticket info, Netflix rentals and a host of other data. Registration was pretty easy: no codes to type in, just a confirmation link sent through email.
Mobile workers
34. The problem with most video chat software is that everyone you chat with needs to have downloaded the client. TokBox works online for two-way chats and multi-point video conferences with no software to download, and the registration is Web 2.0-streamlined to get you talking straightaway.
35. Other online conversion sites show you a laundry list of other options besides currency, for example weight, measurement and even language. Xe focuses entirely on currency, which means that it’s easier to navigate and conversion options are all on the main screen.
36. While many online flight search sites are US-only, Skyscanner lets you choose any country as your origin, supports many different languages and presents an uncluttered, mostly ad-free interface for finding the lowest rates on international flights.
37. A web whiteboarding tool, Twiddla lets you visit any site and then host a meeting online where you can chat about the site, host an audio chat and mark it up with shapes and notes to participants. It’s very useful for web developers and designers who want to visit a site in production to talk about the look and feel of it. It’s also just a good meet-up site for mobile users who need to exchange ideas, and best of all, it’s free.
38. Mobile users can watch TV any time they want with Joost – and the service has recently switched to an online viewer instead of requiring that you download a client. With 28,000 shows online, Joost has a leg up on other more ‘premium’ sites such as Hulu, although don’t expect a high bit-rate or HD quality for any of the online streams.
39. Vello is unique. It lets you arrange a phone conference by calling a Vello number that re-distributes the conference call number to anyone that you want. There’s no registrationor sign-up for attendees, and the site even offers a seven-day free trial to check it out.
40. Instant messaging aggregators are handy because they put all of your accounts into one page so you can chat with your associates and friends without installing any software. Orgoo is helpful if you tend to visit Internet cafes or use a borrowed laptop from work, or just want one-click access to IM. Still in private beta, it also offers a new video chat service that uses your webcam and is now open for unregistered use.
41. Like an open-source version of Microsoft Exchange, Zimbra is a mail client for business use where you host all of the mail online for every user. You can share all of your personal folders, assign specific tasks to certain people, instant message, integrate IMAP and POP mail as well as use an iPhone client to access the mail repository, and arrange meetings with your team.
42. Note-taking apps are usually small utilities that you download and use on your desktop. Evernote is a webbased version that collects all of your fragmented data into one searchable portal. You can scan documents, send an email to your account and upload photos, videos or just about anything you can think of to your own secure site. Then, when you need to find that one website or phone number, or that hilarious photo from the last business outing, you can fi d it on the free notes database online.
Miscellaneous
43. Keepm is a business card manager for the web. Adding a contact is very quick: you type the name, then add the phone numbers and address for that person. You can also import data from Outlook or using a the vCard file format and you can export your contacts database for use in other programs as a vCard or CSV file.
44. It’s about time someone created an aggregator for video content. OVGuide doesn’t actually host any videos, but it helps you find where they are located on the web. It’s agnostic about the legalities of full-length feature films, merely pointing you to known locations.
45. Weeding out the undesirables and trolls on Internet forums is a Herculean task. Daniweb is a different kind of IRC chat: only IT professionals can join and the chats tend to be highly technical rather than just mindless chatter.
46. Google searches are a million miles wide and a centimetre thick. Stumpedia only returns the results that other users think are valuable. We searched for virtualisation on both search engines. On Google, we saw millions of links, most of them poorly worded definitions and myopic marketing sites. On Stumpedia there are just three links, including a site entry that does the server technology justice – it’s worth a click.
47. The brilliant thing about trip planning site TripIt is that it knows where you are. If you plan a business trip to London, you can load all of your contacts from email clients and then track who will be in the area at the same time as you.
48. Intense – that’s the initial reaction we had when using TunesBag (still in private beta – you have to request an invitation). Legal because the site is hosted in Austria, you can upload all of your music files to the site and then listen to the songs from any computer – or share the music with anyone you want. Use it while it’s still alive!
49. If you use an RSS reader then it’s worth checking out Toluu. The site is an ‘aggregator of the aggregators’; you can import multiple RSS feeds from various sources and read them all in one spot before sharing the feeds with other users. Sharing is key: it means that you see what people who have subscribed to the same feeds as you are reading.
50. SoSauce is a catch-all for journaling to yourself (reminders, thoughts for the day), finding travel deals, social networking with other users and sharing photos. We love the area where you can play games like extreme sledding and hyper pong against other SoSauce members. [via tech radar]
Amazing 3 year old boy memorized the whole Holy Quran
May Allah showers His special blessings on this young kid and protect him from all kinds of EVIL.
The Time
The pressures on people today demand learning how to time shift. When faced with obviously conflicting priorities that “cannot possibly be accomplished in the time frame,” what alternative is there other than mind-numbing stress? The first thing is to assume there is a solution that can be achieved once you get internally coherent enough to perceive it. Internal coherence is the priority and can lead to surprising time-saving convenience.
