Ive read this before but received it again as an email this week, and it just reminded me again how bloody true all this is!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL YOU KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks some of us took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Fruit Tingles and some fire crackers to blow up frogs and lizards with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to email, phone or text us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms......... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time.......no really!

We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade'.....

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

A-feckin-men [link]

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate and, as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, could you tell me where we are?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveller asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveller gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were satisfied, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveller asked..

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveller said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not my original story. but i really liked it and dedicate it to all you animal lovers here on da !!

brave statement i hear you say, no wait, bear with me, my curiosity has really got the better of me on this one. So much so that i'm offering a prize of a subscription (or extension) for the best answer to my dilemma.

Now as i often do before the pillow fairy beckons, im sitting here checking my email and having a quick browse through this wonderful site while having a late night snack of you guessed it, chocolate (rocky road tonight) and ... I was thinking - imagine if you had a friend and he or she had been born without taste buds and they ask you "how does chocolate taste, why do you like it so much".
how would you describe the taste of chocolate to them?
"Sweet" you say - yeah right, whats that.
"Milky, creamy" - no idea sonny.
do you use a metaphor? draw them a picture? express it in a poem? slap them over the head with a melted kit-kat?

I dont bloody know, so the provider of the best answer before lets say, the 28th of February wins a 3 month subscription, simple as that.

Enter by posting a comment, link to an image or literature and just note me you've entered and the link to your work if necessary.

Now imagine if you had a friend who was blind from birth and you mentioned "what a beautiful blue sky today" and they asked you "what is blue" ...... nah ..... next time

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UPDATE: 26th February ...
Ive received an avalanche of entries, three so far and only 2 days to go till the competition ends. Makes your chances of winning oh so much better so enter soon!!

Entries so far:

text entry in the journal comments
text entry in the journal comments

Ill announce the winners by the 6th of March - good luck!

===========================================

Winners
A very hard decision between three creative, enjoyable (delicious?) and diverse entries. Being more of a visual person, this alone has swayed me to announce as the winner:
1st - souls-embrace
Your 3 month subscription is on its way, congratulations!!

Because im such a good bloke, a consolation prize of 1 months subscription is heading out to our 2 runners up:
and

Thanks for entering and please let me know if your subscription or renewal hasn't been activated in the next couple of days!

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Thanks everyone for 5000 pageviews.
In honor, i'm sharing some wisdom that i've gained in my 40 years on planet earth - well actually i borrowed and amended these from somewhere on the net, but they make perfect sense to me


1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”
3. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”
4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
5. You should not confuse your career with your life.
6. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
7. Never lick a steak knife.
8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are great drivers.
13. A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
14. Your friends love you anyway.
15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
16. If you dont like animals i probably won't like you.

Rule 13 has never let me down yet!
What are your rules to live by ......

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Time to feature two more of the very talented artists from my friends list. Pay their gallery a visit and see their work for yourself, you won't be disappointed ...

First up is alfa, [link] a gentleman from france with a wonderfully diverse gallery of mainly beautiful and dramatic land, sky and seascapes. Heres just a very small sample of literally hundreds of beautiful photos ....



Second up is lilyana, [link] a young lady from turkey with a diverse set of skills and a gallery ranging from striking portraits to beautiful manipulations and some soft sensual nudes. Again, here is a small sample showing the range of styles.



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