Welcome Letter
by Dream Walker
Yá'át'ééh! Greetings to one and all, and welcome to the new subscribers! Thanks for giving MousePages a try.
How are the first weeks of 2002 treating you all? Gently, I hope. I am working on my renewed dedication to my spiritual path, as I told you I was resolved to do at the end of last year. Resolutions can be such a good way of working on ourselves, but only if we do it gently and with love. Most of us are all to ready to be harsh with ourselves, and beat ourselves up for not living up to the expectations we have set for ourselves. It has been my experience in this life that people are much harder on themselves than they ever would be on others. Why not just expect that we are each trying to do our best in life?
I have been thinking about expectations a lot lately. I have learned that we usually get back what we expect to in life. If we are expecting something bad to happen, we can usually manage to
manifest that. If we are expecting the good, and for the universe to care for us, it usually does, in its own way. We all still have our lessons to learn, and that can not be changed. But if we expect the good, then we look for the good, and we can usually find it in even the most difficult situations.
As most all of you know, I am one half Navajo and one half white. My first marriage was to an African-American. As this was in the early 70's (I am dating myself with this one!), there were not a lot of mixed marriages around where we lived. We never seemed to let this bother us, and we never expected to have any problems with other people. And, we rarely did have any problems! We made friends with another mixed-race couple. They, on the other hand,
were constantly expecting people to discriminate against them.
They felt that the White world was against them. And, they were
usually right as well. If we went together to a restaurant, they
were always "seeing" people staring at them, and we never
were. Same situation, same place, same time... yet two completely
different realities. The only difference was what we
expected. And what we expected was what we received.
So this year, why not resolve to expect only the best? Look for
the good, in every situation, and by golly, that is what you are going
to find!
May your week be filled with blessings.
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Preparing for and Recovering from Surgery
by Pat Valle
When you have been informed that you may need surgery or are thinking about a particular surgical procedure, there are ways of preparing for and recovering from the surgery.
If you are over-weight, it would be beneficial to lose a few pounds so that there is less likelihood of complications. If you smoke, stop. Smoking can delay the healing process and interfere with certain drugs. Avoid taking Vitamin E and aspirin as they can thin the blood. Garlic is a wonderful
supplement that acts as a natural antibiotic and aids in strengthening the immune system, but should be stopped a few days prior to surgery as it is a slight blood thinner.
To help strengthen your body before surgery, you need nutrients such as protein. Protein is needed to heal and helps diminish rapid breakdown of skeletal muscle which is the reason people are so weak afterward. Echinacea is an herb that enhances immune system function and should be used one week prior to surgery. Adding extra vitamin C with bioflavonoids, at least 3,000 mgs. aids in connective tissue integrity. A multivitamin with extra B Complex helps support the adrenal glands. Bromelain, which is an enzyme from pineapple, should be started prior to surgery for reducing inflammation and pain and also to enhance antibiotic activity. This enzyme should be taken three times a day on an empty stomach to be effective. If possible, take a few drops of ginger extract in a little water just before surgery to relieve nausea immediately after surgery.
After surgery, it is important to help your body recover and avoid infection. Eat plenty of fresh green vegetables, protein foods, yogurt and aloe vera juice. Yogurt contains probiotics such as acidophilus and bifidus which help to replenish friendly intestinal flora. Certain foods such as grapefruit, oranges and pineapple may inhibit the action of antibiotics and aspirin. Avoid fermented foods, soft drinks, chocolate and cheese if using an antidepressant or hypertension drug.
The liver is a major detoxifying organ that rids the body of stored up toxins and in order for it to function well, the kidneys also need to work properly. Milk Thistle is an herb which is used to stimulate production of new liver cells and also protects the kidneys especially if you are taking medications after your surgery. It also prevents a build-up of toxins resulting from a surgical procedure.
Always consult with your physician as to what supplements you are taking as well as any medications to avoid interactions.
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Believe in yourself
Author Unknown
Believe in yourself, because you are unique.
You can do things no one else can do.
You can be things no one lese can be.
You touch the lives of other people in a way that only you can.
You are a blessing to this world.
You have a right to be here, because you are very special.
You are here for an important reason
Your purpose in this life can be fulfilled by no one else.
Sometimes peoples and circumstances cause us to doubt our importance.
Please, don't ever let that happen to you.
If for some reason you can't believe in you right now,
then let me believe in you
Until you can believe in you.
It would be my privilege.
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So Many Dreams Are Waiting To Be Realized
By Josh Hinds
So many dreams are waiting to be realized - Maybe it's a business
you've wanted to start, perhaps it's something as simple as growing a
home garden, even still maybe it's a trip to another country you've
always dreamed of visiting. Whatever it is you owe it to yourself to
do what you have to make it a reality!
I'll readily admit that it's not always going to be an easy road to
hoe. Anything worth doing in life rarely is. Pursuing your dream
might require you doing without a few things (especially if the goal
requires money to do it). It might require taking time away from
other things. However, rest assured that when you commit to your goal
and achieve it, the doing without you had to go through is well worth
it.
What kind of a commentary would this be if I simply said go for your
dreams and left it at that without even offering a tip to achieve the
dream? Not a very good one for sure. So here's what I do when I want
to see a goal manifest itself in my life. First I write down what I
want. I don't just write it down and shuffle it away though.
I post the goal clearly on the night stand that sits right next to my
bed. I make a copy of it and stick it on my computer monitor (since I
am always at the computer... lol). I find that keeping my 'dream' in
plain site allows me to be better focused.
Keeping what we want fresh in our minds allows us to move quickly
towards achieving it. Possibly even more importantly I make a clear
mental picture that I can carry around with me. I don't simply
say, "I want to go to the beach". That approach doesn't paint the
kind of picture that will move us towards our goal. Instead I would
say, "I will go to the Gulf Shores, AL on the week of (insert date).
I will be sure to visit my grand parents that live there. I'll enjoy
some good seafood at such and such a restaurant".
Do you see the difference here? It's all in the way we visualize things. If we want to achieve our goals we simply have to be able to fully see ourselves accomplishing them...
Your friend in cyberspace, Josh Hinds :-)
_______________
Written by Josh Hinds
Need Motivation? Visit http://www.GetMotivation.com
Join our free ezine "Let's Talk Motivation!" by sending a blank
e-mail to: mailto:ltm@infogeneratorpro.com
or visiting
http://getmotivation.com/myezines.html
- Free copy of 7 Sizzling
Secrets of Self Made Millionaires! ebook when you join!
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The Power Of Music 
Hero
M. Carey, W. Afanasieff
There’s a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are
There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
It’s a long road
When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And the emptiness you felt
Will disappear
Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don´t let anyone
Tear them away
Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time
You’ll find the way
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
© 1993 Sony Songs Inc./Rye Songs (adm. by Sony Music Publishing) (BMI)/WB Music Corp./Wallyworld Music (ASCAP)
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Feature Article: Hard Drive Maintenance
by Bill Hoyt, Hoyt Station Personal Computing
You want your computer to last. You've ordered the free preventive
maintenance report from http://www.hoytstation.com
(or sent a blank email to maintenance@hoytstation.com),
cleaned out
the mouse, kept out the dust... but that's all 'hardware' stuff.
What do you do to keep the software in good running order?
Lucky for you, Microsoft provides a couple of tools to help keep
your hard drive and the programs on it healthy and happy (and
running longer) as well. The best part is (if you have Windows),
they're already loaded on your machine! We're going to take a look
at a few of them, and we'll be providing another one in our final
free software section, so let's go!
The first thing you need to do is locate them on your hard drive.
Right-click the Start button and select Open, then double-click
Programs, then Accessories. You should see a folder called
System Tools (if you don't, look around here, they're hidden
somewhere). Double-click System Tools to discover a bunch of
stuff you never knew you had ;-)
The first one we're going to look at is the Disk Defragmenter.
What's a defragmenter? I'm glad you asked. As your programs
save files to the hard drive, they try to grab the next available
space (this is simplified, of course) to where you saved the
last time. If the space is 'right next door', it's called
'contiguous' space. That's good space, because when the program
is reading the hard drive, it just goes 1...2...3..., everything
is in order.
However, if the space next door is taken, it will have to search
around and put your files somewhere else. After a while, it is
trying to read it back in as 1...78...32...that can take longer
and can result in Windows losing track of where the parts of a
file are.
In order to put everything back in order, you must defragment
the disk, which takes all the pieces of all the files and puts
them in contiguous space. I defrag (that's a techie term) about
monthly, but some recommend it be done at least weekly.
To run the Defragmenter, double-click the icon, select the drive
you want (your hard drive is usually 'C') and click OK. Then go
make a sandwich, as this will take some time. Windows will read all
the programs on your hard drive and put them together with all
other parts of that program, freeing up space and making your
machine run better.
OK, we've freed up some space, but we want more. Where can we
get it? One place is by deleting all the temporary files that
Windows has kept for you. Double-click the Disk Cleanup icon,
select your hard drive again, and a popup box will appear showing
things like Temporary Files, Recycle Bin, all the places that
Windows knows of files that are not needed. Select the ones you
want and click OK. They're gone, and you have a lot more space
for those new downloads you want.
If you're constantly low on hard drive space, it might be best to do
this *before* you defragment the disk, then you can free up all that
used space as one big block.
The final program is called ScanDisk...it's the one that comes on
when you boot up after failing to shut down the computer correctly
(if you should have a lock-up or lose power, for example).
Double-click the ScanDisk icon and a box will pop up and give you
a number of choices. Select your hard drive, and then either
Standard or Throrough.
A Standard scan will check your files and folders to make sure
everything is 'pointed' in the right place. It doesn't take
long to do. However, before you run it, it's a good idea
to close every program you can, because if these programs write
to the hard drive while Scandisk is running, ScanDisk may have
to start over...it can be pretty frustrating if that happens.
If you've closed everything and it *still* keeps restarting, it
might be an indication that a program is hung up... shut down the
machine, restart, and try it again.
A Thorough scan performs a Standard scan, but then checks the
hard drive itself for errors (like a 'spot' that won't record
data correctly), and marks them 'off limits' to the computer
so data does not get lost there. All hard drives develop 'bad
spots', so it's a good idea to run a thorough scan at least
monthly to catch them.
If you really want to play around, there's also a 'Task
Scheduler' which will allow you to automate this process...
I don't use it, but some people find that it easier to perform
preventive maintenance if they set reminders for themselves.
Good Computing to you!
About the Author:
Bill Hoyt is the Webmaster of Hoyt Station Personal Computing.
For the best in free software plus tips to make your computing
experience more enjoyable, subscribe to the Free Software
Newsletter by visiting http://www.hoytstation.com
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A New Year's Message...
from Ken at SiteSell.com
------------------------------------------------------------
It's funny how life goes, sometimes. I took my 88 year old
Dad in to hospital the other day -- he'd been feeling a bit
weak and "oh, by the way, my stool was black this morning."
It turns out he had a major bleed from a stomach ulcer,
likely caused by anti-inflammatory meds he was taking. He
required 10 units of blood in the ICU, the bleeding finally
stopped, and he's recovering nicely.
He felt bad about "using up all that blood on this old guy."
But he had given blood many, many times in the past. We
told him that the bank was just paying him back a dividend
on all those deposits that he had made as a "youngster."
"Give when you can, get back when you need"... it's the way
the world should work. And giving blood is a wonderful,
selfless gesture, of course, "the gift of life," as they
say. But today, this New Year's Day 2002, I'd like to tell
you about a simple, direct action that YOU can do that is
truly THE gift of life... a life that ONLY YOU can save.
I'll finish the story...
While in the Emergency Room for my dad, I read an article
that had been thumbtacked onto the ER's bulletin board. It
was about my favorite professor back in medical school days.
He was the kind of person you want to emulate -- a caring
and gentle human being, and a wonderful physician. And,
many years later, he was also the gastroenterologist who
took care of me when I was very sick.
I knew that his son, himself a doctor and the father of two
small children, had leukemia and was in remission. But the
article went on to explain that the leukemia had recurred,
and that his son now required a bone marrow transplant. They
had organized a local community drive -- over 1,000 people
came! They were tested and registered on the Canadian bone
marrow donor registry, which ties into a worldwide one
composed of over 7,000,000 potential donors.
Today, there are tens of thousands of patients around the
world in that very same boat... desperately seeking a bone
marrow match. This New Year's Day could be the last they'll
ever see... not much joy in that vision.
The first place they look is to family members of course
(the genetics make them the best candidates to find a
match). But if that fails (70% of the time), finding a match
means looking to unrelated donors.
Canadian Blood Services, which operates the Canadian
Registry, says that some patients may find multiple matching
donors from this group. But for others, finding even a
single donor can be a long-shot.
The reason is that even though there are a LOT of donors
worldwide, this donor base still isn't sufficiently diverse.
You see, matching donors to patients isn't just a matter of
having MANY DONORS but also having many DIFFERENT donors.
People of Caucasian descent, but also people with different
ancestries -- Aboriginal, Asian, African and East Indian.
All of which got me thinking (uh-oh!)...
The Net would be a powerful way to help build a larger, more
diverse registry. LOCAL drives are nice, but they RARELY
result in matches for the patients who spearhead them. After
all, a database of 7,000,000 has a much better chance of
delivering a match than do a few hundred friends. And if
those people ONLY get tested for one single friend... what a
lost opportunity to make that bone marrow available to
EVERYONE who is in this heart-rending, terrifying situation.
What's needed is a large, stable, committed -- and most
importantly diverse -- GLOBAL donor base. And THAT is where
the power of the Net comes in (that, and a little VIRAL
MESSAGE-SPREADING, as you'll see at the end of this message).
To register as a bone marrow donor, you have to be healthy
and willing to donate bone marrow to anyone in need. If
your ancestry includes non-Caucasian individuals, so much
the better.
If you become one of the small percentage of people who
actually gets a chance to donate bone marrow, you won't know
anything about the person you're helping. You may one day
get a chance to meet that person, or you may never know who
it is. But that's not the point...
IF YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD, if
you've ever wanted to give someone one last chance at life
(give a whole family one last chance really), where perhaps
YOU are the ONLY one who do this, if you've ever wanted to
do ONE truly selfless act for someone else, start this
bright new year 2002 by registering as a POTENTIAL marrow
donor. The "dividends" paid back to you are profound. Why?
Well, not to put too morbid a point on it, "regular" organ
donation is also a great and generous gift. Unfortunately,
you have to die before your organs are harvested. So yes,
sign your organ donor card, but hope that it's a long, long
time before anyone ever "uses" your heart! ;-)
However, in the event that you are ever LUCKY enough to
actually donate your bone marrow, it's a relatively minor
procedure (as we'll see in a second). YOU get to stay
alive, KNOWING that you've done someone a life-saving favor.
That, dear reader, is indeed a profound dividend. Here is
what it feels like...
http://www.marrow.org/STORIES/DONOR/dodiary.html
-----SIDEBAR-----
When you donate your bone marrow, you donate
"stem cells."
The patient's blood cells (including the
cancer) are totally eliminated through
irradiation, then replaced with your stem
cell transfusion.
These cells multiply and become the red blood
cells, the white blood cells, and all the
other components of the patient's new blood.
It is literally YOUR blood that courses
through that patient's veins from then on!
-----SIDEBAR-----
How to Register as a Potential Marrow Donor
It's simple really... just a regular blood test. A lab
analyzes it and you are placed on the registry (a database
of potential donors). The information is strictly
confidential.
The registry's database can be searched by transplant center
coordinators, worldwide (all of the major registries'
databases hook up to each other). If your Human Leukocyte
Antigen Tissue Type (which equates to your genetic human
fingerprint) matches that of a patient, you'll be asked to
have another blood test to see if you are an EXACT match.
If you ARE an exact match, you get to possibly save a life
(as with any medical procedure, there are no guarantees --
but a bone marrow transplant is often a person's only
remaining hope)! Donating involves relatively minor surgery
(under general or spinal anesthesia), at no expense to you.
The bone marrow is sucked via needle from the iliac crest,
that big bone that sticks out at each side of your lower
back (often wrongly called the "hip bone" -- the hip bone is
actually the top of your thigh bone). Usually, you go home
the same day. For more info on the procedure...
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/steps_of_donation.html
If you are in the United States, and are interested in
joining the NMDP Registry, review this to make sure your
health permits it...
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/eligibility_guidelines.html
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/health_history_questionnaire.html
-----SIDEBAR-----
These are American guidelines, but they are
similar for all registries. I show you how
to find your own country's registry below --
check with them to see if there are any
special health guidelines in your country.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Here's how to join a Registry...
If you are in the U.S.A...
Contact a National Marrow Donor Program ("NMDP") Donor
Center near you to arrange to have a blood test. There may
be a charge, or often you can donate blood at the same time
to cover the fee... talk about "healing two birds with one
needle!" After that first test, THERE IS NEVER ANY FURTHER
CHARGE TO YOU.
Here's how to find the center nearest you...
http://www.marrow.org/cgi-bin/NETWORK/map.pl?ctr_typ=DC
There is a even more desperate need for ethnic donations, so
the NMDP has established Recruitment Groups to work in
tandem with NMDP Donor Centers. They specialize in
educating and recruiting volunteer donors from minority
populations. Each recruitment group works with at least one
community focus: African American, Hispanic/Latino,
Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native.
http://www.marrow.org/cgi-bin/NETWORK/rec_group.pl
--
Information about the Canadian Registry is at...
http://www.bloodservices.ca/
(Click on "English" to get the english
translation, then click on "Bone Marrow
Registry" in the left margin. The direct URL
was way too long to include here cleanly.)
For my home province of Quebec...
http://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/E/donneur/fe3c1.htm
In Canada, registering is free. To qualify to register in
Canada you must reside in Canada.
--
And here's a complete list of registries from 38 countries
around the world, including additional ones for the U.S....
Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide
http://www.bmdw.org/Addresses/AllRegistries.html
--
Start 2002 in a valuable, selfless way, as soon as possible.
Do it before the everyday rush of life pushes this to a back
burner. The deposit (of your unique genetics) that you
make today could be the dividend that YOU receive tomorrow.
Save a life. Make that special difference that only YOU can
make. Here's how...
1) Join your local registry (see above for details).
2) Forward this article to five friends. If you publish an
e-zine, copy and paste it and mail it to your subscribers.
Include this part so that they forward it, too (or include
it in their e-zines). No need to mention anything more
about the author or SiteSell. After all...
This is NOT about e-commerce. It's about using the Net in
the most positive way possible. It's really about YOU,
about *ALL OF US TOGETHER* starting 2002 in a brilliant,
bright manner... by making a difference to someone else in
the most profound way possible.
I wish you and your family the very best,
Ken
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