I vote for 'super cute'. It's amazing to me that more people don't realize what great pets rats make. And lately I've discovered "Gambian Pouched Rats".
That's what this is.....a Gambian Pouched Rat.
According to what I read they're not exactly the same species as sewer rats (AKA: 'terminal rats'....which can grow to be as much as 7 pounds). Or even the white rat which a lot of people do know about (and keep as pets). I had a couple white rats when I was in high school.
Gambian Pouched Rats (AKA: GP Rats) are currently being used a mine sniffers in areas of the world where they have a problem clearing land mines. Africa is one such area.
These rats are a lot cheaper to acquire, train and upkeep than sniffer dogs. And they're just as good if not better at their job because they weigh less and are therefor even less likely to set off a mine.
They're pretty darn smart too and they do have personalities. ......like this adorable little guy who's playing 'dead' because he likes getting his belly rubbed.
What if you went out to play pool with a friend some afternoon and it turned out to be a really unusual game. I mean.....your buddy was making all kinds of weird shots that nobody would ever have predicted and really couldn't explain even though you saw it with your own eyes?
You might kinda wonder what was going on right?
And what if somebody walked up to you and handed you a letter, or a book or whatever that was written thousands of years ago and predicted every shot your friend made?
You'd really feel like you'd crossed over into another dimension, wouldn't you?
Well, my friends.....that's what's so remarkable (and exciting) about understanding Bible prophecy. It's all right there....in the Bible. Things are happening now that were very cleary, very obviously, with zero ambiguity predicted thousands of years ago in scripture.
Check this little extract from Frank Dimora's always topical , informative and interesting site Dimora Ministrys:
Prophecy Sign: In light of of the birds falling from the sky and the fish dying in many part of the world we should take a look at what is written in the Book of: Zephaniah - Old Testament Chapter 1, Verse 3 "I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. Click to the link below and read the entire report it gives you the detailed list of nations where this is happening. Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, and Haiti are just a few of the places. The second link will take you to a world map showing the places birds and fish are dying. http://www.eutimes.net/2011/01/birds-and-fish-are-now-dying-all-around-the-world/
You'll noticed I removed several categories that were either not being utilized or were, in some cases, redundant. And you'll notice a new tab up on the top called "Social Media".
I think you'll like what I'm going to be sharing with you about what I'm learning about social media.
I'm kinda just doing this to see where it'll show up SEO-wize. But the gal in the video I'm referring to really does have talent. I looked at several of her videos and here's 4. There's others too.
She's too good to be just a soccer mom. Her credits say www.livfilms.com. So....all the more indication that she's a pro or semi-pro.
I gather from the content of some of the videos that she's got a boyfriend or husband who's part of her online/offline activities. He's in some of of the videos but I suspect he might be the writer because he's not as cute as she is.
I'll always remember when I read the novel by Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged". I thought it was very good. Further, I remember one guy. Sorta one of the antagonists in the plot. His name was Albert Tooey (I think I'm right on that).
The thing that fascintated me about Albert Tooey was how he consciously manipulated people. For his own purposes of course.
And.....I've realized from my use of the internet in recent years how easy it is for individuals and companies to create hugh, grandiose, seemingly noble auras and images of themselves which often times are not the complete picture. In Hollywood and the business world that's called 'public relations(PR)'.
While I don't think that conscious efforts to generate good PR are necessarily a bad thing, I do think that we (and I do include myself in this group) oftentimes take the surface appearance of things too much on faith.
One such thing, or person, who I think very possibly is more (or 'less'....depending on how you look at it) than their public persona is Oprah Winfrey. I've heard in the past that Oprah has some beliefs that are, to say the least, not fundamentally Christian but rather more on the 'fringe'. Here's an interesting video I found tonight on Youtube. (Am I surprised? No.)
I'll give you another two examples in my experiences of why I'm sorta anti-guru:
I lived in Houston, TX. from about 1980 until I came over here to Korea in 2007. During that time I had a lot of ups and downs. One of the jobs I had was working for a motivation speaker. I'll just call him "Thomas Ashly".
I was a sales person for him. What I'd do is find people to come to his seminars. I'd get a commision based on my sales.
I should also mention that one of the reasons I was fairly successful doing that was because of my prior experience with a company which, far as I know, still exists today up in Waco, TX....Success Motivation Institute(SMI). I've got a story about them too.
But to continue with the story around Mr. Ashley:
Basically, as I got to know the guy I eventually realized what a shyster he was. Behind the facade he created, his life was a mess. I came to suspect that he wasn't even using his real name. But one thing he was extremely good at....(like Albert Tooey).
He really knew how to get 'inside' people's mind and discover what motivated them and turn it around to get what he wanted. He was a real expert at that type of manifulation. But his own life turned out to be a situation of staying constantly just one step ahead of people who were after him because of how he'd jilted them out of their money with his grandiose plans and schemes.
I'd sit back and watch his effect on our 'students'....many of whom seemed (perhaps coincidentally or perhaps not) to be women. He really had many of them mesmerized. Sorta like Jim Jones.
But I knew better.
The other experience I had within that industry that had a lasting effect on me was my 2 years with SMI.
SMI is one of the earliest succesful companies in the 'personal motivation' business. Their particular niche was the programs, i.e. casette tapes and workbooks, that they sold through an international network of franchaisees (i.e. "Distributors" or dealers). My introduction to them was when I went to work, as a salesman, for one of their Distributors in Amarillo, TX.
Their programs actually were (and probably still are) very good. I never had any complaints about the quality of their product. It was only what I later learned about how their sales operations worked, 'behind closed doors' that, that changed my opinion of them. And of the industry.
I was very successful in the field as a salesperson. I was, to a large degree, a 'product of the product'. I'm sure a lot of that stuff I absorbed is still with me today. However, in another sense, I probably went through a metamorphasis somewhat similar to WWII German General Paulos who was captured in the Battle of Stalingrad.
General Paulos went from being a confirmed, committed Nazi to being totally anti-Hitler and spent the rest of his life, in Russia and later from with East Germany writing about how Hitler had let him down and how he'd (Paulos) realized how fatally flawed the Nazi philosophy was....etc., etc.
But I digress..........
Point is, as a result of my success with SMI as a field salesperson, I had the chance to go to the home office, in Waco, and work as something called a Field Director(FD...I think that's what it was called). As an FD my job was to take the leads we got and sell them a franchaise, as an SMI Distributor. At that time the 'distributorship' was selling for about $11,000.
While it's true that some of the people we sold those distributorships too were willing buyers, it's also true that the majority of them had no idea what they were really getting into. We, as FD's, were trained to obfuscate their purchasing decision by giving misleading facts, advice, paper shuffling, and outright lies. But we justified it with the rationale that there was a higher purpose involved...ie.. that the most important thing was our mission of 'motivating people to their full potential' and building the distributor network, etc.
We thought we were working toward a 'higher good'. It was only later that I began to question whether we, or anybody, really has the right to do that for somebody else. I now tend to thing the answer is, for adult to adult relationships at least.....'no'.
And that, finaly, brings me around to why I think this video about Ophah Winfrey is interesting.
How many people worship her and take anything and everything she says as 'gospel'?
The answer?
Too many!
I think many of us, including perhaps myself, tend to take life too serious. I mean....what is it anyway? How long does it last?
No matter what we do....whether we become an Oprah Winfrey or a Joe Lunchbucket...does it really matter in the longer, eternal run?
I wonder. And I might never find out but I suspect the answer is 'no'.
But I damn sure don't think I can blindly trust anybody else to 'give' me the answer. Certainly not Oprah Winfrey. Or 99% of the other supposed 'gurus' out there.
Nice match of music to a video. I think it would be great to see these manta rays 'live'. Unfortunately I'll never be able to see them from this perspective because my ears are messed up. I can't swim under the water like this. But I still enjoy the videos.
Have you ever wondered why and how some websites seem to have such nice colors? I have.
Actually, I'm aware that there is something called a 'color wheel' and there are things such as 'complimentary colors', color families, etc.. But I never really took the time to study it because I thought it might be too complicated.
But here's an article I found about color which I found very understandable and interesting.
Learning is usually only arduous and boring if it's something you're not interested in. But the fact is that, whatever it is you are interested in, there's a course taught in it somewhere withing the US educational establishment.
Image via Wikipedia
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