Bob Richards

Maybe we could consider calling the last week of December, 'Welcome Week,' for we're about to welcome a new year into our lives.  Welcome week or the week of reassessment sounds good to me. We go through the whole month of December preparing for the great celebration of Christmas and before one  knows  its come and gone.  It could be that we should be adopting the philosophy of the converted to goodness Scrooge,  who learned to observe the spirit of Christmas giving the whole 365 days  a year. That would mean of course that everyday would be like Christmas!    Might I suggest however that the kind Scrooge would still believe in the logic of a good business plan. Instead of just giving his last dime to the poor don't you think he'd probably put a high priority in educating people as well? We've all heard that you can give a poor man a fish but ultimately the real solution is to teach him how to fish for himself and that my frie...

Sometimes you have to laugh when you don't feel like laughing, and smile when you don't feel like smiling! Sometimes  you have to not take many things too seriously but try to see a bigger picture. Sometimes  you have to reset look to the future and set forth a positive agenda for happiness. Sometimes you have to shake off negativity  and rise up and make something good happen, Sometimes you need to break through self pity that can hold one bound and make sure it doesn't take hold of you.  Sometimes you need to stop being a Gloomy Gus realizing some people have had the same problem as you or even greater. Sometimes you need to get your mind off yourself and seek to be an encouragement to others. Sometimes you need to consider a few months from now you won't even be thinking about the problems you now face they'll be a thing of the past, gone forever! Sometimes you need to respond to situations and not re...

Hi !  I had stated in the lead in to my blog that while visiting my site you're invited to have refreshments on the table and I encouraged you to help yourself to whatever you like. This is the refreshment  room and well, as you can see I try to decorate it pretty nice for my guests. Hope you like the nice white and red flowers and that you find them visually appealing.  I can change the flower arrangements anytime you like to add variety. I'll show you some of the tables of the goodies and as stated before make yourself at home and help yourself!  Don't worry about taking seconds either, come back as many times as you want!  I'll try to add new food items from day to day so just give me a comment on anything you'd like. First of all help yourself to a drink.  I have coffee, tea, and egg nog for Christmas and there's some bowls  of punch over there in  the corner!   You just name it and I'll seek...

Christmas trees...what an interesting tradition, interesting for the very thought of cutting one down, bringing it into  ones home seems so illogical, getting it cut, lugging it home, dragging it into ones room and having needles scattered all throughout  and unceasingly  seeking to gather them up, assuming that is, one is using a real living tree....not a little crazy? Perhaps a little crazy but fun?  Maybe the thing is the uniqueness of it all for it most certainly does add an annual touch of excitement of doing something to home decor out of the usual norm, or as some say 'variety is the spice of life'.  Whatever generation of which one has been apart it is noteworthy at just how differently the tree has been adorned. Obviously the Christmas tree has evolved and changed with time, so let's consider a few of them.  It's hard for me to consider that the early decorating of the Christmas  tree had attached...

Was the real life  Winnie -The-Pool a grizzly bear, a black bear or hokkaido brown bear?  You say you didn't even know he existed and was a figment of someone's imagination?  Nope...so make your choice, and you might even want to guess its nationality as well.   An American brown bear you say or perhaps Russian?  Nope.  The fact is the original real life Winnie -The- Poo WAS NOT BROWN AT ALL   and you guessed correctly by not considering his colour was white, as in polar bear,  but the real actual colour of  "Winnie"  was black. Here's  the background of this caniform creature. Winnie was purchased from a hunter in 1914 in White River, Ontario Canada by  Lieutenant Harry Colebourn while on the way to England during the First World War. " Winnie" was a short form for Colebourn's  hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba .   Colebourn  took the bear to England and became accepted as The Fort ...

Continuation From Part One In the bigger picture of things, lets say even with the developing or evolving of nations there comes at times when a doing and accomplishing of certain things need to be done.  Yes on occasions there is a breaking of laws but can't it be deemed necessary at times to create a just society?  One might consider even American Independence from the Brits. Who were the bad guys in that scenario?  Did any of them really exist?  Perhaps in similar fashion one can feel empathy with Cobb and his dream teams goals. I found the story line of Cobb's departed wife to likewise raise questions that need considered. Do we live in a world, even now, which many would rather choose the illusionary, as compared to the more substantial perimeters of reality? Cobb's wife chose the make believe, and indeed became confused as to which was which.  How many in present culture actually have succumbed  to being absorbed or assim...

Time for me to wake up and share my thoughts on having seen INCEPTION,  which could rightly be called the movie of dreams!   DREAMS ....Didn't Leonardo  DiCaprio, one time before have great success as an actor by boarding a Ship Of Dreams, Titanic--- and now a movie about Dreams?  The basic theme of INCEPTION is concerning  a team of individuals who see their goal as to sway the  mindset of a particular individual to carry out a certain agenda he wasn't beforehand inclined to do--or something like that! :)       The way of so doing is via the way of entering the subjects dreams, and have him conditioned to believe the implanted thought his own. I'm sure many would feel it  most unfortunate that Mr Cobb, [Leonardo DiCaprio ] and his dream team weren't around a few years back. Perhaps they could have  conditioned  the  minds of cooperative ...

The previews of other films began...one after another after another and I thought, I'm going to go to sleep!  Sleep? I did come to enter into the dream of INCEPTION  however and if this was the way to get there  I'll take the preview sedatives! There came a break and I knew this was it!  The images on the screen reminded all to turn their cell phones off, and I thought here we go! Some  sweet music introduced the film, and much to my utter astonishment I  see appear in the middle of the screen the word, 'HEREAFTER'   Hearafter I wondered!  Hearafter what!?!  This can't be real!!!  This must be a dream!!!!  Really though I knew the truth.  The girl at the desk must have pushed the wrong button concerning our requested movie  and oddly enough I had stated it to her twice.  No, I wasn't overly upset  for I can appreciate mistakes can happen and perhaps I should h...

'No this can't be real!  It's got to be a dream! ' I exclaimed to my wife as we sat in a theatre awaiting to see INCEPTION...the film about dreams.  Could it be that in reality I was in a deep sleep and my thought of taking my wife to this place , I had entertained  the notion  the night before? Was I  in reality right now in bed....asleep?  I gave myself the supreme test to ascertain whether this was the case, that being, do I recall how we arrived?   Isn't that usually the way of dreams, that you never can quite recall how you got  where you are?  [a line from Inception]   Well....after giving it only a passing thought-yes I did remember.  I distinctly recalled the three streets we drove down to arrive,  buying our tickets, popping into one of the many eating establishments for a quick bite, and rushing back to ensure we'd get the best seats in th...

"Should I be afraid or shouldn't I?"  was the question plaguing many citizens of the northern US states on what could be considered the most peculiar Halloween night on record.  The date was October 30th 1938.  Howard Koch and Orson Welles had written a radio play, adapted from the H.G. Wells novel, "War Of The Worlds," concerning the idea of Martians, aliens from another world invading the earth.  Millions of people thought the broadcast to be credible, and took what they considered appropriate actions in response. To one,  that meant shooting at a farmers water tower, convinced it had to be a Martian tripod craft readying itself to wreak destruction.  To others, they fled, believing they could smell poison gas, and seeing flashing lights off in the distance, surely it could be nothing else except the aliens utilizing their ray gun weapon of mass destruction!  The community of Concrete, Washington was particularly impacted when a power fa...