Gary Killops

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It is a time for us baby boomers to look back and see the years we have worked and achieved all we could. This a time for self reflection and giving thought towards the horizon ebbing in the distance. By now, we know who we are and we know where we came from. All that remains is to understand where we are headed. Life has been challenging so far seeing our dreams fade, lingering or prolonging illnesses and the unfortunate deaths of those around us. But the road ahead need not be grave and if you look carefully, you might find a dream beckoning you to reach out and touch the stars.

Here on and forth, every moment is precious and every second could be a passing opportunity. If you take some time, you could find everything you desire be it a mental or physical exaltation or even a spiritual quest of understanding and self realization. Not only would there be a reason to smile but what better way of improving on the health and happiness of everyone around you.

Firstly, there is no point in looking back over life and musing on the memories and regrets. What is done is done and nothing can bring that time back. Now is what matters the most and thinking about age or considering the end can never be production. Denial of any sort always brings out the worst. Below are a few points which can be taken into consideration to improve on and bring a glorious change to your lifestyle.

Health

Post–retirement is the time where you can consult a physician and know where you can improve on in terms of your health. Shrugging it away and leaving it for tomorrow or the next Saturday would get you nowhere. Now is the time where you can make a significant change to your health and make the call. Talk to the specialist freely, get a full check up and know the areas where you can work on. Consult him about a healthy and balance diet and follow it with as much resilience as you can muster.

Life

If you have habits which involve smoking, drinking or even drinking coffee; this is the moment where you can cut back. Quitting might be difficult and you might find yourself grumpy and irritable, but try and cut back slowly. You might say that you are not addicted but cutting back on these stimulants is the first way of taking the reigns of your life back into your hands. Make resolutions and try keeping them. Apart from that, find ways to occupy yourself. Reading is a good way as books are the windows to pure knowledge and wisdom. It gives a great insight to the depth within you while you understand the learning of giants and sages. If you like, become a connoisseur of tea, wine or art and culture.

Adventure

If you can, explore the world around you. It does not need to be far off exotic lands, though if you are financially able, you might consider a few destinations rich in thought and culture. However at the very least, a walk in the park a few miles from home for an hour or two would do. Art galleries, museums, libraries or even interactive clubs would make for a great adventure. Or join Yoga classes or learn ball-dancing, anything that grabs your fancy as not only would provide relaxation but it would do well for the health too. If you are religious; try and visit those pious harbors of devotion and notice the serenity it offers, be it a church, monastery or temple.

Though most people are familiar with weather maps which are regularly shown on television during weather bulletins, only a select few are able to make sense out of them. In case you too would like to know what weather maps portray and wish to read them, then just come with us as we explore the subject in depth.

Weather maps are typically used to show detailed analysis of meteorological magnitudes at different planes of the atmosphere and to portray an outline of various atmospheric changes at a given instance in the atmosphere. They can be used to show wind movements, atmospheric pressure and gradients of temperature. In order to read a weather map accurately, you need to understand the general concepts, which are listed below.

Isobaric Analysis – Lines of equivalent average sea level pressure called isobars are drawn on a geographical map to achieve this. The innermost circular lines denote the “maxima” and “minima” where minima denotes areas with low-pressure and maxima denotes areas with high pressure. The highs are denoted by H’s and lows by L’s.

Isotach Analysis – These are the lines constructed on maps to depict equal wind speeds and are used to represent the rise and fall of wind speeds, i.e. Maxima and Minima. A minima will represent tropical cyclogenesis and a maxima will represents the position of jet streams at different atmospherical levels.

Isotherm Analysis – These are the lines constructed on maps to depict equal temperature. They are commonly drawn as continuous lines without breaks at a suitable interval of temperature. Isotherms are used to represent temperature gradients and are extremely useful in the determination of the type of precipitation.

Streamline Analysis – It is a method that is used to display wind motion in certain geographical areas with the help of a sequence of arrows drawn parallel to the direction of the wind. Low-pressure areas, commonly known as “cyclonic flows” are depicted by C’s and areas of high pressure, i.e. anticyclonic flows, are denoted by A’s.

Wind Plotting – Around 100 years ago, winds were depicted by using arrows, with feathers drawn on only one side representing a wind speed of 5 knots and on both sides, a wind speed of 10 knots. Today, the notation has changed and part of an arrow along with a little amount of wind barb represents a speed of 5 knots where as a full bar represents 10 knots.

Different kinds of weather maps are used in different kinds of scenarios. Two important kinds of weather maps are discussed below -

Surface Weather Maps – These weather maps are used in depicting positions of high as well as low pressure areas and also different kinds of synoptic scale schemes, for example frontal zones. Analysis of mesoscale boundaries like tropical cyclones, outflow boundaries as well as squall lines can also be accomplished using this particular weather map.

Aviation Maps – The aviation sector has their own customized weather maps. They include maps, which show the applications of Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). Maps like weathering representation plots show the ceiling height, which is a level where half of the atmosphere is under thick cloud cover and also the nature of current weather. Ice hazards to flying are depicted by icing maps and maps related to aviation illustrate areas of high turbulence.

If you need to study weather maps in detail, a more comprehensive approach is required. A visit to the local meteorological department for valuable inputs is also recommended.

Bullying is defined as an act where a physically stronger child who may resort to punching, hitting or even sexual assault repetitively picks on a child. Children often face bullying while growing up and it may make them scared, embarrassed and left out. Thousands of children are afraid to go to school today. A majority of children who resort to bullying themselves feel weak or threatened and use it as a tool to feel greater than others or simply better about themselves.

The Bully Psychology

To understand the menace of bullying and to help your child deal with it, it’s important to understand the psychology of a bully. Bullying is a way of gaining popularity and attention among kids. Some kids themselves feel small inside and resort to bullying to feel bigger and better. Most bullies have been bullied upon themselves.

Some children, who resort to bullying come from dysfunctional families and are subject to domestic violence, both physical and verbal. This reassures them of their behavior and makes them feel that calling people names, hitting them or pushing them around is a normal way to act.

Help Your Children Help Themselves

First and foremost, be open to what your children have to say and take them seriously. They are “little people” who generally understand most of the stuff you do so be careful not to take them for granted. Once they lose trust in you, it will be hard to make them talk about all other problems they may be facing as well.

* Tell your children to steer clear of the bully and take a different route to school or to the school canteen. This doesn’t mean that your children have to skip classes or go into hiding.

* You need to let your children stand up for themselves and be brave. When ever a person looks and acts in a brave way, he generally sends a similar message around.

* All kids need to feel good inside so encourage them into adopting healthy habits of eating, hygiene and personal conduct but don’t ever force your ways onto them.

* You need to encourage your children to play with other children and form lasting friendships. This will teach them the value of healthy relationships and show them how they can stand up for each other when a situation arises. Children need to do things together as a part of their “getting independent process”.

* Bullies only want children to react to them just once triggering the whole humiliation process. Politely explain to them that they need to ignore the bully and safeguard themselves.

* Let your children know that they neither should give in to the bully’s demands nor bully him back. This may require a lot of self-control and anger management. Use these times to teach you kids a thing or two about these factors as well.  If things get really bad, ask them to get help from an adult, especially a teacher.

* Lastly Children should know that bullying is wrong and their subsequent win over a bully does not give them a license to start bullying themselves.

Ask your children to take a stand, become a member of the school anti-violence program, try talking over to a bully indirectly but never to give in!

Cyber-bullying, as the name suggests is defined as the use of cell phones, internet or other communication devices to post images or text in order to hurt, embarrass, threaten or simply ridicule another person. It may include use of sexual remarks and humiliating victims in forums and posts through the use of derogatory language.

Cyberbullying is on the rise in the Canada and the United States and is not only limited to children but also affects adults (in case of adults it is also referred to as cyber-stalking or cyber-harassment) as well.

Comparison To Physical Bullying

Bullying has indeed gone way beyond the schoolyard. Compared to physical bullying, cyber bullies operate by remaining anonymous by using fake email accounts, fictitious names in chat rooms, IMs, text messaging etc. as disguises. Also, using the above-mentioned indirect ways of communication emboldens cyber bullies to stoop to any level when it comes to harassing their victims.

Unlike the physical world, cyber space often lacks supervision and cyber bullies make good use of this factor. Bullying through cell phones is a menace since they are personal devices and have to be kept switched on for legitimate purposes.

Cyber-Bullying Trends And Affects

Cyberbullying today affects almost half (42%) of teens. One in four kids have been bullied online at least once and I dare say that this has been increasing every year. One in five kids receive threatening emails and messages. Almost half of the under-15 cyber population have been threatened, embarrassed or mentally tormented online.

Cyber-bullying is not only limited to harassing children but adults as well, most of which happens at the workplace. A tenth of the people using the internet in America and England believe cyber-bullying to be a rising problem at their workplace. Cyber-stalkers are doing this by threatening a victim’s employment, income, reputation and security. Various motives whether romantic or personal dislike trigger such acts in people to resort to cyber-stalking.

Cyber-bullying adversely affects the emotional and mental well being of children and other victims. Victims show distinct signs of low self esteem, increased suicidal tendencies, fear, frustration anger and depression and may start to avoid friends and regular activities, often exactly what a cyber bully would want.

Already, cases of children committing suicide due to cyber bullying have been reported in United States. A lot of companies have lost revenues and faced defamation as a result of false postings. Victims have undergone serious damage to their finances and their reputation has been put at stake many a times.

Laws Against Cyber Bullying

Canada is a bit behind on this one. Laws against cyber bullying has been introduced in a number of states in the United States and many have been proposed that would criminalize acts of cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking. One of the laws passed in August 2008 has given school administrations to discipline children indulging in cyber-bullying. Stringent laws are still a far cry!

If you are a victim of cyber-bullying or cyber-stalking, do bring it to the attention of concerned authorities. Ignore all mail or messages from such people and do not indulge in arguments or accusations whatsoever. Stay Safe!

Gary

Cyberbullying should be made a separate Criminal Code offence the Canadian Teachers’ Federation said on Saturday as they voted unanimously to ratify their policy on the issue.

“Because it’s (cyberbullying) so new . . . we haven’t caught up and we’re trying to catch up,” said Emily Noble president of the federation.

“Kids go on, say Facebook, and make harassing comments about someone . . . If I_had written you a letter I would be up before the courts for harassment,” said Noble. “People do it online and it’s anonymous.”

The CTF, which represents 220,000 teachers, held a special session on cyberbullying at its annual meeting in Moncton, N.B. The new policy aims to reflect the changing environment for today’s kids.

“It’s (cyberspace) the new playground. We’ve taught the kids in terms of the face-to-face and the physical bullying but this is in fact the new space.”

But Noble said while bullying has always gone on, it is this anonymity that differentiates the cyberbully from the traditional playground thug.

“This use of computers is a new tool . . .We are finding it is much more pervasive because there is an anonymity to it,”_she said. “Kids can go online and they can pretend to be somebody else.”

A draft version of the policy said that it should be a punishable offence to use “information and communication technology to convey a message which threatens death or bodily harm or perpetuates fear and intimidation.”

The policy indicates a serious recognition of how common it is now for bullying to be carried out by text messaging, in online chat rooms, on blogs or social networking websites such as Facebook. The idea goes far beyond the expulsions and suspensions that some students have been punished with for bullying fellow students or targeting teachers.

“We will be lobbying the federal government to strengthen any gaps in the criminal code regarding misuse of the Internet,” said Noble.

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said it’s too early to comment on the CTF’s Criminal Code proposal, but Noble said the federation has already started to talk to members of Parliament and have so far found a receptive audience.

“It is an issue that will resonate, we believe, with the policy-makers and the legislative makers,” she said.

But she said that it could be a challenge to get across to policy-makers the seriousness of the issue.

“One of the major difficulties in terms of the Criminal Code is that we tend to think these are just people on the Internet and it’s fun to play games,” said Noble. “We need to work with the policy-makers to say ‘”this is more than just kids playing video games.”

Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor in the faculty of education at McGill University and an author on cyberbullying, is pleased the organization has finally developed a policy on the matter, but doesn’t think making it a crime will help eliminate it.

“I understand completely their need to come up with a policy,” said Shariff. “I would advise them to please emphasize an educational response; make sure their membership understands that criminalizing this issue ought to be the very, very last resort.”

Hey, if you are going to post SPAM comments here hoping to get them approved, forget about it. I manually approve each comment and delete all of the SPAm crap.

Gary

Well it is Victoria Day weekend around here. (Memorial Day weekend in the United States).

So I did a little research to see exactly what the difference in holidays was between Canada and the US.

According to wikipedia:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May (observed this year on -05-). It was formerly known as Decoration Day. This holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who have died in military service to their country.

Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before or on May 24 in honour of both Queen Victoria’s birthday and the current reigning Canadian sovereign’s birthday.

It is a long weekend, and around here it is usually spring cleaning weekend and planting flowers weekend. The weather is so-so right now, looks like it will rain later this afternoon so the outdoor flower planting may get up on hold.

Have a great safe weekend.

Running on empty was not a good thing today while in Windsor. The price of gas just hit another all time high of just under $1.30 / litre. (129.9 to be exact).

I needed gas but was able to make it out into the county. When I saw gas going for th cheap price of 121.9 / litre I filled up the gas tank. What a bargain. Normally I do not fill up any more, a pit stop at the station to put in $20 or $0 worth of gas just doesn’t seem to hurt as much but when I saw the gas 6 cents a litre cheaper in Essex filling p was the only option.

I don’t even want to think what the price per litre will be this summer.

Author Michael Jeffreys personally interviewed 15 top motivational gurus in 1997 for his then upcoming book. After talking to gurus from Brian Tracy to Dr. Wayne Dyer, he distilled 8 Secrets to Success they all agreed upon. These secrets are still good today and are as follows:

1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life – In a society where people blame everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.

2. Live Your Life On Purpose – What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they believe they’re doing what they were put her to do. The difference between this and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the least problems. But when you live your life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur this means finding a cause you believe in and building your business around it.

3. Be Willing to Pay the Price – Be willing to pay the price for your dreams. Wanting a big house, a luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between the successful and unsuccessful.

4. Stay Focused – Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls, messages, and everyone competing for our time. Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned by 30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Instead of giving up, they stayed focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV, and newspapers, for five days a week for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series that have sold more than 10 million copies.

5. Become An Expert in Your Field One striking factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their profession. They strive to be the best at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or embarrassed about? Make the decision today to work at being the best in your field. How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what they do.

6. Write Out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals – Write out an action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals without a plan is like trying to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago without a map. A goal that isn’t written down is merely a wish or fantasy.

7. Never Give Up – Never, never, never give up. When you’re fully committed to achieving your goal, giving up is not an option. You must be willing do whatever it takes to make it happen. The power of perseverance is an awesome force. As someone once said, “inch by inch it’s a cinch”. Think of the lowly inchworm – if it pondered the length of the trip from start to finish before it started, it probably would never move. To a worm’s point-of-view, the garden path must look like a trip to Mars. Never give up! Keep on going like the Eveready battery bunny, and pretty soon you’re there.

8. Don’t Delay – Nobody knows how much time they have left to accomplish their dreams, and we must remember that we don’t have forever. The clock is ticking, and sooner or later your number comes up and you’re gone. Successful achievers know this too, but they don’t view it as a “negative”. Achievers use it to “spur them on”. They go after what they want as energetically and as passionately as possible, for as long as they have.

I had a friend who used to say, “Today is a check – cash it! Yesterday is an I.O.U. – forget it! Tomorrow is a promissory note, don’t bank on it!” I think that’s a pretty good summation of life, so go out there and cash in on that “today” check.