When it comes to buying anything for me I always have anything computer related on my list because I wear very little jewelry and clothes are hard to buy for me because everything has to be loose around my neck otherwise I feel like I’m choking. It’s not that I’m picky and I really do appreciate anything anyone wants to buy for me.

However I prefer something that I will use like ink cartridges because I print out pictures and other documents. Extra memory is always nice and any type of useful programs for my computer. I bought myself an external drive awhile back so I could back up my computer and remove a lot of junk so I would have more room.

Bill was going to buy me a laptop when I came back from Kentucky because I didn’t have access while I was away and when I go back to visit I’ll have it so I can work when I’m not visiting or helping out. I had told him that I needed a portable flash drive for documents that I needed to work on while I was away, but since I didn’t have access it didn’t really matter.

So I’m pretty sure I’m going to get my laptop for Christmas and then he can learn to use a computer because he’s afraid to touch mine, he’s afraid he’ll mess something up that I’m working on. He can then pull up all the motorcycle information that he wants and I’ll have my important stuff on the flash so I’ll be able to work on trips.

I have read many things about personal magnetism and how some people have the power to inspire and convince other people to bend to their will. I could never understand how one person could have so much power and influence yet we’ve seen it numerous times in many of our charismatic leaders. The power that some leaders have exhibited has been extremely evil like Hitler, Jim Jones, and Manson just to name a few, but was that magnetism or hypnotism? People actually followed them blindly until it was too late.

This has always scared me and fascinated at the same time because I have always wondered if they were born with this ability or developed this power by reading and developing their mind. When you can use this power for good and not evil then I can see how everyone would benefit. I have known many people in my life that have had small influences, but I could never give up my total will or even bend it except in one extreme case where I was married to an abuser and that was out of fear.

Mastery of Self by Frank Channing Haddock, M. S., Ph. D you can read  part one and two free online encase you’ve never seen this and would like some excellent insight. The site where I found this is Full Books and they have thousands of full text free books. So if you’ve been looking for a particular book and haven’t been able to find it I would suggest looking there. I’m sure many of these are older books maybe some out of print even, but the above book was what I was looking for. Below is a passage about dealing with others.

“Let us finally understand. In applied magnetism, you simply harmonize the etheric states of others with those of yourself, and convey to them through the ethereal medium the purpose of your will. The FIRST condition of success here is agreeableness, the SECOND consists in tact and perseverance, the THIRD is will-power –not brutal will-force, but magnetic power of will.”  I think I will take the time to print this out so I can read the whole thing off line because I need all the magnetism I can get.

Also from the book “The “SPIRIT”–not to refine on philosophy–is the real self which
builds body and may unfold mind. The highest state of the individual, therefore, is religious at the top. This is spirituality. But the only conceivable essential to spirituality is a belief in, and an intelligent (truth-using) surrender to, the White Life–conceived in one’s own way–for harmony and oneness therewith.”

Bill and I love when they have car shows and he usually knows what most of them are whereas I have never been good at telling one car from another except a station wagon from a Volkswagen Beetle, Jeep or a Mustang, but I love looking at them. I love when the street rods come to town they’re awesome and I also love the look of sports cars, but can’t tell one from the other.

I have never really seen any really expensive cars up close except when I was in Las Vegas I did get to see the DeLorean which was so cool. I’m amazed that people like Jay Leno and other celebrities own  all of those expensive cars and can actually maintain them. Bill keeps talking about getting a Corvette and I always say why not a Ferrari if your going to dream it might as well be big.

Who wouldn’t love to own a Ferrari? I think that’s something most men dream about and I’m quite sure I’d love to ride in one, but I know that’s something that’s not likely to happen. I’m sure Bill could afford one of the Ferrari parts, but not the car and that would be as close as I’d ever get to one. I don’t think Leno has one, but I’m not sure what all he owns, probably a Lamborghini, must be nice to be rich.

It wont be long now till Thanksgiving and I can already smell the turkey cooking that’s why I can’t quite convince myself to go raw because I love turkey and I have no clue why we only have it once a year. Bill has his own ideas about what days we are suppose to have what. He would probably have a conniption if he came home one day to turkey and it wasn’t Thanksgiving.

Like Sundays are suppose to be roast beef day or some kind of traditional meal and Fridays are take out night. He always ask me what I want for dinner and because I love steak that’s always my answer so I have no clue why he bothers to ask me because I know he’s going to want something else. We always compromise though and end up having what he wants since he’s the cook.

I know one of these days I’ll probably give up meat, but not now. I can taste that steak now since I was talking about it and I love prime rib, dang I’m making myself hungry. Better think of something else because it’s too late to eat or even snack. That always happens when I go visit the food blogs also unless it’s some weird looking dish. I saw on the news that retail stores are already slashing prices in preparation for Black Friday.

I normally stay away from stores on Black Friday because people go crazy and I certainly would never stand in line before stores even open no matter how much I wanted a good deal. Our daughter-in-law and her sister has done this numerous times and I think they’re nuts, but that’s just me, to each their own. I know lots of people do it and it will probably be worse this year the way the economy is now.

Bill’s going to take that day off so I’m not sure what we might do hopefully it’ll be nice enough to take a putt. He has heated gloves if it’s cold so if we bundle up and it’s not raining we probably will. I’ll be so glad when he retires then we can ride all we want during the week while everyone else is at work without worrying about all the traffic.

At least we’ll have a long weekend together this Thanksgiving and I have many things to be thankful for.

Bill and I usually give money at Christmas to the kids and I saw a cool idea at Money Saving Pro. So this year instead of just sticking it in a card I decided I’d try to be a little more creative and try their idea and make little money gift boxes. I can put little charms and crystal figurines and whatever else I can find inside as an extra surprise. I think they’ll enjoy that.

As for the grandkids we usually spend more on them, but this year we have two extra ones so that makes 5 instead of the normal 3. For the little girls we don’t like to buy toys because their house is already overflowing. Last year we got them both really nice book cases for their room and a bench toybox the year before, but they have so many toys that it’s useless except to sit on.

We do at least buy them one small toy so they have something to open when they come over for Christmas Eve dinner. Nate of course is 6 and 1/2 and he doesn’t have a house full of toys so we don’t mind getting him a few instead of all the educational things his parents get him. He goes through phases of collecting things, like one year it was Spiderman, then motorcycles, then dinosaurs.

He now likes remote control objects, he has a motorcycle, car and truck, but he doesn’t have an airplane or helicopter yet. I was checking on the airplanes and remote control helicopters online and saw that there are some pretty cool looking ones that I can choose from and I know he’ll love whatever we choose because he’s such a grateful little boy and really appreciates everything.

The little girls are spoiled and they have such a huge family on the Mom’s side that they always get too many toys and don’t seem to appreciate anything and that’s the big difference between Nate and them. With Ethan I intend on getting him his first highchair and I guess I’ll have to send it because they wont be able to come up and the way Miss Natalie is growing, she’s already 15 pounds at 2 months, it will definitely be clothes.

I know a lot of older people that are switching over to healthier eating of raw food instead of cooked because of health issues or lessening the chances of heart disease and diabetes. When I say raw I mean vegetables, fruit, and nuts of course. More and more people are cutting meat out of their diet and doing less cooking, I’m not sure I can totally do that at this point though because I still like it and no matter how you cook vegetable burgers they just don’t taste like meat.

Everyone knows that when you cook food it can destroy the protein, vitamins, and fat and the natural enzymes that help you digest them will break down. We know that raw food has a higher nutritional value and you’ll fill up quicker because of the fiber and extra water so you eat less and lose weight. Raw food also has more flavor than cooked food so you need less salt and spices that can irritate your stomach and other parts of the digestive system.

For those people that are into saving energy and money and recycling just think this raw food diet would be very low maintenance I don’t like to cook anyhow, but Bill does. You wont spend hours slaving over a hot stove, you wont have messy dishes and pots and pans to scour or run your dishwasher very often and it’s environmentally friendly because you can put the leftovers in the compost bin. Bill certainly wouldn’t know what to do with himself then.

We would also use less energy resources and help the environment because it would encourage more organic farming and less transporting so that would mean less carbon dioxide emissions and with more orchards planted that would release more oxygen and help minimize the Greenhouse Effect. It would mean a lot less garbage to dispose of and less cans and other recyclables to worry about.

It would mean healthier bodies with less digestive disorders and certainly less free radicals that occur from cooking and doesn’t that mean less risk of cancer? I’m actually trying to talk myself into this because I know I’d feel better and lessen the risk of a stroke or heart attack. I certainly wouldn’t want that because I don’t want to be a burden on Bill, but then again it would at least give him something to occupy his time with when he retires.