12 Step Quotes and Sayings, II

"You Have to Feel to Heal."

Before recovery, I would use just about anything not to feel. Drugs, alcohol, relationships, food, TV -- the list was endless. Without tools to deal with my feelings, I was uncomfortable and afraid of them, and they often became overwhelming.

In early recovery my sponsor always used to tell me that feelings were not facts. They were just feelings. It took me a long time to understand that, but now I know that as bad as some of my feeling are, they won't kill me. Recovery has taught me that I can now sit with my felings and learn what they are trying to teach me.

Today I have come to welcome my feelings rather than run from them. Today my feelings are like little guides that lead me to the depths of who I am, and I am no longer afraid to go there. Today I know that to feel is to heal in a sacred and profound way. Today I am grateful for my feelings.

"The difference between my will and God's will is that my will starts out easy and gets hard, and God's will starts out hard and gets easy."

A perfect example of this quote is the program itself. My will told me it was much easier to keep using and doing what I was doing then to work the program and the steps. Of course, my will may have appeared easier at first, but oh how hard that path was. By contrast, God's will for me was to recover, and though it was hard at first my life is infinitely better and life truly is easier.

The main problem with my will is that it is first and foremost about me. It tricks me into believing that if I take care of my wants first, then I'll be able to help another -- of course I usually find out that my wants are insatiable, and I quickly become lost in their demands.

God's will, on the other hand, is usually about helping others and with what's right for all concerned -- the whole picture in which I am just part. While this seems backwards to me at times, I always find out that when I'm able to surrender to God's will, my real wants and needs are met and exceeded in ways I never could have imagined.

These days it's easier for me to differentiate between my will and God's will, and more and more I'm able to make the right choice. Ultimately. it's about being comfortable in my own skin, and only choosing God's guarantees me that.

Modern Day Iconic Buildings - What Really Makes Them Iconic?

No standard definition exists for an "iconic building", maybe one thing which is common with all of these iconic structures is that none of them was built with a purpose to serve as an iconic building. Pretty drivel, you must have said, but then it's hard to find any other similarity between a list that comprises of buildings like Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Burj ul Arab, Statue of Liberty, Seattle Space Needle, colosseum or Empire State building.

Not all of them are exceptionally tall (e.g. Taj Mahal, Opera House), not all of them are incredibly large (e.g. white house), and neither do they can be classified as the most beautifully designed buildings. So what really makes them iconic? It is probably, the unique design, concept, symbolic value and also the time when they were built, which makes them iconic.

It's best that we explore these building on a case by case basis rather than discussing them as a group.

Eiffel Tower:

It's hard to imagine, how a structure that was criticized in the harshest manner by the experts and artists of its time, and which was set to be dismantled soon after it has served its basic purpose (Exposition Universelle) is now regarded as the most recognized structure of the world. The tower, which was once considered a blot on the landscape of Paris, is now visited by millions and millions of people every year, because they think it is one of the most beautiful man made structure.

Sydney Opera House:

Sydney Opera House took almost 16 years in its completion and suffered numerous setbacks during the course of this time. With all kind of problems including skyrocketing cost, project getting politicized, changes made in the original design, Jorn Utzon (the original architect) resign, the building turned out to be worth all the efforts, once it was completed. Situated on the Sydney Harbor, this master piece has an outstanding design, no wonder Jorn Utzon won Pritzker Prize, the most celebrated award for any architecture.

Burj Ul Arab:

The most recent addition into the list of iconic buildings of the world is probably Burj Ul Arab in Dubai, the second tallest hotel in the world. Built entirely on 920 feet of reclaimed land, Burj Ul Arab is masterfully built to look like a sail of Arabian Dhow, simple yet elegant. Simplicity ends at the basic design though, as the interior gets as opulent as it can get in any world class hotel.

Empire State Building:

The Empire State building is one of the most adored landmarks in United States of America. Built in the era of Great Depression, it was completed in a remarkable time span of less than 2 years. It continued to be the world's tallest building for many years and still holds 15th place on the list of world's tallest buildings. It was also the first building having more than one hundred floors.

DVD Video to FLV Converter - Rip & Display Videos on Your Site!

You don't have to be a savvy Webmaster anymore in order to put video(s) on your Site -try using an advanced DVD Video to FLV Converter and in just few clicks you can get the job done. This highly effective solution is quickly becoming popular; simply because it transforms the conversion process very easy for many users. Adding a movie to a Webpage doesn't have to be a tedious task - read more in the following article.

Short background

The way it works is quit simple - DVD Video to FLV Converter encodes your videos into compact small sized files called .FLV, so they can easily play on any of your visitor's Web Browsers. The last step is the easiest - updating your Web page(s) with a short html code and uploading the files onto your Site's hosting server. What you actually create in this process are streaming webvideos - they enable you to start watching them immediately without having to wait for a complete download.

What is in it for us?

Such technology brings several clear benefits:

* Easily converts popular file formats such as: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, FLV, VOB, ASF, and MP4.

* It is simply more convincing than writing another sales letter or newsletter.

* It enables you to be more creative and persuasive.

* Compressing raw movies to 10% or less of their original file size!

* It gives your visitors an important and immediate personal connection with you.

We could easily find many other great benefits provided by this technology simply because it opens up various opportunities that enable us to better promote any new or existing online business.

Summarizing this article

If we shortly summarize it, we can say that DVD Video to FLV Converter easily transforms digital movies conversion process - automatic, fun, and highly effective. By the end of this quick review the best advice would be to run it live on your computers so you could explore the fascinating opportunities that it provides.

Severe Acne Remedies and Treatments

Mild to moderate acne affects 3 out of every 4 teens, so most of the population never needs severe acne remedies.

But if you are one of those who suffer from severe acne, more drastic and severe remedies are what you need.

Acne as a skin disease, includes blackheads, whiteheads, pimples, under skin cysts, infected hair follicles, and often times, if you are suffering from an acute or severe attack, these symptoms can last for months before the remedies begin to work.

Despite the severe acne remedies, permanent scars can remain. And because the American public is so focused on "looks"- there can be psychological scarring as well.

The key is finding severe acne remedies that will work for you and reduce the risk of permanent damage.

The most important of acne remedies is to keep the skin clean and clear of dirt and oil. This means washing the area several times daily with soap and water, hydrogen peroxide, or specialty cleansers to prevent toxic material from getting lodged into the skin.

This is not the cause of acne, but may compound it.

The second acne remedy will require you to become sensitive to your eating habits.

A healthier system will function better and reduce infection, and include drinking a gallon of water a day to flush your system.

You want to keep your system flushed of toxins, and to identify any foods, such as chocolate, which irritate your condition.

As for severe acne remedies or treatments, consult a dermatologist so that he/she can prescribe the best acne medication for the skin.

Oral antibiotics such as tetracycline and erythromycin are sometimes used in treating severe cases of acne.

Isotretinoin is a drug related to Vitamin A which has proven effective, hormonal therapies are also used especially with women when nothing else will work, and Corticosteroid is a powerful anti-inflammatory that is prescribed for very short times to treat the most severe acne .

While 100% treatable, it could take weeks or months to bring severe acne under control even with the best medication.

Severe acne remedies and treatments should be geared towards the individual's needs and condition.

Zen and the Art of Writing Instructions

I'm off on a road trip round the States in June. In preparation I've been re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the first time since I've started doing a lot of 'technical copywriting'.

That introduction suggests several questions which I'll answer straight away:

I'm not crossing America on a Harley or any other type of bike Zen... is about a technical copywriter on a bike trip. Along the way he tries to rid himself of Phaedrus (the ego of his former mentally-ill self) and pontificates generally on the relationship between technology and beauty Technical copywriting involves writing all the formal stuff that isn't glamorous but is important to get right e.g. instructions, user manuals, legal babble etc. etc. Stuff like this. I've obviously got more of an interest in technical writing than I had when I read the book the first time so I've been keen to hear what Zen has to say. One bit has particularly struck me so far. The book's narrator remarks that some bike owners - such as himself - take pride in maintaining their bike and become actively involved in learning how it works. Others - such as his friend John - refuse to take any interest at all and instead pay a mechanic to do a half-arsed job. He says the second group have a 'spectator attitude.' "Writing and editing technical manuals is what I do for a living ... I knew they were full of errors, ambiguities, omissions and information so screwed up you had to read them six times to make any sense out of them.

"But what struck me for the first time was their [the manuals'] agreement with the spectator attitude I had seen in the shop. These were spectator manuals ... Implicit in every line is the idea that 'Here is the machine, isolated in space and time. It has no relationship to you, you have no relationship to it.'"

I'm not sure quite how much attention I should pay to this. People who build a relationship with their technology are all over the internet - Google 'Apple help forum' and you'll see what I mean. But there also needs to be a place for a (probably larger) group who don't want anything to do with their circuit board.

Zen's narrator seems to think that though technical writing should cater for these 'spectators' it should also be able to impart an understanding along the way. So instead of just writing "Select Organizer" you might write: "Select Organizer. This is where you can change your phone's calendar and alarms."

Whether this is what people want when they're wading through a 35-step guide to setting up a video call is debatable. Though it may be more Zen-like to understand exactly how our machines work, many non-technophobes have neither the time nor inclination to spend hours getting close and personal with their mobile phone.

But as machines get increasingly technical this basic level of understanding may become vital in saving the user time. After all, computer experts rarely follow a process from start to finish but instead jump straight in at the important bit. If users don't have the understanding to jump in then they may soon lose the ability to use technology effectively.

I'm not sure what the answer is. But I guess I'll have plenty of time to think about it on the inter-states of the USA.

Diagnosis Mesothelioma - Tips On Diagnosis Mesothelioma And Safety At Workplace

Diagnosis mesothelioma is not a comfortable subject or something you would like to discourse about. It is without doubt a devastating news to you and your family. It's heart warming to say despite the bad news that, scientist has successfully through research been able to detect and treat mesothelioma. There are hundreds of website online filled with up-to-date helpful information. There are also support groups and assistance mechanisms put in place for every stage of this awful disease. Furthermore, a mesothelioma diagnosis doesn't guarantee a grim prognosis. Hence, in most cases early detection of the disease as with any cancer is crucial so that it can be treated early.

To be absolutely clear, the diagnosis of mesothelioma is the first step toward the road to discovery. There are a lots of websites online to help in the public research of mesothelioma to detect the warning signs that lead to early diagnosis and afterward the blessing of early treatment. Treating a diagnosis of mesothelioma with surgery and chemotherapy or surgery, chemotherapy and radiation is quite popular this days. Mesothelioma is also known as the asbestos cancer. Mesothelioma shows sneaky change from asbestosis or asbestos pleural disease. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended to go for mesothelioma check on a regular basis if you've ever worked around asbestos in anyway or form. Early diagnosis is crucial. Some of the diverse early warning signs include shortness of breath, pain in the lower back or pain at the side of the chest. Others signs may include hoarseness, difficulty swallowing or sweating and fevers.

Prognosis defers significantly among people that have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and this depends on a number of factors. These causes have a significant impact on the speed of recovery; the size of the cancer, what part of the body it is found, and how far it has spread. And also, how the cancer cells looks under the microscope, and their respond to treatment as well as the age of the patients has direct bearings on recovery time.

There are legal issues associated with a diagnosis of mesothelioma. And there have been several lawsuits against companies whose employees were exposed to asbestos. These are definitely matters to be researched further if you are among those individuals who qualify for involvement in a lawsuit. If you are uncertain whether you qualify, you can simply fill out an online form and an attorney will be happy to talk with you. It is not required but there are good reasons to acquire an attorney who is knowledgeable in mesothelioma litigation.

There are speciality lawyers and law firms for mesothelioma cases. Most of these specialized attorneys have an impressive settlement record and successes in obtaining verdicts in the courtroom as opposed to settlements out of court. As in most cases, there is money to be dispersed though the monetary value of the settlements are not as important as the impact lawsuits like these will eventually make in the safety issues surrounding workplaces where potentially harmful chemicals can be inhaled or absorbed into peoples bodies.