Motivated Motion

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Read this blog for information on International Webloggers day chat forum. Register yourself to participate today!
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Time To Learn About The People Behind My Links



Well it has been close to three months since I began this Blog adventure.

The responses to the Blog have been fantastic.

I have received so many emails asking questions, and extending the conversation about the content of my Blog that I have been inspired to add a Web Site to this whole internet life.

I am the proud owner of www.motivatedmotion.com, and www.motivatedmotion.ca.
Please bookmark these, as they will be up and running very soon.
My Son Alex is developing the sites for me so I have something to keep me busy for around 20 minutes a day. They will have the same content so they can service the Web to their fullest potential.
The Motivated Motion Site will be a Spirituality and Wellness portal.
This Site will service the 416 and 905 area codes of the Greater Toronto Area.

The response to the site from the folks who will have links and info shown has been tremendous and I have been busy answering emails!
That is why I haven’t written this post earlier.
So today I will explain parts of my Blog and the people behind them:


MY GOOGLE SEARCH BAR AND MY INTEREST LINKS

At the top of this post is my Google Search bar. Enter your search request in the box and press the SEARCH button to find what you are looking for.

The three links with my Search bar are sites that I chose to put in there. These are sites many of my friends frequent. I wanted to do my best to make my site one they can navigate towards their other favorite sites with. I also wanted to provide a search bar so if you are sparked by my articles to seek out something else, you can search it here.




EXPLAINING THE TITLE MOTIVATED MOTION

The whole idea of the Blog and the Web Site was to give me a hobby to do what I could do in my limitation of 20 min increments. For those of you that don’t know about my limitations I will explain. I won’t dwell on the negative, so I will rarely talk about this in the Blog.

One year ago I became very sick. I have spent over a year with a headache that would not go away. Twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week with a headache. And sometimes the pain would be very bad and the headache became migraines. After a year of investigations we learned I don’t have cancer. Which is very good. But some things were not so good. I lost my ability to swallow food well, I have problems with my immediate memory, I mix up my words when I speak which is called Affasia, and I am also suffering with arthritis in my knees, as well as my Thyroid gland stopped working.

In the end of it all the Doctors could agree that two nerves in my neck have been effected by some sort of injury. The injury could be caused by an auto-immune disease damaging the nerve sites, or even some sort of impact injury. Non the less the injury is there. As the pain specialist says, “You now own this problem, it isn’t going away.” The root of one of the nerves is damaged deep within my brain. The second nerve effects my ability to swallow in syncopation.

So I am retired for medical reasons.
Getting used to my new life was not as difficult for me as one would imagine.
For most people the idea of being in pain all the time is very scarey probably sad.
Actually when you are in pain all the time you must learn to manage within your limitations, and if you don’t find a way to be productive you will disintegrate.

My personality has no room for disintegration. I need to feel like I am participating in life. Whether that means being very active in my own wellness treatment, or finding a way to be able to do something within my limits that allows me to learn at my own pace, and create a world that is fun.

I call it finding a new NORMAL.
My normal now fills with a medication cocktail regimen, physiotherapy, memory exercises, and weekly injections of anesthetic into my brain, head and spine followed by rest to allow the nerves to repair to the best of their ability, and soon…. work with a speech pathologist to help me learn how to swallow again. ( and yes I have not lost my sense of humor so I DO find that last line very funny!)

My number one disability is that I cannot concentrate on more than 20 min of activity at a time, or my head will hurt and I pay a price for my fun. I cant be very spontaneous any more. So now I have to learn to plan, and accept that I have to find new fun. Plus accept the fact that I cannot always participate in all the family activities.

I find fun in taking photos for my Son’s band. Then I don’t have to sit too long and hurt my neck and stimulate a migraine.
I write the Blog because on days I have what I call “The Brain Freeze” I am frozen from my knees up for around 12 hours, and can’t do anything else but click a mouse.
My motion and movement becomes like a person who has MS. I can walk but I don’t have any resistance in my movement so if someone bumped me I would just crumple to the ground. I can move my arms if they are resting on something, but I cannot lift my arms at the shoulder. Which is really funny to watch. I can’t prepare my own food or make a last minute rush to the toilet, so I have to plan well. The days I am frozen I have no pain. I am in a great mood but my brain is dull.
My speech is slower, and I can’t really move. Imagine me talking slow with a slurr to my words and motion, and only being able to bend at the elbow and can’t lift my arms. Best of all I flap my legs around so when I walk I make a “ SLAP! SLAP!” sound with my feet!

At this point everyone who knows me must realize that I am laughing so hard right now trying to describe myself that the tears are running down my face.

So we come to the point of all this. My Blog really describes my life right now………. Motivated Motion. I don’t take for granted anything any more. I don’t waste the time that my body allows me, and I don’t want to identify myself with my medical problems. I want to identify myself with what I am able to accomplish within my limitations. I strive to be able to expand the world I can work with, within my 20 min limitations.

My family has helped me find a way to do this.
We have figured out many ways to create a new NORMAL.
I am proud of all of us.

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WELCOME TO MY LINKS

All the links on the right side of my Blog are purposeful.

This is the important Weblogger Day information area

When you look at my links today you see that the first link is for International Web Bloggers Day.
Alex and I are participants in the forum for Web Bloggers Day on June 14th.
If you are a Blogger I suggest that you check out this link and register your Blog on it.
What we would like to know is how has Blogging effected you this past year? What have you learned by participating in the Blogging community? What did you find as negative within the blogging community? What direction do you think the Blogging community could aim towards in the next year? Do you like the voice you have in blogging? Are you in an active blogging network? What does your network do that you think is Unique?

I would like to invite all who read this blog, whether you are bloggers or blog readers, to take part in my forum for International Webloggers day. You can go to my link
and register yourself in the top right area of the site for the forum. You will not be solicited for anything if you register here. You have an option to not show your web address or email address when you register. Registration is only to protect you from being harrassed in the forum, and so we can assure that minors don't take part unless their parents let them. I believe that you will get a notice for 2007 Webloggers Day events if you register for either link.

The chat forum is open for registration now, and will open for chat on Tues June 13 from 01200 (noon) GMT-5 to 01200 (noon) GMT-5 on June 15th.

Please register yourself to be included in the forum and then come and join us for the chat. I will do my best to have myself or Alex Moderate the chat for 18 of the hours involved. If you co-bloggers want to moderate too you can email me.

I am really excited about this forum. We will discuss what we have enjoyed about blogging this year, and what we would like to see change for next year. I am open to all discussion that day though, you dont have to just talk about this subject.


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After that link you see a few Google Ads on my link lines. These are Adsence for Content Ads. I am able to control the content of the ads by changing the content of the body of my blog. So the ads will correspond with the things I write about. This is sooo cool. It gives links for other interesting things available on the web. Info sites or programs or links to great definitions etc.

Next are links to my Web Sites and my other Blog source which is My Space. My “My Space” really just lets everyone, who identifies with My Space, know that this Blog you are reading exists.

Alex and Cameron have told me that successful Bloggers do two things. They allow very ingenious ways to help everyone find their working Blog site, by connecting other sites to them. So all the people who are on my friends list on My Space have the potential to read this Blog. The second thing a successful Blogger does is take the time to read a lot of other people’s Blogs, and find the ones you like and make comments to the other Bloggers sites to create a great new network, and great internet friendships. Success in blogging is measured by the increase in number of official page impressions. This means you succeed if more people on different computers everywhere read your stuff. So Boggers end up creating a fraternal order to aid each other to be successful, while learning something from each other.

I like to read Blogs of others who live far away, and in cultures that are different than mine in Canada. I really enjoy reading Blogs of people who are ESL (English as a second language), who write their Blogs in English to help them keep their language skills flowing. I also like to read Blogs of people who have similar interests as me: gardening, crafts, music, art and photography.

I have a little group of Blogger friends whom I read as much as I can.
They are in my links section.
I also have links to my photo galleries.
Most of the photos people have seen on my Blog so far have been from my work creating Archives of my family photographs, from all my life.
But soon you will get to see galleries of my Digital Photos, like the ones I have done for Fall The Loss.



MY SLIDESHOWS

My slideshows are links I have created to slideshows of my personal archives. Originally these links are found at the bottom of a post. When the post is past I will put the slideshows in the links so you can access them at any time.
I will also put videos, podcasts or MP3s in this area if they originally were put as a link at the bottom of a post.




POGO

Pogo is a game site. If you like solitaire and puzzle games, slot machines, or arcade games this is the place for you. Pogo is free. It has a running chat in every game room. My friends and family who live far way all belong to pogo. I can click on the friends list and find my Mom or Dad playing a game and I can pop in to their room to watch them and say Hi or I can play a game with them. For a long time my before bed ritual was to play Gin Rummy with my Dad and chat about our day. A great 20-min time filler. Winning games gives you points and getting points means you qualify for accomplishment badges, and can use the points to create your game character. This little cartoon is “your” persona called a “mini” you can spend your points at “the mini mall” and dress up your mini, or let your mini go on holidays in exotic places. This is a great free way to shop and spend no money, chat with your family without long distance bills, and have some imaginary fun. The selection of games is vast. Now I play pogo for the last hour of my day. I have a medicine cocktail I have to take and once I take it I can’t walk safely, so I play pogo until the medications take effect then I go to bed.



FALL THE LOSS

Fall The Loss is the band of my youngest son Cameron. Those that know Cam would be expecting him to be the drummer in this band, but he is not. He is the lead singer. The young men in this band are all accomplished musicians. They are between the ages of 17 and 21. They are all a very smart students as well. Fall The Loss has been together for over a year. And in this past year they have been rated the # 3 indy band in Ontario. They have won many competitions in their genre. They are a Heavy Metal Band.
These guys work very hard as a band. They have scheduled practices every week, and there is no excuses allowed to miss them. They work in the recording studio on days other than practice day. Each have part-time jobs too. They have a huge following of fans and their web site forum is pretty busy with chatter. These guys are worth following because they play no cover music. The band writes all of their own material. I am betting they will be internationally famous.



AUTOMATIC PIXEL PRODUCTIONS

Automatic Pixel Productions is the brainchild of my other son Alex. This is the Web Development Company Alex created to produce all of the Fall The Loss Web Site and Video Archives. From this endeavor spawned a business that has grown one web site at a time while Alex has been busy at University.
He creates web sites and branding for companies, and maintains them. Branding is designs that companies use for trademarks on their Web Site and letterhead etc. He has switched his major now, so he can get his certification papers for the programming he is already proficient in. Alex writes in code. He does not use templates for sites. To be successful in Web Design you need to know code backwards and forwards and you have to be artistic to develop branding. You can contact him if you need a Web Site built, or if you need a consultation to fix or expand your existing site. Automatic Pixel Productions develops and creates the templates for my Web Sites.



FIREFOX

These days my best teachers are my own kids. They are men now and know a heck of a lot more than I did at their age. Alex turned me on to Firefox. I was having a heck of a problem with my Netscape Web Browser, and I don’t like the fragile security of Internet Explorer. So Alex recommended I switch to the browser Firefox. Firefox is awesome! It works like netscape yet it is more bare bones and frees up the computer speed and memory for better use of applications.
If you want to learn more about it you can click on this line.
It even imports all of the info from your email folders- web and local.
I find it so much easier to work with.



THE CHAMBER DOOR AND NEVERMORE STUDIOS, A-A-AND WYTCHWOOD RAMBLINGS

When my friend Laurie moved back to Newfoundland, I lost my fun buddy. Laurie is an amazing artist. I have several of her pieces in my house. She does mostly Newfoundland inspired paintings. She has created a quite successful online business for her art through Ebay. Laurie is also the friend who inspired me to begin Blogging. She started a Blog and I enjoy it so much I wanted to do one. Laurie’s Art Gallery is Nevermore Studios. If you look at her gallery you can see she has great success for her paintings of women hanging out laundry on the clothesline. Which is totally Newfoundland. Now if you live here in Ontario you are seeing on TV, these days, a commercial about travel in Newfoundland. I believe her paintings have inspired the new commercial of the laundry blowing in the ocean breezes of Newfoundland and Labrador that we see for this summer season. Cool huh!?

Laurie is as goofy as me. We both have quite a wild sense of humor and we both like to poke fun at ourselves. It is great that we can find our friendship closeness through our Blogs.

Wytchwood Ramblings is the Blog of Laurie’s Mom. I won’t reveal her name because so far, it seems she has not made it public in her Blog. She is a very wise “witch”. She and her life partner are very accomplished in their Spiritual Knowledge and gifts. You need to read her stuff to see where Laurie’s comedy comes from. Seriously funny!

I am very proud to be able to have real life friends who write such great Blogs. I am very happy that they can share their artistic side and humorous stories with the world. It is really neat to be able to say that I really know these people, they have been my friends for years and years.

FOLLOW THE NASA EXPERIMENT

This site is really interesting.
The contributors to this site are taking part in an experiment by NASA on the effects of being in a horizontal position for extended periods of time.
The participants are suspended by slings to mimic weightlessness. They share their diaries in this blog.
They are kept in this position for three months. Their bone density and muscle density are montitored and recorded.
The results of this study will help us learn the potential effects of long space travel on the body system.


ALI, DAPHNE, GREGORY, LINDIE, ANGYI(JIEMIN), LINDY, KIETH, CINDY, VALERIE, WIDOW'S SON AND STEVE'S 2 CENTS

The links for these people are different, yet share the fact that they are in my little Blogger Fraternity. I personally know none of these people, but they all have interesting Blogs that I learn from. Some of us chat on MSN and we all read each other’s Blogs.

Ali is from China. He is a University Student studying medicine. He writes his Blog to practice his English. He would like people who speak and write English to help him edit his Blog. You can write your edited changes in the comments section of his articles. Now Ali knows that people are reading his Blog, he is inspired to share legends and essays about his culture. His stories are really interesting, and they teach me new things every week

Daphne is an artist. She is inspired by Kitch culture. She loves Retro furniture and artifacts. Daphne is from the Netherlands. She writes in English. Two things about her Blog keep me coming back. I really like the retro look of the work she does, and sometimes I can catch little glimpses of French and Flemish in things she writes, or is written about her. Having these little tidbits of that culture diversity is important to me. When in Westfalia I was surrounded by friends who spoke German and Flemish and French, and I never get to work on that much here in Canada. I feel really nostalgic when I read Daphne’s blog, and if another language pops up I am challenged to decipher it.

Gregory Peters is a Freemason. He is also a Gnostic. For those who are not familiar with the Greek Pagan traditions(One Man One God) you can search Rosecrucians, or Thelema. So his pagan roots are quite close to mine. He is a beautiful writer. I put him on originally for my Dad and my Husband to read. Now many read his work because my Blog gets passed around to a bunch their fellow Mason buddies.
My husband had something to say about faith at the time I am writing this piece. He said, "Most men don't know religion, faith and Godliness. They miss the proof that God exists. The Geese outside my office are great proof. They have their babies in the city. Three adults watch a cluster of babies resting on the Boulevard. When they have to cross the road there is an order to how it is done safely. These Geese know what to do. That is sacred and Godliness."
Our family has a long history in the Masonic order. My Father, my Father-in-law, and my Husband are Past Masters of their Lodge. My Husband was the youngest Master to be installed at their lodge. My Mother was a member of the Eastern Star as well. My Son Alex is 20 this year, and he aspires to join the lodge when he comes of age at 21.
Both my Father and Husband are well known for their excellent degree work, and they take part in many installations. My father keeps the archives of his lodge, and both my Dad and Carl are great historians of the lodge. It will be an honor for them to guide my son through the ranks.
If you are a Mason and want to network you can leave a comment in the comment section with your email address, and I will pass it on to the guys. You can start the comment: Dear RW Bro’s


The Widow’s Son is the founder of The Burning Taper. He has Blogs and Web Sites dedicated to Masonic News and information. He even publishes cute news about Supersticious ideals. He has the best rants, and he offers others to have their articles republished on his site.

Between Greg’s Blog and The Burning Taper you can link to a whole host of Masonic information.
Nice to mull over with some classical music playing on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I have also added a site location to catch the song, "The Masonic Ring" by Howie Damron.


Lindy, Keith, Lindie, Angyi, Cindy, and Valerie can all be found by links through each other’s Blogs. These Blogs are written by twenty-something Asian students. Their writings about life from the point of view of a student are remarkable. Some living in their home country, some might be abroad for school. Their insight is great! They also teach about culture in their Blogs. Learning and teaching, all around. Really nice work.

Steve’s 2 Cents is a great example of making your Blog work for you. It is a bit busy, but it really outlines what Alex has been telling me about Blogs. Al says that you make a Web Site to house one idea, and you use your Blog to tell everyone who reads your Web Site about your personal interests. Steve does a great job of showing you how to navigate through his site and tell you everything he is into and participating in as links on his Blog. People who spend a lot of time writing literature for multiple venues can use their own Bog to direct all their friends and colleagues to the work they are currently involved in.




PIXEL 2 LIFE

This is Alex’s recommendation. For all of us Bloggers and Wannabe Web designers this is the easy read guide to all things web. Alex says no one should do anything Web if they are not prepared to do some reading at Pixel 2 Life.



THE CURRENT INTEREST AREA LINKS: Rick Mercer’s Blog, Lily Dale, James Van Praagh, Coast to Coast, Sacred Sites of the World, Wilton Wedding Cakes, The Da Vinci Code, The Grand Lodge of Canada
This area of links can be dynamic at times. Every time I write a Blog I will search out interest sites and put them in this area. In the past I have included definitions from Wikipedia, and links specific to the article I have written. So if you see it here now, there is a great possibility the link will be gone upon the next post.
Keep up with these links and bookmark the ones you like. If you really like a site you can write a comment in the current post and I will keep the info site up in this part of the links.

Rick Mercer is a Canadian political satirist. He is very smart and keeps his work to the current pulse of Canada. He is a quick-witted funny man. He has a weekly TV show here in Canada.

Lily Dale is a town in New York State that is renowned for it’s Population of Spiritualists. From Arthur Conan Doyle to my Great Grandmother as known Spiritualists who converged on this town for over the past hundred years.

James Van Praagh is “The Gost Whisperer”. A well-known spiritualist medium. I thought that people might get a kick out of the televised Séance.

Coast to Coast is my Mom’s favorite Web Site. She loves to hear about all of the paranormal and UFO stuff. So this link is put on just for MY MOM. If you want to comment on your favorite Coast to Coast information to my mom you can write the comment on this post and include your email address, and I will pass on the message to her. Just start the comment: Dear Lynn’s Mom.

Sacred Sites of the World is one of my favorite sites. I like the pictures of all of the amazing places. Some of the places I have been to before. I really like looking at this site.

Wilton Wedding Cakes. Well for those who are into cake decorating I don’t have to say any more than the word Wilton. Wilton produces yearly books on decorating. They create catalogue collections of the latest in cake decorating designs. This company is signature in cake decorating supplies. If you want an idea, this is the place to look.

Da Vinci Code is the official Sony site for the movie. I am not going to get in to arguments about the validity of the “history” shared in the story. I like the mystery story in itself. The movie is well made, and I was not disappointed by Ron Howard, and it is on my list of “To Buy” DVDs for sure. I feel it has about the same pace as “ The Italian Job”, or “Oceans 11 or 12”. If you still want to put your critique of the movie in Comments, you can put it in comments of this post or the previous post.

The Grand Lodge of Canada site is produced by the Canadian Masonic Lodge. The Grand Lodge is the governing body of the fraternity of Lodges in a specific area.



GET OR ORGANIZE AND SHARE YOUR PHOTOS WITH SOFTWARE BY GOOGLE

There is a link button and a big Radio Button on my blog front page for this service. The reason that I have these here is to help you have a chance to make use of this offer. Picassa and Hello are part of the Google family of fine photo organizers and publishers. My friend Pauline uses Picassa religiously. She is the Queen of scrapbooking. Pauline says, “I use the Picassa because it is easy to organize the pics I scan or download. I can get my scrapbooking pics all ready- sized and edited on Picassa. Then it is a simple task to send them to Walmart on the net to photo process them.”

Pauline is moderately computer savvy. But she is “da bomb” at scrapbooking. If she says Picassa is easy then it is honestly easy. If you are looking at an easy way to edit and organize photos you can click on either option here and get what you need.

When I do a future post on scrapbooking I will encourage Pauline to take a few pics of her finished scrapbook pages so you can see her awesome work.

Pauline’s Son Shane is getting into photography. He has published his pics of Australia and places down under in calendars and such. His site www.shanedegeus.com is my newest link.

While I mentioned Walmart I will tell you what Pauline told me. “If you go to www.walmart.ca you can choose the Walmart closest to your home. Upload your pics to them for processing, and pick them up in an hour at the store. Why is this better than just taking your memory card to the store? It is cheaper! You save money by sending your pics online.” If you are in a country other than Canada then just add the appropriate tail (eg: .com, .de etc), if you have a Walmart near you.

Pauline says when it comes to scrapbooking it is all about the half-life of the photograph. Processing at a commercial processor still produces a photo with a longer half-life than if you print it on your own photo printer at home. Not to mention that at as low as 19cents a print you can’t get a price per print cheaper than Walmart these days.



FLICKR BADGES

These are flash badges of my archive photos. I make them. You can expand one picture at a time by clicking on them when they are in the badge. If you want to put badges in your Blog you can click on the bottom of the Badge and you can get more information.

Flickr is associated with Yahoo.



LUNAR PHASES CALENDAR
This is produced by Quick Phase. You can get this for your Blog too. You can click on the bottom of it to find out how.
If you want the Quick Phase for yourself and not your Blog, there are options to get wallpaper and screensavers here as well.
It is worth checking out if you want more expanded information than just the lunar calendar picture.



THE FLASH PETS THAT YOU CAN PLAY WITH
Bunny Hero Labs offers free pets to put in your Blog. They are cute and just a neat little net toy to play with. I have had quite a few positive responses bout the pets. Click on the Bunny Hero link on the pet box to make your own. You can feed the pets or tickle them with your mouse curser or move around a toy with the mouse.






I POWER BLOGGER

This Radio Button will link you to the site where I went to start my Blog. You can also link way up the top of the page in the left corner of the blue bar.

Speaking of the Blue Bar. You can also browse other Blogs using the navigation button on the right corner of the Blue bar.
Try it out by clicking the NEXT BLOG button.


ONE LAST COMMENT

Have you been inspired to start blogging yet?

All the comments made to my Blog posts are moderated by me before they go into the Blog.
If I have directed you to add your email address so someone else can email you to network, I will not publish your email address in the public comment. If you specifically request me to publish your site link or email address when you make a comment I will check them out and put the links in if they are appropriate to my link standards.

What are my link standards? I do not publish “adult or Pornographic” material on my Blog or Sites.

Some of my material may be upsetting to readers if they are prejudice to multiculturalism or multifaith ideals. Oh well, I am Canadian. From the great society that has a “salad bowl” philosophy, culture dynamic. In our country most people are only 3rd generation Canadian at best, and many have not spent their first winter with snow here yet. We come from the land that encourages all of our people to keep their culture and faith and not try to assimilate into some pale notion of life. To ones who are offended by my open ideals and love of multiculturalism- “Get over it”
To everyone else- “Cheers! So mote it be!”




FEED CYA A TREAT FROM THE TREAT BAG

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2006/06/read-this-blog-for-information-on.html