Hypothesis - What Killed Michael Jackson

Using a variety of prescription drugs over a good number of years and being relatively inactive then entering into an immediate phase of strenuous activity.  The myriad of trapped drug molecules store around the body are then released into the body's metabolism causing a variety of symptoms which are confusing and worrisome to the victim who may think they are elevated stress levels and treat them with more drugs.  The drugs may not be so detectable as drugs which were just taken as they may be trapped around the body near vital organs.  This is one of the reason's how people can be detected for drugs over a number of years even after quitting.  The sports industry, military and certain industry careers test for such drugs on a routine basis.

It could be Michael Jackson died due to the combination of the resident drug molecules, new stress and a body that was not ready for the extreme amount of effort required for his style of entertainment.

What it really means to be handicapped

I stumbled upon this handicapped ramp which if I wanted to I couldn't walk up my self.  It was in Sharjah at the rear of a building.  The ramp was too narrow for a wheel chair and too steep. 

It would be good for Skate boards however.

Lobby Design

This is a lobby design that I did for the tallest building in Sharjah located next to the Kasbah district in Buhairah.

Eagle Five Plaza is the tallest building in Sharjah.  It looks over Buhairah and Kasbah the two most wonderful places in the United Arab Emirates.

The views are breathtaking.  This is a place where you want to spend all of your time.  Everything is within a walking distance.  Restaurants, cinema, parks, shopping malls, health clubs, amusement park etc.




The idea behind the lobby is to create a feeling of nature as the skylight looks up into an open network of palm trees.  The feeling is that the building is just not there.  You are magically transported to your apartment with the high speed elevators.



The is a view to the front of the lobby.  The canope is stainless steel and is an extension to the wooden trusses in the lobby.


Close by there is the KASBAH which is featured in the panoramic photo next.


The lobby floor is a series of circles, a fishing boat bottom and eagle claws that lead to the elevators.  There is a small resting area with a water screen video projections system.

At night the skylights dim and the star come out.

A lot of effort went into this project.

DESERT CONTAINER CARAVANS

DESERT CONTAINER CARAVANS

SOMALI PIRATES DISTURBED BY REPORTS

DUBAI - Arab Bedouins in the Arabian peninsula are reviving the historical desert caravans. Taking advantage of the high interest rates for shippers plying the waters off of the Somali coast, several Bedouin entrepreneurs have started offering container shipments by camel caravans across the desert from Dubai ports to ports in the Mediterranean.

This has somewhat disturbed Somali pirates as they feel that it is a clear violation of international shipping norms and they plan to protest the move with representatives in the next Gulf Cooperation Council meetings planned for later this year.

When asked why camel caravans and not trucks, Abdullah bin Kamal of Kamal Desert Caravan Lines stated, “Trucks need roads and the trips are much longer, drivers are expensive and diesel is not cheap, so we have a market niche.”

He also stated that unfortunately they have yet to solve problems with the camels sinking into the sand with the heavier containers and are looking into a special sand shoes, similar to snow shoes.

What does Blood Type Got to Do with It?

Apparently a lot.  I have O- blood type which is the universal donor.  I read my supposed diet and found to some strange degree that foods that are supposed to be good for me, I actually liked.  Those that were bad for me, sometimes I didn't like but could eat. 

I wasn't supposed to be a coffee and spirits drinker.  But I am... so this is supposed to be bad.  The type O blood is supposed to be the primitive Hunter Gatherer blood type.  It makes sense because I am always hunting for something and am trying to gather other things... with limited success.

Having type O- blood is good and really bad.  It is good for other people, however, I can only take blood from my own type.  I hope to not have any problems with this.

If there is a serious case in the UAE or Qatar (because I live here) I am ready and willing to give my blood.  I was a donor in the US for this reason.

You are where you lived?

You are where you have lived?  If this is true then I am always a transient.  One of my first homes was a trolly station in Portland Oregon.  Evergreen Station.  I lived there with my sister Daphne and new born Baby brother Laird.

My sister has the most complete memories of the home/station.  She remembered the oil soaked wood plank floors that required using blankets on the floor so as not to soil your clothing.

I remember the basic layout of the building and the main features... old but stable.  There was a gully in the back of the house and the trolly ran right in front of the house.  It was more or less that year I must have been 3 years old that they  stopped the trolly service.  I saw the Wizard of Oz for the first time and was spooked.  My sister insured me that the flying monkeys would not come through the windows to steal me.  I wasn't so sure!

Arabs - American Aces

The first ACE in the United States of America with Jets was Arab... think about it....

We as Americans are tuti fruit....

The More

The more you do the less you cant do the more you want the less you need the more you see the less you cant see the more  you hear the more you cant hear.

So it is a matter of more and less.  Then it is important to do less and get more!

Filthy Drinking Water Delivery Truck

Who would have guessed that this filthy truck was a delivery truck for water that somebody should drink.  I thought it was hilarious that such a manager of a bottled drinking water company would allow such a negative image to exist in his/her company.

The main reason I noticed this truck was because he cut me off.  I never used this water and I don't think I ever will.  I can only imagine how clean their factory is!

Lost - by Daphne

Amazing Sean wrote about Mom yesterday. I think about her every single night before I fall asleep.

Yesterday, well, the night before, was especially tough. I lost something important.

OnFriday
morning, I'd taken off Mom's turquoise ring to make somebiscuits for
breakfast. I thought I remembered putting it back on afterwashing my
hands.

In the evening, as we were getting ready to go to John's
tobarbecue some steaks, I noticed Mom's ring was no longer on my
hand.Yes, there were rings on my left hand, but no turquoise ring on
myright. In a panic, I checked the kitchen and the bathroom. Nothing.
Iwas sick to my stomach. Pretty sure I hadn't been outside since last
Isaw it, I figured Mom's turquoise ring had to be somewhere inside
thehouse.

We got home late, but before I went to bed I checked
and recheckedseveral places in the house for Mom's ring. I went to bed
feeling likea tiny hole had ripped in my heart because I'd lost a small
connectionto Mom.

Yesterday I spent hours retracing my steps
from the day before.Since I had cleaned house and organized the office,
there was a lot ofretracing to do. I checked the garbage can. I dug
through the recyclingbin. Catching sight of a vase of flowers reminded
me I had cut someyellow roses for the dining room table. I went outside
to search aroundthe rose bush.

Dennis helped me check, then
recheck everywhere. We went throughthe laundry basket, we picked
through the garbage and the recyclingonce again. I went upstairs and
checked my dresser and nightstand, thefloor, and under the bed. No ring.

Finally, in sheer desperation I whispered to myself, 'Come on, Mom. Help me.'

For some reason, I reached into the closet for the pants I had worn the day BEFORE I lost Mom's ring.

A penny fell from my pants pocket to the floor.

You
have to remember now, that I rarely carry money. The onlychange I ever
carry is what I call 'Mom's-thinking-of-me' coins. Theseare the coins I
pick up off the street when we're on our walks. Thatstarted the day Mom
died. Dennis and I were walking home from thefuneral home, and when I
found a penny on the sidewalk he said, 'Yourmom must be thinking of
you.'

The penny lay there on the bedroom carpet. 'Mom,' I
thought,'please help me find your ring.' I was panicky and feeling
distraught.

Iimmediately walked back to the hall closet, which I
had searchedseveral times already. Looking past the vacuum cleaner (I
had evenchecked its bag), I saw a white gift bag tied with curly pink
ribbon. Asilly retirement gift; a plastic princess tiara winked from
the bag.

With half a smile, I thought back to the day when Mom,
notunkindly, just matter-of-factly, told me I couldn't grow up to be
aprincess because we weren't a royal family. I was about 4. I
rememberfeeling sad. Not as sad, however, as I was feeling about losing
thering she gave me over 30 years ago when I was 21. The turquoise
ringMom's mother had given her when she was young.

Remembering I
had taken a piece of tissue paper from the bag towrap a Mexican plate
hand painted with green birds, I held my breath.Mom's favorite color
was green. At least it was the very first time Iasked. I recalled parts
of our conversation about green versus blue asa favorite color. I loved
blue sky and the blue of her turquoise ring.And the birds; Mom always
said that it was good luck to see the firstrobin because it meant that
spring would soon be here. Mexican art: ourfamily trip to Mexico in the
late 60s. Hand painting: Mom's love of artand creating things by hand.

It
takes much longer to retell my thoughts than they actuallyhappened. All
these memories flooded my heart in less time than it tookto pull the
gift bag toward me.

Beneath the tiara were sparkly pretend princess earrings. I pushed them aside.

At
the bottom of the bag, like miniature eggs in a robin's nest, Icaught
just a glimpse of the four turquoise stones on Mom's ring.

---- ----- -----

Mom'sstill
with us. Somehow. Maybe it's just the emotional connection wehave with
memories of the things she loved, but I truly believe thateven though
her body, and her pain, are gone, her spirit willalways surround us.


Love,
Daphne

THIS iS A TOUGH WORLD AND I AM IN THE THICK OF IT! SEAN

well here I AM,

I was trying to look up laird on the  Internet and found mom's 
obit's.Read them again,and again.It made me sad. Every day I think of
her, and I cant shake the feeling that she Is looking down on on me.I
remember ma ma In so many ways! I Miss her so much after all these
days.

I think of all the wonderful times that mom provided
me with.The fact of the matter is mom has alway's been my hero! I know
the rest of the family has been dissapointed with me, but mom was
forgiving, and I will always love her for that! I loved playing
scrabble with mom, and we always had a good time! yes I cheated a
little bit, but hey, mom was so much smarter then me, I needed an edge!

My own poll

Vote (here) for who you think will become The President of The United States...

What is Wisdom

People who listen a lot are ofter considered wise. People who don't talk a lot are considered wise. People who are old are considered wise, "presumably they have more experience". People who are rich and/or are famous are considered either LUCKY or WISE.

SO what is wisdom..... In my BRAVADO opinion.. It is POWER+SUCCESS.... If you manage to get power and succeed in whatever your objectives are, then you are considered to be wise. If a person proposed to a financially successful entity/person a NEW AND PROSPEROUS WAY OF LIFE (without undue effort) then they would expect so many operational details in order to make their assessment.

In the case of our assessment, there is no way to promote the idea that we were incompetent and slightly innacruate in tems as to what is required from him fore we bring building inspectifs.

Cupcake Poker

Cupcake Poker by Daphne Anne , Contest #200807

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With fingerprint in hand, Mama flung open the kitchen door. It hit the outside of the trailer house with a crash.

Both
of us looked up from where we were playing around in the dirt patch
that served as our front yard. Seeing Mama in the doorway with one hand
on her hip and the other holding a cupcake, my brother immediately hit
the brakes on our big red trike. Since I’d been riding shotgun behind
him, this abrupt jolt sent me toppling off the tricycle onto the hard
pan.

“Just WHICH one of you belongs to this FINGERPRINT?”

I
was puzzled. What Mama was holding looked like a cupcake to me. Mama
glared at me, at Chris, back at me, then finally at Chris.

“Before
my nap, there were twenty-four perfectly frosted cupcakes on the
kitchen table ready for tomorrow's bake sale.” She continued glaring.
Something about the confused look on my face caused her to focus the
investigation on my little brother. “Christopher Robbin! Did you leave
your fingerprint pressed into the top of every single one of my
twenty-four cupcakes?” 

Solemnly shaking his head he answered, “No, Mama, I didn’t leave fingerprints. Those’re thumbprints.”

Checked Out!

A library card is a like a magic ticket: €”you never know where it will take you!

My parent’s€™ words; A right of passage in our house was writing your name for the very first time, all by yourself, on your very own library card.

With one teacher’s salary and six kids, those library cards were our equivalent of the old Disneyland E-ticket. We rode those book adventures throughout the week, then came back for more the next Saturday afternoon.

Offering even more than books, the library became a work-study treasure trove; it paid most of my college tuition. What a dream job; being surrounded by books and the thoughts of thousands of writers.

Looking out the window on the first day of summer school, I noticed that across the courtyard from my classroom was the library. This sixth grade teacher went right over and checked out something that caught my eye . . . the librarian!

How many librarians do you know who were born in a public library? I was fascinated. Found out later that the building was a hospital before it was a library, but it made a good story.

Magic or not, that’s where I found my own true love. I checked him out, €”never returned him and that was 26 years ago!

Daphne Richardson

What it takes to Get Rich

In case you are not born rich – the basics you need to get rich, by SCROOGE!

1. Love money so much that it means more to you than anything else and to make yourself feel better say that God gave you this gift. In this way you will never be distracted by charity, or understand avarice, steeling, cheating or being a conniver.

2. Smell money, situations, opportunities, ways and means and don't be afraid if these are coming from other peoples efforts – not a problem use whatever means is necessary to get the money.

3. Make sure that your friends don't need money or better yet select the ones that have so much that there is no risk of them asking.

4. If your family or relatives are poor, change your name or disinherit them make an artificial crisis as the reason why you don't want to speak to or see them again.

5. Learn how to let gifted or useful people think they can use you but know how to use them instead and when they are no longer useful or can cost more than their meager services provide – how to dump them and make it their fault.

6. Make sure that people who may or are associated with you always know you as unpredictable, easily angered, shrewed and stingy.

7. Be without feelings except for yourself; whatever you do, don't ever feel ashamed or regret your actions even if they are blatantly wrong, just learn how to blame others for any shortcomings and if something does go well be quick to take the credit.

8. Promise or indicate benefits to motivate key people in an appropriate way that you are not most likely to be legally bound and if there is a doubt that has merit it will be so expensive for anybody to prove in a court of law that you would most certainly prevail.

9. Don't trust anybody especially yourself, and if you don't trust yourself then this is more reason not to trust anybody else. In this way you can always feel that you were right if anybody does something that you may consider to be not in your absolute best interest.

10. Understand, that even if it is not true, that everybody is wanting to steel from you and that given the chance they will take everything from you, in this way you will change your behavior that will ensure that you will preserve your wealth indefinately.

11. Feel divine that you will live forever and that there is no hell and that you are a good guy or girl and that you have helped so many people and that those bastards did you wrong. In this way you can do anything and feel that whatever you do is justified and sanctioned by God.

12. In case you are really crazy everything above is easily achieved and in this case I should feel guilty in telling you what you will already feel. But the matter is that the people that these rules are targeting will never have the time to read these stupid rules.

13. IT IS THEIR NATURE

Blogged with Flock

Can you See The Little Man

As I was driving to work and on my left I thought I saw a little man bent over doing something with the bottom of a wall. It turned out to be a couple of pipes with burlap draped over it.

View From My Window

Street View - Dad & Mom's House (Daphne)

Daphne sent me the link to take a peek at what she and crew has done to Dad & Mom's house. This is really neat.

At least when I am feeling lonely for clouds and rain I can walk around Portland.

I wonder who's the guy riding around in a car taking the panoramic shots for this service?

If You Are Fat - Get Your Hair Done Here!

I love signs in Dubai.... There is no such thing as political correctness. For Example. If you have a beauty salon for ladies called IFFAT (IN)sult(ana) then you will get a lot of willibees with their hair up in a big bun.

There are so many signs like this in Dubai that you would be employed full time and breaking your ribs laughing. Look where you have the pink sign and note that the person who owns the business is IFFAT.