Trout Stage Daring Breakout at Fish Farm
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/?p=600

The Legend of Cliff Young: The 61 Year Old Farmer Who Won the World’s Toughest Race http://elitefeet.com/?p=38

A 39-year-old New Zealand man who refused to wear a seatbelt and had
been fined for not wearing one 32 times since February 2003, died in a
head-on car crash. His home-made fake seatbelt failed to prevent his
death, according to the local coroner.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4411639a6479.html

Not bad for being 101 http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4385601&page=1

Okay, I know it's a bit soppy but it's still a nice story

It's a Dog's Life procedure for the old dog in their home.

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old
Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa,
and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they
were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the
family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform
the euthanasia.
As we made arrangements, Ron and Li sa told me they thought it would
be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt
as though Shane might learn something from the experience

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's
family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for
the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.
Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any
difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's
death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are
shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly,
piped up, "I know why."

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next
stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good
life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?" The
six-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so
they don't have to stay as long."

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
Take naps.
Stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle
them gently.
Being always grateful for each new day and for the blessing you have.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

That's what dogs teach us.

The lightbulb that just goes on and on http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/18610 it even has it's own website which is working now http://www.centennialbulb.org/

The lengths that some people will go to so that they can save money on their honeymoon
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7654254.stm

When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.

Here's something to make you feel all warm and fuzzy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7811686.stm

It seems there was a bit of drama in the the Pentland hills recently
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Pentlands-rescue-is--an.4863142.jp

Someone I know sent me the following

As you know, my son-in-law is a driving instructor. A couple of days ago
he arrived outside a house to collect one of his pupils. She was
standing in the doorway waiting but dashed out to say

`Could I delay a couple of minutes as my mum is having hysterics on the
phone to my older sister and I want to find out what is going on?`

Comes out and explains.

Older sister needs funds so agrees to `house-sit` for some friends who
live in Central London whilst they are on holiday. This also involves
looking after their elderly Golden retriever dog, feeding, taking for
walks, etc.

First week goes fine, no problems and then at the weekend the inevitable
happens. She gets up to find that the beloved family pet has died in the
night. After much fear and trembling she calls them to break the news
and they are fine about it - he was pretty old and it was not unexpected.

Just get him buried somewhere where we can pay a visit when we get back
just to say goodbye. Trouble is, she is young and doesn`t know the local
scene or facilities but she realises that burying him in Kensington
Gardens is probably `not a good thing`.

After much deliberation she gets a wheeled suitcase out of their storage
room and shoves the body and a small shovel inside. Then off to the
underground station where she catches a tube out to the periphery of
London where it is nice and green and she can find a discrete spot.

At this point she discovers she has to negotiate a flight of stairs to
get to street level and struggles (wo)manfully with the suitcase.
Eventually a young man offers help and near the top he says `this is
heavy - what`s in it?`

Reluctant to tell him the truth she says that she is moving and it
contains her `valuables`, laptop, radio, etc, etc. Just then a woman
rushing for a train knocks her elbow and her ticket, purse, handbag, etc
go flying to the ground. She gathers them all up and turns round to find
that her `white knight` has done a runner with the suitcase!

Life in the Australian Army http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/21439.htm

(all company names and employee names changed to protect the innocent...
or well in the customers case... the guilty)

This one will take some explaining but is well worth the read if you ask me.

I was working as a phone technician for Blorchizon, so for those of you
in the know... we get the weirdest of the weird. I had moved up through
the ranks and had become a tier 3 agent, handling only the most
difficult of issues.

One fine day everything was going normal, customers with weird
throughput issues, customers in areas with recent flooding and more,
when this lovely issue occurred.

A tier 2 agent had been working on this call for about 20 minutes and
could not isolate the issue. The call had been moved up to them after 10
minutes on the front lines. Needless to say, they contacted me and
described that the customer wasn't getting any internet access and
nothing they did was changing the issue. So I told the agent to transfer
the call to me and this is what transpired:

Me: Thank you for holding, my name is Jed with Blorchizon advanced
support. How can I help you?

customer: Hi Jed, my name is Joe and that last guy was really nice, but
we can't fix my issue!

Me: I'm aware of that Joe and I'm really sorry. It seems like something
out of the ordinary is going on here and it is my job to find it and get
you back up and running.

Joe: Excellent... see I have a top of the line computer and it is new,
so I know it isn't the computer. It has to be your service.

Me: We'll see Joe.

At this point, I proceeded through basic troubleshooting to see how well
he would listen. This guy gave me all the correct answers to anything I
asked. For example, I'd direct him to the Control Panel and then into
the TCP/IP stack and he'd tell me everything was there exactly as it was
supposed to be. So we continued:

Me: Joe, I have to admit this is really strange, everything seems to be
exactly how it is supposed to be and you should be getting internet access.

Joe: Yep! That is what I've been saying. You know this all started...

Joe was disconnected right there. At first I thought to myself... Sweet!
It works now, no more issue. However it was our policy to try and
contact customers back if they were disconnected to make sure everything
was ok. So I grab the number from my caller ID and call back. This is
what I got:

*ring*

Lady: Thank you for calling Happy Meadows Mental Hospital, how can I
help you.

Me: Um..... maybe I dialed the wrong number, but do you have a Joe there?

Lady: Well... nobody on staff here is named Joe. We do have a patient
named Joe. Are you a relative?

Me: Uh... no ma'am I'm with Blorchizon Internet. Joe and I were on the
phone, apparently he is having trouble with his internet.

Lady: That isn't possible sir! He doesn't have a computer, and we don't
have internet access in our rooms.

Me: O....K.....

Lady: *urgent voice* I better go check on him!

I sat on hold for a few minutes, because now I was intrigued. Eventually
the lady came back.

Lady: I'm very very sorry sir. Joe had gotten a hold of a newspaper and
had found advertisements for Smell Computers and for Blorchizon DSL. He
has some boxes set up on his desk and thinks it is his computer.

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *yes I really laughed on the phone*

After a few minutes of explaining the issue to this woman, stating that
Joe had given me all of the answers I needed for everything, she told me
that Joe was very smart and had probably learned all the answers to give
when asked those questions by calling previously. I checked the note
system we had, and sure enough Joe had been calling in since 3:00am that
day and had talked to about 30 technicians.

I can still imagine it to this day, a guy sitting in a hospital gown in
front of a bunch of cardboard boxes on the phone trying to get his
internet working... absolutely fantastic.

How to build a bridge without concrete or cement
http://www.dswa.ca/story

If you're going to talk about your boss, it's not a good idea to make your facebook entry available to him/her http://www.chillandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=807