✔ 1st day of spring 2013 ★

Good morning & happy spring w/ a high of 70° today! Yesterday after blogging all I did was rearrange my schedule to fit in the new Meetup group. That pretty much took the rest of my evening because I kept rearranging things until I liked it & it all fit right. The rearranging takes long enough, but all of it is done in HTML Tables coding which makes it take even longer. I think I have it the way I like it now. I added in 

gardening & walking now that it's spring & the Meetup groups 2 meetings a week that I'll be attending. I'm even thinking of creating a few Meetup groups of my own. I just need to work out some logistics such as WHERE we'd meet. I'd do it here at the house, but with cats & dogs that's not a good idea because many people are allergic. Maybe I'll talk to the other officers at the FD & see if I can use the station. We have very nice long tables there & it would be perfect. My Sim-self got a lot done yesterday. She got on the treadmill & worked out & became thin! See the 2nd pic? Amazing. Just 1 day on the treadmill & she looks like I did back in '05. WOW! I made my Sim-self to look just like me which included the weight & poof, the weight is gone now. Anyway, besides losing 50 lbs in 4 hours, she also worked on her photography skill & took a picture of the decorative rock that's out in the Chinese Garden, spent time w/ her husband, showered, made mac & cheese for dinner, made $68 hacking on the PC, & then went to bed. This morning back IRL I took the dogs out & then went on my 1st walk of the year, I love spring! A mile & a half around the Overland loop w/ my iPad Mini & my favorite tunes. I didn't return 50 lbs thinner like my Sim did in 1 workout, but it'll be nice to get back in shape. I doubt 50 lbs thinner, but still better shape as far as maybe losing a FEW lbs at least & better lung capacity & muscle strength. My Sim-self checked for weekly events in Appaloosa Plains & is going to take her favored pet (looks like Sim-Browser at the moment) to the stadium for a Best in Show competition & a chance to win a cash prize. Back IRL I have a Meetup tomorrow at A Real Bookstore in Fairview at 7:p where I'll be book shopping 1st followed bu listening to a book review of The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt while working on my knitting.

1st NY Times crossword puzzle appeared in the newspaper in 1942 to boost the morale of Americans stuck indoors during wartime blackouts.

Countries w/ the most reported burglaries top 10:

1. USA
2. UK
3. Germany
4. France
5. Australia
6. Canada
7. Spain
8. Japan
9. Poland
10. Turkey

Get to 3rd base (or allow someone to get to 3rd base) at your cubicle - with a willing 2nd party, of course.

Keeping a journal of our thoughts, experiences, insights, & learnings promotes mental clarity, exactness, & context. (See? Writing this blog is good for me). Writing good letters - communicating on the deeper level of thoughts, feelings, & ideas rather than on the shallow, superficial level of events - also affects our ability to think clearly, to reason accurately, & to be understood effectively.

Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway (1995):

At the height of the morning rush hour in Tokyo, Japan, five two-man terrorist teams from the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult, riding on separate subway trains, converge at the Kasumigaseki station and secretly release lethal sarin gas into the air. The terrorists then took a sarin antidote and escaped while the commuters, blinded and gasping for air, rushed to the exits. Twelve people died, and 5,500 were treated in hospitals, some in a comatose state. Most of the survivors recovered, but some victims suffered permanent damage to their eyes, lungs, and digestive systems. A United States Senate subcommittee later estimated that if the sarin gas had been disseminated more effectively at Kasumigaseki station, a hub of the Tokyo subway system, tens of thousands might have been killed.

In the attack's aftermath, Japanese police raided Aum Shinrikyo headquarters and arrested hundreds of members, including the cult's blind leader, Shoko Asahara. The cult, which combined Buddhism and yoga with apocalyptic Christian philosophy, was already under investigation for a 1994 sarin attack that killed seven, and for the murder of several political opponents.

During the 1980s, Asahara, a self-styled Buddhist monk, began winning numerous converts to his Aum Shinrikyo cult, whose name translates roughly to the "Supreme Teachings of Om." Asahara exploited the spiritual vacuum left by Japan's economic boom years and promised religious rebirth and supernatural powers to young Japanese who felt uncomfortable within their country's rigidly homogenous society. In 1989, Aum was recognized as a religious corporation in Japan, and by 1995 it had a worldwide following of more than 40,000 people and assets in excess of $1 billion.

In the early 1990s, Asahara added Christian apocalyptic beliefs to his Buddhist teachings and proclaimed that he was the reincarnation of both Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha. Aum became militant, stockpiling weapons and recruiting brilliant young scientists to help him accumulate an arsenal of biochemical weapons, including advanced nerve agents such as VX and killer diseases such as Q-fever and anthrax. These weapons, Asahara promised, would lead Aum Shinrikyo to victory in the coming Armageddon.

More than a dozen political opponents to the cult were murdered, their bodies incinerated in specially built microwave ovens, and in June 1994 Aum staged its first sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, west of Tokyo. A car, modified to strategically release the lethal gas, was driven near a dormitory where judges and court officials conducting a case against Aum were staying. Seven people died, and 150 people were injured. Japan's authorities, hindered by constitutional protection of religious organizations, failed to arrest Asahara or suppress his cult, though they were the prime suspects in the attack. In early 1995, Asahara told his followers that World War III had begun, and a second sarin attack was planned for the Tokyo subway system, which carries some four million riders a day.

In the years since the 1995 attack, five Aum members have been sentenced to die for the murderous acts committed by the cult at Kasumigaseki station and elsewhere, and others have been sentenced to varying prison terms. Shoko Asahara, was sentenced to death by hanging in February 2004, but continues to appeal the decision.

Aum Shinrikyo was stripped of its legal status and tax privileges as a religious organization, but the Japanese government concluded it was no longer a threat and stopped short of using an anti-subversion law to ban it. Aum has changed its name to Aleph, which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and meant to signify renewal, and maintains an impressive following.

News360:

News360 learns what you like (and don’t like) and finds news articles and blog posts from across the Internet that are the most relevant to you, personally.
✔ The New York Times: "News360 has to be one of the better news-aggregating [apps] I’ve seen on any platform"
News360 is an elegant and smart news reader that learns what kinds of stories you like and dislike as you read. You will never again miss something interesting because you haven’t subscribed to the right feed or followed the right person – instead, News360 will show you all the stories that really matter, and none of the noise. You can even connect your Facebook, Twitter and other accounts and News360 will use them to become even more personalized to your particular interests. The more you use it - the smarter it gets.
To make sure that you don’t get a biased or inaccurate outlook, News360 provides coverage from all possible sources for every story, combining text, photography and video to give you a full, 360° view of the issues.
✔ "Apps We Like: News360" — The Wall Street Journal
✔ "News360 is excellent, innovative, and free" — The Unofficial Apple Weblog
✔ “News360 is the best news app on my iPad” — Robert Scoble
Key highlights:
★ Quickly scan headlines, preview stories and dive deep into the content from over 50,000 sources. From top global and national news providers, to local and niche sites and blogs
★ Read your Home feed, where you’ll see top articles that focus on the topics you’re interested in – no jumping between sections or feeds
★ Help News360 learn by marking stories you like as you use it, and it will become better and better at giving you the stories you'll enjoy, but will always try to give you something new and unexpected as well
★ Customize the topics you’re interested in at any time!
★ Create a free News360 account to sync your settings and read saved articles offline on your iPhone, iPad and at news360.com
★ Read local news using your iPhone’s GPS

Over a billion dollars worth of property is burgled from single-family homes in the US each year!

Peak time for most burglaries are between the hours of 10:a - 11:a, & 1:p - 3:p. These time-slots are also prime coffee break times, so what does that tell you - some people refer larceny to a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte?

Protect yourself ahead of time by slathering on a topical cream like Ivy Block, which contains the active ingredient bentoquatam. The plants' poisonous oil binds to skin & often becomes impossible to wash off after just 15 minutes.

Quickly remove pet hair from upholstered furniture or bedding by putting on a pair of rubber gloves, dip them in water, shake them off, & wipe furniture.

Some of the shows on television have been canceled. Did you know The Fall Guy was canceled by ABC? The network is cruel the way the cancel a series. What happened, Lee Majors jumped out of a plane, & when he pulled the cord instead of a parachute, a little note came out. It said, "You're on your own. We're not filming." -Johnny Carson 1985