Middle-aged Barbie photoshop: she looks 83 years-old!

Wow! Who did that?

I found this image at Lorem Ipsum blog and I'm outraged.

Barbie, the doll we played projecting all we wanted for the future, is middle age but this photoshop shows a woman who is much older.

It is about time to stop pretending we don't get old and that age doesn't matter, yes it does, yes it does.

How would the creators of Barbie, today considered as the most shallow and superficial representation of women,  show their creation at her 53 years old of existence? Something tells me they'll never do that.
I'm not even suggesting that they should put the middle aged Barbie on the market.
Just one doll showing her age appearing in some magazines would do.

Russia flotilla in Syrian port of Tartus: Just browsing around to say Hello!

Take a look at the news below about Russian flotilla in the Syrian port of Tartus. Try to solve the puzzle:
What on earth is Russia planning to do?

MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s navy chief said on Thursday that a flotilla of Russian warships off the coast of Syria would not dock at a port leased by Moscow in the violence-stricken Middle East country.

“The joint fleet flotilla will not enter the port of Tartus,” Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov told journalists. “It is carrying out military drills in the Mediterranean.”
Source: RiaNovosti.

Published: 26 July, 2012
"Allied forces including intelligence operatives and special forces have reinforced their presence on the ground in Syria following the UN stalemate. Meanwhile, coinciding with the UN Security Council deadlock, Moscow has dispatched to the Mediterranean a flotilla of ten Russian warships and escort vessels led by the Admiral Chabanenko anti-submarine destroyer. Russia's flotilla is currently stationed off the Southern Syrian coastline."
Source: Globalresearch .

Published: 28 July, 2012, 15:06

"If the lives of the personnel at the Russian naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus are put at serious risk, they may be evacuated, Russia’s Navy chief says. This comes as Russia holds a major naval drill not far from the Syrian coast.

“If an emergency happens, we will remove the base’s personnel,” Vice-Adm. Viktor Chirkov told Echo Moscow radio Saturday, when asked what the Russian military would do if the base at the Syrian port Tartus came under attack.

He added that it would be up to the Russian president to order such a move."
Source: RT news.

Obama birth certificate is Fake: USA has no President

"Washington Times Writer Jeff Kuhner on TruNews: Obama has Perpetrated a Massive Hoax and Fraud upon the American People; Obama Document Fraud Biggest Scandal in American History; Much Bigger than Watergate; Everything Obama Has Done Could be Illegal; American Media Silent, Part 2 of 2 - 3/22/2012."

Why nothing is being done is the question. The consequences of this forgery is huge but it seems that... I don't know. Illegal is a very dear word for heads of states.

On "Some serious highlights"

"Paulette: Is she as pretty as you?
Elle: She could use some mascara and some serious highlights, but she's not completely unfortunate looking."
from the movie Legally Blonde



I finally did the serious highlights and I have to admit that it really lighten up but I could never dye all my hair to become blonde as some women who have their hair colored call themselves.
I like being brunette.

Rainy day in Paris

I found it at StumbleUpon and if you click here where the image is in size where we can see details you'll feel the same impression that you're part of the scene. The name of the author is missing and the specifications of the technique. (click, it's just one click)

Marina Keegan's The Opposite of Loneliness: Let's make something happen to this world

This is the famous Marina Keegan's essay, 22 years-old journalist and playwright who died last Saturday in a car-crash. (details here)

In another article "Even artichokes have doubts" Marina demonstrates how Yale students are approached by companies that offer them jobs in finance and consulting industries changing the first choice of some students, 25% of Yale graduates, that never considered working in such areas.

The Opposite of Loneliness
by Marina Keegan

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.

It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.

Yale is full of tiny circles we pull around ourselves. A cappella groups, sports teams, houses, societies, clubs. These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partner-less, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group-texts.

This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse – I’m scared of losing this web we’re in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling I feel right now.

But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re part of us and they are set for repetition as we grow up and move to New York and away from New York and wish we did or didn’t live in New York. I plan on having parties when I’m 30. I plan on having fun when I’m old. Any notion of THE BEST years comes from clichéd “should haves...” “if I’d...” “wish I’d...”

Of course, there are things we wished we did: our readings, that boy across the hall. We’re our own hardest critics and it’s easy to let ourselves down. Sleeping too late. Procrastinating. Cutting corners. More than once I’ve looked back on my High School self and thought: how did I do that? How did I work so hard? Our private insecurities follow us and will always follow us.

But the thing is, we’re all like that. Nobody wakes up when they want to. Nobody did all of their reading (except maybe the crazy people who win the prizes…) We have these impossibly high standards and we’ll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves. But I feel like that’s okay.

We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.

When we came to Yale, there was this sense of possibility. This immense and indefinable potential energy – and it’s easy to feel like that’s slipped away. We never had to choose and suddenly we’ve had to. Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it; already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck.

For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it. If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

In the heart of a winter Friday night my freshman year, I was dazed and confused when I got a call from my friends to meet them at EST EST EST. Dazedly and confusedly, I began trudging to SSS, probably the point on campus farthest away. Remarkably, it wasn’t until I arrived at the door that I questioned how and why exactly my friends were partying in Yale’s administrative building. Of course, they weren’t. But it was cold and my ID somehow worked so I went inside SSS to pull out my phone. It was quiet, the old wood creaking and the snow barely visible outside the stained glass. And I sat down. And I looked up. At this giant room I was in. At this place where thousands of people had sat before me. And alone, at night, in the middle of a New Haven storm, I felt so remarkably, unbelievably safe.

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I’d say that’s how I feel at Yale. How I feel right now. Here. With all of you. In love, impressed, humbled, scared. And we don’t have to lose that.

We’re in this together, 2012. Let’s make something happen to this world.

R.I.P. Marina.

Verbal abuse: the underrated psychological violence

When I noticed that verbal abuse is being used in discussions, comments and in daily life I thought it was only in specific places till I talked virtually to a French man who told me that it is also happening in France, and, in English we have numerous examples at social networks, comments on blogs, chat rooms, in short, whenever people are communicating.

Verbal abuse in public can be witnessed by everybody and the abuser may have some people to defend them.

Domestic verbal abuse is different: many times the person who is abused has to deal with it in silence.
I found this article by Pielmorena at Allvoices that approach the topic:


"Verbal abuse, often utter to humiliate, defame and demoralize other. It’s a hostile language that can hurt one ear. It is also known as “reviling’. The abuser may intentionally or unintentionally express an abusive behavior in form of battering someone involving the use of profanity, without physical strain like blows, strikes or punches.

This deliberately throwing of harsh words sometimes it’s undeniably out of provocation rooted from a bad flow of communication, such as fight or argument, or unhealthy debate, whilst the abuser may forcibly or willingly utter to cause harm or to simply defend oneself like a counterattack nor reciprocation. Whilst most of the verbal abuser express hurting offensive words merely out of habit to cause pain in order to trigger the target’s emotion. Through assassination they can get the attention and the participation they need from their target.

Outburst, rages, foul words, swearing, malicious statements, insult, verbal assaults, nasty comments, name-calling are some forms of verbally abusive act that may ressolve to attack, harrass and harm someone particularly inflicting pychological violence.
These types of abuse is free from evidence for it leaves no visible scar, welt, wound or bruise. Most of the time the victim suffer in silence and isolation. Tending to become outbalanced, confused and stress. The victim noticebly has low self-esteem and afraid to open up or express oneself. They became aloof and undergone depression in the long run.

Apparently large percentage of these cases happen privately. And everybody can be a miserable victim and everyone without excuse can play as a perpetrator. Unfortunately there are no corresponding law in U.S. that responsible into this momentarily. But there are numerous groups established to give support and helping hand to aid the victim of verbal abuse.

Think first before you open your big mouth. Be sensible and considerate to the feelings of others. Handle words with care. Avoid regretting for something that you wish you didn’t said for words once said you cannot take it back it is irreversible. it’s like a gunshot once fire, it can get straight to the target and it can kill. If you got nothing good to say. Better not say anything. Just keep your mouth shut."

Mountains Silhouette

I used to go to a city in the mountains and left picture brings me memories of the sight and the peace I felt while watching at this scenery.

The right one only with the help of a photography since we don't have this animal in our country.

Right: Mountains Silhouette by Fresnay.
Left: same title by Lord Narmo.

Gazelles: Prehistoric, Islamic and photograph

I think it is amazing that the three images are so apart in time and culture but still we can feel the gazelle's universe.


Top Left: Detail of the Chauvet cave paintings.
Top Right: Photography of gazelles.
Left: Two Gazelles Running / From Ibn Bakhtishu’s “Uses of Animals”, Persia, Maragha, 1297-1300, MS M.500, fol. 36v. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1912. Photography: Graham S. Haber / Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum.

Olympics 2012: GlaxoSmithKline and it's five athletes

It is ironic or, symptomatic, that one of the most corrupted* laboratories, GlaxoSimithKline, that sells highly expensive drugs that contributes to make people sick, iatrogenesis is the third cause of death in America, is responsible for the anti-doping tests of the Olympic games:

GSK aims to keep the Olympic Games clean
July,16, 2012

"Olympics sponsor GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has launched its first UK advertising campaign to promote the role that anti-doping science will play in making the London Olympics the fairest possible.
The campaign launches on the same day as the official London 2012 anti-doping laboratory, which is being provided by GSK in partnership with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) and King’s College London.

The lab, based at GSK’s Harlow, Essex, site, becomes operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week from today (16 July). More than 150 scientists, led by Professor David Cowan from the Drug Control Centre at King’s College, will carry out more tests (up to 6,250 samples) than at any other Games. Every medallist and up to 50% of all competing athletes will be tested.

The advertising campaign will feature British Olympic medal hopefuls Phillips Idowu, Beth Tweddle, David Weir, Graham Edmunds and Marlon Devonish and will appear on TV from today and outdoor advertising space across the UK from 23 July." (keep reading)
 (emphasis added)

I wonder how much GSK payed for these medal hopefuls for these outdoors. Let's see if the "hopefuls" will win. Clean from the doping test but dirty because of the greed.
Money is the measure of all things.
President Barack Obama received money from the Big Pharma for his campaign. There he is!

* GSK to pay ‘unprecedented’ $3 billion fraud charge
Published on 03/07/12 at 10:09am

GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion in fraud charges, the largest of its kind in US history.

The charges relate to the off-label promotion of its antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses, such as for the treatment of children and adolescents and for sexual dysfunction."


GSK ruling: Another failing, but will the industry learn?
Published on 04/07/12 at 01:16pm

"Big pharma heads were involved in the off-label promotion of Advair/Seretide
Court papers surrounding GSK’s $3 billion fraud charge make for grim reading, and further damages an industry that already struggles with its reputation."


GSK’s Stiefel accused of shares fraud
Published on 13/12/11 at 11:05am

The US financial regulator has charged a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline with defrauding staff by buying back shares from them at less than they were worth

Update:
"Anti-drug testing has traditionally been carried out by the International Olympic Committee in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the respective national authority of each country that hosts the Games." The Guardian,

Bubble Shooter as a arrangement creator

This is the game from the post below.
I played a first time for real and after noticing that there are many beautiful colors and shapes I stopped playing the right way.

My goal was forming the most diverse forms of arrangements and as the levels change and new colors appear it was nice seeing them especially when listening to nice songs I have selected. (click the images to enlarge)

In the ocean chasing urchins

URCHIN MERCHANT

I  found this bubble shooter here and felt like sharing. It has many levels and new items appear while we
advance. It is not difficult and it's quite relaxing.
There is a "mute" button at the top or the game's screen if you get tired of the sound.
Description Urchin Merchant
Collect Sea Urchins by matching 3 of a kind. Control the game with the mouse.

John le Carré's "Our Kind of Traitor" on the screen at the end of the year

I was searching for the article "The US has gone mad" published at Times in 2003 and came across with the news that his latest book "Our Kind of Traitor" will be at the screens at the end of the year.
I can't hardly wait to watch it for I'm a great admirer of his fictions, always related to reality, and of his work as an activist.
This is where I found the news:



Kurzel to helm 'Our Kind of Traitor'
John le Carre adaptation set up by Ink Factory, Potboiler
By Jeff Sneider

Kurzel

Aussie helmer Justin Kurzel is set to follow up his award-winning feature debut "Snowtown" with an adaptation of John le Carre's contemporary thriller novel "Our Kind of Traitor," to be produced by The Ink Factory and Potboiler Prods.
Hossein Amini ("Drive") wrote the script, which follows the relationship between a young couple and the charismatic Russian criminal they are persuaded to help defect. Globe-trotting story takes place in London, Paris, Moscow and Tangiers.

Stephen Cornwell, Simon Cornwell and Rhodri Thomas will produce for The Ink Factory, while Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood will produce for Potboiler Prods. Tessa Ross of Film4, which is supporting development, will exec produce with le Carré.

Script is currently out to financiers and talent, with production expected to start this fall.

"I instantly connected to the material," Kurzel told Variety. "It's a contemporary, muscular thriller that felt really fresh, with subject matter and characters that were relevant and immediate to today. I'm interested in surrogate father-son relationships, which I also responded to in 'Snowtown,' and saw similiarities in the dynamic in 'Our Kind of Traitor.'""

Soon in a theater next to you. :)

 Listen to Le Carré reading an excerpt  of "The US has gone Mad". Amy, oh boring Amy!, only speaks for 17 seconds. Don't worry.

Pharmageddon by David Healy: Another book about the crimes committed by medicine

While people are discussing the health care in US people are being put on drugs with low benefits and a huge amount of risks.
This is another book about the creepy story of how Americans are being silently killed by drugs prescribed by physicians. What happens in America  happens in many countries around the world.

The list of books written by physicians is getting longer. I wrote a post about John le Carrè's "The Constant Gardener", John Braithwaite "Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry", and many posts about medicine.

This is another one.
You should visit David Healy's blog: and take a look at what he is writing and also at the other books he wrote.
The first time I read about the concept of  Pharmageddon was at Charles Medawar site Social Audit. Here is where it's described,

This is what is written about Pharmageddon at Dr. David Healy's site and I have to disagree with the part where it is said that physicians fail to recognize the side effects of the drugs because they are under a Stockholm Syndrome and there is no help for those who suffer such a condition.

It is amazing that after all that is being written and all the clinical data physicians behave as if nothing was happening but excusing them because they suffer from a condition that has no cure sounds out of this planet.

Iatrogenesis is the third cause of death in America. Still physicians don't know about it?

No. If physicians suffer from any disease it would be blindness but who but the blinds on is what has to be discussed.

_________________________________________________

"Pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare in America, and the results are life-threatening.
Dr. David Healy documents a riveting and terrifying story that affects us all.
Pharmageddon is the story of a tragedy.

"In 1962 a sleeping pill called thalidomide caused a horrific drug disaster whose emblematic images of limbless and handicapped babies born to distraught mothers linger to this day.The United States Congress swung into action. They wanted to prevent such a tragedy happening again. They were also determined to rein in the marketing excesses of the pharmaceutical industry. Three steps were taken.

First, new drug development was rewarded with product rather than process patents. Second, new drugs were made available on a prescription only basis. Third, new drugs had to prove they worked through controlled trials before they could be marketed.

In 1962 it looked like these steps would make for safer and more effective drugs and ultimately reduced healthcare costs.

In 1962 it looked like these steps would make for safer

and more effective drugs and reduced healthcare costs.

On the 50th anniversary of the 1962 FDA bill enacted by Congress, Pharmageddon shows how these very arrangements have led to an escalating number of drug induced death and injury, how in some areas of medicine drug induced death is the commonest form of death, and how the costs of treating these problems exceed the costs of the entire drugs budget.


Medicine and the marketers

Pharmageddon also shows how these same changes have turbo-charged pharmaceutical industry marketing. The horrors are best caught by the example of the increasing numbers of pregnant women who religiously steer clear of alcohol, tobacco, soft cheeses, or anything that might harm their unborn child, but who are nonetheless being urged by their doctors to take drugs like the antidepressants — now the most commonly prescribed drugs in pregnancy — even as the evidence accumulates that these drugs cause birth defects, double the rate of miscarriages, and cause mental handicap in children born to mothers who have been taking them.

Pregnant women who religiously steer clear of alcohol, tobacco, soft cheeses, or

anything that might harm their unborn child are urged by their doctors to take antidepressants.

This example of a shepherding of innocents into pharmaceutical killing fields is not an isolated incident. Life expectancy in the US, the country that consumes most of the latest life-saving drugs is falling rapidly compared to the rest of the world. For diseases like schizophrenia, we are now doing 10 times worse in terms of life expectancy than we were 100 years ago.

Not even the FDA has access to the data.*

The means to protect ourselves from a recurrence of the thalidomide disaster have been our undoing. Product patents gave an incentive to pharmaceutical companies to produce blockbuster drugs — drugs that were so valuable to a company and its survival that the incentives to breach regulations and hide any safety data that might be inconvenient for the company are so huge that entire trials are hidden, that almost all trials are ghostwritten to ensure the data looks right, and no one, not even the FDA, has access to the data. (read the entire description at David Healy's site."

* If FDA had no access to the data now it has and is even helping the BIG PHARMA using artifices like evergreening.

Complementary colors: Color Dove Illusion by Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer

Tel-Aviv University, Israel

© 2009 Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer

1- Fix your gaze on the central black point on the bird, as well as while the sky flashes. When the bird starts to fly, follow it, and keep staring at the black fixation point.

2- You’ll start to notice, that the “empty bird” is filled-in with a color similar to the previous background’s color. The colored image produces illusory colors, an afterimage on “empty” shape, which induces an effect opposite to the well known “afterimage” effect.

3- The common “afterimage” effect yields perceived complementary color, whereas the current effect shows an appearance of a color similar to that of the background, where originally, no physical color was present in the empty shape.

I could not help sharing it. It was 2nd prize at 2009 Best Illusion of the Year Contest. Change the colors. It is really amazing!
There are many works based on the fact that when our eyes stares at a color with a white background we see the complementary colors.
At this site you can do an interesting experiment with your children.


© 2009 Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer
Source: Illusion Contest.
It's copyrighted and I didn't ask permission to the authors because I didn't find their address. I hope they understand that I'm publishing it here instead of sharing the link to assure people watch it.
Few people click at links. I think I'm promoting this work and it has to do with science that must be known by everybody.

If the authors ask I can remove it. I hope they don't.

Makeup, lipsticks, nail-polish, hair color, skincare: Yes, I'm a woman!

And I use it all!
I'm trying to change some stuffs but nail-polish will always be red as well as lipsticks thou I use it in a brown shade of red for casual events.

When I turned 25 I started using lipstick and could never stop it. It is a little obsessive and I can't get out without it. Only once I got out without the lipstick and... the horror!... there was not a single one on my purse.
I entered the first drugstore and bought a two dollars one. The DMS-5 will surely add it as a disease.

I'm trying to change the makeup. I use mascara, lipstick and sometimes a black eyeliner.
Some of the things I do and what I'm trying to achieve:

Eyes: only black mascara and occasionally a black eyeliner. I'll try to start using eye-shadows and according to my research the first item has to be a brown one because it is the base to a black smokey eye that is the first I want to learn how to do properly.
Sometimes I use an eye-shadow that matches the lipstick.

Skincare: years ago I went to a dermatologist who prescribed me retinoic acid.  I don't have many problems with my skin but I had an allergic reaction that made me go to this great and famous dermatologist Antar Padilha who died in 2005.
I only trust him and I've seen many dermatologists doing strange treatments to my friends.
He told me that we do not need to fear the sun the way we are being told and that the sun is good for the skin.
Retinoic acid do wonders to my skin. Every year I use it for one month.
Tip: Don't wash your skin right before passing the cream. According to my experience, this is anecdote evidence, my skin stopped being very irritated after I stop washing before the cream. I wash my skin in the afternoon and never at night when I'm using retinoic acid. NEVER, never touch, squeeze or pop pimples or blackheads. You'll only make it worse and have a mark that the natural process of healing don't leave. The mark last for months. Brown ugly mark, or marks, that can be avoided only by not touching them.
If you have acne search for a dermatologist and surf the web for information.
A very close friend had this problem when we were teens and she still have the marks. I had terrible nightmares about it. I feared the same happened to me.

I only use glycerin soap on my face and bath. I do it for more than two decades.

Skin makeup: Once I had a great Helena Rubinstein foundation that has a very natural result but when it finished I didn't buy another one and now it's no longer at the market. I don't know what to do. When I go shopping I try so many things that I end up buying nothing. Cannot decide.

Hair color: I want to do highlights on my hair. I started dying it soon and the color is too dark. Hairstylists I hate them, I hate them all since they refuse to do what we want and think they know what is the best for us.
At the moment I'm studying and I have already started trying. If things go wrong I'll go to the hairstylist. How ironic.
It will have to be a slow process because I don't wanna ruin my hair.


I don't like following fashion, I cannot wear clothes or accessories with letters because I'm not an outdoor.
I like mixing and matching.
That's all for the moments girls.

France's July, 14 national holiday: watch online

This is the highlight of the national holiday. The fireworks will start at 11 pm. On 14 July, the skies of Paris will light up to the theme of disco (‘70’s and ‘80s).
You will be able to see the fireworks live again this year on Paris.fr. You can watch the broadcast of the show on your computer from 11 pm.
This is the link to watch the show online: http://14juillet.paris.fr/index.html
I was at the Trocadero in 1985 and it was a great experience.

2009 July 14 firewords

Source: Paris.fr.

Image: Copyright Mairie de Paris/Sophie Robichon

Google doodle celebrating 150th Gustav Klimt

This is today's Google doodle remembering the 150th anniversary of Gustav Klimt.
The Google's word for the search is behind 1908's "The Kiss" the most famous of Klimt's piece creating a very beautiful effect.
The floor with tiny flowers was enlarged to the left and the background was done in the gilded style Klimt used in this period of his career.
Happy birthday Gustav Klimt!

Optical Illusion: why do we love to be fooled?

What amazes about these kind of illusions is that we love them and can't stop trying to figure out how do they work.
Our eyes were created in a way that makes it possible.
That's all.
Can you see the yellow balls moving?
Source: Facebook.

My Resignation Letter from adulthood

To Whom it May Concern,

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.  I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald's and think that it is a four star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle, skid rocks across the mill pond and make a sidewalk with rocks.

I want to roller skate and play ball in the street, play 'Rover Red Rover', 'Hide and Seek' and ride my iron wheel wagon down the hill.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade* stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple.  When all I knew were colors, most of my multiplication tables, and a few nursery rhymes.  All I knew was to be happy and I was blissfully unaware of all the things that should make me worried or upset.

I want to sleep in a tent in the back yard without worry or fear.

I want to think the world is fair.  That everyone is honest and good.

I want to believe anything is possible.

I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live simple again.  I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor's bills, gossip, illness, and the loss of loved ones.

I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, kind words, truth, justice, peace, dreams, imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.

So here is my check book and my car keys, my credit card bills and all my statements.  I am officially resigning from adulthood.

And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause...
Tag! You are it!

Author Unknown