Friday, July 25, 2008

Are you feeling crazy?

Are you feeling strong negative emotions and also feeling apprehensive, as if something bad is about to happen? Maybe you have subconsciously picked up on a real danger, or maybe you are seeing a pattern in your life that you are about to repeat.
Ask yourself what happened the last time you felt this hurt, this angry, this scared. What are the similarities between this time and that? Why did you go through the pain? Did you have to? Do you have to now? How can you break the pattern? If you don't you are destined to go through the same thing all over again. The only way to change it is to do something different . For instance, if you always run away from a situation- try facing it or if you always face a situation, try running from it. Do something unexpected. Bail out as soon as possible because the longer it goes on the harder it will be to change and the more you are going to get hurt. Breaking these patterns can be hard- but the minute you do you will feel better. You'll go from frantic to calm. And hopefully you'll never have to face that same situation again.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Credibility of The Amazing Randi

Skeptics love to bring up the Amazing Randi and his offer to give one million dollars to anyone who can prove psychic ability to him. I don't see how anyone could accept any of his results as scientific. 1, He is not a scientist 2. He is world renowned for his trickery- one of the best magicians in the world 3. He has a huge vested interest in having the results turn out one way, rather than another. A scientist being paid by a tobacco company to prove that smoking doesn't cause cancer has no credibility at all, so why should the Amazing Randi? Being a magician he may say he buried a ring in a field, and it may look like he buried the ring in the field and he could even “prove” it using a metal detector, but how could we possibly be sure he actually did it or not? Everyone's worried about the psychic tricking Randi- but not about the Amazing Randi tricking Them! Yet trickery is his livelihood! That's what magic IS! So I don't trust his results at all.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Science experiment with a ghost

It was the first school day after the Easter
Holidays. I was frantically getting my two children
ready to leave when the phone rang. My Mother-in-law
Frances was calling from Newcastle to tell me her
husband John was going into surgery that morning. She
was a bit worried about the heart operation. I wasn't.
My Aunt had the same surgery earlier that year and it
was so successful she was walking around in days. I
insisted my husband Tim call his dad at the hospital
before the operation. Tim wished him luck. He wasn't
worried either. "See you after the operation" said his
father cheerfully.
But something went wrong. John's heart was in much
worse shape than they realized. They put him on life
support while deciding what to do. Tim and his
brothers and sister rushed to be by his side. Tim's
brother Chris had a dream of his father panicking,
saying he didn't want to die. But he did. The next
day.
We were all shocked. John was such an active man. He
was involved in all sorts of groups The wine club. The
Friends of the University group.Even after he retired
he was doing volunteer work for them. He was an avid
birdwatcher. He subscribed to cycling magazines. And
science magazines.
That's what he, my husband and I and my eldest son
Justin shared with him- a love of science. I remember
having heated debates with him and his friends about
things like God and ESP and such. While I was
passionate about science, I also believed in these. He
and his friends didn't.
When he died I started grieving. This was a surprise
to me. I didn't think I was capable of it. When my own
father died 6 years before I hadn't felt anything.
With John it was different. We had mutual respect and
although he wasn't sure about me to begin with, he
became enthusiastic about all the things I was getting
into, especially when I started teaching science to
year two's. He loved that. And I was VP of the P&C. He
was proud of that too, because I was working on a
survey on the future of our school. He was proud of
every member of his family and enthusiastic about all
their accomplishments.
One night I was lying in bed and thinking of him and
crying, when I imagined my father speaking to me. He
was very angry. "How dare you grieve more for him than
you did for me! I'm your father. If you don't stop it,
I'll really give you something to grieve about. I'll
kill one of your children!"
I didn't know whether he really said that or if I was
just imagining what he'd say, but either way, I wasn't
going to take any chances. I didn't go to Newcastle,
and I tried very hard not to grieve or cry.
Anyway, that Friday I was quietly working on a report
of the survey when I felt John's presence. I covered
up the computer screen. "Don't look!" I pleaded. "I
don't know what I'm doing in this section yet!" I'd
always felt intimidated by my father-in-law. He could
be quite pedantic sometimes and his standards were
high. (Once he gave me a ten minute lecture when I
said "Octopi instead of Octopuses).
That's when I realized what I was doing. I was acting
like he was really in the room with me. This is how we
would normally behave together. It must be him. I
asked him what he was doing here. "Just trying out my
new body" He said. I remembered how the minute my
father died all the power in the hospital went out.
So I said "Tell you what- when everyone's gathered
together at your house tonight- cut all the power to
the house. That way I'll know you were really here and
it would prove that ghosts exist." Then he was gone. I
wasn't sure he heard me.
I was then covered with a sense of joy. See, I wasn't
grieving anymore. How could I? He, he was alive, was
happy and he was himself. He wasn't gone. And if I
wasn't grieving then my father wouldn't be angry, and
my children would be safe. It was a miracle!
That night I anxiously phoned Tim in Newcastle. "Had
there been a blackout?" I asked. Puzzled, he said no.
My husband doesn't believe in ghosts , so I didn't
explain too much. I guess John hadn't heard me after
all.
Anyway, three days later my children and I went to
join my husband in Newcastle for the funeral. During
the eulogy a family friend said how much John loved to
travel and how he always carried a torch wherever he
went. He only needed it once but he was really
thrilled when he finally got to use it during a power
outage at a holiday home he and his friends rented
during their last trip. That was just like him- always
prepared!
After the funeral everyone gathered together, but I
was exhausted and went to the granny flat to take a
nap. About an hour later my niece Zoe and son Daniel came
to wake me up. There had been a power outage. The
whole block was in darkness. The children took me into
the living room, where everyone was sitting around
with lit candles all around them. They were telling
ghost stories, of all things. My brother-in-law Chris
said "Ah- Carmen! You're here. Tell us a ghost story!"
I couldn't speak. How could I tell him he was in one?
I did tell him later though, and that's when he told
me about his dream. He was glad his
father was OK.
So that was the last thing my father-in-law and I did
together- a science experiment from beyond the grave.
I think he'll have to agree I was right about the
paranormal after all!
I never sensed him again.
.......................................

copyright Carmen Lambert 2003

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Shapes Puzzle

Click on the image below to see the instructions for doing a new kind of puzzle that I invented.


Where is the treasure hidden? Fill in the dashes to find out.
_ _ _ _ ' _
_ _ _ _ _ _ ,
_ _ ' _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ .
_ _ _ _ _ ,
_ _ ' _ _ _
_ _ _ _.

Friday, July 11, 2008

I play dress up


My son got me to try on his Phat pants, hat and jacket while posing aggressivevely with a fire twirling staff. The things I do for my kids!!!!

Ice candles


Start with a candle frozen inside a zip lock bag full of coloured ice.



It burns down, melting the ice around it.





It burns more.




You can decorate the ice with wax dripped from a candle.




The ice melts and fills up the foil-lined bowl it's in making it look like an iceberg floating in the water.




We decorated ours more and added another candle.




Next we added different coloured wax.




By the end we had quite a candle sculpture!