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31 Dec

June is Internet Safety Month – free software!

Pandora Corp. Announces PC Pandora Computer Monitoring Software FREE Giveaway For Internet Safety Month The United States Senate has named June as Internet Safety Month. For the last week in June, Pandora Corp. will give away their signature computer monitoring software absolutely FREE to parents that need an effective solution to keep their kids safe on the Internet this summer. (Vocus) June 24, 2010 — Earlier this month, the US Senate passed a resolution proclaiming June as “Internet Safety Month.” The motion comes as an effort to educate parents and children about the dangers of the Internet and spread awareness. While most people will say that nothing in life is free and “everything has a price,” for the last week in June, Pandora Corp. is changing the rules. Beginning at 12:01 AM (Pacific Standard Time) on Saturday, June 26th, and continuing through midnight on Wednesday, June 30th, the company will be giving away its signature computer monitoring software, PC Pandora 6.0, absolutely free! “We did a holiday giveaway in 2008 and it went very well,” says James Leasure, co-founder of Pandora Corp. “Unfortunately, the economy still hasn’t turned around for most folks yet, but the need for an effective solution to keep kids safe online this summer is still overwhelmingly present. So, we’d like to help the parents in need once again.” During the last week in June, parents can visit www.pcpandora.com and use the code FREESUMMER2010 to get the current PC Pandora 6.0 absolutely free as a download. The giveaway will last until 11:59 PM (PST) on June 30th, 2010, or until 50,000 units have been given away. No catches. No strings. During the 2008 holiday giveaway, over 35,000 parents were given a copy of PC Pandora for free. Pandora Corp. is hoping to help as many parents with the second free giveaway in the company’s history. “The US Senate says this is the month for parents to educate themselves on the dangers of the Internet,” explains Leasure. “There is no better way to educate yourself than finding out and learning exactly what your children are doing online.” [PC Pandora is computer monitoring software that records all activity on a computer. First-rate monitoring capabilities take sequential snapshots of everything that happens on the screen, thus allowing parents to see first-hand everything their child does both on and offline. Complete records of all user activity are presented in both text-based files and easy-to-read charts. All instant messenger chats, emails sent and received, websites visited, peer-2-peer files shared, keystrokes logged, programs accessed, Internet search queries and more are recorded for parents to review. “If your child is talking to strangers on social networks, creating multiple social network profiles, downloading illegal music and movies, falling victim to a cyberbully, or simply visiting websites you don’t approve of, you will know about it if you are monitoring their internet activity.” For parents that have to work this summer and leave the kids home alone, PC Pandora comes equipped with the IRIS feature, which sends the recorded text-based files to a parent’s email at specified intervals. But it’s the newest companion to PC Pandora 6.0 that makes monitoring kids on the Internet easier than ever before. PC Pandora LIVE! allows parents to access the data recorded by PC Pandora from anywhere in the world through a safe and secure SSL encrypted website. All a parent needs is an Internet connection and a web browser; users can even log in from their iPhones� and other handheld devices. “While the IRIS email report feature is a valuable tool for any parent, the LIVE! service is priceless,” says Leasure. “PC Pandora LIVE! allows you to review the data and adjust settings on the monitored computer. Not only can you can check web history and view instant messenger and email conversations, but you can also view the screenshots, update Internet filters, and fine-tune the parental control parameters, all while at work, on the road, or simply unable to be at home in front of the monitored computer.” For parents monitoring multiple computers, PC Pandora LIVE! also collects the data from all machines with PC Pandora 6.0 installed and provides that data in a single place for easy review. This makes it easier to review a child’s activity – no more emails to comb through and no more having to manually view the data on multiple computers. Typical filters and standard blocks are easy for savvy young users to circumnavigate, but if you have computer monitoring software, you’ll know what your children are doing and be able to act appropriately. Leasure states: “This summer, parents need to know what their kids are doing online. Our PC Pandora 6.0 monitoring software coupled with the LIVE! service is the best all-around defense parents can get to help keep their children safe on the Internet. If someone is approaching a child with ill intentions, or if a child is engaging in risky behavior, the parent will know and can act immediately.” Pandora Corp. is offering a fully-functional copy of PC Pandora 6.0, a $70 value, absolutely free for their Internet Safety Month giveaway. Leasure adds, “While we unfortunately can’t offer the LIVE! service for free at this time, it’s a reasonably priced add-on for parents who want the convenience and extra measure of safety it provides.” Parents interested in getting a copy of PC Pandora can go to www.pcpandora.com and use the code FREESUMMER2010 at checkout to get PC Pandora 6.0 for FREE! About PC Pandora: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal – to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. First released in mid 2005, PC Pandora has been constantly upgraded to industry-leading specifications and has received accolades from users, reviewers and even school districts and law enforcement agencies, who use the program to help in the day-to-day supervision of the children and citizens they are charged with protecting. The company website devotes space to helping parents by providing them with 18 Tips to Safe Surfing and Pandora’s Blog, where current news in the world of online safety is discussed regularly. In addition, the Pandora Corp. has made the PD Pandora Internet Safety Symposium available to schools and law enforcement as a free resource for spreading internet safety awareness to parents. Over the past few years, PC Pandora has vaulted into a leadership position for parental control software by boasting a combination of features that are unparalleled in the monitoring industry. In 2010, Version 6.0 was released, again widening the spectrum of coverage and protection offered by the program. Concurrently released with 6.0, the web-based PC Pandora LIVE! service affords parents the ability to keep their kids safe from anywhere at anytime. PC Pandora is also now available through the Pandora Corp. store at Amazon.com.

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31 Dec
31 Dec

Soda Pet Peeve

On a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to Burbank, we’re offered a drink shortly after we take off.  I’m sitting in the back, in my usual aisle seat, because when we land in Burbank they’ll open the back door as well as the front door and I can get out faster.  I usually pass on the drink and sip on the bottle of water I bring with me.  As we’re in close quarters, I can’t help but hear what all the people around me are ordering. Across the aisle from me are a mom and her two little girls – probably around 6 and 8 years old.  What do the girls order?  Diet Coke!  As a mother myself, I am appalled.  This is wrong on so many levels.  And yet, the mother of these two little girls thinks nothing of it.  Has she not read any newspaper article or magazine?  Caffeine, artificial sweetener, sodium, all kinds of chemicals and preservaties – there is NOTHING that is of any value to the body in these sodas.  The worst part of this whole scenario is that the soda is basically addictive, so these girls are starting in on a very bad habit at a very young age. What is it going to take to get parents to understand that they have to help their children to make good choices for themselves in every aspect of their lives – including the food and drink that they put into their bodies?  Maybe we should put an age limit on sodas the way we do on cigarettes.  I don’t know what the solution is, but with the problems with juvenile onset diabetes and youth obesity running rampant in the United States, we have to do something, because evidently parents just aren’t doing enough. Share/Bookmark]]>

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31 Dec

October comes

How can it be October 1st already?  This has been such a strange year.  It’s been one of those best of times, worst of times scenarios that I thought only Dickens could experience.  And now as the year is winding down, I’m winding up to put these lessons learned into something tangible.  Time moves on, growth continues, creativity bursts forth from even the cracks in the sidewalks.  This is something I’m compelled to do.  Autumn calls to nest, to get comfortable, to be warm.  But the inner urging forces me to be uncomfortable, to stretch, to move into that uncertainty, to test myself yet again.  Somehow this will be good for me, so I abandon any further thoughts of procrastination.  I am writing my new book!

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31 Dec

The Magic Castle!

I have lived in Los Angeles for 26 years now and up until last weekend I had never been to The Magic Castle. What is the Magic Castle? Just a Los Angeles institution! It’s a throw-back to old Hollywood, the kind of place that still requires a jacket and tie to get in. It’s so exclusive that you must be personally invited by one of their members to get in for an evening’s entertainment. That’s probably why I had never been before – I was never invited! But thanks to the magic of the internet, I now have a connection. Michael Vincent is a brilliant magician who lives in London. He happens to subscribe to my Daily Wisdom e-mail newsletter. When Michael was invited to perform at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, he invited me to come see his show! Of course I jumped at the chance. The Magic Castle is an old mansion that has been converted into a restaurant and show rooms. Greg and I arrived for our 7:30 dinner reservation and had a lovely vegetarian meal. The service was excellent, the atmosphere very old school dignified. Everyone dressed up for an elegant evening. After dinner we explored the place, and were mesmerized by a bartender/magician doing card tricks. It turns out this was the anniversary of The Magic Circle in England, so it was British week at the castle, and all the shows featured British magicians. The first show we saw Greg laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall out of his seat! I think Aussies and Pommies share a similar sense of humor. In between shows we had a drink in the lounge, and were serenaded by Irma, the resident ghost who plays requests on the piano. You call out a song and it magically plays! Any song – it doesn’t matter, Irma knows it. Amazing! Finally we got to meet Michael Vincent himself. I had gotten to know Michael a little bit via e-mail and by visiting his website, so I knew already that he is a sweetie. But, oh, what a gentleman! Michael is very handsome, and gracious, and it was so good to connect with him in person. And talk about talented! We were absolutely astounded by the magic that Michael came up with. I think my jaw kept dropping open, and I kept looking at Greg to see if he was seeing what I was seeing. We had a great time – Michael is hilarious – so charming and at ease on the stage. You could really see that this is his dharma. Drop by and visit Michael’s site – and if anyone knows an agent in LA who handles magicians, let me or Michael know – I want him to come back and do Leno! http://www.magicofmagic.com

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31 Dec

Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams Commentary Ricky is taking an 18 month program at The California College of Ayurveda.  Ayurveda is known as a holistic health care system.  But it is so much more than that.  Ayurveda is the “science of life” and it teaches us about the world, and about
ourselves.  This is a good place for a guy like Ricky to be right now.  He spent many years
working towards a life as a professional football player, and eventually found that
it was unfulfilling for him.  He was wise enough to understand that the fame and
fortune were not making him happy, and for the most part that the responsibility that
camewith it was making him miserable.  So, he quit.  Unorthodox?  Yes. Unpredictable?  Yes.  Foolish?  Some people would say yes, but I say that he was
brave.  It is courageous to go follow your heart, rather than societal expectations.
Sometimes it takes that leap of faith to venture out into the unknown.  And the
unknown is full of potential. What happens next is up to Ricky himself.  Ayurveda will help him find his place in
the world, his “dharma” or “purpose” in life.  Maybe it will be in the world
of holistic health care, and maybe it will have something to do with sports after
all.  Meanwhile, what is important now is the journey that Ricky has embarked upon.  It’s
a journey of self-discovery, one that we all come to at some point in our lives.
Because his choice was so extreme, from life as a multi-million dollar football star,
to attending classes as just another student, his journey has gotten lots of
attention.  But we all make choices everyday.  These choices help to shape our lives, and lead us to where we’re going.  At we making conscious choices?  Are we
listening to the yearnings of our heart? Ricky has been open about his use of marijuana.  He doesn’t seem to have any plans to quit.  But as he continues on his path with the study of Ayurveda, he will find
that he doesn’t need to smoke.  Ricky will discover a strength within himself that
he will not want to dull with the use of drugs.  Ricky shows many of the symptoms of
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.  He is intelligent, and restless.  He has 3
children from 3 different relationships.  He is impulsive.  He is gifted.  I think marijuana is a means of self-medicating, so that he can mellow out.  In Ayurveda,
AD/HD is basically a Vata imbalance.  When Ricky learns other ways to balance his
Vata, he will be better able to take care of himself.  Right now the marijuana is a
habit, or a crutch, but as he continues living an Ayurvedic lifestyle he’ll find he
doesn’t need any crutch.  He’ll be healthy in mind, body, relationships, career
– in every aspect of his life.
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31 Dec

SAG AWARD Winners

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
LUPITA NYONG’O / Patsey – “12 YEARS A SLAVE” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
JARED LETO / Rayon – “DALLAS BUYERS CLUB” (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
AUBREY ANDERSON EMMONS / Lily Tucker-Pritchett
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O’NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
HELEN MIRREN / Linda Kenney Baden – “PHIL SPECTOR” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
MICHAEL DOUGLAS / Liberace – “BEHIND THE CANDELABRA” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham – “DOWNTON ABBEY” (PBS)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
BRYAN CRANSTON / Walter White – “BREAKING BAD” (AMC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
BREAKING BAD (AMC)
MICHAEL BOWEN / Uncle Jack
BETSY BRANDT / Marie Schrader
BRYAN CRANSTON / Walter White
LAVELL CRAWFORD / Huell
TAIT FLETCHER / Lester
LAURA FRASER / Lydia Rodarte-Quale
ANNA GUNN / Skyler White
MATTHEW T. METZLER / Matt
RJ MITTE / Walter White Jr.
DEAN NORRIS / Hank Schrader
BOB ODENKIRK / Saul Goodman
AARON PAUL / Jesse Pinkman
JESSE PLEMONS / Todd
STEVEN MICHAEL QUEZADA / Gomez
KEVIN RANKIN / Kenny
PATRICK SANE / Frankie

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY / Ron Woodroof – “DALLAS BUYERS CLUB” (Focus Features)


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31 Dec

A Valentine to Love

A Valentine to Love

By Lissa Coffey

 

Valentine’s Day has us all thinking about love.  We can’t escape the ads, the decorations in the stores, the promises of chocolates and roses at every point of purchase.  We get caught up in the celebration and romance of this holiday.  And yet, we know that there is much more to love than cards and candy.

 

Love is all there is.

 

Really.  There’s nothing else.  It’s what we’re made of.  It’s what we live for.  It’s who we are. 

 

Love is at the source of all creation.  It’s something we all strive to understand, and that we all have in common.  It’s what connects us. 

 

Love is our greatest teacher.  It is so big, so all-encompassing, that individually we could study it throughout our entire lifetime, and as a society we have studied it throughout the ages.  We can learn about love, we can learn from love, we can learn to love. 

 

Bhakti Yoga is the Path of Love.  Bhakti Yoga teaches us to love everything, and everyone, because all of it is divine.  Each small thing is a part of the greater whole, and that whole is divine.  So when we practice Bhakti we experience the feeling of love in the recognition of divinity, with everything we come across.

 

We experience love the most profoundly through our relationships.  Although there is only one love, love is expressed in many different ways. There have been sonnets and songs written about love throughout the ages, yet it is still difficult for us to define because it is so vast.  The Indian sages have come up with terms to help us understand some of the many aspects of love.

 

-Santa: Santa is peaceful, calm, and slow. This is a love we might feel for ourselves.  It is gentle, steady, and natural.

 

-Dasya: Dasya is the love that we might feel towards a teacher, a mentor, someone we respect and want to serve. 

 

-Sakhya:  Sakhya is the love we feel for a dear friend.  In friendship there is a kind of equality, a give and take, an exchange of feelings, a sharing of our selves.

 

-Vatsalya: Vatsalya is the love that a parent feels for a child.  A baby is so innocent and we can’t help but to want to give love to that child, without demands or expectations for anything in return.  Children are pure, and completely lovable.  We recognize this without hesitation.

 

-Madhura: Madhura is the love of our beloved.  This is the “in love” feeling when we are swept off our feet, blissful, devoted, and intense.  

 

Bhakti Yoga continually reminds us to “Love the Highest.”  When we find ourselves infatuated with our jobs, our cars, any material thing, Bhakti tells us that we are misguided.  When all of our human desire for what is new, fun, novel or beautiful is instead directed towards love, we then experience the greatest delight. 

 

In our human experience, love is not all hearts and flowers.  Sometimes it’s messy, it can be complicated, and it can hurt.  Love itself is pure, simple, and perfect – but we tend to muddy it up with our humanity.  We question, we expect, we desire, we need.   And in our attempts to understand we come up with definitions, we analyze, we discuss and then we filter all of this through our past experiences to come up with what we think love should be, would be, could be.  And every one of us is doing the same thing, with oftentimes very different results.  Jealousy, temptation, broken hearts and bitter break-ups are the inspiration for many songs and screenplays.

 

But the basic truth is that love is.  It just is. Love is beyond definition, beyond space and time, beyond any relationship.  Love is a true constant in this world.  It does not need to be created, it is always here, it has always been here, and it always will be here.  We have only to know this to notice it.  Eyes open, mind open, heart open, love is available to us in all of its myriad forms, essential simplicity and spectacular glory. 

 

“Namaste” is a Sanskrit greeting that means: “The Divine in me recognizes and honors the Divine in you.”  That recognition of the Divine is Bhakti, or love.  On Valentine’s Day, and every day, let’s try to practice Bhakti a little more often.  Not just with our Valentines, but also with everyone we meet.  Let’s love the highest, starting with our selves.  This is where we start.  This is where the seed is planted, where love can grow, and thrive, and blossom within each one of us into a delightful bounty that can be shared.  We can feed our souls on this banquet of love.  No one need go hungry.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day.  Namaste!

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31 Dec

Distressing Times Well Worn

I have heard that fashion often reflects the mood of the times.  When we are optimistic as a society, hemlines tend to go up.  When we feel gloomy, we see more dark gray hues.  So it really is no surprise that the fashion trend of the moment seems to be the “distressed” look. 

I’ve seen this everywhere.  Jeans have manufactured holes in them, strategically placed rips and sanded down seams.  Shirts are wrinkled on purpose, just enough to give that worn-for-a-long-time feel to them.  Gone are the starched collars and in is a more “easy” fit.  Our new shoes are to be worn not only without socks, but also with the laces conspicuously missing.

Our clothes are mirroring our distress.  We’ve got a monstrous unemployment rate, and a seemingly endless war or two going on at the same time.  We are dealing with natural disasters all over the globe, and an oil spill with repercussions that reach far into the future.  The economy basically, well, is there any better word than “sucks” right now? And on top of all this, there’s the whole Tiger letdown, Jesse cheating on our beloved Sandra, and the Gores’ divorce!  Yes, “distress” is putting it mildly.

The fact that we have chosen to wear the distressed look tells me that as bad as things are, we have hope.  We know we can get through this.  These are the kinds of clothes we wear when we’re ready to get down to the business at hand.  Those paint splattered khakis?  They say: “I can handle anything!”  That faded denim shirt?  It says: “Put me to work!”

Volunteerism is at its highest level since 1992.  We may be pinching pennies, but we were able to scrape up $1.3 million dollars in just 2 hours when Larry King went on the air to raise money to help clean up the Gulf.  This is definitely a “can do” society.  We are keenly aware that things are bad, and we’re making a concerted effort to do what we can to make things better.

We are banding together more.  Those “six-degrees of separation” have all but disappeared with social networking.  Alyssa Milano personally tweets the importance of the mosquito net in helping to combat malaria and with just a few clicks we are sending a net to the cause.  Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete have raised awareness and inspired us to take action on behalf of families struggling with autism.  Philanthropy has gone viral!

So, yes, with all the events that are happening seemingly at the same time, we’re distressed.  But maybe in this state we finally have our priorities straight.  Maybe we are starting to understand what is important to us.  Our style is changing, and evolving.  I see the current trend as a statement that “fashion” as we know it doesn’t matter right now.  What matters is that we take care of the issues at hand, and that we take care of ourselves and each other.

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31 Dec

Raccoons and grubs

A few months ago, Greg called me into the backyard to help solve a mystery.  Our lawn was torn up, kind of rolled up in patches.  How could this have happened?   It was so strange – something I’d never seen before.  It didn’t look like a vandal, or something human – we had considered an alien invasion but thought better of it.  A quick search online suggested that possibly it was a raccoon invasion.  Since we have had raccoons in our backyard before, that explanation made sense.  It seems that the raccoons roll up the sod looking for little grubs to eat.  These grubs are not usually there, so the lawn is generally left alone – but somehow the raccoons know when they are there, and then they feast.

 So, to get rid of the raccoons, sites suggest you get rid of the grubs.  And that means all kinds of nasty chemicals.  No, not for us.  Poisons can go straight from our lawn to the lake, hurting our wildlife.  We decided to take our chances and hope that the raccoons would run out of food and move on to another lawn.  No such luck.  It only got worse.  We kept researching.

Finally, Greg came upon a natural solution: Cayenne pepper!  It seems a little spice mixed into the buffet would turn the raccoons away.  Ah!  Sounded good to me, red pepper can’t hurt animals, just maybe enough them enough to take their interest away from our lawn.  It is an inexpensive remedy, too – I went to the grocery store and got a bottle of the cheapest cayenne, came back home and sprinkled away.  Quite colorful, the green grass and the hot red pepper.  And so far, it seems to be working!  I’ll keep you posted.

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