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This Christmas my partner and I decided to rent a cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Our cabin was appropriately named Heavenly Vision because of the spectacular panoramic view of downtown Gatlinburg.

My partner’s 7 year old daughter was there with us and we were very active. The first day we walked through downtown with Maya (our 10 week old Malamute). We were unable to walk very far because people kept stopping us to pet and inquire about our dog. One man from Miami (apparently there were plenty of people vacationing from Florida) repeatedly offered to buy the dog from us even after we told him it was not for sale. There was a strange mix of people from New York and Miami peppered with rednecks here and there.

It is amazing how a dog can bring out smiles and goodwill from strangers and people who you would never expect to “baby talk” to a dog.

At night, downtown Gatlinburg looks like the perfect little Christmas town with colored snowflake lights on all the street lights. During our stay we went horseback riding,hiking,sledding,and managed to visit the Ripley aquarium petting stingrays and horseshoe crabs.

We ate at several restaurants but my favorite was Cherokee grill which has a modern Americana menu and was reasonably priced. The interior has a  Frank Loyd Wright arts and crafts feel.  The food was good to very good. My partner ordered a steak which was a little dry but the acorn squash with butter was delicious.

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A new sushi restaurant called Koishi (formerly named Koi) opened up near my house a year ago. A run down Pizza Hut was transformed into a somewhat stylish Sushi and Asian restaurant. Having driven by Koishi for months, I decided to stop in for dinner. I like sushi but that night decided to order one of their standard Chinese dishes: beef and broccoli.

I was pleasantly surprised as this beef an broccoli was no run of the mill Chinese dish. For $8.95, The beef was succulent and flavorful with a nice brown sauce that was not too salty or oily. The broccoli was crisp and fresh looking with excellent flavor. I have since been back many times for that dish and others. I still have not tried their sushi though.

My favorite, reasonably priced, close to home restaurant.

UPDATE: I recently tried their sushi rolls. The fish was very fresh with good flavor.  The veggies in the roll were crisp and it all came together to make a pleasant tasting sushi roll. 

The day before Easter, I had dinner at Koishi and in a half joking way asked Kramer (the waiter) for an Easter basket doggie bag. He returned a few minutes later with a hand made bunny rabbit doggie bag!! (see image to  left). Now that is customer service.

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You can use this sound file to help relieve symptoms of SAD/Depression. I listen to it everyday with headphones before I go to bed and it helps. It uses sound that may cause your brain to release more serotonin. You must use headphones and listen to it when relaxed and with your eyes closed.

 

 Depression relief sound file [21:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you send text messages from your phone then you know how frustrating it can be to type a long message with the tiny keyboards built into most cell phones.

I stumbled upon this site, OhDontForget.com ,which is a free service that lets you send a text message to anyone with a cell phone and schedule the time it will send the message.  The interface is very simple and easy to use.

I recently used OhDontForget.com to create a happy birthday message to my partner several months before his birthday. The site will automatically send the message on the exact day of his birthday keeping me out of trouble.

I have always wanted to create music. So I decided to learn how to play the Didgeridoo and the Native American flute. Both instruments are supposed to be somewhat easy to play and allow for a free-form style of music.

I chose the Didgeridoo because the sound of this Australian instrument is very haunting and strangely beautiful. Apparently, the Didgeridoo is one of the oldest in the world dating back 2,000 or more years. I placed an order for a reasonably priced bamboo Didgeridoo from Laoutback which has a good reputation in the industry. It is supposed to arrive today and I am very excited. I guess I will have to learn circular breathing.

I recently attended a Sunday service at the Center for Positive Living in Charlotte and they incorporated a native American flute in the service. The sound was so beautiful and seemed to resonate with me in every way. Anyway, I ordered a Butch Hall flute from Grand Canyon flutes which should arrive next week.

It is a nice feeling to actually begin the transition from being a passive listener of music to a potential creator.

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Several weeks ago I ordered a game called The Wild Divine. This game comes with a biofeedback device called a “Light Stone” that measures heart rate, and skin conductance. The object of the game is to relax by controlling your breathing and heart rate. This makes for a very challenging game because in order to progress you have to “slow” yourself down and develop a sense of calm. If you get agitated or angry you will get stuck and not be able to move forward in the game.

The Wild Divine uses cool 3D animation to create a beautiful dreamy world where you can wander around and explore. I am currently at the stage of exploring and will probably need some help to get any farther. I can say I feel very relaxed after I play the game and feel this could be a great way to relieve stress. Time will tell..

Here is a link to the The Wild Divine Site.

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Where I work the only parking spaces available are under a canopy of trees. This usually means my car is covered with bird poop and leaves by the end of the day. Every time I head toward the parking lot, I get a little more annoyed at the trees wishing someone would cut them down.

One day as was walking to my car, I looked at the ground and noticed there were pecans everywhere. The trees that I have been pissed at for the last 4 months were actually pecan trees. I greedily snatched a handful of the pecans from the ground and ate them with my lunch that day.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that the trees that had so annoyed me were providing me with a a delicious pecan treat. (I love pecans). So now when I leave work, instead of focusing on the mess the trees deposits on my car I think about what the trees have given to me and feel a sense of appreciation and gratitude… 

…This might not work if you don’t like pecans.

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On my journey to capture a ray of spiritual awareness, I decided to visit some gay affirming churches in Charlotte NC. I emailed most of them before I went. All of the churches responded positively and invited me to attend one of their services. Here is a quick breakdown with comments.

• MCC Church- Very friendly, we were greeted after the service with hugs. Casual attire. Nice service with small congregation.
• Wedgewood Baptist Church-  Larger church, decent service, and the preacher came up to us after the service and introduced himself.
• Myers Park Baptist Church- Very beautiful church with very large congregation. Service was OK. Most people were dressed in suits and ties. Easy to feel anonymous due to the size of the congregation.
• Center for Positive Living- A small church with positive, friendly people looking to change their lives and the lives of others through the teachings of Science of Mind. Great music, Indian flutes. Very touchy feely emotional services.  My favorite so far. The ministers are a lesbian couple.
• Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte-  Very nice building, services tended to be very cerebral and lacking emotional impact. However, the congregation was very friendly and inviting and seemed to do alot for the community including RAIN and other organizations . The minister was also very kind and took time to meet with me and my partner.  I will probably go back to try out another service.
• Unity Church Charlotte- I attended an EFT class at this church. The building is new and the people were very friendly, but I have not been to a Sunday service. 
• Center of Light Charlotte-  a Christian Mystic church. I have not attended any of their events or services but  will eventually. I emailed them asking about their stance on gays and they responded favorably. May be worth checking out.

UPDATE: Apparently some baptist churches in NC are being expelled from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina for allowing homosexuals in their church!! The baptist churches mentioned above are considering leaving this organization because of this and are gay friendly.

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I saw “The Secret” last night via their internet delivery. The movie is based on the idea of the Law of Attraction which at it’s core states that what you think about whether negative or positive will manifest itself in reality.

This documentary is very inspirational and potentially life changing because it asks you to take notice and change how you think (sounds like Religious Science).  However, I do feel the filmmakers focused too much on personal wealth and materialism, but the beauty of this film is you can take whatever you want from the movie and use it in your life.

There are some very beautiful and inspirational thoughts and stories in The Secret and I think if I could sum it up I would use this quote: ” Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them“- Jesus. 

Here is a link to an inspirational video from the Secret website.

After our malamutation experience, my partner and I decided to look for a reputable breeder in Alaskan Malamute breeder in NC. We decided on a breeder in Lexington, NC called “Yount’s Malamutes” . We drove about 60 miles to a somewhat rural area in Lexington ( I really wanted to eat some of the area’s famous barbecue). When we arrived, I noticed five pens with various sized Malamute’s. A teenager greeted us and proceeded to show us the various pups that were available. All of them were cute and I held one of the gray and white female pups. She immediately clung to my chest and I could feel her warmth through my shirt. I felt relaxed and at peace holding the sweet little puppy…. then she started looking hungrily at my nipples.

Anyway,  we decided on a white and grey mask pup from the smaller and calmer mom and dad. We put a deposit down on the pup and were told it would be six weeks before we could pick her up since she was still too young.

An older man arrived in his car and introduced himself as the breeder and explained that all his dogs are descended from champion dog-pulling blood lines with 26 years of records to prove their origin. He was very knowlegable about the breed and his dogs and I could see he really loved breeding them. This was no puppy mill.

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Looking to explore my place in this world further, I decided to attend a Religious Science meeting. I stumbled upon  the local website of The Center for Positive Living and read up on Religious Science.

Apparently, there is no connection to Scientology (thank God). This belief system  is based on the writings of  Ernest Holmes and his book Science of Mind. It’s sort of a melting pot of Christianity, Buddhism, and several other new thought concepts. The basic idea is that we are all manifestations of God and through what they call “treatments ” we can connect to our source and live a positive, happier life. This all sounded good to me as long it was not some kind of weird cult. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to attend their weekly Science of Mind 101 class.

When I arrived, I was greeted by a warm, friendly woman who was one of the facilitators.  >>Read more

My partner and I decided we wanted to look for a dog to replace Tank (our previous dog). We had been searching for a while and decided on an Alaskan Malamute. One of my colleagues has a beautiful female that he adores. So, I went on the Internet (go figure) to read up on the breed and where I could find a breeder in NC.

After a couple of weeks I realized there were not that many breeders in my area and the cost of the pups was going to be anywhere from $600 to $800. Needless to say, my enthusiasm waned. On Sunday , I went to my local newspaper to check out the pets for sale section. I immediately noticed an ad ” ALASKAN MALAMUTE — Pups, full blooded. Great price”. >>Read more