THURSDAY 23rd JUNE 2016 07:13 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
23rd June 1991: The release of Sonic The Hedgehog
The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia on June 23, 1991, and in Japan the following month. The game features an anthropomorphic hedgehog named Sonic in a quest to defeat Dr. Robotnik, a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and stolen the magical Chaos Emeralds. Sonic the Hedgehog's gameplay involves collecting rings as a form of health and a simple control scheme, with jumping and attacking controlled by a single button.

The game's development began in 1990, when Sega ordered its AM8 development team to create a game featuring a mascot for the company. After considering a number of suggestions, the developers decided on a blue hedgehog with spikes along his head and spine and renamed themselves "Sonic Team" to match their character. Sonic the Hedgehog, designed for fast gameplay, was influenced by the games of Super Mario series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Sonic the Hedgehog uses a novel technique that allows Sonic's sprite to roll along curved scenery, which originated in a tech demo created by the game's programmer, Yuji Naka.

The game was well received by critics, who praised its visuals, music, and speed of gameplay. The game was also commercially successful, establishing the Genesis as a key player in the 16-bit era and allowing it to compete with Nintendo and their Super NES console. It has been ported a number of times, and inspired several clones, a successful franchise, and adaptations by other media.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Me Time
Gatepainting
Washing Machine Cleaning
Business Promotional Work
Meditation
Supper 
Quality Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,266 (up 10)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 0
-
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 0
-

New Followers followed back = 1

@pennywisemama
Spammers not followed back = 9
@Xcpapare1vJ, @TMadara1bhu, @BIqarnivore1m, @EnjoiSkate87ib, @fsTheFired3mon, @tnmountaindrew, @Sabinatms, @FInotupinhurr7, @ourJBexperience

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATIONThursdays are turning out to be my "Sunday" and consequently my favourite day of the week, with the maximum me time. This doesn't mean zero stuff to do, but the day with the fewest time pressures.  

With a meditation regime now thoroughly restored, things are calm and my mind is in "just get on with it" mode. My emotions are of peace and gratitude, a good way to start the day!

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
What is your default "baseline" emotion?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
In brief
Dry and mild with sunny intervals

Details

Moon

Air Pressure
1016 millibars and static

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
I finally summed up the courage to tell my parents they're gay :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Amy Anderson on Bradjelina

8. TRIVIA
Kurt Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington State, now has the welcome motto "Come As You Are"

9. ZEN WISDOM
The accepting and enthusiastic embracing of uncertainty are key to a fulfilling life.

TUESDAY 21st JUNE 2016 06:54 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
21st June 2004: The first privately-funded manned spaceflight
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight capability that uses a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag while remaining stable. SpaceShipOne completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.

Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P, was piloted by Mike Melvill. A few days before that flight, the Mojave Air and Space Port was the first commercial spaceport licensed in the United States. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut. The overall project name was "Tier One" which has evolved into Tier 1b with a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space within the next few years.

The achievements of SpaceShipOne are more comparable to the X-15 than orbiting spacecraft like the Space Shuttle. Accelerating a spacecraft to orbital speed requires more than 60 times as much energy as accelerating it to Mach 3. It would also require an elaborate heat shield to safely dissipate that energy during re-entry.

SpaceShipOne's official model designation is Scaled Composites Model 316.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Client sessions and follow up 
Lawnmowing
Meditation 
Me Time
Supper
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,256 (up 2)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 3
@JasminWatters, @MathaSmarra +1 untraced
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 1
@SelimYeniceri

New Followers followed back = 0

-
Spammers not followed back = 6
@25028fulid, @hibaquqezaru, @hibaquqezaru, @B0BadaDumDumCh, @kzcBloodnswash, @adriantywxsn

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
When I was training to be a Hypnotherapist, I realized that I was "born to do this" - it fitted me perfectly. I have held that view ever since. When I have clients to see, it focuses the mind wonderfully. Being convinced of your purpose and fulfilling that purpose causes you to live life to the full. Where you don't know why you're here or can't do it, the mind can wander into all manner of unhealthy places.

My YinYang philosophy and experience enables me to appreciate things by having experienced their opposite. It is the destiny of this avatar to sit at the very fulcrum of the universe, to see both sides of things and opposite scales stretching to infinity in their particular dimension. 

I have to this point resented the traumas of the past, and would have preferred happy ignorance, but the more time I spend with my mind here at the fulcrum, the more the past becomes increasingly irrelevant, just a stepping stone on the way to here.

Crucial to this enhanced vision is MEDITATION - I have no idea how it does it, but meditation practiced regularly gives you a clear mind. I have now experienced life without it, with it, and what happens when you neglect it! I will never neglect meditation again, because I can see the difference it makes to me, even though I don't understand the mechanism - but I don't need to, I only need to appreciate what it does!

Thanks to all that I have learned, my mind is now steering my life along the best possible course.

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Is your life making progress in the direction you want it to go?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
In brief
Dry and mild with sunny intervals

Details

Moon

Weathertrack

Air Pressure
1014 millibars and static

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
Just bought some counterfeit Mr Kiplings. I must say they're exceedingly good fakes :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Christine Little on being a cocktail waitress

8. TRIVIA
In 1984, New Zealand's Prime Minister got drunk and called a snap General Election - he lost.

9. ZEN WISDOM
Your life is steered by your focus

THE HAY MOON AND SUMMER SOLSTICE, MONDAY 20th JUNE 2016 07:56 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
20th June 1837: Queen Victoria succeeds to the throne of Great Britain
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Edward's three older brothers had all failed to produce legitimate heirs surviving infancy, so in 1830 Victoria became heir presumptive to her uncle, William IV. 

Victoria's German-born mother, Victoria Duchess of Kent, was heavily influenced by the ambitious Sir John Conroy, who may have been her lover. Aware that she would be regent if Willian IV died before her Daughter was 18, she was extremely controlling of her dughter, and devised a system of protocols for her daughter to follow (the Kensington System) designed to make her weak and dependent on her mother and Conroy.

William IV, aware of this, loathed the Duchess and Conroy and made clear his intention to survive until Victoria turned 18. From 1830-1835 the Duches and Conroy forced Victoria into a series of royal tours of the kingdom designed to raise her popularity, and they ended only when Victoria became severely ill with a fever. During her illness the Duchess pressured her to appoint Conroy as her private secretary, which Victoria fiercely resisted.

In 1836, Victoria was introduced to royal suitors. The Duchess' brother, Leopold king of Belgium, wanted her to be the bride of his son Albert. William however, wanted her to marry Alexander, prince of the Netherlands. Several other potential suitors were introduced to Victoria. Victoria herself was immediately attracted to her cousin Albert and he became her first-choice candidate for when she was ready to marry.

Victoria turned 18 on 24th May 1837 with the king still alive as he had wished. He lived less than a month longer, dying on 20th June 1837, and Victoria became queen. 

Though queen, as an unmarried young woman, Victoria was required by social convention to live with her mother, despite their differences over the Kensington System and her mother's continued reliance on Conroy. Her mother was consigned to a remote apartment in Buckingham Palace, and Victoria often refused to see her. When Victoria complained to her prime-minister Melbourne that her mother's close proximity promised "torment for many years", Melbourne sympathised but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a "shocking alternative". She showed interest in Albert's education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to be rushed into wedlock.

Nevertheless, Victoria, had fallen in love and praised Albert highly following his second visit in October 1839. Victoria, as was her royal perogative, proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. They were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace, London.

Albert replaced Lord Melbourne as her confidant and chief adviser, and they produced nine children before his death in 1861.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Housework
Meditation 
Me Time
Supper
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,254 (up 6)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 2
@orsini70, @Protein_Promo
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 0
-

New Followers followed back = 1

@ChrisBreen999
Spammers not followed back = 7
@himdvasque4, @pranzlakseyh, @wQMawlerzHd, @jonathonsbiank, @madTheDemonBoi, @hntModestaLT, @babineau_cortez

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
The week begins with things feeling in balance, disciplines in place and the cosy comfort of "usual routine". 

Father's Day was a treat in both having the lunchtime domestic chores done for me and spending quality time with Son. 

The last few weeks have been a learning experience about fragility and the ephemeral nature of things. I have certainly learned that to fulfil my remaining roles, I need to pay attention to the right things and maintain a healthy balance that does not maintain itself without conscious effort. 

This healthy balance is about doing the right things at the right time. The Discipline of Grounding has therefore never been more important. In every given moment, my intention is to make the difference that I want to make to the maximum.

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Is your life in healthy balance?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
In brief
Dry throughout, brightening up considerably after noon.

Details

Moon

Weathertrack

Air Pressure
1009 millibars and rising

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
If you know you're going to regret it in the morning, sleep in until noon :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Amy Anderson - Asians are cheap dates

8. TRIVIA
ZZ Top is the world's most stable band, going since 1969 with no lineup changes

9. ZEN WISDOM
You are the part of you that's listening

FATHER'S DAY (UK) SUNDAY 19th JUNE 2016 09:15 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
19th June 2009: The Shishou Incident
The Shishou Incident was a popular protest and riot in the city of Shishou, Hubei Province, in central China between June 19–21, 2009. The protests were the result of dubious circumstances surrounding the death of 24-year-old chef Tu Yuangao of the local Yonglong Hotel.

Although local police claimed Tu's death was a suicide, some believed foul play was involved and crowds were angered by what they alleged to be cronyism, drug trafficking, and lack of transparency from the city's top officials. The allegation was that that the co-owners of the hotel were family members of the mayor and the head of the local police, and the hotel was used as an illegal centre for drug trafficking; it reported that Tu Yuangao was murdered when he threatened to expose the illicit activities there

At 1am on 19 June, police and funeral cars arrived at the hotel, wanting to take Tu's body away. 2,000 Shishou residents blocked the hotel entrance to protect Tu's corpse. The first confrontation between local residents and the police took place at 8am, during which some residents were arrested, while more joined in. The protesters began gathering outside the hotel and grew in numbers. The incident later became a mass riot involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers.

On 21 June, the paramilitary People's Armed Police surrounded Yonglong Hotel, and recovered the dead body. A spokesman from the Shishou city government said experts from the state-run Ministry of Public Security and Tongji Medical Institute carried out an autopsy, which ostensibly confirmed that Tu committed suicide. Tu was cremated at 4 am on 25 June 2009. 

The government promised the deceased's family a total of 80,000 yuan, including 30,000 yuan from the Yonglong Hotel, 35,000 yuan from the Shishou government and 15,000 yuan from the local Gaojimiao township government. Following the incident, an editorial in the People's Daily on 24 June called for both local government and the mainstream media to provide greater "information transparency" in the immediate aftermath of incidents that could trigger public unrest. 

The editorial noted the government issued three sketchy and vague news releases on its official website following Tu's death, and cited the "failure of the government to provide timely and detailed information about the circumstances surrounding the suspicious death, combined with the spread of rumors and unofficial information via the Internet" as being the key factors that fomented the violent protests.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
The Milk Run
Me Time
Lunch
Son Time
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,248 (down 11)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 13
All untraced
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 0
-

New Followers followed back = 1

@LivingPositive8
Spammers not followed back = 1
@Protein_Promo

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
Two smooth shifts at the Weekend Job and a return to discipline helped restore internal balance after Thursday's brief but serious "meltdown". I have now hopefully learned (the hard way!) the importance of letting nothing distract me from daily disciplines and how important these disciplines are to my wellbeing.

These include physical as well as mental things, like keeping on top of the permanent fungal infection in my left foot. Letting the infection grow back then picking at it has now left me in some pain! Meanwhile my right knee has relapsed slightly as I have neglected my hamstring stretches.

Hopefully now I finally get it - to keep well I have to keep doing stuff, because this avatar doesn't stay well by default! And probably as I get older, the maintenance required will increase and I'll have to do MORE stuff.  THIS time I finally get it - do stuff or get ill, so DO THE STUFF.

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Are you doing what's required to stay healthy?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
In brief
Dry and cloudy with sunny periods until evening, then showers, some heavy.

Details

Moon

Weathertrack

Air Pressure
1022 millibars and falling

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
A high-pressure hose will usually stop a colleague from showing you any more baby photos. :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Iliza Shlesinger on Lying Brian

8. TRIVIA
Usain Bolt's fastest recorded speed is 27.44 miles per hour

9. ZEN WISDOM
All things, mind, soul and body included, require work to maintain them