Dear Friends,

signed,
CEO
J.P. Morgan

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, “Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty.”


Then the second tree said, “Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.”


Finally the third tree said, “I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.”


After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, “This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter” … and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.


At the second tree a woodsman said, “This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard.” The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.


When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, “I don’t need anything special from my tree so I’ll take this one”, and he cut it down.


When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.



The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.


Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time. Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree.



One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn’t think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said “Peace” and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat.


Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.


The moral of this story is that when things don’t seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined. We don’t always know what God’s plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.

raveling down the interstate and needing to use the restroom,
I stop at a rest area and head to the restroom.

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying:

“No..I’m a little busy right now!!!”

Then I hear the person say nervously…..

“Listen, I’ll have to call you back. There’s an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions

Cell phones, don’t you just love them.

Microsoft Word has lot of features, but its also costly and not all people can afford MS Office. For those who cannot shell out that much money there are lot of alternatives, which does the basic functionalities of Word processing and are free to use. Here is a list of free alternatives to MS Word.

    * OpenOffice.org: OpenOffice need no introduction, its one of the popular free word processing softwares. OpenOffice.org is a multi platform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. OpenOffice latest version is 2.3 and it incorporates an array of new features and enhancements to all its core components. OpenOffice also supports variety of extensions.

    * AbiWord: AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks. It supports Microsoft Word documents, OpenOffice documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages, etc.

    * EasyOffice: EasyOffice+PDF Filter is an office suite compatible with Microsoft Word and Excel and Adobe PDF files. It is a software from e-press.com and has good features.

    * IBM Lotus Symphony: IBM Lotus Symphony is a free office suite, based on OpenOffice.org, that includes a word processor, presentation software and spreadsheet. It supports Open Document Format (ODF), Microsoft file formats (.doc, .ppt, .xls, .dot, etc) and Lotus Smart Suite formats.

    * Jarte: Jarte is a word processor which handles Microsoft Word 95, 97, 2000 documents, rich text format (RTF) documents and plain text (ASCII) documents. It boasts of a good user interface which is easy to use as well. Jarte also has a plus version which has more features, but not a freeware.

    * Ultrapad: Ultra-Pad is a freeware advanced Word Processor Application for Windows 95 and later. It features some of the most advanced features you would ever want in a Word Processor. Ultra-pad is skinnable software and there are themes available for download to change the looks.

These softwares listed are for Windows OS and if you are looking for a Word Processor for Linux, then try out KOffice and Gnome Office. For Mac OSX users there is Neo Office based on Open Office.

26 beards!

Alphabet with food!

The 26 letters, with Google Maps

Hairy Alphabet!

Laces!

Letters with meat!

The Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) is a large saturniid moth found in
the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia,
southern China, common across the Malay archipelago,
Thailand to Indonesia.

In India, Atlas moths are cultivated for their silk in a
non-commercial capacity; unlike that produced by the related Silkworm moth
( Bombyx mori ), Atlas moth silk is secreted as broken strands.
This brown, wool like silk is thought to have greater durability and is
 known as fagara. Atlas moth cocoons have been employed as purses in Taiwan.

Atlas moths are considered to be the largest moths in the world in
terms of total wing surface area (upwards of c. 400 square cm or 65 square inches).
Their wingspans are also amongst the largest, from 25-30 cm (10-12 inches).
Females are appreciably larger and heavier.

Atlas moths are said to be named after either the
Titan of Greek mythology, or their map-like wing patterns.
In Hong Kong the Cantonese name translates as “snake’s head moth”, referring
to apical extension of the forewing, which bears a passing resemblance to a snake’s head.

Atlas moths are predominantly tawny to maroon in color with roughly triangular,
diaphanous “eyes” on both forewing and hind wing, bordered in black.
 The purpose of these dramatic, gossamer portals is not clear,
but they are thought to play a role in predator avoidance.
Their bodies are hairy and disproportionately small compared to their wings.

On this picture, we can see why this is the smallest house in the world!