Inspirational Stories: Weakness Or Strength

Sometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move.

"Sensei," the boy finally said, "shouldn't I be learning more moves?"

"This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll ever need to know," the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

"No," the sensei insisted, "Let him continue."

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

"Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?"

"You won for two reasons," the sensei answered. "First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. Second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grap your left arm."

The boy's biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

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Quotes: When one door of happiness closes ...

A Lawyer And A Blonde

A lawyer and a blonde are sitting next to each other on a long Flight from LA to NY. The lawyer leans over and asks her if she would like to play a game to make the time go by faster. The blonde just wants to take a nap, so she politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks.

The lawyer persists and explains that the game is really easy and a lot of fun. He explains, "I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5, and vice versa." Again she politely declines and tries to get some sleep. The lawyer, now somewhat agitated, says, "OK, if you don't know the answer, you pay me $5, and if I don't know the answer, I'll pay you $50!", figuring that since she's a blonde (and assuming all the stories are true) that he will easily win.

This catches the blonde's attention and, figuring that there will be no end to this torment unless she plays, she agrees to the game.

The lawyer asks the first question: "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?" The blonde doesn't say a word, reaches into her purse, pulls out a $5, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now it's her turn. She asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four? "

The lawyer gives her a puzzled look. He takes out his laptop and searches all his references. He taps into the Airphone with his modem and searches the internet and the Library of Congress. Frustrated, he e-mails all his coworkers and friends, all to no avail.

After over an hour, he wakes the blonde and hands her $50. The blonde graciously takes the $50 and turns away to resume her nap.

The lawyer, who is more than a little miffed, wakes her up again and asks, "Well, so what IS the answer?!" Without a word, she reaches into her purse, hands the lawyer $5, and goes back to sleep.

The Twenty Five Thousand Dollars

A dying man gathered his Lawyer, Doctor and Clergyman at his bed side and handed each of them an envelop containing $25,000 in cash. He made them each promise that after his death and during his repose, they would place the three envelops in his coffin. He told them that he wanted to have enough money to enjoy the next life.

A week later the man died. At the Wake, the Lawyer and Doctor and Clergyman, each concealed an envelop in the coffin and bid their old client and friend farewell.

By chance, these three met several months later. Soon the Clergyman, feeling guilty, blurted out a confession saying that there was only $10,000 in the envelop he placed in the coffin. He felt, rather than waste all the money, he would send it to a Mission in South America. He asked for their forgiveness.

The Doctor, moved by the gentle Clergyman's sincerity, confessed that he too had kept some of the money for a worthy medical charity. The envelop, he admitted, had only $8000 in it. He said, he too could not bring himself to waste the money so frivolously when it could be used to benefit others.

By this time the Lawyer was seething with self-righteous outrage. He expressed his deep disappointment in the felonious behavior of two of his oldest and most trusted friends. "I am the only one who kept his promise to our dying friend. I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained the full amount. Indeed, my envelope contained my personal check for the entire $25,000."

Quotes: Always bear in mind ...

Five Lessons About How To Treat People

First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady"

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

Second Important Lesson - "Pickup In The Rain"

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.

A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

Third Important Lesson - "Remember Those Who Serve"

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "50¢," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "35¢!" she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4. Fourth Important Lesson - "The Obstacles In Our Path"

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand - "Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition."

5. Fifth Important Lesson - "Giving When It Counts"

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Why Microsoft Internet Explorer sucks?

Microsoft has a horrible track record of releasing buggy software with numerous security holes. In fact, a study completed in 2005 proves it:

There were only 7 days in all of 2004 in which Internet Explorer could be considered vulnerability-free. Firefox and Opera, the two following most popular browsers, were protected for 307 and 300 days, respectively. 7 days vs. 300+ ? Ouch.

Internet EXplorer crashes constantly. It has happened to you, as well as everyone else that uses it, multiple times. In fact, it only takes ONE short line of code to crash Internet Explorer.

If you're brave and using Internet Explorer, click here. Internet Explorer WILL crash. Because that's what it does.

Microsoft believes it to be above all web standards and tends to play by its own rules. Now, this doesn't directly affect you as a user, but for a web developer it means creating a website takes twice as long to make. That means they spend less time making it GOOD and more time just trying to make it work.

And that means a worse web experience for you.

It would make sense for IE to support formats that everyone else does. For example, the newest picture format (PNG) and the latest style standards (CSS 2.1) are NOT well supported by IE. In fact, the brand spanking new IE 7 supports only 54% of CSS 2.1, whereas Firefox and Opera have 93% and 96% compliance.

So if you visit a site that uses these, it's just not going to work right.

Explorer's error messages don't tell you anything about the problem. It just dies and takes Windows with it.

Unlike Firefox and Opera, IE does not allow other people to openly develop on it. The great thing about Firefox and Opera is that they both have a large community developing additional features for its browser.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), part of the Homeland Defense group, recommended against it's use because of its potential use as a target for terrorists.

What better place to attack than the virtual infrastructure?

Since IE and Windows are so closely connected, a crash of IE will often render Windows unstable and buggy.

Additionally, uninstalling and reinstalling IE is an incredibly difficult task, which is often necessary after it's been destroyed by malware and spyware hacks.

Malicious programmers will focus their efforts on targeting Internet Explorer because:

It's easy to take advantage of the security exploits of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer users tend to be less web-educated and tech-savvy and may more easily fall into traps

It's what most people use, so they'll hit the most people with their software.

So if you switch from Internet Explorer, you'll protect yourself, your computer, and your private information from malicious hackers.

Why use a program that constantly crashes, provides huge security risks, and causes general system instability when there are great alternatives like FireFox and Opera out there?

Consider taking the time to try FireFox - it will even import all of your bookmarks and settings from Internet Explorer. FireFox is designed to accommodate former Internet Explorer users, so you won't have to learn how to use a new browser, but you will find new features that will make the web far more pleasant!

Click the Firefox logo if you need to download the FireFox browser.