lex, it was probably the same people who thought to mix prune juice and
coke...at least that's what Dr. Pepper tastes like, to me.

buttons, from my experience, what you have to do, if you TRULY want to
quit, is just "tough it out." If you "allow" yourself to suffer the
withdrawal, I promise you it does pass in time.

You mean uninterrupted sleep, without waking up? Hmm..maybe four hours,
if I'm lucky.

I quit smoking Sept. 30, 2003, after a 30-year habit. I feel like shi*,
but I look really healthy!

Fortuneteller, how do you keep so abreast of the issues?

http://www.chantix.com/content/Common_Questions.jsp

for more info...

Pucks, you are such a liar..lol..if I came to Canada to see you, you'd
be on me like white on rice.

GaMail, that's a good suggestion but...as an English-only speaking
person, what I'd be doing is editing already (poorly) translated
documents.

As to the sex suggestion..lol...I'm sure I'd get a lot of "hits," but
...hmmm..maybe I could edit porn material...like they'd care about
typos. LOL.

I am a freelance copyeditor and I'm building a personal webpage through
a new potential client that offers editing and translation services.

I need to come up with a webpage title that is really eye-catching and
describes editorial services, but in such a way that is "different"
(hopefully) than "all the rest."

Any suggestions??

thanks!

I have, but no matter what guys say, many of them ARE very judgmental
about that. Oh, they don't judge THEMSELVES for doing it, but they sure
will the woman.

Oh, I know it's wrong, in terms of saying it's strictly a biological
process. Who better to speak to that than one who has gone through it?

Oh ...you have to click on the picture to see me.

Well, I tried resizing it but it keeps shrinking. LOL. Here's me and my
brothers and sisters in 1961. My mom made all those outfits.

I'm the same person in real life that I am here, but I don't go around
discussing in detail (or even thinking about) the topics I discuss in
here. What I talk about here in the forums is simply what I think about
certain things, which is somewhat far removed from the activities of my
daily life.

What I do in "real" life is I spend a lot of time doing my editing work,
then I spend a lot of time gardening, shoveling, raking, mowing,
weedeating, planting, watering, I run errands and do regular shopping
every two weeks, I go to the zoo and walk for exercise and a mental
break from the "grind," and I spend some time (not much) talking to my
neighbor, and a good bit of time playing with my dogs.

And not as often, but when schedules permit, I'll go and visit my
daughter and we'll go to lunch or shopping or whatever.

I take a lot of pride in the hard work I do to keep my yard looking nice
(which is no easy task and it's a work in progress; I still have TONS
left to do with landscaping and planting, etc. (especially in the
backyard) that only time, strength and finances are keeping me from
being able to do all at once. But since I'm doing everything by myself I
really get a sense of satisfaction out of that.

Generally I'm a pretty happy person but I'm not the kind to talk about
things that are going well...cuz that's boring. I come to discussion
forums to debate and discuss, so I usually participate in the
discussions and topics where I can present an opposing viewpoint. I
don't much see the sense in participating in forum "discussions" wherein
everyone agrees with everyone else. I feel like it's "Okay, we all agree
with each other. Well, don't we feel validated now? Hmm, now what do we
do? I know! Let's find another topic we can all agree on!"

Just an observation.

I'd much rather see lively, healthy debate (even "heated," to a point)
than to see a bunch of ho-hum "group hugging" type stuff. That's just
me.

35ish and 50ish.

No, no scientific study will sway me; however, I don't separate God and
science...or God and anything else, for that matter. There are certainly
scientific components to NDEs, as there are to everything else in this
life. I don't look at scientific explanations as proof that God
*doesn't* exist; rather, I look at it as absolute proof of God's
existence.

(I'm sorry about your dogs. I adore my animals (especially my doggies)
and it's heartbreaking to lose them. I think that there is a place in
Heaven for animals, too.)

I'm very happy being alone most of the time. I used to party and mingle
with something like 300 or more people every Friday night, for several
years. These days, I don't like being around more than just a few close
friends, if that.

At the same time, sometimes I feel profoundly lonely. I feel like I
wasn't meant to live life without a partner, without someone to share it
with.

I know that I don't need that 24/7, though. In fact, having someone here
"all the time" would drive me batty.

So sometimes I feel I was "meant to" be alone, and other times I don't.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but I'll just say that it made me
aware of two things:

1) That life exists beyond this one.

2) That God is real.

I relate it to the "Christian" God, I suppose, because I am a Christian.
However, I don't think that just because I am a Christian is why He
exists. Know what I mean? It wasn't just an experience that I attributed
to being God simply because *I* believe in Him.

All I know is that it was too profoundly spiritual and emotional to be
simply a chemically induced phenomenon, and it was too real to be a
dream or a hallucination.

I knew nothing of NDEs before it happened. Afterward, I did quite a bit
of research and was astounded to find out many people experienced the
same or similar things I did.

The most profound thing was the overwhelming sense of peace and calm and
the feeling that everything was going to be "okay."

Now, some people after they experience NDEs claim not to be afraid of
death anymore. I'm still human and still have a fear of death (it IS an
anxiety-producing experience, after all) but I no longer have a fear of
"what's next" after that.

For those people who think that you die and "that's that," well, I can
assure them that such is not the case.

If you haven't read about NDEs, I think you'd find them interesting. And
read not only about those from a Christian perspective, but from other
religions as well...and especially those accounts from people who were
convinced they were in hell. Enough to send cold chills up your spine.

No, I'm not trying to change what anyone believes. I don't think it's
worth my time or energy to do that.

But I really do think a lot of these type discussions are senseless
because of that. No one is going to convince me God doesn't exist and I
doubt anything I could say would convince someone who is hell bent on
not believing in Him that He does.

Where else, then, can these discussions go, but round and round in
circles?

"God is without substance/mass, there is not form to the being.
God, though you won't find this part in the bible, was uninhibited
energy, ageless. Now, if you are logical, at all, you will see that
imagining somthing of pure, uninhibited, energy as a being is nearly
impossible. For us it seems necessary to have form, mass, substance in
order to be a being."

That's what was so "freaky" about the NDE I had ...and that is nearly
impossible to explain! I had form, substance, or mass...I was sure of
it. I even looked down to see what I "looked like" but could see
nothing..not physically, nor even visualize it in my "mind's eye." I was
NOT the same person as I knew myself to be ...I mean, I was me, but a
differnt part of me, like what I perceive to be my spirit or soul, I
guess.

That was part of what further confirmed for me that God is real. Perhaps
it is just a certain level of "energy," but with it comes very powerful,
very profound emotions, too, which is also something you'd think
wouldn't come with just a mass of 'energy,' either.