The Walk of Life

Been busy since Tuesday till today fixing my computer! Being technically inclined and a handyman type, I have to repair my computer myself, satisfying my own ego. Well what went wrong was that the Motherboard failed!!!! Booting my computer was a Touch and Go thing! The biggest problem faced by most repair people are intermmitant faults! Sometimes it works and sometimes not!

I thought it was a simple and straight forward problem, just buy a new mobo and thats it! Sad to say that was the beginning of my nightmare! Basically I needed a simple system, nothing fancy but I was unable to get the Chipset that I needed for a simple system! Reason is that I am still using a Pentium 4 Processor and the Chipset Intel965 had vanished from the market! What was left was the I945 Chipset which is fine but the problem was that it has only Two Ram Slots! I used to equipped my system with 2 GB Ram! Of course I can buy two 2 GB RAM but what am I going to do with my older 1 GB Rams! It looks like the next time round, the I945 will go off the market as well and for all P4 owners, you need to change your Processor to either new Dual Core or Core 2 duo! We are all driven by the Chipset Makers who keep changing Chipsets or introducing new Chipsets every few months!

So I bought the new mobo with the I945 Chipset and set-up my system again, with my old 2 GB Ram. When I started my system, I had to reload Windows XP again because of major hardware change! In the course of reloading the Operating System, I forgot to back-up my data and I lost 2 months of data for being forgetful! Being the technician, I literally dismantled the whole system and gave it a good spring cleaning and you know the amount of dust that accumulated after 5 years in operation! Wiping all the fan blades etc.

Anyway, my consolation is that this year, I am glad that Jay and Dawn will be around on Father's Day. Sharlene and CY sent me a bottle of wine from UK! Now, I wonder what Dawn is giving me from Japan and she is arriving on Sunday evening. Jay bought me a bottle of Cologne! I have to say this Father's Day is the best ever not so much the gifts but having two of my four children around to celebrate with me! It is quite sometime since the last time I have my children with me on Father's Day! I guess will be missing in action again till next week! To all you who are fathers, I wish all of you The Greatest Father's Day Ever this Year! Lets not forget about our Heavenly Father too! Bless The Lord!

Having spent some time working with at a local drug rehab centre. I can understand the difficulties and challenges faced by students admitted into such Centers. Success rate is rather low in our local drug-rehab centers. Occasionally I do get calls from parents asking me for recommendations on drug rehab centers and this is what I would suggest to them to consider when researching for a drug rehab center.

Track Record.

Obviously the higher the rate of success achieved gives confidence and credibility to the Program. This, to me is the foundational layer of any Program. The person believes that he or she could make it since so many others had gone through and were successful.

Location of the Center.

Apart from a conducive environment which is important, it must be located far enough so that it is not easy for students to be tempted to run out any time to get drug supply easily.

Methodology Used.

Some Centers or Programs use drug treatment to help students go through the ‘cold turkey’ period and although they may help but using drugs could give rise to another set of problems such as dependency. The safest is to avoid the use of drugs in the Withdrawal Process.

Progressive Programs.

The breaking down of Goals into smaller objectives requires Programs to be organized in Phases as well as Progressive in nature. It helps the student’s progress from one stage or phase to another. Not all students are the same in terms of personality, learning capability and emotional strength. The ability for any student to progress at his own pace is crucial for the ultimate success of becoming drug free. It would be good that there are Services extended to support family members of the student.

After The Program Support.

Even when a student completes the course or program, there is still a very important need for follow-up and periodic assistance to help him or her to adapt to life again. For instance, the emotional support needed to handle mistrust, negative remarks from others who know them from the past. This is a crucial period and any failure at this stage may drive them back to their old habits to seek solace and comfort again.

Experiences & Training of Staff.

The personnel in the Center must be qualified and had real life hands on experiences rather than text-book knowledge. Such well trained and qualified personnel will be able to empathize with the struggles faced by the students.

The Cost of such a Program.

Finally, the financial implications such as cost and length of the program are also important considerations. Are the Fees affordable? Perhaps there is a need for proper financial planning to cover the period of rehabilitation since most likely the student is unable to hold a job during this period.

From the above considerations, I consider the Narconon Drug Rehab Center with its 76% Success Rate stands out. It satisfies all the above criteria and in addition they have resources to help inmates handle Legal Issues! The Program is broken into 5 Phases and they are linked together to give a complete solution to address the many issues involved in total recovery. For example, Phase I addresses the Withdrawal Stage without the use of drugs plus introducing their highly successful ‘Sauna Based Detox Program.’ The ‘Additional Educational Therapies’ help the inmate to be open and confront root issues through talk and discussion groups with other inmates as well as the center’s moderators. This help them to focus on the real issues, rebuild self-esteem and a sense of self-worth. The final Stage is the ‘Discharge Program’ which includes the ‘Follow-up and support’ not only to the graduate but also the family members, caregivers etc.

There is a 6 Month Guarantee attached to the Program. If, in the unlikely event whereby a graduate from the Center returns to drugs within the 6 months period after official discharge, he or she can re-enrolled again without any further charges. I can say this is a fantastic Program and worthy of serious consideration.

June is the 'Survivor Month For Breast Cancer'. This year they needed 8 Million Clicks so that the Sponsors will donate $10,000 towards Free Mamograms! Your "Clicks" are needed for a worthy cause. Please Click the above Photo / Image and it will take you to the Breast Cancer Website where you can contribute your Click! Its FREE!

Words fascinates me and especially how creative writers use them so very effectively, impactful, humorously etc. I admire writers for their ability to use Words to communicate their thoughts which truly enlightens the readers' minds. Ever since I watched the movie "My Fair Lady" back in 1960's what Prof. Higgins said about being able to tell the character and from where that person comes from, made me pay attention to what people say and how they say it.

Before coming to the subject matter, I would like to pay tribute to the person who wrote these words and which gives me the opportunity to use them as a Brain Teaser! the words below are either single word or a few words, but they can be rearranged to other word or words that more or less has the same meaning, implications etc. For the adventurous reader, try them out and see what you can come up with but please don't look at the answers below for thats part of the fun! Here we go:-

• DORMITORY


• PRESBYTERIAN


• ASTRONOMER


• DESPERATION


• THE EYES


• THE MORSE CODE


• SLOT MACHINES


• ANIMOSITY


• ELECTION RESULTS


• SNOOZE ALARMS


• A DECIMAL POINT


• THE EARTH QUAKES


• ELEVEN PLUS TWO


• MOTHER-IN-LAW

THE ANSWERS

• DIRTY ROOM


• BEST IN PRAYER


• MOON STARER


• A ROPE ENDS IT


• THEY SEE


• HERE COME DOTS


• CASH LOST IN ME


• IS NO AMITY


• LIES - LET'S RECOUNT


• ALAS N MORE Z'S


• I'M A DOT IN PLACE


• THAT QUEER SHAKE


• TWELVE PLUS ONE


• WOMAN HITLER