September 28^th 2009

Haiku

TECHNOLOGY BRINGS,

NOT A CHERRY BLOSSOM SPRING,

BUT COMPUTER THINGS.

Sharing Your History on Video

Most families have at least one video-phile. That’s the person who always has a video camera at family gatherings. My two oldest sons captured all our family outings. Their tapes were carefully stored on their closet shelves. Maybe their family members would see them. Would your family love to have these in a video history? Here is how I shared important parts of these videos.

I viewed all of them and copied all the segments containing their deceased mother speaking. In my storage, I had an old 8 mm silent film my dad took of our wedding, thirty-eight years before. I sent that film to a firm to get it transferred to video. Next, I spent hours repeatedly watching the wedding video. As I watched I recorded a tape for a voice-over. I identified people in each frame so future generations would know whom they were seeing and get a better understanding of their relationship. The movie included footage of their Mom preparing for our wedding. My book on sharing your family history has much more complete details on how to do the voice-over.

That's all floks for a couple of weeks. My wife Kathy retires Oct. 2nd, and our children bought a cruse to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada, so hasta la vista.

God bless you, Ed

September 20-2009

This is an example of what I call humor, rather than a joke. I walked into a room where there were three teachers sitting. One teacher said: “How” to me. I responded with, “Scrambled.” A second teacher said, “Don’t egg me on.” The third said, “That’s a yolk!”

The joke that was in my mind when I said scrambled was one told to me over forty years ago. There was a traveling salesman from the East in Tucson, Arizona on a sales trip. He heard about an Indian who reportedly never forgot anything he ever said or did. The salesman looked him up and asked if it was true that he never forgot anything. The Indian responded, “Yes that’s true.” The salesman asked, “What did you have for breakfast January fourth 1983?” “The Indian said, “Eggs.” The salesman walked away saying to himself, “How can I tell if it’s true or not?”

A few years later the salesman was back in Tucson but had forgotten all about the Indian incident. He saw an Indian approaching him on the sidewalk. He thought it would be okay to greet him with, “How!” The Indian responded to his greeting by saying, “Scrambled.”

This is my al-time-favorite-joke.

ed-reinagel-writer

September 14, 2009

Poetry:

Choices

As we travel life’s road, by hour by day,

Each of us makes choices along the way,

Freedoms we lose as our bonds we take,

Increasingly tethered by choices we make,

Some choices are sweet - some are tart,

Bonds of the flesh, and bonds of the heart,

Joy we are paid for the freedom we give,

Life would be lonely if in total freedom we live,

Know you the hour - know you the day -

You choose to give your freedoms away,

The bonds are our loves, our wants, and our deeds,

And the way we chose to fulfill our needs,

Choose very carefully - to what you’ll be indebted,

You could live long enough to regret it.

Bind yourself to things that are noble,

The ripple effect will make your choice global.

The choices we make are the chains that bind us,

The light we look to can guide us or blind us.

So choose very carefully what you embrace,

For you will be living in that chosen space.

© By Ed Reinagel

History:

Write the way you speak. If you have letters from grandma use them as she wrote them. Do not correct grammar or edit her writing. Your readers should be able to see her writing and reminisce, “That’s the way she talked. That’s my grandma.”

Decide who your audience will be for your book. Do you plan to publish your work or is it for family and friends? In what voice will you present your story? “I” is the first person and more intimate. The third person creates some distance. It’s probably best if you write for yourself. Most likely when you are pleased with the results of your work, others will be pleased also.

The fear of not being good enough can kill your project before you start. Ask yourself, if I don’t put my history down, who will? If I don’t get the courage to write, how much family history will be lost to my children and grandchildren? Silence the fear of critique and just start. The fact you are even thinking about sharing your history is a pat on the back moment. Now pat yourself on the back. No one who reads your finished work will expect you to be a world famous author. You need to give yourself systematic goals such as several stories a week at the very least. If not writing, talk to family and get historical input, or do research into areas of your history you don’t remember. A self-set deadline will urge you forward.

God bless, Ed

Prayer Book, Thoughts

September 6^th

Thoughts: As I've Matured...
I've learned that one good turn gets most of the blankets.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others -
they are more screwed up than you think.

Pump Up Prayer Life: Here is the table of contents for my book.

I will share ideas presented in the book over the course of time, as well as ideas from the History sharing.

Personalize Your Prayers

Get the Prayer Habit, Triggers to Praying

Spiritual Insurance

Take Forty, Practice Patience

Get off Center and on Target

I See You

Pray When? Who’s Got Time?

Bloom Where Your are Planted

Thankfulness

Sacrifice Why Bother

Spiritual Speed

Here is a beautiful analogy about going to heaven and what our attitude should be.

A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, "Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side."

Very quietly, the doctor said, "I don't know."

"You don't know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?"

The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing... I know my Master is there and that is enough."

Until next time, God bless, Ed