old fashioned homemade cinnamon rolls

old fashioned homemade cinnamon rolls
Originally uploaded by randi rivers

I thought it would be a nice change from regular old birthday cake - Shelby thought so... in fact, the whole family was delighted with the fresh, warm, drizzly sweet cinnamon rolls.

I must say - they were a huge hit with everybody!!

Become Fruitfull! [Spring Equinox 2009]

Become Fruitfull! [Spring Equinox 2009]
Originally uploaded by randi rivers

This Photo Appears in the NowPublic Environment Story on the Vernal Equinox, by Invitation, here:
In the Story "SPRING EQUINOX 2009: March 20 First Day of Spring - my.nowpublic.com/environment/spring-equinox-2 009-march-20...

and resides here on NowPublic -
my.nowpublic.com/environment/happy-spring-pho to-02
Posted 19 hours ago. ( permalink delete edit )

Post Secret....Frank Warren...- go there

Thank you for coming out Frank Warren!
Post Secret....Frank Warren...www.postsecret.com - go there
Originally uploaded by randi rivers
i asked.. he said yes... so i snapped my bitty camera as
he added the stamp that reads:
"Free your Secrets and Become Who You Are" .....

i don't know who that would be.

and i still love the "no photographs of any kind" sign.

Why Dyslexics Make Great Entrepreneurs

Quoted from http://techannounce.ttu.edu/Client/ViewMessage.aspx?MsgId=86663&mode=print:

Why Dyslexics Make Great Entrepreneurs

by Gabrielle Coppola When Alan Meckler, the CEO of IT and online imagery hub Jupitermedia (JUPM), was accepted to Columbia University in 1965, the dean's office told him he had some of the lowest college boards of any student ever admitted. "I got a 405 or 410 in English," he recalls. "In those days you got a 400 just for putting your name down! Yet I was on the dean's list every year I was there, and I won a prize for having the best essay in American history my senior year." It wasn't until years later, at age 58, that Meckler learned he was dyslexic. He struggles with walking and driving directions, and interpreting charts and graphs. He prefers to listen to someone explain a problem to him, rather than sit down and read 20 pages describing it. As a youth, Meckler discovered a unique strength—baseball—and cultivated it religiously to compensate for weakness in other areas. ASSET OR HANDICAP? All of these things, according to Dr. Sally Shaywitz, a professor of learning development at Yale University, are classic signs of dyslexia. Shaywitz has long argued that dyslexia should be evaluated as an asset, not just a handicap. She recently co-founded the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, dedicated to studying the link between the two. "I want people to wish they were dyslexic," she says. "There are many positive attributes that can't be taught that people are generally not aware of. We always write about how we're losing human capital—dyslexics are not able to achieve their potential because they've had to go around the system." It's not clear whether dyslexics develop their special talents by learning to negotiate their disability or whether such skills are the genetic inheritance of being dyslexic. It's a question Shaywitz plans to explore, along with trying to change the way dyslexia is viewed in the educational system and the business world. One project at the center will be an education series to train executives to recognize outside-the-box thinkers who don't perform well on standardized tests. Shaywitz recently tested a well-known CEO (whom she declined to identify) for dyslexia. The man confessed that he'd hired an outside company to help identify future leaders within the organization by administering a reading test. "'The irony is,' I told him, 'you're eliminating and sifting out all the people like yourself who might actually be the ones to be creative and make a difference.'" COPING SKILLS That kind of rejection, along with a penchant for creativity, may help explain why so many dyslexics are inclined to become entrepreneurs. Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at Cass Business School in London, believes strongly in the connection. In a study to be published in January, Logan found that 35% of entrepreneurs in the U.S. show signs of dyslexia, compared to 20% in Britain. Logan attributes the gap to a more flexible education system in the U.S., vs. rigid tracking in British schools, and better identification and remediation methods. "Most of the people in our study talked about the role of the mentor and how important that had been," Logan says. "The difference seems to be somebody who believes in you in school." The broader implication, she says, is that many of the coping skills dyslexics learn in their formative years become best practices for the successful entrepreneur. A child who chronically fails standardized tests must become comfortable with failure. Being a slow reader forces you to extract only vital information, so that you're constantly getting right to the point. Dyslexics are also forced to trust and rely on others to get things done—an essential skill for anyone working to build a business. "People really struggle to delegate, and these people have learned to do that already," she says. "If you're bogged down in the details, you're not out there looking at where your business needs to go." LEMONADE FROM LEMONS Paul Orfalea, who founded the copy-and-graphics chain Kinko's 37 years ago, has both dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He proudly attributes much of his business success to an inability to do things most others can. "I would always hire people who didn't have my skills," he says. "My secret was to get out of their way and let them do their job." He is also inured to failure. "You know what's great about a C student? They have risk-reward pretty much well-wired," he says. "A students are always putting in maximum effort, and C students say, 'Well, is it really worth it?'" Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John Chambers says dyslexia helps him step back and see the big picture. His third-grade teacher discovered his reading trouble; he says alternative teaching methods and supportive parents helped him learn to deal with it at an early age. "Dyslexia forces you to look at things in totality and not just as a single chess move. I play out the whole scenario in my mind and then work through it.… All of my life, I've built organizations with a broad perspective in mind." Meckler, who was one of the first to convert his IT trade publications into a sustainable, ad-supported business model for Web publishing, also strives for the big picture and has little patience for details. "In business meetings…I can hear a whole bunch of people talking about a lot of things, and I seem to be able to cut right to the chase," he says. "I think my mind has been trained…to zero in on the salient point." FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL DYSLEXICS Those entrepreneurs who have embraced their dyslexia have also made it their personal mission to pave an easier way for the next generation. Discount brokerage pioneer Charles Schwab (SCHW) started the Charles & Helen Schwab Foundation, a resource center for kids and parents to overcome learning and attention disorders. Orfalea founded the Orfalea Family Foundation, to support and identify different learning styles and try to remove the stigma that comes with them. Ben Foss, a researcher in assistive technologies in Intel's (INTC) Digital Health Group, started a nonprofit and made a documentary film about the first man in America to win an employee discrimination case based on dyslexia. He's now working to adapt technologies for the blind to also assist people with learning disabilities, too. Despite the titans of business disclosing their dyslexia to the world, Foss says it's still daunting to climb the corporate ladder as a dyslexic. "If you're John Chambers, Charles Schwab, or Richard Branson, sure. But if you're a corporate VP in the mid-ranks, there's a very large disincentive to saying you're dyslexic, because you're still being evaluated," he says. "Ironically, talking about it on your terms is what allows you to become successful." Of course, being a misfit often lends itself to great entrepreneurship. Health-care entrepreneur and real estate magnate James LeVoy Sorenson has more than 40 medical patents to his name and is responsible for inventing the first computerized heart monitor, the first disposable paper surgical masks, and the first blood-recycling system for trauma and surgical procedures. He also dropped out of community college at 18, and was told by grade-school teachers he was either "slow-witted or developmentally disabled." At 86, Sorenson says overcoming dyslexia trained him to be persistent and solve problems in new ways: "I like to add one word to the end of many sentences: 'yet.' Instead of saying, 'I can't do it,' I say, 'I can't do it—yet.'" Coppola is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in New York.

spiderling.... maybe a young orb weaver?

spiderling.... maybe a young orb weaver?
Originally uploaded by randi rivers

spiderling.... maybe a young orb weaver?
two tiny spiders today.... well this one wasn't so tiny.... but one was on my door knob when i got home... it was not a familiar sort to me, but i took a stick and he crawled onto it and i put him on my orchid cactus (which is about to flower, btw!!) and then i went on inside.....

then, when i was in the dining room, i saw a pair of shoes i needed to move, so i bent down to get them, and i spied this unusual spiderling on the blind....

hhmm.. two unusual spiders in one day, 15 or so minutes apart.... so i consulted an oracle...... yes, i did. something needs my attention.

it might be that i am in need of creating something.... both young-appearing spiders, the door knob one webbed the stick and bungeed into the orchid cactus.... the blind surfer 'looks' like it could be a mini one of those giant, beautiful orb weavers i've seen occaisionally that create such amazing webs......

or.... i could be in for entanglements of some sort..... but i would think i'd run into some sort of webbery and get all ickified from it, if that were the case....

so i choose to believe i might need to be creating something..... ahhh!! i know what it is! it's my soon to be unfolding new job..... the one that's just been 'created' that i will be the first one ever in it....... yeah!

mama spider

mama spider
Originally uploaded by randi rivers

I was watering the garden.....and i spied this spider running along for safety.....she was carrying her egg sac.....and she so kindly paused to allow me to get this photo of her... soon the egg will spill forth dozens of tiny spiders who will hitch a ride on their mama's back... have you ever seen that? it's an amazing sight to see.....

best viewed LARGE

another fabulously beautiful butterfly

another fabulously beautiful butterfly
Originally uploaded by randi rivers

The Butterfly Haus at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg, Texas, is worth visiting. Check them out..... www.wildseedfarms.com

It Is Difficult to Admire.....

the intricately hand-carved ivory tusks of a formerly living majestic mammal depicting a long dead asian empress and emperor when smaller humans are loudly whispering come here come here come here (and i kid you not one of those smaller humans JUST NOW hollered come here come here as i was typing those very words)

but i digress....

i'm thinking the enormous, majestic, _living_ mammal might have been proud to sport those amazingly carved tusks, if only someone had been nice enough to ask.

go see these tusks at the Texas Tech Museum. I promise it will be worth it.

I can't even find a photo online that does these two magnificently carved tusks an iota of justice.