Last login: 3 weeks agoRichard is a 59 year old married guy from Key Center, Washington, USA.
55 years old! Holy Cow.. How did that happen? I'm a trained graphic artist... or, more to the point a disabled, un-employed starving artist.
I have an ego so big it is a wonder I can get in my own house through the front door without turning sideways. I have a thing for the number 8 and if you want to know why,
just ask. I decided to create, "Just Another 8" on StumbleUpon for luck.
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If you come to this blog and see a page of thumbnails, (and nothing else.) All you have to do to see my blog as I intended is to click the, Display "List" tab. >>
This is where I have been all these months. If you are a writer, artist, photographer or huge show-off, (like myself) you are doing yourself a huge disservice by not joining up and starting a blog.
There is a great community of caring souls to be found over at Open Salon.. I know because I have been on the receiving end of their kindness and caring.
What are you waiting for?? Get over and sign up! Find me, (RicTresa) and leave a note letting me know you have arrived.
From the page: "John Guzlowski
I was born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, and came with my parents Jan and Tekla and my sister Donna to the United States as Displaced Persons in 1951. My parents had been slave laborers in Nazi Germany. Growing up in the immigrant and DP neighborhoods around Humboldt Park in Chicago, I met Jewish hardware store clerks with Auschwitz tattoos on their wrists, Polish cavalry officers who still mourned for their dead horses, and women who walked from Siberia to Iran to escape the Russians. My poems try to remember them and their voices. These poems have appeared in my chapbook Language of Mules and in both editions of Charles Fishman's anthology of American poets on the Holocaust, Blood to Remember. Since retiring from teaching American Literature in 2005, I've written two new books about my parents. My new poems about them appear in my books Lightning and Ashes (Steel Toe Books, 2007) and Third Winter of War: Buchenwald (Finishing Line Press). Third Winter was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature."
This gentleman left a message in my blog on Open Salon tonight. I followed him to his link and am sharing it with the world. Everyone needs to read this and never forget, man's inhumanity to man to maybe make sure it never happens again. -R
From the page: "WELCOME TO Into the Wardrobe! I am delighted to have been asked by John Visser, the creator of this excellent web site, to write a few words of introduction. For those who have no idea about C. S. Lewis and his work, and are just looking for a fun site, there is plenty to investigate and enjoy right here, and what you find here may well lead you into years of enjoyable reading as you discover the existence of one of the finest writers of this century, and find out about his books.
On the other hand, for those who are already fascinated by Jack (C. S. Lewis' nickname) and his "Narnian Chronicles", or other works, and want to know more about him and his world, you can almost be there yourself by wandering through this site's various links. There is much here of worth to the serious scholar too, and if you are about to embark on a paper about Jack or his works I heartily recommend this site as a research source.
Very best wishes to you, no matter who you are or what your reason for being here. I hope you enjoy your time inside this very large wardrobe.
From the page: "BOTHELL, Wash. -- The day I met Brenden Foster, I met an old soul in an 11 year old's body.
"I should be gone in a week or so," he said calmly.
When I asked him what he thought were the best things in life, Brenden said, "Just having one."
I didn't understand how this child, who was a year younger than my own son, could be so courageous facing death.
"It happens. It's natural," Brenden told me.
Three years ago, doctors diagnosed Brenden with leukemia. The boy who once rushed through homework so he could play outside found himself confined to a bed. But there was no confining his spirit.
"I had a great time. And until my time comes, I'm going to keep having a great time," he said.
Brenden's selfless dying wish was to help the homeless.
"They're probably starving, so give'em a chance," he said, "food and water."
But Brenden was too ill to feed them on his own. So volunteers from Emerald City Lights Bike Ride passed out some 200 sandwiches to the homeless in Seattle.
Then Brenden's last wish took on a life of its own.
A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods.
And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden's honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline.
Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it.
"He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish," said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. "It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning."
"He's left a legacy and he's only 11," said his mother, Wendy Foster. "He's done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish."
Days before dying, Brenden surprised us with a sudden burst of energy. He wanted to get off the oxygen, hop out of bed and go buy a video game. Wise beyond his years, but still a kid.
"I have been so blessed to have this child. A mother couldn't ask for a better son," Wendy said.
The B-Man, as his family called him, had one more wish before going: sprinkle wildflower seeds to save the bees. He had heard bees were in trouble.
Someone answered B-Man's wish. A retired pilot asked his pilot and flight attendant friends to sprinkle wild flowers around the world, from Bali to Brazil, on Brenden's behalf.
When asked what made him sad, Brenden said, "When someone gives up."
Brenden Foster never gave up. Even as he clung to his last hours of life, Brenden kept giving.
"Follow your dreams. Don't let anything stop you," he said."
I can only hope when my time comes I can be half as brave as this fine, young fellow. Happy trails Brendon.. -R
From the page: "Apparently, the time has come. Years ago, a Writer friend of mine told me I should write about this. I dismissed it because she is a Writer in that way that means her whole life revolves around writing and she doesn't really understand non-Writers. I am neither a Writer or particularly even a writer (although I have both in my family) so I offer that as a caveat or perhaps an apology to those who read further. The this to which I refer is the suicide of my husband. It's been almost 14 years now and I suspect I've managed to recover pretty well. But of course there are aspects of it that I've kept to myself because they are just too painful to recount. There are the things I've never told anyone I met afterward and that I wish I could make those around at the time forget as well."
This lady is so brave and so strong. Her story is worth reading. -R
From the page: ""Oui, on peut -- Yes we can!" OBAMA ZYDECO FROM LOUISIANA 2008"
Well.. I haven't been around much lately. I've been hung up, (caught up) in the election thing.. Blogging all the political stuff I've kind of neglected the Stumbler.
Sorry about that, I can't help it.
I thought I might drop back and say hello and turn you all onto this great Zydeco version of, "Yes we can!" -R
From the page: "Olga Savage said she went through a harrowing life-changing experience that might have been a total mistake. The 68-year-old woman told Action 4 News that she heard a knock at her door Tuesday morning. But before she had a chance to get up she said U.S. Immigration & Customers Enforcement (ICE) agents were inside her home. "They came in with guns, grenades and holding their pistols," Savage recalled.
When she asked them why they came into her home they allegedly responded, "Show us your papers." Savage complied by showing them documentation proving that she's been a United States citizen for 40 years.
She said they were shocked to see the paperwork."
Imagine you are sitting in your house, all comfortable in your recliner.. sipping a cup of coffee and watching your favorite soap opera on the TV.. Then you hear a knock at the door. As you are getting out of your chair, suddenly the door bursts open, men in flack jackets, armed to the teeth and pointing assault rifles at you, screaming, "Show us your papers, NOW!"
What would you do?
Do you have papers in your house proving your citizenship? I don't.. I don't even have a copy of my Birth Certificate. I have a Social Security Card, a Disabled Person ID, a Driver's License and a Voter's Registration Card.. But that is it and that is all. I don't have.. "papers," and I would be screwed. They would haul me off, throw me in a cell and I would be hard pressed to prove I was a citizen and not an illegal alien.. Except for being white. Maybe being white would save me but is that right?
Think it doesn't happen in this good old USA? Think if you had been a citizen for 40 years, it couldn't happen to you? Think again, because it happened to Olga Savage. Remember.. This is John Palin McBush's America. -R
From the page: "ONE Spirit's goal is to send a minimum of 780 heaters this year at a cost of $50 each. To accomplish this, we need to raise $39,000 by September. We will be monitoring our progress at reaching this goal on this website.
"I am so glad the people who give to ONE Spirit could provide something so many take for granted every day, and them be so appreciative of it."
Debra Horne
Lakota mother on Cheyenne River Reservation "
This is a good cause, for a change. It's American's chance to help Americans first! Why are these people not fixed up? Donate if you can. -R
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May 28, 4:30pm
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