How Good It Feels...

How good it feels to be alive,

and to appreciate and enjoy life.

How good it feels to wake up every day,

and to watch the little ones play.

How good it feels to dream at night,

and then wake up to beautiful sunlight.

How good it feels to have good friends,

who will be with you until life's end.

How good it is to have the support of loved ones,

and be able to go out and have fun.

How good it feels to hear, touch, smell, taste, and see,

and live in a time in which we can be whatever we want to be.

How good it feels to breathe in air

and to be able to recognize my happiness and share.

We have the pleasure to introduce our STAR GUEST of this week:
Michael Caron!

Hello My Good Friends,

For those of you that don't know me yet, my name is Michael James Caron (Mike). I was born (which suprises a lot of people) in the small village of East Taunton, Massachusetts which is located four miles East of Taunton, Massachusetts. It makes it convienieant. I was the youngest of ten. I understand that my mother planned to have more, however when I was born the doctor looked at me and slapped my mother. I tried to help her, but I was tied up at the time. One of my sisters had told me that my mother would have had thirteen, but she had had three mis-carriages. She never did tell me which one I was. I got along the best that I could with my brothers and sisters, considering that the closest in age was my sister Irma who was seven years my senior. Now, she's an old fogey. As the result of having been hit in the mouth with a golf club when I was seven, I pretty much grew up learning what ridicule was. That taught me at an early age not to poke fun at people, because the scars never do go away. I joined the United States Air Force in 1963, three years after I was considered 4-F. I didn't like that label, especially since I didn't own cattle, sheep, or any other animal. I was married three times, the third time being the Angel that God sent Down for me to love. Shirley.

Throughout my life, I have ventured into various projects to try to gain some respect and, of course, money. I do, by the way, have three kids from my second marriage, one of each. Shirley suffers from Epilepsy, Has two Steel rods in her spine, and broke her right leg in three places in 1984 when she was struck down by a car while crossing a street at the cross-walk but is more woman than any woman I have ever met. Growing up, I was always considered the Black Sheep of the family, even by my parents to my face because all of my other brothers were successful in life. It bothered me until I realized that Black Wool is much rarer than White Wool, therefore demanding a higher price.

At times, I can be very seious, however I would much rather be a person that can understand others feelings, help people in times of need, and find humor in my own life-style. An example of that is just the other morning when I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, I laughed for about ten minutes. It was than that I realized it was my face I was looking at in the mirror and I cried. I don't believe in turning away from a person because of their looks. I have met some beautiful girls in my life-time with drop dead bodies, but when they opened their mouths to speak, the language alone showed just how ugly they really were. It is what is inside each and everyone of us that tells where the real beauty lies

Shirley has been extremely helpful with our business M&S Music Management by knowing what to look for in talent. If a girl has a great voice but not such a great body or face, we do our best to help them improve on those by finding clothes that will compliment their body, finding a hair style that will accent their good features, however, if their teeth are bad, we do recommend that they do get them fixed. I don't want anyone to suffer the insults that I did. When Shirley came into my life she helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunetely, I saw the train in time to jump out of the way.

I love everybody, no matter what their race. If I cannot understand what a person is saying I will do my very best to use hand gestures to let them know or find someone that can help me understand because if a person takes time out to communicate with me I want to respect that and make every effort possible to understand them.

Finally, if I have an opinion on a certain subject and someone else does not share that opinion, I feel that it is only right to allow that person to have his or her opinion. After all, I would not want to be ridiculed for my opinion so why do so to another? I have a strong faith in God, but do not always feel that churches are teaching us the right doctrine. That will never turn me away from my belief. There have been too many signs or miracles to dis-count the existence of God. I also believe in AdlandPro Community and feel that if you are not on my friends list, that does not mean that you are not my friend. It just simply means that you are a friend that I have not as yet had the pleasure of meeting.

Thank you and God Bless You

Michael Caron

Photo slide show

Congratulation Michael and thank you for being our guest!
The Weekly Spotlight of Friends Team!

Blackmail Letter

Celebrate life
Have courage amidst fear
Make love, not war
Be positive
Smile a lot
Don't worry, be happy
Treat others with respect
Keep your promises
Be honest and faithful!
The wise man says to follow this advice
and you will live a happy life!

Let's welcome The Newest Guest Star of
The Weekly Spotlight of Friends
a person with a good sense of humor and
who cares a big deal about his friends:
Larry Anderson

Hello Everyone,

Thank you Spotlight Gazette Team for this honor.

I was born at 7:46am in Estherville, Iowa, to Richard and Ruby Anderson. My father was german-born but adopted into a Norwegian family, and my mother was French, Cree, and Cajun.

I am the youngest of 3 boys, and have a younger sister. My father was a farmer, and we moved a lot. My parents were loving but firm with us. Then, my parents divorced when I was 13, and for a long time I blamed my father for the divorce. Many years later, a friend asked me if I realized there were two sides to every story, and I finally was able to forgive my father.

My brothers were grown at this time, and my sister and I moved with my mother to an apartment house in Spencer, Iowa. I was popular and kind of a goof in high school, then I dropped out to join the U.S. Navy in 1962 when I was 17. I did receive my GED in 1968.

I was in boot camp when the Cuban crisis occurred, and we almost had our training cut short to go join the ships down there. Fortunately, the crisis ended before our unit was called to duty.

After finishing boot camp, I flew to the Phillipines to join my ship, the world's 3rd largest aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger. I spent the next year and 9 months aboard the Ranger, and received an honorable medical discharge in 1964.

I spent the next few years moving from job to job to job, unsure of what I wanted to do in life. I met my first wife in 1974, and it was NOT a match made in heaven. What I hoped would last forever fell apart after a few short months, and the divorce hit me very hard.

I started drinking at this time, quite heavily. One night I was so intoxicated, I wrecked my car. I wasn't hurt, but the accident sobered me up. I cleaned up my act, and shortly after I met my second wife, Linda.

When I married Linda, we moved to South Dakota. She already had 3 children when we married, and we had 2 daughters together. Later on, we also adopted our grandson.

We became good friends with our neighbors, and the husband was a truck driver. He taught me how to drive, and that is what I did until I was forced to retire.

In 1996, Linda passed away from complications of combined surgery and cancer. I was in North Carolina when she died, and the trucking company I worked for flew me back home for the funeral. I had just been home, and she seemed to be getting better. Then, just like that, she was gone.

We still had 2 minor children, so I took a local job driving a truck for a furniture company. After the kids were on their own, I moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, and went to work for WOW Trucking. I moved back to Iowa a couple of years later and went to work for Zeitner & Sons Trucking, drove for them for 5 months, then had my first heart attack in 1999. I had quadruple bypass surgery in 2000, and went back to work. Then, in 2003, I had my second heart attack. The doctors gave me a pacemaker and orders to retire. The Department of Transportation agreed, and I went on disability. I spent 3 months with my daughter, then moved to an apartment complex in Sioux City, Iowa. Last July, I moved to my current apartment in Sioux City.

I have had a computer for quite awhile. In October, 2005, I joined the Free Store Club. I liked the idea of owning my own online store, and the price was great--FREE! I joined AdlandPro at this time, to help promote my Free Store.

At this time, I have 2 forums going: Weird Facts,

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/15927/ShowForum.aspx

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/15920/ShowForum.aspx

New Website,

http://larryeanderson.fcsstore.com/

WOSAT

http://www.wingsofsuccessadvisoryteam.com

I am also a Top 25 Poster at Adland Pro. I love the community here at Adland Pro, and am a proud member of WOSAT.

Thank you,

Larry Anderson

We are so very happy to have the chance to feature you here, Larry!
Congrats from all our heart.
The Weekly Spotlight of Friends Team

The Special Things In Life

It's The Special Things In Life

That Make It Mean So Much.

The Sun, The Rain, The Sky;
The Thoughts and The Touch.

If We Let These Precious Things

Float Out To an Endless Sea,

We Lose Our Hope, Our Love,

And Most, Our Reason To Be.

Happiness Is... taking in all the wonders of life -- its joys, its sorrows, its sunshine, its smiles -- learning from the experiences each one brings you, and then, from a caring heart, giving them all away again.

Author Unknown

This week we have the pleasure to learn more about our special friend,

Tim Southernwood

He was so kind to share some special moments of his life with us.

Thanks for giving me this honor and opportunity to reveal to Adlanders more about myself.

It’s tough to know where to start, so I guess I’ll just start and see where it takes me.
I was born and raised on the Canadian prairies and would be plugged as falling into the tail end of the Baby Boomer Generation. Sex Drugs and Rock&Roll had already taken on a harsher tone by the time I became aware of that scene.
Overall, I lived a pretty sheltered life.
I grew up in a small town called Moose Jaw. During my childhood it was pretty quiet there, but the "Jaw" has a fairly "colorful" history. It was even nick-named “little Chicago” for the fact that many of the gangsters from that city would take the “Sioux-Line RR” to Moose Jaw to "cool off" for a bit. Read "Red Lights on the Prairies" for a look at the history of Moose Jaw.
I am the eldest of five kids, my parents’ good upstanding members of the community and church goers. Hardworking and resourceful people, they passed onto us many things that I am so grateful for today. From vocal and piano training to sports, and my scholastic achievements, all the choirs and travel, and our annual camping trips. My parents made many sacrifices for all of us, unfortunately it took until I was an adult and a parent to realize how much they sacrificed for us..I would likely have been much more appreciative at that time.
For me Moose Jaw was very much like an oasis, and on two counts.
One, Moose Jaw is situated in an area of very flat Prairie, but has a small river which over the millennia has carved a series of meandering valleys. This allowed the growth of trees and brush that you don't normally see on the flat land and it created a very interesting backdrop for my youth.
Compare my youth to a Tom Sawyer(ish) existence. We built rafts, and forts, fished and played in that valley. We climbed the RR trestles to capture pigeons, we skated on the river in the winter, and swam and canoed in the summer.
I say we swam, at least until the pollution got to a point where it was no longer safe to swim, and that was a pity. It was such a perfect place until the Railroad and the city sewers made it a cesspool. Only in recent years have they been able to clean that mess up.
Secondly, Moose Jaw was an oasis during that era of crisis (the 60's and 70's) Crime was never a major factor. The city has its own police force, but in my memory only had to deal with moderate infractions.
I recall one incident of a young adult knocking an older lady down and stealing her purse. It was the talk of the town for months..never before…such a tragedy...what are things coming to?..
I guess in a way that was a harbinger of change.
But during my youth we never had to carry a house key..the doors were never locked. I never had to chain up my bicycle anywhere I went.
Growing up in that environment certainly made me the person I am today. The Prairies taught me to appreciate the smallest things. If you can find beauty on a (seemingly) featureless prairie, imagine what it's like to the visit a huge forest, or the mountains! The smells and sounds of a hot prairie day come to my mind instantly as being among my most favorite things. The wind (ever present), the crickets and other insects, the meadow larks, the visual of waving fields of wheat like golden waves on the ocean.
Then too the effects of growing up in a small and close community, where those who did not conform to certain moral standards were quickly put in line.
I am so totally grateful for that upbringing. I like having a strong moral and ethical belief system, and I love being able to see the beauty in the smallest or plainest of things as well as in the spectacular.
After a point I guess that spirit of adverturism from my youth made Moose Jaw a little too small for me and I set out (as we all do in some manner) to find myself. I did some hitch-hiking (which was still legal in those days), worked in a lumber mill for a time..living with hippies, but still had not found my "niche", and could have made some very bad choices.
Instead I made a good choice and enlisted with the Canadian Armed Forces, spending just over 4 years in the Navy.
Basic training (boot camp), and serving on the ships was just what I needed. I learned more about personal discipline, and more about life in those years than during all my protected years in MJ. They are so right in saying "There's no life like it"
It wasn't very lucrative. I was paid $500 per month at the start of my military career back in 1977.

Since that time I've done many things, perhaps still in a way exploring as in my youth, still searching for that niche perhaps, always willing to learn.
In fact at my present position with the University of Alberta, I am in a unique position to continue my learning process. I'm politically minded, socially leaning with a liberal bent. I believe in speaking my mind, not afraid to give my opinion and always open to constructive criticism. I believe a good leader is one who is not afraid to roll up their sleeves and join in the work.

I believe music, literature, and art are the highest forms of human creativity, and I believe in God, Family, and Country, in that order.

I was introduced to sales as a kid. We sold iced tea to the construction workers during the summer, and then I sold things I would find like old bottles or telephone line wire insulators. I guess the entrepreneurial spirit once instilled never really leaves.
I tried Amway way back in the early 80’s, but found it wasn’t my “cup o tea”. I tried a few other things, but took quite a break from any form of sales beyond my day job at the University, where it’s been my task for over 14 years to handle all the surplus equipment of an institution the size of a small city.

More recently though, the urge (and economic necessity) brought me back to marketing, of course now with the internet twist as opposed to hawking door to door.
Even through all my experience I found I had much to learn and took a few bumps along the way, but I guess that was the price of my education here.
I’m very fortunate to have come to Adland, like many for the advertising, but have remained more for the community and camaraderie. Being here has also opened many doors for me, none greater than the chance to join with other like minded marketers to form the company of WOSAT.
I see many more good things coming in the future. I see positive changes to online marketing, where communities like Adland will help to educate new marketers, and our communities and communications will make it harder for the unscrupulous to operate without challenge.
Bravo to Bogdan for his vision, and Bravo to Adland members who make Adland the terrific and growing community that it is.

Thanks again for this opportunity, and thanks to all my many friends here in Adland!

Sincerely,
Tim Southernwood
WOSAT VPNA
http://www.wingsofsuccessadvisoryteam.com/index.htm
http://dipetane.net
http://tinyurl.com/njzvh
http://tinyurl.com/naelk
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit - Aristotle

Congrats Tim for being in the Spotlight!
It is such a great pleasure for us to honor you here!

The Weekly Spotlight of Friends Team

WHY?

Why?


So many Children suffer
so many children die,
do you ever sit and wonder
sit and wonder why?

Why Our Children are the victims
of a pure and evil fate?
why the people they so care about
send them to that 'pearly gate'?

Why so many little victims
disappear without a trace?
why you never get to see
that sad and desperate face?

Why you never feel the pain
of what that child endures?
Why it 'doesnt really matter'
as long as that child's not yours?

Why you read it in the papers
and see it on the news?
Why You turn your blind eye
when only You can choose?

Why it does not register
to you inside your brain?
even though its happening
time and time again?

Do you never wonder
how it must really feel?
to know that this pain IS your life
and your life is very real?

Do you realise you could stop this
if you joined our global voice?
you would be heard and a child would smile
and UVACA would rejoice!

Created by : Juliana Bond (C)2006 http://tinyurl.com/orv8z

Your talent is God's gift to you.
What you do with it
Is your gift back to God!
- Leo Buscaglia -

Let's welcome

The STAR GUEST of the Spotlight of Friends...

Juliana Bond

I was born in a place called Wigan, in the North-West of England in 1967.

My Parents were working class and I am the middle child of five. (Aptly, I was nick-named Bah-Bah, as in Black-Sheep!)

I began writing at the age of seven. I wrote my first poem and was so in ore of the reaction from others that I soon realise I had a talent.

As a long-term carer for my disabled parents I never really took the time to take a professional look at my Writing. I suffered a terrible thirty years and experienced things that even people twice my age cannot personally relate to!

Eventually, at the age of 33 I met my husband; he ‘rescued’ me from all evil!! He is my ‘hero’! We have seven children between us!

After I met my husband I began to ‘grow’; I developed a confidence that I had never had before! I took up a Drama course: (London Academy of Drama and Performing Arts) I was also signed up to a modelling agency, (at that age!) I entered a beauty contest and even though I, of course, didn’t win, I felt on top of the world!

Unfortunately that budding career was cut short by my ever-failing health (I was born a Chronic Asthmatic), suffered. A damaging attack of pneumonia that has left me permanently breathless, and to top that I have been plagued by permanent lingering of drug resistant Tuberculosis!)

So it was then that I returned to my love of writing. I began to write all of the time. I joined the Writer’s Bureau’s Creative Writing Course, I joined the Freelance Writers Association and I began to get my work published! It is the best feeling in the world for me to see my name in print!

I then embarked on my biggest project; to write an entire script of a 6 part serial/screen-play that I had had gnorring away at my brain for some time.

8 months later I had achieved what I once thought was impossible and my script was ready! I am now pleased to be able to say that Channel 4 (British TV) have hold of. my script and it wasn’t rejected!! Hurrah!! I dream of seeing my own series on TV!

Since then I have written my Children’s Books, ‘Pixie Tales’ which are available to purchase here:

http://www.lulu.com/pixietales

And as you all already know 50% of the proceeds from the sale of these books will go to an excellent cause, to Fight Against Child Abuse. As a survivor and a parent of a survivor of Abuse I feel extremely appalled and sickened by the suffering of others and feel passionately about trying to do something that would help to make a difference.

My ultimate personal goal right now is to sell a million books for a wonderful cause and help to make that difference!

I am currently working on my third ‘Pixie Tale’, a book of Poetry, My Biography (in full about my ‘horrific thirty years’ and of course, A Novel! (Well, all writers say that, when asked what they are doing now don’t they!) Lol,

I really am working on a Novel, (Women’s Commercial Fiction)

Now poetry, poetry is my thing. The main reason that I write poetry is, because I can! In fact, I can’t stop my-self sometimes from actually thinking in rhyme! Lol

I enjoy writing poetry immensely and only hope that my readers get as much pleasure out of reading them as I do out of writing them!

One of the best things that has happened to me in recent times is Adlandpro! I have made such wonderful friends and met such wonderful people that I would like to take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to YOU ALL for allowing me to stand up here in the ‘spotlight’ and be the subject! You have made my day!

Juliana Bond

UVACA SITE:
http://UVACA.net
SIGN OUR PETITION:
http://uvaca.julianab52.com
HELP UVACA TO RAISE FUNDS:
http://www.lulu.com/pixietales

Somebody cares if you're happy today,
If your heart is cheerful and light.

Somebody cares if you're feeling good
And everything's going just right.

And somebody hopes that this
message will show,
In a warm little heart-to-heart way..

You're thought of, remembered,
and happily wished
An especially wonderful day!

And That Person Is Me!

Author Unknown