News - Friday, September 21, 2012

Mi Belvin sees herself standing in an open field. Grass surrounds her, and mountains are visible behind and ahead of her. She can choose to either stand in place and enjoy the view or walk where she desires. There’s no need for her to go in a certain direction, and nowhere to be by a certain time. There’s just the calm of the moment and a future as open as the ground on which she stands.

At the annual Equal Opportunity Day breakfast on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:30 a.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center, the Urban League will celebrate 30 years of empowerment in the Chattanooga community and present awards to individual and corporate leaders who have championed equal opportunity, civil rights and social justice. Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, will be the keynote speaker.

Wednesday, Sept. 26

Street Smarts for Bike Share

Outdoor Chattanooga will host special sessions of its free Street Smarts Cycling Seminar for users of the Bike Chattanooga Bicycle Transit System at 6 p.m. on the above dates. Outdoor Chattanooga is located in Coolidge Park. Adults and kids ages 16 and older are invited take a short class on how to ride a bicycle in city traffic. OC is going to cover the rules of the road and then take an optional ride through the downtown area on Bike Chattanooga bicycles. To learn more, email terri@outdoorchattanooga.com or call OC at 423-643-6888.

Although @Charkram might sound like the name of the latest Kool-Aid sipping cult leader, in actuality, it’s simply my “handle” on Twitter. Those who wish to gain the benefits of the word-limited observations of wit and insight that tumble from my fingers on an irregular basis can do so by simply “FOLLOWING” me at @charkram. 

Bonnie Faith Rodgers v. Thomas Edward Rodgers.

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hamilton County

Case Number: E2011-02190-COA-R3-CV

Authoring Judge: Judge D. Michael Swiney

Originating Judge: Judge L. Marie Williams

Does anyone like to lose? It seems to me that the need to win is inside all of us. We are born with it. When we are young, the definition of winning is very simple. We win whenever we get what we want, when we want it.

What do young children do when they don’t get what they want? They usually cry. They cry like babies. They don’t think about anything else other than the fact that they didn’t “win” because they didn’t get what they wanted. When we’re young, the realization that we’ve lost is usually short lived, as we soon forget what we were crying about because our attention is redirected toward something else we want.

I don’t lose sleep when the college team I pull for doesn’t win.

When people ask how the diet’s going, they want a short answer.

It takes me minutes to write something good, then hours to revise it into something special.

Massages are becoming a very important part of daily life, and nowadays clinics can be found anywhere you go. Recognized as an excellent stress-buster, most everyone wants to get in on the action.

I’ve been out of town before, and after fighting a migraine headache without my prescriptions handy, resorted to a massage. It really helped to relieve the pain.

My wife and I have a ritual we observe every fall: I turn on the TV to watch a Denver Broncos game and then she complains about not understanding football.I explain the rules, which to me seem simple, to no avail. Even during the last Super Bowl, when she wanted the New York Giants to win because she’s from the Big Apple, she couldn’t wrap her head around the game.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. - Confucius

From a purely monetary standpoint, it’s not so bad. We only paid J.L. $850,000. It could have been much worse. Take the movie “Gigli,” in 2003, for instance. It starred Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck – who were known as “Bennifer” at the time. The film cost $74,000,000 to make and brought in only $7,266,209. It was withdrawn from cinemas after only three weeks, one of the shortest theatrical runs on record for a big Hollywood film.

Well, football season is officially here, and the fall weather is not far behind. In fact, the last few cooler, rainy days have got most of us itching for what I consider one of the most beautiful times of the year to come on and “get the party started”!

As Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media platforms have become major forces in business marketing, the number of Realtors wanting to use them to promote their businesses has grown. What was once a hip but optional add-on to one’s advertising efforts has become a necessity as untold millions of people have banded together in free online communities and companies have learned to successfully use these resources.

Crye-Leike has appointed Realtor Ian O’Shea as the new managing broker of its North Georgia office, located in Ft. Oglethorpe.

“After more than two decades spent working in the real estate services industry, I have never been more excited about the future,” said Ian. “I could not be happier about coming to work for Crye-Leike.”

The Red Bank Neighborhood Pride Association announces their Home of the Month winner as Willie Humphreys of 3902 Tacoma Avenue in Red Bank.

The Red Bank Neighborhood Pride Association nominates and chooses homes that have dramatically improved their curb appeal. While Humphreys has always kept a nice landscape, her home was nearly demolished in the tornado that ran through Red Bank in 2011, causing a tree to fall into her home. 

The brain is such a complex part of the body, yet so many people know so little about it. We know a lot about our hearts, stomachs, muscles and joints, but just how much do you know about the one thing that guides you through each day? Take this quiz; maybe you will learn something new!

With the drought that seemed to go on forever this past summer, questions are still being asked concerning the current and upcoming harvest of crops. What the results will be for soybeans and cotton is still way too early to tell. The rainfall arrived just in time for both crops to be in good condition and near normal yields. Almost 70 percent of the state’s corn crop has been or is in the process of being harvested, with yields running from 25 bushels to 86 bushels on many non-irrigated fields. However, on some irrigated fields, the bushel numbers are over 200 per acre, which means the extra heat did little to stop the production when water was present.

For the first 20 minutes of “Resident Evil: Retribution,” I was prepared to give the movie an enthusiastic review. I was even writing my lead paragraph in my head as I watched the opening scene:

“Paul W.S. Anderson is an inexplicably maligned director. Not only does he have an eye for compelling imagery, but he knows how to use 3D well. His new movie, ‘Resident Evil: Retribution,’ picks up where the last one in the series left off, only Anderson rewinds time. In fluidly shot slow motion and crystal clear 3D, explosions collapse into themselves, streams of blood re-enter bullet-riddled bodies and ammunition leaves pierced flesh and returns to the chambers of the weapon from which it was fired. It is the most artfully choreographed and best looking action scene of the year.”

It is human nature for most people to resist change. However, we should all understand that all progress results from change. For your business and life to change for the better, YOU must change; otherwise, nothing will change. But you should not change just for the sake of change because not all change results in progress.