If, by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Who were the Ancient Greeks?

Strange ritualistic lifestyles dotted the landscape of the Ancient Greek wide array of cultures.  The following BBC documentary provides a glimpse at many different facets of Ancient Greek life that seem strange to us now.  Though long, these videos are definitely worth watching.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 1.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 2.

Bohemian Gravity

Here is a quantum physics primer for anyone willing to listen to it, produced by A Capella Science.  It is both funny and fun, not to mention surprisingly complete, exploring the specifics of String Theory.  Watch the chalk boards behind him; these are extremely informative of the current state in quantum mechanics.

This musical parody is based on Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

For Mobile Users who can't see the embedded video above, please see here Bohemian Gravity.

Yawp and Whisper

by Javier Simonpietri


Vulnerable winds caress so mountain ranges whisper
despite owned waterfalls’ foreboded screaming
which resounding yawps engorge
to bleed farther toward tomorrow—
whispers are forgiven every chastised every,
with emblems searching every furrow.

Even if surmise, hardy branches tremble,
but growing seeds become,
discover, rising tall with pride,
happily repent and swear:
screams are sometimes worth more than whispers,
yet whispers yearn all dawns the same.

(Notwithstanding any I eternally encaged)
Never more lovely is spring than autumn;
fungi bore yet warlords weep;
everything is forever suspect and still
never more spritely is autumn than spring.

Just when (and true is) replaceable,
lump-sum comfort remains entertains,
seldom tastier than senses amiable,
or waking love, or living possibly ending,
or even an awe-striking random be.

Drink and sing, you wherever soul, a toast
in a lone prayer for the complacent undying:
All rejoice! The world’s colors are mine and yours.
It’s true that never more lovely is spring than autumn.
Sown seeds become though hardy branches tremble
yet both still feel pleasure, unlike whispers;
and never more spritely is autumn than spring,
since growing is whispering unlike screams.

The road not taken, by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Mindfulness Music for Children

Mindfulness meditation techniques are important for the mind to self-organize in a coherent, productive, healthy way, by releasing tension and removing fear from our minds and souls.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Mindfulness Music for Children. 

Death be not proud, by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Ancient Greece song by Mr Nicky

A history primer on Ancient Greece... Mr.Nicky rocks!  This educational parody is set to the beat of Meghan Trainor "All About That Bass".

I have also posted elsewhere historical primer parodies by Mr. Nicky, specifically on Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Rome.  If you like the video below, I suggest you visit the others. 

Enjoy!  :)

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is the link for Ancient Greece by Mr. Nicky

If you like my poems, by e.e. cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings poses, embodying
a success all-too-rare for a career poet,
exuding a charisma that contains a joy of life
that is contagious throughout his poetry.

if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening,a little behind you

then people will say
"Along this road i saw a princess pass
on her way to meet her lover(it was
toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants."



--------

For an informative background of the life, style, and historical context encasing e.e. cummings' exceptional body of work, please read the article immediately after the following poem—

"since feeling is first" by e.e. cummings

You may also enjoy these other poems by Edward Estlin Cummings:

• "love is more thicker than forget"


• "now does our world descend"

MBTI personality test: Take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator free online

The Myers-Briggs personality test is used with increasing frequently in Business and Human Resources for the purpose of building teams that can work effectively together by assembling these in such a way that its members complement one another.  This approach has proved useful not only by increasing productivity and the quality of the work but also by reducing quarrels between individuals within the assembled groups.

The Myers-Briggs test is based on Jungian Archetypes, classifying people into one of 16 personality types that result mathematically from a classification along four dichotomies.  The dichotomies are: Extroverted vs. Introverted, Sensing vs. iNtuitive, Feeling vs. Thinking, and Perceiving vs Judging.

MBTI's 16 personality archetypes organized by characteristic cognitive functions.

Your own archetype may or may not be stable throughout your lifespan depending on how deep you fall into one side of each dichotomy.  For example, I personally fluctuate between INFP (i.e., the Healer or Protector), INTP (i.e., the Architect or Mastermind), and sometimes even ENFP, and this is perfectly O.K.  As a result, I tend to take the test every year or two just to check and perhaps obtain some insight into a situation I've been facing.





Once you receive your result, you should head over to Wikipedia where there is a very in-depth description of the conceptual framework, its history, and methodology of the test, as well as individual wiki entries for each personality type.

I personally think everyone should know how their personality is skewed when it comes to these ancient archetypes.  So ---

Take the Myers-Briggs Jungian typology test!

------------------
Other psychological personality tests you may enjoy:

The Enneagram Personality Test

Lüscher Color Test

The Defense Style Questionnaire

Attachment Style Test (New article, with complete theory, dynamics, and free copies of the DSM V and ICD-10!)

The MMPI-2 Personality Inventory

O Me! O Life!, by Walt Whitman

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                      Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.





Published in Leaves of Grass, Final "Deathbed Edition", 1892.