Touching stories_part one!

Mother and Son

My mom only had one eye. I hated her, she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market.She collected little weeds and such to sell, anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment.There was this one day during elementary school. I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school..."Your mom only has one eye?!" and they taunted me.
I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, "Mom, why don't you have the other eye?! You're only going to make me a laughingstock. Why don't you just die?" My mom did not respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time.
Maybe it was because my mom hadn't punished me, but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly.
That night...I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty.
Then I studied really hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I'm living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom.
This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when someone unexpected came to see me "What?! Who's this?!"... It was my mother...Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom's eye.
And I asked her, "Who are you? I don't know you!!!" as if I tried to make that real. I screamed at her "How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! Get out here now!" And to this, my mother quietly answered, "oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared. Thank good ness... she doesn't recognize me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn't going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life.
Then a wave of relief came upon me... one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house...just out of curiosity there, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand.... it was a letter to me.
My Son,
I think my life has been long enough now. And... I won't visit Seoul anymore... but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much. And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school.... For you... I'm sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.
You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye... so I gave you mine... I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. The couple times that you were angry with me. I thought to myself, 'it's because he loves me.' I miss the times when you were still young around me.
I miss you so much. I love you. You mean the world to me. My world shattered! Then I cried for the person who lived for me. My Mothe

A story that can inspire us all(adapted from Jim Cathcart's The Nature of Success)

In 1972, Jim Cathcart was working at the Little Rock, Arkansas Housing Authority, making $525 a month, with a new wife and baby at home, no college degree, no past successes, and not much hope for the foreseeable future.
One morning, he was sitting in his office listening to the radio, to a program called "Our Changing World" by Earl Nightingale, who was known as "the Dean of Personal Motivation." That day, Nightingale, in his booming voice, said something that would change Jim's life forever: "If you will spend an extra hour each day in study of your chosen field, you will be a national expert in that field in five years or less."
Jim was stunned, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. Although he had never given a speech, he had always wanted to help people grow in areas of personal development and motivation. He began his quest to put Nightingale's theory to the test by reading books and listening to tapes whenever he could. He also started exercising, became better organized, and joined a self-improvement study group. He persisted through weeks of temptations to quit, just by doing a little more each day to further his goal. Within six months he had learned more than he had in his few years of college, and he began to believe he could turn his goal of becoming a motivational speaker into reality. All the hard work, the discipline, and study paid off. Jim now has delivered more than 2,500 speeches worldwide and has won every major award in the speaking industry.
Just like companies have market value, so do people. In the simplest terms, your market value increases by knowing and doing more. Knowledge is power, not only for your career, but also to improve your family and spiritual life. I once heard a quote that sums it up well, "Knowledge is like climbing a mountain; the higher you reach the more you can see and appreciate."
I love stories because for me, they can bring an idea to life. This one and many others can be found in my book, The Nature of Success.

How to set up a home entertainment centre

Your Home, Your Needs

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First of all you must decide what you want your home entertainment center to do. There are the obvious things which most people expect from a home theater like watching TV and playing movies and surely you want to be able to listen to your mustic collection on it, but a home theater can do much more like playing video games via a console system or computer and recording TV while you are away.

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Taking stock of what A/V components you already have can help you figure out what you need to make your home entertainment center complete. Deciding on a budget for your home theater is also important since you don't want to blow all your money on just one component only to realize that you still need a bunch of other items.

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Now take a look at the space where the entertainment center will reside. There needs to be plenty of space for the TV and front speakers as well as a stack of all your other components like the receiver and DVD player. You need an outlet close by to power everything and if you will have a Media Center computer (explained in the next section) you need some way of getting it internet. Take some measurements of the space so you know how much room you have when you buy a shelf for everything to go on.

The Components

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The center of any home entertainment center is the TV. If you already have a good sized TV you may want to hang on to it for now, but older televisions, even really big screen ones, cannot compare to the brightness and clarity of todays high definition models. Alternately you may want to consider a projector as a replacement for your TV . Projectors can throw an 80 to 100 inch high definition image right on to your wall, and that is truly home theater!

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A surround sound receiver (the amplifier that everything hooks into) is essential to a home theater. You will want one that has high definition outputs and has an input for every device in your home theater. This means that if you will have a DVD player, a Video Game system, a cable box, and a CD player you will need at least 3 video and audio inputs and 1 audio only. As far as the whole 5.1/6.1/7.1 thing goes you really only ever need 5.1. For more information there is an eHow specifically on buying receivers on this site.

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You will also need speakers to go with your stereo. These include front left and right, a center channel, rear/surround left and rights, and preferably a subwoofer. There are guides right here on eHow that can help you pick out just the right speakers for your system and your wallet.

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You may want to consider a Media Center computer for your entertainment system. Media center computers (sometimes called home theater personal computers or HTPCs) greatly expand the capabilities of your home entertainment center. They allow you to have your whole music collection at your fingertips, watch movies off the internet on your big screen, play DVDs, play computer games on your home theater, listen to internet radio through your stereo, and surf the internet from the comfort of your couch. If you choose to get a media center computer you WILL need a high definition TV or projector.

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Now of course comes all the basic components. DVD player, VCR, cable box, CD player, game systems, etc. You probably have many of these already, and if you are getting a media center computer then it will replace many of them.

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Lastly you will probably want a piece of furniture to house everything. What you go with here is mostly about your personal tase and what will go well in the room. If you got a projector, then all you really need is a small shelf for all the components to sit on and maybe a wall or ceiling mount for the projector.

Setting it all up

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Now it's time to set everything up. Put all your components on the opposite side of the room and put your shelf in place leaving plenty of room behind it to hook everything up.

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Now put all of the components in their place. To avoid confusion do not hook any wires up until everything is where you want it to be.

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Now interconnect all of your components. Try and use the highest quality connections for each item, here is a guide starting at the best quality: VIDEO: High definition, S-Video, RCA Component, Co-Axial; AUDIO: Fiber Optic, SPDIF Co-Axial, Shielded RCA, Headphone type plugs. If you need any extra wires make sure to measure how long they need to be and make a list.

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Finally, plug everything in to a surge protecting power strip. This will protect both you and your equipment from power surges.

Read more: How to Set Up a Home Entertainment Center | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_1419_set-home-entertainment.html#ixzz11fiLRofK