handbook 2009

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/ her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present appiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20.. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

tankists march

1939 Red Army march

China Needs U.S. Guarantees for Treasuries

By Belinda Cao and Judy Chen

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China should seek guarantees that its $682 billion holdings of U.S. government debt won’t be eroded by “reckless policies,” said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the central bank.
The U.S. “should make the Chinese feel confident that the value of the assets at least will not be eroded in a significant way,” Yu, who now heads the World Economics and Politics Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in response to e-mailed questions yesterday from Beijing. He declined to elaborate on the assurances needed by China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields climbed above 3 percent this week on speculation the government will increase borrowing as President Barack Obama pushes his $838 billion stimulus package through Congress. Premier Wen Jiabao said last month his government’s strategy for investing would focus on safeguarding the value of China’s $1.95 trillion foreign reserves.
China may voice its concerns over U.S. government finances and the potential for a weaker dollar when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits China on Feb. 20, according to He Zhicheng, an economist at Agricultural Bank of China, the nation’s third-largest lender by assets. A People’s Bank of China official, who didn’t wish to be identified, declined to comment on the telephone.
Clinton Talks
“In talks with Clinton, China will ask for a guarantee that the U.S. will support the dollar’s exchange rate and make sure China’s dollar-denominated assets are safe,” said He in Beijing. “That would be one of the prerequisites for more purchases.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday that talks with Clinton would cover bilateral relations, the financial crisis and international affairs, according to the Xinhua news agency.
U.S. government bonds returned 14 percent last year including price gains and reinvested interest, the most since rallying 18.5 percent in 1995, according to indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. Concern that the flood of bonds would overwhelm demand caused Treasuries to lose 3.08 percent in January, the steepest drop in almost five years, Merrill data show. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury has risen to 2.80 percent from 2.21 percent at the end of last year.
Blackstone Loss
China’s loss of more than $5 billion from investing $10.5 billion of its reserves in New York-based Blackstone Group LP, Morgan Stanley and TPG Inc. since mid-2007 may increase its demand for the relative safety of Treasuries.
“The government will be a net buyer of Treasuries in the short term because there’s no sign they have changed their strategy,” said Zhang Ming, secretary general of international finance research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. “But personally, I don’t think we should increase holdings because the medium- and long-term risks are quite high.”
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said on Feb. 5 the Federal Reserve will have to buy Treasuries to curb yields as debt sales increase. U.S. central bank officials said Jan. 28 they were “prepared” to buy longer-term Treasuries.
“The biggest concern for China to continue buying U.S. Treasuries is that if Obama’s stimulus doesn’t work out as expected, the Fed may have to print money to cover the deficit,” said Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist at China International Capital Corp., partly owned by Morgan Stanley. “That will cause a dollar slump and the U.S. government debt will lose its allure for being a safe haven for international investors.”
Currency Rese
rvesChina’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s biggest, grew about $40 billion in the fourth quarter, the smallest expansion since mid-2004 as an end to yuan appreciation since July prompted investors to pull money out.
The world’s third-biggest economy grew 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the slowest pace in seven years. Policy makers cut interest rates by the most in 11 years and announced a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) economic stimulus plan in November to spur domestic demand.
Yu said China won’t channel its reserves toward stimulating the economy because its trade surplus is sufficient to fund any import needs. China’s trade surplus was $39 billion in December, the second-largest on record.
A decline in reserves “isn’t likely because of China’s huge twin surpluses,” Yu said. China “should diversify its reserves away from U.S. Treasuries if the value of China’s foreign-exchange reserves is in danger of being inflated away by the U.S. government’s pump-priming,” he said.
Linking Disputes
China may try to link trade and currency policy disputes to its future investment in Treasuries, said Lu Zhengwei, an economist in Shanghai at Industrial Bank Co., a Chinese lender partly owned by a unit of HSBC Holdings Plc.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner accused China on Jan. 22 of “manipulating” the yuan to give an unfair advantage to its exporters in the global market. The currency has dropped 0.16 percent since the start of this year to 6.8342 per dollar, following a 21 percent gain since a peg against the dollar was abandoned in July 2005.
“China can also use this opportunity to get a promise from the U.S. not to make inappropriate requests on bilateral trade and the Chinese yuan,” Lu said. “We can’t afford more yuan appreciation as the economy is facing a serious slowdown.”

The Ship of Death

David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930)

Version 1

I

1Now it is autumn and the falling fruit

2and the long journey towards oblivion.

3The apples falling like great drops of dew

4to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.

5And it is time to go, to bid farewell

6to one's own self, and find an exit

7from the fallen self.

II

8Have you built your ship of death, O have you?

9O build your ship of death, for you will need it.

10The grim frost is at hand, when the apples will fall

11thick, almost thundrous, on the hardened earth.

12And death is on the air like a smell of ashes!

13Ah! can't you smell it?

14And in the bruised body, the frightened soul

15finds itself shrinking, wincing from the cold

16that blows upon it through the orifices.

III

17And can a man his own quietus make

18with a bare bodkin?

19With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make

20a bruise or break of exit for his life;

21but is that a quietus, O tell me, is it quietus?

22Surely not so! for how could murder, even self-murder

23ever a quietus make?

IV

24O let us talk of quiet that we know,

25that we can know, the deep and lovely quiet

26of a strong heart at peace!

27How can we this, our own quietus, make?

V

28Build then the ship of death, for you must take

29the longest journey, to oblivion.

30And die the death, the long and painful death

31that lies between the old self and the new.

32Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised,

33already our souls are oozing through the exit

34of the cruel bruise.

35Already the dark and endless ocean of the end

36is washing in through the breaches of our wounds,

37Already the flood is upon us.

38Oh build your ship of death, your little ark

39and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine

40for the dark flight down oblivion.

VI

41Piecemeal the body dies, and the timid soul

42has her footing washed away, as the dark flood rises.

43We are dying, we are dying, we are all of us dying

44and nothing will stay the death-flood rising within us

45and soon it will rise on the world, on the outside world.

46We are dying, we are dying, piecemeal our bodies are dying

47and our strength leaves us,

48and our soul cowers naked in the dark rain over the flood,

49cowering in the last branches of the tree of our life.

VII

50We are dying, we are dying, so all we can do

51is now to be willing to die, and to build the ship

52of death to carry the soul on the longest journey.

53A little ship, with oars and food

54and little dishes, and all accoutrements

55fitting and ready for the departing soul.

56Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies

57and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul

58in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith

59with its store of food and little cooking pans

60and change of clothes,

61upon the flood's black waste

62upon the waters of the end

63upon the sea of death, where still we sail

64darkly, for we cannot steer, and have no port.

65There is no port, there is nowhere to go

66only the deepening blackness darkening still

67blacker upon the soundless, ungurgling flood

68darkness at one with darkness, up and down

69and sideways utterly dark, so there is no direction any more

70and the little ship is there; yet she is gone.

71She is not seen, for there is nothing to see her by.

72She is gone! gone! and yet

73somewhere she is there.

74Nowhere!

VIII

75And everything is gone, the body is gone

76completely under, gone, entirely gone.

77The upper darkness is heavy as the lower,

78between them the little ship

79is gone

80It is the end, it is oblivion.

IX

81And yet out of eternity a thread

82separates itself on the blackness,

83a horizontal thread

84that fumes a little with pallor upon the dark.

85Is it illusion? or does the pallor fume

86A little higher?

87Ah wait, wait, for there's the dawn

88the cruel dawn of coming back to life

89out of oblivion

90Wait, wait, the little ship

91drifting, beneath the deathly ashy grey

92of a flood-dawn.

93Wait, wait! even so, a flush of yellow

94and strangely, O chilled wan soul, a flush of rose.

95A flush of rose, and the whole thing starts again.

X

96The flood subsides, and the body, like a worn sea-shell

97emerges strange and lovely.

98And the little ship wings home, faltering and lapsing

99on the pink flood,

100and the frail soul steps out, into the house again

101filling the heart with peace.

102Swings the heart renewed with peace

103even of oblivion.

104Oh build your ship of death. Oh build it!

105for you will need it.

106For the voyage of oblivion awaits you.

Version 2 ('Ship of Death')

1I sing of autumn and the falling fruit

2and the long journey towards oblivion.

3The apples falling like great drops of dew

4to bruise themselves an exit from themselves.

5Have you built your ship of death, oh, have you?

6Build then your ship of death, for you will need it!

7Can man his own quietus make

8with a bare bodkin?

9With daggers, bodkins, bullets, man can make

10a bruise or break of exit for his life

11but is that a quietus, oh tell me, is it quietus?

12Quietus is the goal of the long journey

13the longest journey towards oblivion.

14Slips out the soul, invisible one, wrapped still

15in the white shirt of the mind's experiences

16and folded in the dark-red, unseen

17mantle of the boays still mortal memories.

18Frightened and alone, the soul slips out of the house

19or is pushed out

20to find himself on the crowded, and margins of existence.

21Oh, it is not so easy, I tell you it is not so easy

22to set softly forth on the longest journey, the longest journey.

23The margins, the grey beaches of shadow

24strewn with dim wreckage, and crowded with crying souls

25that lie outside the silvery walls of our body's builded city.

26It is easy to be pushed out of the silvery city of the body

27through any breach in the wall,

28thrust out on to the grey grey beaches of shadow

29the long marginal stretches of existence, crowded with lost souls

30that intervene between tower and the shaking sea of the beyond.

31Oh build your ship of death, oh build it in time

32and build it lovingly, and put it between the hands of your soul.

33Once outside the gate of the walled silvery life of days

34once outside, upon the grey marsh beaches, where lost souls moan

35in millions, unable to depart

36having no boat to launch upon the shaken, soundless

37deepest and longest of seas,

38once outside the gate

39what will you do, if you have no ship of the soul?

40Oh pity the dead that are dead, but cannot take

41the journey, still they moan and beat

42against the silvery adamant walls of this our exclusive existence.

43They moan and beat, they gnash, they rage

44they fall upon the new outcoming souls with rage

45and they send arrows of anger, bullets and bombs of frustration

46over the adamant walls of this, our by-no-means impregnable existence.

47Pity, oh pity the poor dead that are only ousted from life

48and crowd there on the grey mud beaches of the margins

49gaunt and horrible

50waiting, waiting till at last the ancient boatman with the common barge

51shall take them aboard, towards the great goal of oblivion.

52Pity the poor gaunt dead that cannot die

53into the distance with receding oars

54but must roam like outcast dogs on the margins of life,

55and think of them, and with the soul's deep sigh

56waft nearer to them the bark of delivery.

57But for myself, but for my soul, dear soul

58let me build a little ship with oars and food

59and little dishes, and all accoutrements

60dainty and ready for the departing soul.

61And put it between the hands of the trembling soul.

62So that when the hour comes, and the last door closes behind him

63he shall slip down the shores invisible

64between the half-visible hordes

65to where the furthest and the longest sea

66touches the margins of our life's existence

67with wincing unwilling waves.

68And launching there his little ship,

69wrapped in the dark-red mantle of the body's memories

70the little, slender soul sits swiftly down, and takes the oars

71and draws away, away, away, towards the dark depths

72fathomless deep ahead, far, far from the grey shores

73that fringe with shadow all this world's existence.

74Over the sea, over the farthest sea

75on the longest journey

76past the jutting rocks of shadow

77past the lurking, octopus arms of agonised memory

78past the strange whirlpools of remembered greed

79through the dead weed of a life-time's falsity,

80slow, slow my soul, in his little ship

81on the most soundless of all seas

82taking the longest journey.

83Pulling the long oars of a life-time's courage

84drinking the confident water from the little jug

85and eating the brave bread of a wholesome knowledge

86row, little soul, row on

87on the longest journey, towards the greatest goal

88Neither straight nor crooked, neither here nor there

89but shadows folded on deeper shadows

90and deeper, to a core of sheer oblivion

91like the convolutions of shadow-shell

92or deeper, like the foldings and involvings of a womb.

93Drift on, drift on, my soul, towards the most pure

94most dark oblivion.

95And at the penultimate porches, the dark-red mantle

96of the body's memories slips and is absorbed

97into the shell-like, womb-like convoluted shadow.

98And round the great final bend of unbroken dark

99the skirt of the spirit's experience has melted away

100the oars have gone from the boat, and the little dishes

101gone, gone, and the boat dissolves like pearl

102as the soul at last slips perfect into the goal, the core

103of sheer oblivion and of utter peace,

104the womb of silence in the living night.

105Ah peace, ah lovely peace, most lovely lapsing

106of this my soul into the plasm of peace.

107Oh lovely last, last lapse of death, into pure oblivion

108at the end of the longest journey

109peace, complete peace!

110But can it be that also it is procreation?

111Oh build your ship of death

112oh build it!

113Oh, nothing matters but the longest journey.

Notes

1.17] See Shakespeare's Hamlet III.i.69-32):

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin ...

2.23] Lines omitted in Last Poems and inserted by Vivian de Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts in their definitive Complete Poems (Penguin, 1993): 961, note on 1042. In doing so, they emend "that" (line 23) to "the".

---

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: D. H. Lawrence, Last Poems, ed. Richard Aldington (London: Martin Secker, 1933): 60-64 (MS "A"), 173-77 (MS "B," dated Nov. 23, 1928). PR 6023 A93 A17 Robarts Library
First publication date: 1933
Publication date note: See Roberts A62
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 4:2002/1/12

Composition date: 26 August 1929 - November 1929
Composition date note: See Ellis, 603

P.S. this was writtenby lawrence on his death bed,and its interesting to see the different takes taken by him between this poem and bavarian gentians which was written a year before.
in this particular poem he looks at death up close and personal and tries to make out what exactly it is that happens to you when you die.where is it that you go.the interesting aspect of the poem is that it deals with a topic that we all think about at some point,difference being that he is actually facing death when he questions it.
in part one he compare death to dew..implying that it happens to everyone but its very different when your the one facing it.he questions whether killing ones self could be a better way then facing this painful death when he says 'quietus'.but wonders whether that could actually give you peace.he plans not to fight death anymore but to prepare for all that lies ahead...
he tells himself and us that the body is a mere armour to the soul.we cannot contol our fate as we do not know what lies ahead.
in bavarian gentians again death is seen as the unknown darkness by him.he feels that the darkness that he is in has made him loose his was and control over life.he reaches a point where he is ready to die..however this does not happen...the moment passes him by and he has come 'out of oblivion',though he continues to drift towards death.
till the last line he pleads his reader to build there ship of death and be prepared for this inevitable that will come there way.
i myself feel (through personal experience)you can try to do this...but when you lose someone,no matter who...i don't think that death is something you can be ready for.it comes when it does...