Lisa Marie Presley(1968-2023)

Lisa Marie Presley, the only offspring of the late Elvis Presley , the King of Rock and Roll and Priscilla Presley has died yesterday after experiencing earlier of a sudden cardiac arrest.

In spite of resuscitation and eventual hospitalization, she eventually died.

Ever since her father died, she has constantly lived under his shadow but she made sure that his legacy goes on. She even made a career as a rock singer. She had her share of troubled marriages but out of them ,she had 4 offsprings, 1 of which unfortunately died from a gunshot wound in 2020—her only son Benjamin Keough–27 years old . She had reportedly not gotten over that. She had bouts of drug addiction in the past as well. I presume it was her way of coping through most of her life trials.

She was considered the Princess of Graceland.

I see her now reunited with her son and father in the great beyond.

My thoughts and prayers to her mother Priscilla and her 3 surviving daughters.

I find this moment so surreal since this past week, she was celebrating her father’s heavenly birthday and even attended the Golden Globes where her father’s biopic movie “Elvis” was up for numerous nominations.

At least she got to see Austin Butler win Best Actor for depicting her late father in the movie.

Lisa Marie, we will always remember you like how we did with your father.

Shalom!

Josie

Angela Lansbury, R.I.P.

Today, I heard the sad news that 96 year old Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury had died in her sleep early this morning in California.

She had a long and multi-awarded entertainment career which spanned several years (75 years)consisting of theater, television and movies.

My absolute favorite was her portrayal of Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder She Wrote”. I always look forward when I have the time to watch an episode and try to figure out which was the overlooked clue and who was the probable murder suspect. It was a great guessing game.

Dame Angela, your TV detective character was the North American version of Agatha Christie’s character in her tome Miss Marples.

Thank you so much for entertaining us all these years!

Your legacy lives on.

You are one classy lady. Adieu!

Josie

The Overturning of Roe vs. Wade

On June 24,2022, the Unites States Supreme Court by a majority vote had overturned the ruling on Roe vs. Wade (1973) regarding legalization of abortion.

Reactions were fast and furious among pro -choice, pro-abortion and anti-abortion activists. We will be hearing more from them in the coming days and I would not be surprised that it would become a US election wedge issue.

Consequences will arise from this.

Which US state will still allow abortions? Will this mean that 1 woman will have to cross statelines to have the procedure done without the risk of being arrested? Would she come up north here in Canada where abortion is still legal?

What about those women who need therapeutic abortions(still birth, massive uterine bleeding, victims of rape and incest?)Would they be punished as well just because they need the procedure for both physical and mental survival?

Would religious beliefs clash now with government rulings? The premise of the separation of church and state comes into play as well. Cultural beliefs and customs will be in conflict as well.

I pray that further clarification on all sides be made swiftly so that further strife can be prevented.

Josie

To the Graduates of 2020–Be Proud!

To the graduates of 2020, when you look back on this year 2020 sometime in the future, not only has it been a pandemic year(thanks to COVID-19 aka coronavirus) for which you all had to learn life-coping ,survival skills as well as trying to complete your education by virtual/digital learning amidst sacrificing from seeing your schoolmates ,teachers and peers due to social distancing,self- isolation,quarantine and lockdown.

You all made it this far and had shown the entire world that you came out of this a much stronger group of people,ready to face a brave,new world in the era of COVID-19.

The struggle in coping with COVID-19 will still continue but at least now, you are all no longer neophytes in dealing with this festering ,unseen virus.

You all deserve to celebrate it via your own improvised forms of the senior prom(high-schoolers),other graduation parties as well as the graduation ceremonies.

Congratulations to all of you!

We are all in this together and stay safe!

Josie

Virtual Homage to the Nova Scotia Shooting Victims of April 19,2020

Amidst our constant surveillance and vigilance in protecting ourselves from the ever invisible COVID-19(coronavirus), a tragedy had fallen on Portapique,Nova Scotia and its neighboring towns in this part of the Maritime areas of Canada.

On the early hours of April 19,2020, a lone gunman had gone on an almost 12 hour shooting rampage,mostly random along a stretch of highways and neighboring towns and centering on a rural community–Portapique,Nova Scotia. Total number of victims gunned down so far—18 and may still potentially go up since around a total of 16 crime scenes so far had been identified. Among the deceased was a female Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)officer as well as the gunman.

Overall investigation will obviously take some time to be completed.

In the meantime,ongoing  plans to honor the dead with social distancing in mind are being made. Virtual memorial services are the current norm.

My home province is just next door to the province of Nova Scotia. As a fellow Maritimer, I feel your pain and my heart,thoughts and prayers goes out to everybody there.

I do hope that you will get some degree of closure even though you will be honoring the dead in a much different way because of COVID-19.

Nevertheless, please know, we do care. We are all coming together for all of you and we will all get through this,COVID-19 notwithstanding.

 

Josie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Easter 2020 in this COVID-19 era

For full disclosure,being  Catholic, I observe Holy Week which starts this week,For our Jewish friends, Passover starts  within this week as well.

Dealing with COVID-19 aka coronavirus is quite challenging for everyone.If I were to pin point  Christian religious connections, dealing with this virus is like observing the Way of the Cross, the Crucifixion and observance of Lent and abstinence.

I consider Easter as the time for  the Resurrection of Christ as well as hopefully in due time, liberation from COVID-19 as a religious analogy as well.

Even the observance of Passover is analogous to being locked down in one’s home as the Angel of Death went through Egypt and passed through all male Jewish firstborns because prior precautions had been made.( Eating lamb and unleavened bread and smearing the front door with blood.)

With COVID-19, if we consistently followed all prior sanitary precautions, that virus will hopefully pass over us by as we continue our lockdown and social distancing.

Easter 2020 in this COVID-19 era is special since the essence of Lent and repentance has been observed in someway. Considering that all non-essential services have been temporarily stopped and only essential services are open for our basic needs only drives home the point the ff :

We need to reflect on what our life priorities really are and to not emphasize too much on the frivolities. This would mean  good balancing responsibilities and having periods of leisure.

We cannot afford to procrastinate since we do not know what tomorrow will bring to us which we may not have control anyway.

We go on living our life with purpose day by day which will give us personal fulfillment and not any personal regret.

Even once Easter 2020 passes by, such life principles need to be followed. Lifestyle changes due to social distancing has now changed how we attend church service, much less any incoming Easter egg hunt.

To all my fellow bloggers who observe other religions, may you have a fruitful and blessed coming of days as we all deal with COVID-19.

 

Josie

COVID-19 Brings Out The Best In Mankind

COVID-19 aka coronavirus is the  great equalizer ,bar none. Everyone is potentially affected in some way with it.

2 key phrases stand out in my mind:  “Stay safe.” “.”We are all in this together”‘.

These 2 phrases heighten the awareness that we are all affected with  COVID-19 in some way and cognizant of the need to take all antiseptic precautions from it.

As I had mentioned in my previous blog regarding  COVID-19 inspired lifestyle changes,other businesses either close up or start pursuing alternative business modules to survive—doing virtual/online/streaming services to reach out to their regular and new clientele. Some of them even went to the extent of producing the necessary medical resources and equipment that are in dire need by several hospitals worldwide—masks,respirators,hand sanitizers,etc.

Even for an individual, the surge in DIY projects  keep coming out—just check Youtube videos for example—how to bake bread,doing simple carpentry projects,etc.just for survival.

It is an attitude and mindset to practice during wartime.Make do with whatever you have at the moment.It reminded me of the “war cake” someone made for me sometime back.

Never underestimate the resourcefulness of the human mind especially when facing situations and trials that warrant survival mode. Probably part of our adrenaline rush–the fight and flight response in all of us.

 

 

 

The best in mankind comes out in acts of kindness and courage—delivering goods to the home-bound(ex.seniors) and healthcare workers,looking out for our respective neighbors,clients leaving big tips to restaurants  for the service staff, just to name a few.

Kudos to all of them!

It gives us all  a time to reflect within ourselves as to what our role in life really is and hopefully, such an attitude will still continue post-COVID-19.

Let me end with what some healthcare workers are saying to the rest of the world:

We are all here for you . Please stay home for us.

These healthcare workers had to be at work to help us medically if needed. It entails personal sacrifice on their part to be away from their own families.

If we follow all the CDC guidelines of staying at home,avoiding unnecessary travels and practicing safety precautions, it will prevent unnecessary hospital trips and would be of a big help to them as well.

 

Josie

Coronavirus(COVID-19) , Mother Nature , Climate Change & Post-COVID-19 phase

I just found out the news that China will be lifting the travel ban on Hubei province,including Wuhan where it was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

Lock down was enforced since January  and just a few weeks ago in that month ,there were signs that the air pollution in China especially in those 2 places had cleared significantly. I believe the International Space Station can look down from above to see that the air quality is now so clear,as if of perfect quality. By March, the incidence rate had already gone down significantly, in fact, less than 10 affected with that virus.

Hubei’s travel ban will be lifted soon while Wuhan will have theirs lifted, I believe from April 8 on. Gradual return of everyday services with frequent health-checks will be in play.

That is something that I am looking forward to as well. it would be one hell of a “Corona liberating party” and back to normalcy of partaking of other enjoyable activities—leisure travel and cruises, dining out,shopping in a mall or even a neighborhood store,watching a movie , drinking alone or with friends in a pub,etc. Also, the regular workforce can go back to their regular work routine as well.

I would also encourage supporting our local small business partners (ex. the mom & pop store)since they are also part of the economic backbone of our respective locale.

One thing’s for sure —the business of producing TP,paper towel,rubbing alcohol, masks, Purell hand sanitizers,disinfectants etc. will always stay lucrative from now on because of heightened awareness of a pandemic whether now or in the future.

Looking at how China is right now in starting to at least gradually returning to a normal life routine,perhaps the coronavirus is also a byproduct on how much mankind has been relying on technology to attain financial progress,affecting how the environment led to overall changes to Mother Nature , hence the imbalance and the emergence of climate change.(ex.global warming)

If COVID-19 does get to be totally eradicated,we all do indeed need to be more careful as to how we conduct ourselves especially with regards to the environment.

The lifestyle changes and personal priorities for the better good that we are making now should continue for keeps.

Saving the environment and preventing further climate change will probably stop the emergence  of coronavirus 2.0  aka COVID-20 and thereafter.

Balancing the use of natural resources in our quest for financial progress is imperative.

The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg might be on to something about the need to not cause the imbalance in Mother Nature which could lead to significant climate change.

Just saying!

Josie

 

 

??Nostradamus Prediction on Coronavirus??

Someone sent me this intriguing  theory that the well-renowned,French astrologer , physician and seer Nostradamus had predicted the coming of the Coronavirus aka COVID-19.

I had heard that Nostradamus had allegedly accurately predicted the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, the Kennedy assassinations and even the assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II.  There was a mention that he even  allegedly predicted the date of his own death and even changed his will when he predicted that his wife will eventually remarry after his death. Would he be right this time as well?

Here are his words with coined parenthesis on possible COVID-19 associations. You be the judge on it.

“There will be  a twin year(2020) from which will arise a queen(corona–Spanish for crown)who will come from the East(China) and who will spread a plague(virus) in the darkness of night.

———————————-NOSTRADAMUS

Intriguing indeed!

 

Stay safe,folks!!!

Josie

 

 

 

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Lifestyle Changes in this Era of Covid-19(aka Coronavirus)

What a difference a few weeks into this month of March has done for us all. Lifestyle changes in this era of Covid-19(aka Coronavirus)—-social distancing, non-essential business shutdowns and partial  shortened work hours  and lessening customer size per hour for essential retail stores as well as lay-offs and downsizing. Even the way we shop ,entertain or dine has changed too. Online shopping, take-out ,drive-thru,delivery, no more dine-in , no more movie viewing in-theatre,even  less TV entertainment audiencing  to lessen person-to-person exposure. There are extreme cases wherein an entire country is in mandatory shutdown to help lessen the disease transmission.

Work from home,entertain at home(Netflix,etc)  and study from home has been implemented to the max.  Air travel, cruise lines have been affected as well to the point that country-to-country border control has been contemplated and implemented as well.

With all of these happening as if we all now live in a  different world like in a science fiction movie, the pursuit for a vaccine and cure for COVID-19 is still ongoing as well as the infection rate increasing,same with the death rate from the virus.

With this ongoing pandemic, it is amazing to see how such a contagion could affect everyday living worldwide. Never underestimate such viral power.

As to how long this uncomfortable situation will last, God only knows.

No amount of political grandstanding nor finger-pointing will help us. WE WANT RESULTS!!!

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Which explains all this panic-buying of  non-perishable foods,toilet paper, hand sanitizers,face masks,rubbing alcohol,swabs,gloves,aloe vera gel,disinfectant wipes and sprays and bleach,but I digress. These items now appear to me more valuable than gold or money at this time.

Speaking of money, some stores do not want cash payments since it carries germs, Debit/credit payments are being encouraged.

My hats off to all the health care workers who bravely face this coronavirus head-on ,trying to mitigate the dangerous effects of it from the populace.

I am afraid that once that virus gets fully eradicated, the lifestyle changes that we now are experiencing will become permanent. The skeptic in me thinks that the business owners  for example will see if it is more profitable to make do with less resources like manpower for example yet gain profit overall.  This early, I already heard of massive layoffs with these non-essential services though others still get 2 weeks pay in spite of not reporting for work for the next 2 weeks. But for how long will these crisis payments be?Will these folks get laid off as well?

It is so surreal right now that all I can do right now is to pray for everything to  eventually go well.

A Chinese saying states—Every crisis is an opportunity. With Covid-19, whatever opportunity comes up, I hope it will be for the better good. This virus does not give a hoot as to who it affects.It definitely does not play favorites. It has no political affiliations and everybody is equal in its eyes.

Another saying–Beware the ides of March–oh,how true it is!

 

Josie