Michaela profile picture

Michaela

If you don't have goals, you will end up precisely where you expected -- nowhere.

About Me


View my photo albums on Flickr.com by clicking here. Feel free to leave any comments. I'll be adding some more pictures soon.

Thoughts to Inspire Me in 2008
From Body+Soul Magazine, February 2008

- "When you believe in an abundant universe, your world feels more plentiful."

- "Walk, run, dance, and jump a little every day."

- "Explore your inner adventurer. Try things that excite you."

- "A resolution isn't what you 'should' do; it's a chance to move your life forward."

Picture taken at the Valley of the Temples on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

My Interests

I have a wide variety of interests, but they mostly come down to traveling, cultures, real estate, interior design, nonviolence, and bettering myself and the world. My interests and goals are so varied that I have a hard time trying to fit everything in. My primary interests tend to be different every few months - either out of necessity because of something I am dealing with at the moment - or if I'm lucky, it's something I chose out of leisure.

As for traveling, I've been to some beautiful places in the USA (including Hawaii - Oahu & The Big Island) and Canada (Lake Louise). I have also been to France (Paris), England (London), Russia (Moscow & St. Petersburg), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius), Estonia (Tallin) and Belorus (Minsk). I'd love to explore more of Europe. My list of places to see includes: Germany (especially the Rhine River), Czechoslovakia (my heritage), the French and English countrysides, all regions of Italy, Spain, Greece, Egypt, the Netherlands, and the Nepal region of India.

My favorite places that I have been include: London, Paris, Hawaii, the Canadian Rockies (Lake Louise), New Orleans, the canyon region of Utah, Colorado, San Diego, Washington DC (where I lived for one summer for an internship), New York City, Disney World (Epcot), and some of the small towns in the Baltic States (Riga, Latvia).

I'd like to meet:

- People who are educated in nonviolence.
- People who flip properties in the DFW area.
- People who are real estate agents and brokers in the DFW area.
- People who enjoy traveling.
- People who like to have fun in ways other than doing drugs and getting drunk (Drinking now and then is ok, but not as a primary form of entertainment.)

Music:

Disturbed, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Tool, Dave Matthews, Tori Amos, Drowning Pool, Joss Stone, Live, Mudvayne, Nine Inch Nails, BT, Slipknot, Somsara, Haji's Kitchen, Red Eye Conspiracy

Movies:

Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, Go, Blow, Traffic

Television:

HGTV is my favorite channel and it's educational since I really want to get into the business of flipping real estate. Otherwise, my favorite shows are Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. I'm easily addicted to reality television. Also, the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel get a lot of my attention.

Books:

Clicking on the title will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about the book and purchase if interested.

- The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families, and Our World by Michael N. Nagler

- The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace by Howard Zinn

- Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World by Thich Nhat Hanh

- An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings by Samuel Bercholz

- Night by Elie Wiesel

- Our Spiritual Crisis by Michael N. Nagler

- Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent

- The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail by Margaret Starbird

Heroes:

- Thich Nhat Hanh: "Sometimes you encounter people who are so pure, beautiful, and content, they give you the impression that they are divine, that they actually are saints or holy beings. What you perceive in them is their awakened self, their Buddha nature, and what they reflect back to you is your own capacity of being awake."
- Michael N. Nagler: "In war you are risking your life to kill others; in nonviolence you're risking your life (if necessary) so that on one else will be killed, ultimately so that no one will ever have to face death again at the hands of their fellow humans."
- Mahatma Gandhi: "Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our very being."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one's whole being into the being of another."
- Buddha: "Better than a thousand hollow words, Is one word that brings peace."
- Mother Teresa: "Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world."
- Dalai Lama: "Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life."
- Princess Diana: "The biggest disease this day and age is that of people feeling unloved.”
- Black Elk: "And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father."
- Geronimo: "I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say."
- Harriet Tubman: "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
- Confucius: "To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice."
- Anne Frank: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
- Nelson Mandela: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
- Jesus Christ (the person rather than the divine): "Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble. Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing."
- Robert F. Kennedy: "On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and are equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."
- Elie Wiesel: "Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: "If peace is to be maintained, it must be by brave men, who have come up to the same height as the hero, namely, the will to carry their life in their hand, and stake it at any instant for their principle, but who have gone one step beyond the hero, and will not seek another man's life; men who have, by their intellectual insight or else by their moral elevation, attained such a perception of their own intrinsic worth that they do not think property or their own body a sufficient good to be saved by such dereliction of principle as treating a man like a sheep."
WEBSITES OF INTEREST:
All links will open in a new window.
How the Church Aided 'Heretical' Astronomy
The Galileo Project
From Priest to Deist
Jung Typology Test - I'm an INTJ
On Self-Validation
Introduction to the Philosophy of Nonviolence
M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
Wicked The Musical - I already have my tickets for the Dallas show in 2007!
ABI's BAPCPA Blog
Loose Change Videos Part 1 - Part 2
Loose Change Viewer Guide: Debunking the Conspiracy Theory
Natural Born Hikers - I can only hope to visit as many places and take as many beautiful pictures.
Action Network - Take action .. for the health of people and the planet. Make your voice heard with a single click, sending messages to key decision makers.
Earthwatch Institute - I'd love to go on one of these trips one day.
Belief-O-Matic: Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic,, knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic,, will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.
My Belief-O-Matic Results - Although it's third on the list, my beliefs most closely match that of the liberal side of Theravada Buddhism.
MY WORK / ESSAYS:
All links will open in a new window. Some may require that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Holocaust & Nonviolence Essay
Cathedrals as Solar Observatories Essay - Slideshow

My Blog

A day at the doggie park...

Gambit and Jada hereby express their gratitude to the City of North Richland Hills for having an awesome doggie park - Tipp's Canine Hollow - within only five minutes of our house.  It was our f...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:50:00 PST

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa... If you really want to grant me a wish, tell me how to best deal with the jerks who are unfortunately related to me...or, better yet, turn them into barn keepers and bring them back ...
Posted by Michaela on Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:01:00 PST

Tricia's Prom & My Attempt at Photography

Here are my favorites.  The entire set of photos (along with larger versions of these) are available on Flickr.com.  The link to the entire set of photos is: http://www.flickr.com/phot...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:03:00 PST

Directions from Dallas to Paris

Just for laughs, go to maps.google.com; click on Get Directions; ask for directions from Dallas, TX to Paris, France; go down to line 26. Yes, you are reading that correctly: "26. Swim across the...
Posted by Michaela on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:37:00 PST

Who wants to go to Prague?

I applied for my passport about 2 weeks ago for a trip to London and Paris later this spring and now I keep thinking about all the places I want to see.  It's been nearly 14 years since I went to...
Posted by Michaela on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 09:00:00 PST

National Body Challenge 2007

The Discovery Health channel is again hosting a FREE, eight-week, comprehensive fitness and wieght-loss challenge to anyone (individuals, groups, and families) looking to shed some pounds or adopt a h...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 09:20:00 PST

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere - MLK

It's sad to say, but there are many Americans who believe that the day we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. should only be celebrated by African Americans.  Unfortunately, the school system does a...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:13:00 PST

50 Things You May Not Know About Me

I've seen a few people create these lists and thought that I'd give a shot at creating my own.  I tried to be unique and honest and truly include some things that people may not know about me.&nb...
Posted by Michaela on Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:11:00 PST

Like Indie Movies?

This film was written & directed by a friend.  Based on reviews, it looks promising as both a horror and comedic indie film.  -Michaela "Ghostbusters for the new generation"- Movies On...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 02 Jul 2006 07:20:00 PST

Religious Beliefs

For me, exploration of my own religious beliefs is a daily process -- what I believe to be a true spiritual journey.  Many people seem to subscribe to a particular religion and then claim to beli...
Posted by Michaela on Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:08:00 PST