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Updated 25 Jan 2014: I recently came across this quote in a blog post by chemobabe which pretty much sums up what I was trying to put across in my post:
"Treatment sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
While attitude may influence compliance, it does not otherwise influence outcome.
The right treatment for the disease is what counts. …
I think it's disappointing to come to terms with the fact that positivity is not going to determine the outcome. …
I will tell you that the women I admire most are the ones who flourish not because of their good attitude, but because of their unflinching honesty."
So … let it all hang out. Being authentic is more important than being positive.
Being positive and the Law of Attraction and Cancer
There is this New Age philosophy that people with cancer must remain positive.
There's also another New Age meme that holds that somehow, people are responsible for their cancers. Or the popular Law of Attraction which implies that people with cancer attracted their cancers to themselves like some sort of warped anti-health magnet.
What I attempt to do in this post, is to trace the roots of these beliefs, why it seems to apply only to cancer, why I think it's dangerous, and what we can do to counteract it. There are also loads of funny cartoons on cancer to liven things up.
I've been challenged by this sort of thinking in my cancer journey.
"You attracted your cancer"
I once attended a group healing, and was told that perhaps my Higher Self wanted me to have the cancer ("oh, thank-you, thank-you, Higher Self, Christmas has come early!").
Even today, I struggle with such thinking. I don't have all the answers, and I'm willing to be open to the idea that something within me, has attracted this experience into my life, because it means that I can un-attract it – the belief that we are in control of our lives.
There are loads of books out there written by cancer survivors who say that cancer has made them a better person.
Cancer turns up the volume in your life
What I've observed is: what cancer does is turn up the volume on your life. If it was crap before, it becomes more crap … if you were stressed, you get more stressed … if you had relationship problems, they get worse … if you were a negative person, you get more negative.
It may make you step back and assess your life, but Cancer is not some sort of Fairy Godmother waving her wand and changing your life for the better!
Positive Thinking can be dangerous
I may be opening a can of worms here, but this Positive Thinking school of thought is dangerous.
At a time when cancer patients are feeling vulnerable, they are exhorted to feel positive, otherwise the cancer will get the better of them, and they are made to feel like failures when they don't feel positive.
I know that a lot of people who've encouraged me to "hang in there" or remain positive mean well.
I also realise that their exhortations to "be positive" is their coping mechanism for dealing with the fear of cancer.
Grateful for the positive help from friends and family
Despite my flippancy during the radio show, I am grateful to my saints of friends who have remained at my side and prayed for me, despite my lack of positivity. I have seen friends and bosses distance themselves because of my lack of positivity or depression, and I understand their reactions because they too have limited energy resources, they can't always be making allowances for me, and they may find me too draining.
(The cancer journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and I should not expect people to have the stamina to keep up with me, but man, it's lonely out here.)
I am also very grateful to my counsellors who have worked hard on getting me through the journey.
Authenticity vs putting up a false front
Why expend energy pretending to be positive, in order to prop up friends and family who are well? Surely it is more healing to be authentic?
Constructive coping instead of being positive
I think a better phrase than being "positive" is "constructive coping". Dr Peter Harvey, a clinical psychologist, who worked with cancer patients has this to say:
"Coping is not a single process, but is multi-stranded, employing a variety of strategies to deal with a variety of challenges.
There is no one, right way of coping.
Coping is not an all-or-nothing event; it requires effort and energy. It can be tiring, uncomfortable and very difficult and we cannot expect ourselves to be able to cope easily without some cost."
Are you suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder?
The diagnosis of cancer itself registers as a trauma or a shock, especially as it's life-threatening, and so too can the medical interventions for cancer. Like soldiers returning from a war, most cancer patients suffer from a degree of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (taken from Grace Gawler's handbook, "A helping hand: simple tools to enhance your recovery and life during and after cancer").
Stop giving yourself a hard time
So basically what I'm trying to say is: people with cancer, stop giving yourself a hard time if you're not always positive, or you are feeling depressed, or you react in a negative way.
Give yourself a break because in actual fact, you are behaving normally: "You are merely experiencing expected reactions to extraordinary events." (paraphrased from Michael Stewart and Peter Hodgkinson – clinical psychologists)
Cancer is not a competition in coping!
Another thing I've learned from personal experience is: don't let others dictate your pace of coping, or compare yourself to how others are coping. We are all individuals! Cancer is not a competition in self-improvement!
If you go on a forum and get depressed by the responses, then quit that forum – you are not there to please others! (I had an experience on a forum in which I was told my reply was too negative by the forum administrator – it made me wonder if the rest of the people replying on the forum were being authentic, or putting up a front!)
Positive thinking in cancer – a modern development
This sort of positive thinking and you-are-responsible-for-your-cancer belief wasn't around. It seems to be a development of more recent times.
Why is that?
I recently read one of the most insightful blog posts written on this subject by Sylvia Kapp on Positive Thinking.
I quote at length from her post, but only because she says it so much better than I could:
"Modern Western thinking tends to assume that everyone's basically in control of their life, and that we end up where we do because of the choices we make.
The whole "American Dream" is predicated on the assumption that you can achieve whatever you want as long as you work hard enough, believe in yourself enough, and never give up.
If you don't like your circumstances, it's up to you to change them – and this appears to be linked with the metaphor of "fighting" cancer, which is so widespread as to be taken for granted." (Sylvia Kapp)
Positive thinking – an offshoot of the "we can control our destinies", New Age thinking – the Great American Dream
It is this belief that we are in control of our destinies, that we can change what we don't like, which is at the root of all thinking that you can cure your cancer through thinking positively.
In recent years, partly, I think as a result of Louise Hay's seminal book, You can Heal Your Life, there is a new consciousness amongst New Age proponents that claims that our focus creates our reality.
This is not so different from the positive-thinking or law-of-attraction schools of thought. It puts a lot of pressure on those who have life-threatening illnesses (and not just cancer) to change the way they think, because the judgement is that there must be something wrong with the way they are thinking to have brought about the illness.
Cancer as a karmic lesson – are you God to know this?
And there's yet another school of belief that says that it's a karmic issue, and the person with the illness has chosen to work through karma in this lifetime (the illness being seen as a gift).
I don't know which school of thought is more mis-guided and more guilt-inducing. Illness is not a pleasant aspect of life, and karma implies a judgement, and really at the end of the day, who knows what is going on except God?
The belief that cancer as a battle, and people who die as failures …
But why has cancer been singled out?
People dying from cancer are seen as losing the battle, yet when someone dies from diabetes or heart failure, they are not seen as failures!
Susan Sontag "Illness as a Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors" – cancer as an evil predator
Sylvia Kapp's post provides some possible answers from Susan Sontag's book "Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors" which looks at how we characterise and think about cancer:
"Cancer is talked about as if it's an evil predator, or a serial killer who could strike anyone at any time, or an insidious parasite silently spreading through the body in order to destroy it.
(This is all specific and unique to cancer – no-one would ascribe sinister intentions to the plaque which clogs arteries and leads to heart attacks, or describe diabetes as the pancreas deliberately trying to starve the body of insulin …." (Sylvia Kapp)
Cancer still poorly-understood
One of the reasons cancer is talked about this way is because, despite all the research that's gone into it, it is still poorly-understood, and therefore open to the projections and fears of society (aka Cancer as the Bogeyman under the Bed syndrome).
"Sontag further adds it is this mysteriousness of cancer therefore lends itself to theories of causation such as the idea of a "cancer personality" (something that has never been substantiated by research).
Sontag points out that all significant diseases, before they were fully understood and treatable, were believed to be caused by personality and lifestyle or morals: in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was believed that "the happy man would not get plague", and before the TB bacterium was identified, TB was viewed as arising from an excess of passion." (Sylvia Kapp)
Finally, Sylvia writes:
"Cancer is a multi-factorial disease. There are no clear explanations for why some people do so much worse, or better, than expected, even with the same type and stage of cancer.
So it's easy to see how the idea that it's your attitude which makes the difference between whether you fight or give up, and from that, whether you'll live or die, took hold." (Sylvia Kapp)
I think until they discover a direct linear cause of cancer as they have for diabetes (insulin, pancreas), or heart attacks (cholesterol, heart), or TB (tuberculosis bacillium, lungs, bones), cancer is forever going to be the mystery disease which strikes out of nowhere, for no reason.
Do you remember that most excellent science-fiction horror B-Movie, "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in which aliens silently materialise and sneakily take over the bodies of a small American town?
The film was seen as a projection of American citizen's fear of the tyranny of McCarthyism.
Cancer as a metaphor for our fear of the unknown and loss of control, like an alien invasion
Well, we don't have aliens today (at least, not any that I've seen), but guess what, just substitute "Cancer" for "Aliens", and we have a metaphor for our times: our fear of the unknown, dehumanisation and lost of control.
Cancer is something that seems to come from another world, just like aliens. And they're not friendly aliens like ET. Cancer grows inside us, taking over, metastasing, evading capture through mutation, causing us to lose our humanity and our lives.
We no longer have to look to outer space for threats, they are within ourselves now.
So, this Positive Thinking business is borne out of our fears of a disease that we still don't understand, and because of that we superimpose on it the only means within our control: our attitudes, personality and reactions. It's a defence against the possibility that there is nothing that can be done against this disease, that we are helpless to control it.
Cancer is random … therefore blame the cancer patient
The idea that the Universe can be totally random is terrifying, so we try to make sense of cancer by attributing causes to it, and blaming the cancer patient for having brought on the calamity.
This causes more stress than help.
While it's nice to feel that whatever good things we do, are helping to heal the cancer, and it gives us cancer patients a sense of control, it is stressful to have to lead every minute of the day wondering if decisions around food, juicing, sugar, sleep, exercise, and thinking are contributing to the growth of the cancer.
"It implies, essentially, that people get sick because there's something wrong with them or in their lives, and if some people can choose to cure themselves and not die, then it logically follows that those who do die must have not wanted to live enough, or didn't change their lives in the right way so as to restore balance and purpose or whatever." (Sylvia Kapp)
Yeah – go girl!
Cancer affects happy, positive, fulfilled people too!
I've met many people who have cancer who were successful in their lives, raised happy families, were millionaires, or leaders in their fields. They did all they could to rid themselves of the cancer. If these people with seemingly-perfect, positively-happy, fulfilled lives couldn't do it, does it mean they were failures and did not want to live?
Accepting cancer
Here's a controversial thought: What about giving ourselves a break and allowing ourselves to acknowledge that it doesn't matter what we do, we may or may not cure our cancer, so why not just enjoy ourselves?
"The idea "what if my life path is already mapped out, and within that it doesn't much matter what I do, so I might as well just enjoy my life" is incredibly liberating and would be a huge relief. Of course it's hard to simply choose a new belief system overnight, but I'm experimenting with "if I believed this, what would that be like?" and it's certainly very interesting." (Sylvia Kapp)
This is what is known as acceptance.
Byron Katie, in the Work embraces this healthy philosophy. Her work enables users to question the thoughts that create a sense of want and not-having, and not-being, and allows the mind to reach some truce and peace.
There's so much out there in terms of self-help.
Choose carefully a system of spiritual practice and help that will help you grow and feel better about yourself, and not a system that adds to the guilt, or has followers that make you feel guilty, or takes away the joy in your life. It could be meditation, or knitting, or dog walking, or cooking, or watching The Only Way is Essex on TV.
It's taken me a long time to find something that's giving me comfort, and it's playing the piano, watching cookery shows, writing sci-fantasy, my cats and blogging. Thank you for reading this post and God Bless.
(If you've enjoyed the cartoons in this post, they've come from "Cancer made me a Shallower Person" by Miriam Engelberg, which is a perceptive and funny poke at all those positive cancer survivor books. I've read it three times and still laugh at her observations. I think it's one of those books that you can safely buy for a person who has cancer, without causing offense, because it's written by someone who had breast cancer, had been through the shit and still managed to find the funny side of what the crap.)
Sylvia Kapp passed away on Nov 9, 2013. I met her on two occasions, at a clinic in Sussex. I was struck by her intelligence and her ability to listen. Until her diagnosis, Sylvia was a clinical psychologist working with HIV patients. Her insightfulness lives on in her blog and experiences at Herzog's clinic, Sylvia's News.


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Pessimism among individual investors about the short-term direction of the stock market fell to its second-lowest level of the year as optimism rebounded to a 11-week high. The latest AAII Sentiment Survey also shows neutral sentiment falling below 40% for the first time in four weeks.
Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, jumped 7.2 percentage points to 35.5%. Optimism was last higher on May 3, 2017 (38.1%). Even with this week's large increase, bullish sentiment remains below its historical average of 38.5% for the 21st consecutive week and the 26th time out of the last 27 weeks.
Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, fell 3.4 percentage points. Nonetheless, neutral sentiment remains above its historical average of 31.0% for the 12th consecutive week and the 17th out of the last 18 weeks.
Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, fell 3.8 percentage points to 25.8%. Pessimism was last lower on January 4, 2017 (25.2%). The drop keeps pessimism below its historical average of 30.5% for the 10th time out of the last 12 weeks.
This year's trend of below-average levels of optimism continues. Since the start of 2017, bullish sentiment has only matched or exceeded its historical average three times (January 4, January 11 and February 22.) The rebound in optimism that took place this week occurred as both large-cap and small-cap indexes rose to new record highs. The rebound also followed what had nearly been an unusually low reading in bullish sentiment last week.
While some individual investors are encouraged by this year's record highs for the major indexes, others fret about the prevailing level of valuations. The Trump administration's ability (or lack thereof) to move forward on economic and tax policy remains at the forefront of many investors' minds and is having a significant impact on sentiment. Other factors playing roles are earnings, concerns about the possibility of a pullback in stock prices and interest rates/monetary policy.
This week's AAII Sentiment Survey results:
- Bullish: 35.5%, up 7.2 percentage points
- Neutral: 38.7%, down 3.4 percentage points
- Bearish: 25.8%, down 3.8 percentage points
Historical averages:
- Bullish: 38.5%
- Neutral: 31.0%
- Bearish: 30.5%
The AAII Sentiment Survey has been conducted weekly since July 1987 and asks AAII members whether they think stock prices will rise, remain essentially flat or fall over the next six months. The survey period runs from Thursday (12:01 a.m.) to Wednesday (11:59 p.m.).
Want to weigh in? Take the survey yourself and see results online at http://www.aaii.com/sentimentsurvey.
If you want to become an effective manager of your own assets and achieve your financial goals, consider a risk-free 30-day Trial AAII Membership.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chef John Zavoral
Toscanini | Beaver Creek, Colorado | www.toscaninibeavercreek.com
Chef John was raised on a 165 acre dairy turned hobby farm that feature a range of animals including ducks, geese, goats, pigs, and chickens.
After high school he attended Le Cordon Bleu in Minneapolis where he graduated with an Associate�s Degree in culinary arts.
John�s Rocky Mountain journey into fine dining Italian cuisine started at the Lodge at Vail working at Wildflower and Cucina Rustica, then at the 10th on Vail Mountain and Campo di Fiori before coming to Toscanini.


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PGA Rookie and Player of Year Announced
The PGA has just announced this year's Rookie and Player of the Year recipients and we couldn't be happier. Both Jordan Spieth (who didn't think he would win) and Daniel Berger, have loopers in the APTC.
Congratulations to Michael Greller and Grant Berry. These may be labeled as individual awards, but we know this is a team accomplishment.
Daniel Berger has been named PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. http://t.co/UjMgIUkiz5 pic.twitter.com/0HNLZVAgc7
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 2, 2015
Congrats to @JordanSpieth on POY, humbled and honored to be awarded 2015 Rookie of the Year. Thanks for all the support and kind words
— Daniel Berger (@DanielBerger59) October 2, 2015
Pretty wild two class of 2011 guys winning #POY and #ROY.. Congrats to my pals @JordanSpieth and @DanielBerger59 on great seasons
— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) October 2, 2015
Jordan Spieth wins 2014-15 PGA Tour Player of the Year: American Jordan Spieth captured PGA Tour Player of the… http://t.co/bMmKCSLs8c
— PGA News (@GolfTourNews) October 2, 2015


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With the FILTECH Show taking place from 22-24 October 2019 the City of Cologne in Germany will again be the place to be for the filtration and separation world and adjacent sectors. FILTECH is the world's largest Filtration Show and globally acknowledged platform for the booming filtration industry. FILTECH offers companies excellent business perspectives in a global scope.
FILTECH has an established track record in bringing together the technical and commercial sectors to develop global business relationships. This Exhibition is a must for all those concerned with purchasing, selling, designing, or researching filtration and separation equipment and services. FILTECH is the international platform and solution provider for all industries covering every market segment.
With 14,000 participants in 2018 FILTECH has clearly exceeded all expectations and set a strong signal for further growth of the world-wide filtration and separation sector. At FILTECH 2018 68% of all foreign guests came from Europe. 34,5 % of all foreign guests came from overseas. 35 % of the visitors were top-level decision makers. In total 73 nations were represented offering Exhibitors a unique possibility to generate new business.
Stand booking for FILTECH 2019 is open. Interested researchers can submit their abstracts until 30 March 2019.
If you have any questions concerning your participation please contact us. We look forward to welcoming you to FILTECH 2019 in Germany!
Register HERE!


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Men's Soccer Player of the Week - October 24, 2017
Richard Christensen, The Kings College (NY)
Sophomore | Goalkeeper | Solvang, CA
Richard Christensen of The Kings College (NY) has been named USCAA Men's Soccer Goalkeeper of the Week. The sophomore from California notched 12 saves in a single game while not allowing the Cooper Union to find the back of the net in their final regular season game. The victory over Cooper Union pushed the Kings College to 6-5-2 on the season, marking their first winning season since the program was started in 2009.
Previous Men's Soccer Player of the Week Winners
|Oct 31, 2017
|Matt Houlihan, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
|Oct 31, 2017
|Moussa Diouf, Penn State Hazleton
|Oct 24, 2017
|Richard Christensen, The Kings College (NY)
|Oct 24, 2017
|Joseph Kulikowski, SUNY ESF
|Oct 17, 2017
|Sean Carlin, University of Dallas
|Oct 17, 2017
|Geoffrey Smith, The Crown College
|Oct 10, 2017
|Carmine Tronolone, SUNY ESF
|Oct 10, 2017
|Paxton Bounds, Mississippi University for Women
|Oct 3, 2017
|Nathan Silveira, Dean College
|Oct 3, 2017
|Felipe Campos, Dean College
|Sep 26, 2017
|Alex Kern, Illinois Tech
|Sep 26, 2017
|Jalen Jackson, Johnson & Wales University Charlotte
|Sep 19, 2017
|Sean Carlin, University of Dallas
|Sep 19, 2017
|Chima Ogueri, University of Dallas
|Sep 12, 2017
|Brandon Welden, Penn State Brandywine
|Sep 12, 2017
|Chris Riebman, Penn State Brandywine
|Sep 5, 2017
|John Lowes, Johnson & Wales University Charlotte
|Sep 5, 2017
|Jalen Jackson, Johnson & Wales University Charlotte


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This page provides a listing of Oregon Mastiff Breeders. Please contact the breeders below to find Mastiff puppies for sale in Oregon:
Lebanon, Oregon, USA
Breeder of Champions!! Bred for Soundness,True Type, Temperament and Movement
Columbia River Gorge N S A Boundary, Washougal, WA, USA
Skamania Mastiffs is located in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington State. My name is Tami, my...
Washougal, WA, United States
(360) 837-1267(360) 837-1267
Add a wonderful new addition to your family when you purchase English Mastiff from Northwest Mast...
Camas, WA, United States
Located in Camas, Washington, we breed top-quality Mastiffs for both show and home. Our Mastiffs ...
Sandy, OR, United States
We at Stonehaven Mastiff's have a VERY HIGH STANDARD, we stick to as we decide which mastif...
Showing 5 results


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Infographic: 5 Frightful Facts About Fraud
Oct 29, 2018 MicroBilt News
Costume parties, murder mistery dinners and haunted hay rides are some of the ways to have a ghoulishly good time when Halloween rolls around each year. But there's nothing fun about the rate at which fraud occurs - every two seconds, by some estimates.
Read More
Infographic: 3 Scams That Target The Underbanked
Jul 19, 2018 MicroBilt News
America's unbanked - all 23 million of them - are in scammers' crosshairs. Even though the unbanked may not have checking accounts or credit cards, they're unfortunately not immune to deception, as the uptick in prepaid card fraud has proven.
Read More
Infographic: 3 Signs of Mortgage Application Fraud
Mar 15, 2018 MicroBilt News
A CoreLogic study found mortgage fraud in the U.S. increased 16.9 percent between 2016 and 2017. Lenders who are handling mortgage applications in the new year must keep themselves informed regarding these three common warning signs of this crime.
Read More
Infographic: The benefits of fintech for the credit invisible
Feb 20, 2018 MicroBilt News
Fintech firms have made quite a mark on the lending world in the past few years. Their innovative deployment of mobile banking tools is the cause, something which is quite beneficial to those with little to no traditional credit.
Read More
3 Industries that can benefit from alternative credit data
Jan 24, 2018 MicroBilt News
Although alternative credit remains a murky, unfamiliar concept to some, its adoption is slowly but steadily spreading. Some sectors may be particularly well-positioned to benefit from its use, and businesses under those umbrellas should consider adopting them if they haven't yet done so.
Read More


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According to reports, the new version of Android is available as Developer Preview.
Google has officially announced Android O. According to reports, the new version of Android is available as Developer Preview. If you possess Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel, and Pixel XL phones, the Pixel C tablet, you can avail it by downloading the official ROM from Google Server. But one can not use it on the phone that is daily driver. Reports are saying that to maximize battery life, the US technology giant is going to put a number of automatic limits in the background on apps. Apart from this, "Android O introduces notification channels to provide a unified system to help users manage notifications," Google Developer handbook says.
There are reports that, Google wants to make it easier for you to find answers and recommendations on smartphones without having to think about what to ask its search engine. Its new feature, called "shortcuts," will appear as a row of icons below the Google search box. Where now you'd have to ponder and then speak or type a request, the shortcuts will let you tap the icons to get the latest weather, movie showtimes, sports scores, restaurant recommendations and other common requests.
Watch this video
The shortcuts will begin appearing Tuesday in updates to Google's app for iPhones, Android phones and its mobile website. The Android app will also include various tools such as a currency converter, a language translator and an ATM locator, which you can also summon with a tap. Those tools may eventually make it to the iPhone as well, although Google says it doesn't know when. These shortcuts are the latest step in Google's quest to turn its search engine into a secondary brain that anticipates people's needs and desires. The search engine gleans these insights by analyzing your past requests and, when you allow it, tracking your location, a practice that periodically raises privacy concerns about Google's power to create digital profiles of its users.
Based on the knowledge that Google already has accumulated, its shortcuts feature may already list your favorite sports teams or recommend nearby restaurants serving cuisines you prefer. Shortcuts also show how Google's search engine has been adapting to its audience, now that smartphones have become the primary way millions or of people stay connected to the internet.
Since more than half of requests for Google's search engine now come from smartphones, the Mountain View, California, company has adapted its services to smaller screens, touch keyboards and apps instead of websites. Early in that process, Google tweaked its search engine to answer many requests with factual summaries at the top of its results page, a change from simply displaying a list of links to other websites. Voice-recognition technology also allows you to speak your request into a phone instead of typing it. The transition is going well so far. Google's revenue rose 20 percent last year to $89 billion, propelled by digital ads served up on its search engine, YouTube and Gmail. Although shortcuts won't initially show ads after you tap them, Google typically sells marketing space if a feature or service becomes popular.
(With agency inputs)
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text: The Pioneer School Board of Directors will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, February 7th beginning at 5:30 pm. The Board of Directors will interview candidates for the open school board position. The meeting will be held in the Board Room in the Administration Building located at 112 E. Spencer Lake Road. The public is welcome to attend.