Philatelic Friday: Stamps From China

Another week draws to a close, and once again it is time for a new edition of my Philatelic Friday series. This week I'm featuring Stamps from China. It seemed like a good follow up to the last Sunday Art Review: Chinese Sampler. I've always liked Chinese dragons, and was delighted to find a stamp adorned with a festive dragon. It is the perfect stamp to open today's Philatelic Friday post on Stamps from China. Being a casual student of philately, I enjoy collecting and comparing postage stamps from various countries around the world. Some of the Chinese stamps are quite colorful and decorative, as one would expect. The following stamps represent a good variety of styles and designs. Enjoy~

above: Chinese New Year, Year of the Pig

above: Leaning Bonsai

above: this house and boat are so colorful

above: another Bonsai

above: I suspect this is a Bustard, but feel free to correct me...

above: this one is actually from the USA, featuring Chinese lanterns for the new year. Thanks for stopping by today's Philatelic Friday. Have a great weekend!

-Rick Rockhill

The LOHAS Forum in Boulder, Colorado

Greetings from Boulder, Colorado where I am attending the annual LOHAS Forum. The term "LOHAS" is actually an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability; which is a market segment that is all about health, well being, fitness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living, and also social justice. The Forum is a three day business conference to share knowledge, ideas and practices with other professionals. The objective is to learn the best way to provide goods and services to consumers interested in health and sustainability. It attracts executives and experts from a broad cross-section of industry, commerce and technology. The highlight of yesterday was an address by Anthony Zolezzi, an entrepreneur/consultant/executive focused on sustainability and the development of the organic product segment. His presentation was standing room only, and spilled out into the foyer. It was an inspirational speech that had the attendees pumped up.

above: Yesterday I was interviewed by Melissa McGinnis, who was covering the conference for the website Greenopolis.com She was filming several TV segments for Greenopolis.com TV. I had a chance to share my personal views on the importance of sustainability efforts.

above: Greenopolis.com is an interactive, collaborative and educational online social network that joins individuals, businesses, communities, and organizations to help people learn about sustainability and going green.

above: Sharing a laugh in front of the camera with the beautiful and talented Melissa McGinnis. I also had a chance to discuss the progress my company has made to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. The conference has been very interesting and a chance to learn a great deal as well. Go to Greenopolis.com to learn more.

-Rick Rockhill

A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi...

Every week without fail, someone writes to ask my advice about visiting Palm Springs. Where to stay, what to see, where to eat or what to do. Being the Palm Springs Savant has become a bit of a side career for me; second to my "day job" where for the past 12 years I established myself in the pet industry. Sometimes these two worlds collide, which is interesting to say the least. For example, I recently addressed a pet industry conference and spoke about pet food retailing. During my presentation, a few attendees must have Googled me and ran across this blog. After my presentation concluded, several people came up and asked me not about my presentation, but about Palm Springs. Wild huh? I shouldn't be surprised, after all, Palm Springs has been around a lot longer than me and has a certain je ne sais quoi. As an unofficial spokesperson I should probably be better versed in that, but it seemed more trendy to throw in a well-placed French expression to end this post. Sure beats me writing another paragraph on why dog food is so interesting.
-Rick Rockhill

Be the Master of Your Own Destiny

About 18 months ago I sat down with a friend who is one of the top numerologists in Hollywood. She graciously offered to study my numerology chart and provide a few insights. She is quite clear about her gift- what she feel she is able to interpret from numerology, as well was as what she can not. For example, she is not a fortune-teller or psychic. She studies the ancient belief that there are life-factors relating to things such as the date and time of birth, our given name, etc. She spent a great deal of time studying my chart, explaining it all to me and shared some thoughts on what might occur in 2008, right on through to 2020. Looking back, she was amazingly accurate for the past 18 months in particular. There are things she intimated as possibilities that seemed quite impossible a year ago, yet have unfolded quite naturally. In particular, things beyond my sphere of influence, so it was not possible that I made them occur having "known" about them as a possibility. Regular readers know I avoid discussing too many details of my professional career that pertain to my employer, so I’ll keep this fairly general. However my role within my company changed substantially twice in the past 18 months. I was not the architect of those changes, yet they occurred as my numerologist friend suggested they might. I remember hearing those notions for the first time and thinking to myself, what? I don’t see how that would happen! Wow, they did. So now what does the cosmos have in store next? I have no idea, but I do know that having a positive attitude helps. At the risk of sounding like one of those motivational speakers, I think there is a lot of merit in positive thinking. They say you need to visualize what you want to happen. Buddhists say you should write down what you want. Be clear, be specific. I recently overheard a senior HR professional provide casual feedback to someone on their career aspirations. She asked the person what they wanted to do in 5 years. The person responded with something like: "I want to either do X, Y or Z, or maybe something like A,B or C". She responded without hesitation that this person needed to get that straight and be specific. She said "you need to be able to have in your mind the position you want in order for it to happen". I was intrigued. There must be something to this visualization/positive thinking stuff. Some call it the power of prayer. I certainly believe in that. Whatever your beliefs, I think its fairly safe to advise positive thinking. Open your mind to new possibilities and don’t be afraid to follow a different path now and then. It may lead somewhere interesting, or just the opportunity to learn something. Either way you can be a master of your own destiny and influence your own future. Just think about it. In the meantime, hope you have a great week I will.

-Rick Rockhill

Sunday Art Review: Chinese Sampler

Last night I went to dinner at Wang's In the Desert, a trendy Chinese restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. We've been there before- it was popular when it first opened and actually used to be quite good. These days it seems the quality of food declined slightly and the menu was a bit boring. The atmosphere at Wang's, however is very nice, and served as inspiration for this week's Sunday Art Review: Chinese Sampler. I scoured my usual sources to find art to include in this week's post. I regret to inform you, dear reader that I do not have the corresponding titles or artist details, so please just enjoy these works of art. Think of it as a self guided tour.

above: "Red Flower Tree"

above: "Woman With Flute"

above: "Butterfly and Flower"

above: "Two Birds"

above: "House on Cliff"

above: "Dragon"

Thanks for stopping by the Sunday Art Review. Have a great day!

-Rick Rockhill

The Saturday Seven: Things That Frustrate Me

I've been writing a weekly Saturday Seven post for a few years now, and never tire of creating these lists of random topics with a common theme each week. What's more is the number of e-mails I receive about this column feature. It serves as an inspiration to maintain this popular feature. Even the Google Analytics reports indicate that this feature receives a lot of hits and has subscribers to the topic. And so onto this week's scintillating edition of The Saturday Seven: Things That Frustrate Me. I sincerely hope some of you will weigh in with things that frustrate you from everyday life. Here are my top 7:

#1 Stepping in Gum

#2 Delayed Flights. I travel a lot. Waiting in the airport or worse- being stuck on the plane and having ti sit on the tarmac.

#3 Flat Tires- A starship can have its hull blown apart and a force-field immediately kicks in so the ship can still fly. Can't we develop that same technology for a simple tire??

#4 Waiting in Long Lines- especially at the Post Office with a heavy package

#5 Broken Eggs.

#6 Broken Shoelaces- of course it never happens when you have plenty of time to spare.

#7 Empty Tube of Toothpaste- For some reason this drives me crazy. You spent the last few days being very pleased with yourself on being able to still get more out of the tube. Then suddenly one day there just isn't anymore to give. Then I get frustrated.

What little annoyances of life frustrate you? C'mon, leave a comment and let's spice this up!

-Rick Rockhill

Poodle Puppies!

It's official. Sheldon has a group of little step-brothers and step-sisters. A few weeks ago his mommy gave birth to a litter of black and brown poodles sired by his uncle. You can see Sheldon's mommy in the photo above left laying down, a proud mother keeping a watchful eye over her brood. Sometime in August, one of these kids will come to live with us and be Sheldon's new little brother or sister. I thought you'd like to see a few photos of them...standard poodle puppies are SO CUTE! I'm only showing a few of the puppies but enjoy!

Sheldon says he can't wait to have a new little brother or sister. I'll keep you posted when we know more!

-Rick Rockhill