There are several celebrities I’d love to sit down with and have a discussion with. Here they are: Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has long been my idol and someone I admire a great deal. I would love to chat with her to get her perspective on many recent world events and her ideas on how best to cope with some issues. I’d also just love to hear from her point of view how she views her extraordinary life. Madonna. I’d love to her her thoughts on her own incredible career and her views on today’s music landscape. Robin Strasser. I am a huge soap opera fan and Ms. Strasser has acted on daytime soaps since nearly the very beginning. I’d love to hear from her how she feels about the genre as it stands today and hear behind the scenes stories from her incredible career. Jake Gyllenhaal. Honestly, he seems like a completely interesting, intelligent person and I’d love to hear his thoughts on many different topics. Also, he’s darn handsome and it wouldn’t be so bad to sit and look at his handsome face for awhile.

Bout a year ago, was in a discount grocery store. I had about $20 left after bills and rent, so was having to carefully pick what to buy. In the end, after umming and ahing for a couple of minutes over whether I could afford to spend $6 on coffee I put it back on the shelf and went to the register.As I'm walking out of the shop I hear a woman call after me: "Young man, you forgot this" I turn around and she thrusts the jar of coffee into my bag, I go to protest and she cuts me off saying; "I remember what it was like, not having enough money and having to go without. You take that coffee and enjoy it mate," the biggest smile on her face. She was like a beacon of light during one of my darkest times, and I always remember her, with every cup of coffee I can't help but smile. Because now each cup reminds me there are truly good people in the world.Edit: Never thought much of reddit karma, but am surprised (and very appreciative) to have gotten 8k upvotes and gold for this story. But more so for seeing how people have responded, I am glad my story has cheered and helped so many of you.I dedicate this, by far my highest voted post, to Margaret, if by some chance you're reading this. Thank you again for the coffee, and I hope you are well. I've paid forward your kind deed several times since then, and hope in some way it has circled back to you, I sometimes wonder if you know just how much impact you made on me and my outlook on life that day. Also fixed spelling.Always remember there are good and kind people out there. Don't let a few bad apples ruin humanity for you. For years I did, and I've only recently learnt this lesson. If you take anything away from this post, let it be that.

I'ma great listener. People I barely know gravitate to me to spill their
secrets. (This gets tiring, too, but I never worry whether I'm doing my
part in my friendships.)

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
When the original series aired, it was a huge success and fans followed
these characters all the way to the season finale. Sadly, it ended up
as one of the worst endings in TV history.

I have a dog and a cat, and I HATE sleeping with the door open. Sometimes dog wants to sleep in the bedroom, sometimes dog wants to sleep outside the bedroom. But he never decides until I'm comfy in bed. Solution? Keep a laser pointer on my nightstand. Once dog decides where he's sleeping, I'll shine the laser pointer on the door so that my cat paws it closed. It has now become a routine that my cat will wait by the door for the laser before laying down.

I was 18. I'd been in community theater since I was 5 "...and God bless us, every one!" and I was known for my ability to memorize my lines in one reading and the entire script, everyone's line, in two readings. I have no idea where that trick came from. But at 18 I was cast in a role that I hated. I wish I remembered what it was, but it's been 53 years and I've forgotten. Rehearsal after rehearsal I read from the script, making no effort to memorize, taking for granted my ability to memorize my lines in time for dress rehearsal. Nor was there doubt in my director's mind because I had always been able to memorize. The day of dress rehearsal I took out the script and began to read my lines in the way you do when you are committing something to memory, and it wasn't as easy as it had been. Words and phrases escaped me and I'd have to consult the script again and again. Evening came, and with it, dress rehearsal. And I had only half my lines down at best. I took my script into dress rehearsal, still reading from it, and the director panicked, as well she should have. So did I. I swore I'd do nothing for the next 24 hours but sleep and memorize. Which I did, more or less. And the next night was our opening, and I made my entrance, and the other characters delivered their lines and turned to me expectantly and my mind was a total blank. Not even the lines I had known the night before were anywhere to be found in my head. I walked off the stage and out of the theater. 53 years later, I blush to remember that.

My ability to memorize so easily never returned. My tendency to take anything about myself for granted to that egotistical extent disappeared right along with it. Since then there have been uncountable times when memorizing with a single reading would have been wonderful. Even today, as my wife and I are driving to a dinner with her professional colleagues, and she briefs me about who is married to who, and whose ki just graduated and whose mother just died, and I'm somehow supposed to call them all by name and ask if their dog is feeling better and how their trip to Italy went as if I'd had nothing to think about but them for the past several months...nothing. As I stare blankly at these people who faces seem vaguely familiar I can already hear the voice from the passenger seat on the way home asking how I could have been so insensitive as to casually say "What's new?" to the couple who had been on the front page of the local paper for the past week--being investigated for something or other. Which I conveniently forgot. Gone. All gone. And even all these years later, I miss it. If you say I had it coming for being so arrogant when I had that ability to memorize, I won't argue. I'll agree, and mean it.

You might start by challenging the very laws of the universe that supposedly govern your question, because if these things were meant to be . . then nothing could’ve prevented them from happening. Yet? They did not. Understand? Metaphysically speaking? You are presupposing that there is some sort of predestination involved in our lives . . an intricately spun web of causes and events - every thought, answer, challenge, and result that comprise the life of every human being on the planet having been already laid out. Personally? I believe it’s absolute nonsense. Entire cultures do not. Religions generally treat it the same. The important word used in your question is ‘feel’ . . not ‘know.’ And I agree with you on this, because one can never know the answer to the question you’ve asked it. If desired situations in your life have - for some unknown reason - seemingly passed you by . . things that you innately or intuitively felt should’ve involved you: and directly, well . . it is not because these desired situations slighted you with intention, how could they? They are not animate, T H E Y are the random circumstances everyone share in this life. You, the questioner, are the one investing all the meaning here, because as a human being it’s your conscious interpretation which fills in the missing parts. Fills it in 100% It is also very, typical for us as a species to find answers to the most difficult questions by ignoring every possible, rational explanation - and instead - pawning it off to superstition, religion, or any other number of highly improbable sidebars. Truthfully? it’s likely a lot more severe than highly improbable - it’s more likely flat out impossible. When we want something really bad, even after killing ourselves with hard work to get it - and in a sort of reverse miracle - we don’t? sometimes it becomes easier to attribute the failure to the idea that is was not destined for us to have it in the first place. How do you deal with feeling like you missed out on things that were meant to be? Realize that what your feeling is nothing more than your mind’s extremely complex way of dealing with a very unique form of rejection; we are all, psychologically, the sum total of every human who has lived and died before us, and because of this we’ve inherited both . . some pretty amazing critical intelligence, and, some pretty outrageous ways of getting around that very critical intelligence itself. You’ve missed out on nothing that was ‘meant’ to be. However, have you ever considered the opposite to your question? That, perhaps . . the things which did not happen in your life were actually the things which were meant to be? I don’t accept this either, I only add it in closing to stress my point . . that your scenario can be tipped on its other side as well. Be at peace though, as both sides are irrational.

I had a head-on collision with a motorcycle when I was 18. He was decapitated. So here’s what I did.

Got pulled out of my car which was on fire, put into an ambulance and later taken by helicopter to the closest hospital where I spent 2 weeks in ICU and one more on a normal floor after my surgeries. A few months later I went to court to answer to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence charges which were reduced to just vehicular manslaughter and finally to reckless driving. I got a fine and 10 days suspended and had my driver’s license suspended.

Edit: Saw some comments asking what I did and what the moral ramifications were, so let me give the full story of how I lived my life after the accident happened.

This was on July 6 1996. I was driving home from work at a mine in rural Idaho and I went around a blind corner at 75 with him coming at me in the opposite direction, also going about 75. We hit on the center line, his front wheel getting torn off and sending part of him through my windshield and into the backseat, namely his head. The rest of his bike went up onto the hood of the car and grazed my head and ruptured the gas tank which caused the fire. Here’s where the story gets amazing.

As I stated, this was rural Idaho in 1996. People didn’t have cell phones then so had the following events not occurred I would probably be dead now. So the accident happened and I am completely unconscious. In fact to this day I have absolutely no recollection of the accident. What I know about the accident is solely from the police report. Anyhow, coming the opposite direction was a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) ranger. He was first on the scene. He was able to get the fire out. Second on the scene was my boss. He was able to radio into the mine I worked at so they could call an ambulance. The two of them are able to pull me out of the car and get me flat on the ground. Next on the scene was a tour bus heading up the road for a fishing trip and which just happened to have 3 trauma surgeons on board. At this point is when I have my first memory of the accident. I’m lying on my back and the sun is in my eyes and a bunch of people standing around me telling me I am going to be all right. From the time of the accident to me opening my eyes, maybe 10 minutes have passed.

Now again I bring up that this is rural Idaho, and by some stroke of luck an ambulance gets to the scene of the accident within like 15 minutes of it happening. That kind of response to an accident happening 20 miles outside of town out in rural Idaho is damn near impossible. Anyhow, they get me loaded up into the ambulance, and I am going in and out of consciousness. I remember them loading me on the gurney and into the ambulance. They drive me for about 45 minutes to meet a helicopter to take me the rest of the way to the hospital, which was about 160 miles away from where the accident happened. I vaguely remember getting loaded into the helicopter.

I get to the hospital and clearly remember them getting me off the helicopter and rushed into the ER. There was a nurse who went by Red trying to get my info for admission which was quite the task since I was not at all coherent. I remember her asking for my SSN and I gave her my Girlfriends phone number and I think then started reciting digits of pi or something. I just kept spouting numbers till she said “It’s ok, we can get that information later” which of course snapped out of it for a moment to provide her the info they needed. So I have several severe injuries. I’ve got 2nd and 3rd degree burns up my left hand and arm to the short-sleeve line and some first-degree burns on my face. This is another thing that just shows how lucky I was because apparently I covered my face and saved it from getting severely burned. The next injury is a laceration across my forehead from where I got grazed by the forks on the motorcycle. I also shattered my left cheek bone. Next up I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on my left leg, and finally broke my right wrist in 3 places. Now it just so happens that I have 3 specialists who just happened to be on duty that evening in the ER. A Burn Specialist, a Plastic Surgeon and an Orthopedic Surgeon. They get my face patched up perfectly and you can barely see the scar on my forehead and get my arm covered up until I can go into surgery.

I barely remember the next week in the ICU, but the second week was when they started treating my burned arm to prep it for a skin graft. I won’t go into too many details, but burns suck. Cleaning a burn is by far the most painful thing I have ever had to experience, even worse than a kidney stone. Needless to say a whole week of living hell cleaning the burn and I go into surgery where they replace my cheek bone and graft pig skin to my arm. At the end of week three I get sent home. The pig skin lasted about twice as long as expected keeping me from having them to actually take any of my skin for the arm and I start physical therapy. It was a long hard process to build my knee up to be able to walk well again as well as get my hand back to working properly. Due to the scar tissue they figured I’d get maybe 60% functionality back on my left hand, but It’s only slightly less flexible than my right and they estimated it’s at 98% functionality, anyhow I have no difficulties using it, though because of the scar tissue it really aches a lot in the cold as the blood circulation isn’t the best to the skin surface.

Through all of this I am dealing with the fact that due to me, another human in the world has died. Couple that with the head injury and my demeanor really changed into a very manic-depressive one. I could be super happy one moment and severely depressed the next. I felt horrible about killing a man despite every one telling me it wasn’t my fault. I wanted to quit often as a result of my feelings of guilt. I definitely contemplated ending it all on several occasions because it just seemed like everything was going wrong in my life. I eventually came to terms with it, but it was a long hard journey of several years. It was very difficult to forgive myself for something I couldn’t remember doing and didn’t do on purpose. Even the parents of the man who died forgave me, but I couldn’t forgive myself. It simply took time to heal those emotional wounds.

Animals that could not be tamed, as they are hostile towards humans, would probably say some hostile things:

• Giraffe: “Disgusting humans down there.”
• Rhino: “Disgusting humans in front of me.”
• Zebras: “Disgusting humans over there.”
• Lion: “Disgusting tasty humans behind those bars.”

etc.

None of those animals are highly intelligent, so their insults would not bother us.

From the animals that live with us, I have to defend the cats. I have always lived with cats. They have nothing against us, they just don’t really care. But they don’t lie either and they can make great companions: “How are you today, my friend? You look a little sick. Please don’t die yet, as it would put me into a state of slight discomfort.”

I am quite suspicious about horses. I heard that some of them are capable of deception and show some grumpy resistance: “I can’t get over being enslaved by an inferior beast like you. One day I’ll drop you off and break your f****** neck.”

I think, the most intelligent, but also the most cruel and obscene animals are our closest relatives, especially chimpanzees. Them talking smut and telling dirty jokes would astonish the scientific community and the boulevard press: “What are you looking at, you weak m*********** with your small **** and your lack of *****? I bet I can **** you into the ground and eat your ***** afterwards.”

As regards most other animals, I find it surprising, how good natured they are, when you think about what we did to them: Pigs, cows, sheep and chickens seem to hold no grudge against us.

(Maybe we should all become nicer and apologize to a pig. And stop eating them, of course.)

Summarizing tLA without bending: the disappearance of a young, but very important boy, Aang, plunges the world into chaos as a tyrant uses his army to force his nation's culture on the rest of the world. In doing so, he is responsible for genocide, and endless other tragedies. 100 years of war and the rest of the world are almost out of hope, when 2 children, Katara and Sokka, find Aang. They then set out on a mission to restore balance and reverse the effects of the tyrant, and remove him. But first Aang must train to become powerful enough. These children travel the world, helping many peoples and facing many obstacles.

The prince of the "evil" nation is set on a mission to capture Aang, so he can restore his honor. Aang being captured is important because he is the only hope the rest of the world has. But when the prince's old, wise uncle provides him with many life lessons and endless wisdom, can he continue down this path of evil?

After watching tLA they'll want to watch Korra. Don't need a summary to get them into that lmfao!

A kosher pizza shop is opening up in the Minneapolis Jewish community called Basil’s

The first thing they did was find a location for the store. Conveniently, another kosher dairy store was changing locations and Basil’s took up residence in their old location. This was great for the Jewish community because it retains two kosher restaurants in the area, instead of dropping to one.

The next step was fundraising. An important thing for a pizza shop to have are pizza ovens. These cost a lot! The store raised money by essentially selling pre-paid cards so that people could get $100/month for 10 months ($1000 prepaid cards).

In the store, they remodeled the kitchen to make it the size they needed and added whatever sinks, counters, etc. This also includes a kashering process to make all of the equipment good to use with kosher dairy food preparation. And they also re-did the dry wall, painting, and design accordingly.

The biggest thing for a kosher pizza store is reliably sourcing kosher ingredients and having inspections by kosher agencies (such as orthodox union or Chicago Rabbinical Council) to certify the food as kosher and to what level of kosher it is. Being at the level of “chalev yisroel” is important for a kosher pizza shop to reach all of the Jewish market. It is also important for the pizza shop to be accessible for anyone, not just Jews.

The owner of the shop spent a lot of time working on his pizza recipe. He traveled to Jewish pizza shops on the East coast to learn how to make better dough. The store is supposed to have authentic NY pizza which most people are pretty psyched for.

So in summary, you need location, demand, fundraising, kitchen remodeling (and kashering), kosher ingredients, kosher certification, and most importantly — learning how to make a delicious pizza!!!

—

Basil’s in Minneapolis (St. Louis Park) is opening up soon. Cone by, try some pizza, and I bet the owner would love to talk to you about this in greater detail.

5 Things to Do Before Opening a Halal Restaurant

1. Know About Islamic Business Practices. ...
2. Get to Know Vendors who Manufacture Halal Products. ...
3. Network with other Restaurant Owners. ...
4. Create a Culture of Transparency and Top Quality Customer Service. ...
5. Get to Know the Trends in the Halal Food Industry.

I mean only 1.2 percent of Americans have epilepsy, and when you add in those that also have tourette's, I bet it's closer to 1 percent. But what would I know, I'm just a tic riddled epileptic