http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2004/10.php .
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I just added four new pieces to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 36 pieces. Survival Kit contains lighthearted advice for getting through life, while Taking Care Of Yourself After Traumatic Events gives tips for staying emotionally healthy. If you live in the U.S. , please read To Stop Relationship Violence In America, and if you're a man, please read Ten Things Men Can Do To Prevent Gender Violence.
While looking through some domestic abuse literature today, I happened to run across a quote from poet, author and
teacher, Stephen Levine, that really touched my heart: If you were going to die soon, and had only one phone
call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
According to the Child Witness To Violence Project, 50-60% of the children in homes where the mother is being battered, are also being abused, at a rate 1500 times that of children in homes where there is no battering. With that in mind, I just added two very important pieces to this site's Abuse Information section. If you have children or if you care about children, please read Be Aware Of Warning Signs Of Sexual Abuse and If Your Child Tells You About Abuse.
When our houseguest finally had the courage to tell her old friends that she had been abused, many of them asked her the same
question: "Why did you stay with him all those years?" Why Do Women Stay? provides
several answers to that question, and is the 32nd piece in this site's Abuse Information
section.
Today, I added the 29th piece to this site's Abuse Information section. Steps To Survival describes ways to remain emotionally healthy while rebuiding your life after the loss of a relationship.
I also added offbeat headlines to the HEADLINES section of this site's home page.
As a Floridian, I am allowed to vote early in this year's elections. Knowing that Florida's ballot is very long this year, and
that the state is full of elderly voters, I anticipated that our local polling places will have very, very long lines of people
waiting to vote on election day. So, today, I stood in line for about an hour at our local courthouse and voted early. If you're
an uninformed voter, don't forget to vote next Wednesday, November 3.
To learn some ways that you can be supportive to a victim of abuse, please read Empowerment Is The Core Of Advocacy, an important piece that I just added to this site's Abuse Information section.
If you're dating someone, or if you have a teenage girl who is dating age, please read two new pieces that I just added to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 28 valuable pieces. Questions To Ask Yourself About A Date and Early Warning Signs Of Teen Dating Violence both give valuable tips to help you or your teen recognize when a date shows signs of being an abuser. And remember that it's important to get to know someone for a long time before you even think of getting serious with them, because abusers can be polite and charming for several months at a time to convince their dates that they are OK.
If you're like me, your computer runs version 6.0 of
Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus software. If so, you
should know that Grisoft will be discontinuing support and updates for that version on December 31, 2004. You can either pay to
upgrade to AVG 7.0 right now, or you can wait and upgrade for free after Grisoft releases AVG 7.0 Free later this year.
CastleCops has the
details.
The U.S. presidential election will take place one week from today. If you're interested in U.S. politics, you can find tons of
poll results, news, commentary, and more at
RealClear Politics.
This is very powerful stuff: I've added seven more pieces to this site's Abuse Information section,
which now contains 25 pieces.
Affirmations, and
Freedom And Responsibility, and
Personal Bill Of Rights, and
The Seven Stages Of Letting Go, and
To Achieve Your Goals, Remember Your ABCs, and
Nurturing Children each offer positive, supportive messages and advice, while
Effects Of Domestic Violence On Children describes the horrible fears and
emotionally crippling lessons that children experience and learn when they are exposed to domestic violence.
I just added two new pieces to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 18 pieces.
A Few Dangerous Myths About Domestic Violence refutes the myths that many
people believe about domestic violence, while When And How To Intervene tells
how to safely help someone who is in an abusive relationship.
Here's a fun site that might help you get a little more sleep at night:
Late Night Joke Archives
lists the nightly monologue jokes from Jay Leno and David Letterman.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, or if you'd like to be able to understand and help a victim of domestic abuse, I highly recommend that you read Battered But Not Broken, an excellent book that one of our houseguest's caring and supportive relatives recently sent to her. To give you an idea of what it says, I just added several excerpts from it to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 16 valuable pieces.
For those who enjoy them, you can find hundreds of archived political cartoons by worldwide cartoonists, organized by topic,
plus daily political cartoons by all the top cartoonists, at
Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index.
This site's Abuse Information section, now contains 15 pieces. I just added
Are You Living In A Cage?, a poem about an abused and battered woman.
I just added 2 more pieces to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 14 pieces.
Power and Control describes how violence is an attempt to gain power and control over
someone, and
Cycle Of Violence explains the 3 distinct stages that battered individuals
experience in the cycle of violence.
Today, I added 4 more pieces to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 12 pieces.
What Is Domestic Violence? defines the problem;
Continuum Of Violence describes how violence escalates from words to actions to
death;
Safety Plan provides valuable information for anyone who is in, or who is leaving, an
abusive relationship; and
Being A Child In A Violent Home Means... tells a little about
what children suffer when there is violence in their home.
This site's
Abuse Information section now contains 8 excellent pieces. This morning, I added
Am I In A Domestic Violence Relationship? and
Therapeutic Messages. I stongly urge you to read both of them if you suspect that you
or someone that you care about may be a victim of domestic violence.
I just added Facts About Domestic Violence to this site's Abuse Information section, which now contains 6 important and highly supportive pieces.
Wow! During the past several weeks that our dream home was all boarded up for hurricanes, I had almost forgotten how
bright it is inside when it isn't boarded up. This morning, it took me about 90 minutes to take down all of the
plywood boards and temporarily store them in our garage. This coming week, I hope to seal each of them with wood stain
before storing them under a tarp on the outdoor storage rack that I built a few weeks ago.
I highly recommend that you read,
Time To Break Free.
It's a small book, but it's full of valuable advice and encouragement to help abuse victims break free of their abusive pasts. To
give you a taste of what it says, I just added several excerpts from it
to this site's Abuse Information section.
We've gotten several reports that our houseguest's abuser has been lying to their friends and relatives, as well as to our
local police, telling all of them that he was never physically violent with her, when in reality, his abuse sent her to
the hospital on two separate occasions, and his constant threats of even more violence kept her living in fear thoughout their
entire relationship. The fact is, an abuser will say or do almost anything to avoid being held accountable for his behavior. And
an abuser is so used to fooling everyone about what he's really like that when he finally finds himself facing justice, he's
usually surprised that the jury doesn't believe his twisted version of reality, but instead chooses to believe his victim and the
hospital records, doctors' records, counselors' records, police reports, and eyewitness testimonies. It's strange, but it's true.
A domestic violence victim's advocate at our local police department recently recommended a short and inexpensive book to our
houseguest, and it turned out to be a real gem, full of helpful information and good advice. I highly recommend that you read
Keeping The Faith: Guidance For Christian Women Facing Abuse.
To give you an idea of its point of view, I just added several excerpts from it to
this site's Abuse Information section.
Are you in an abusive relationship like our houseguest, but you're confused because a Christian friend has told you that it's
God's will for you to forgive your abuser and stay in that relationship? It may help you to read When You Say "I'm Sorry,"
written by a Christian who has a different point of view. I just added it to the Abuse Information
section of this site.
Yesterday, we drove to the Florida Aquarium with Jim and Linda. There, I saw what are probably the weirdest living things I've
ever seen -- Sea Dragons. They're Sea Horses that look like plants, making them
nearly invisible to predators.
