best real estate websitesWhat I’m Grateful For: Printers

So late Friday, as I was trying to get some overdue invoices printed and in the mail, my office printer just … STOPPED PRINTING. Because it thought it was “out of toner” – except it had a brand-new, official, name-brand, perfectly good new cartridge in it! But as all things more ‘smart’ than their own good, Brother (printers) has decided that if it can’t tell if it’s a name-brand toner cartridge (due to some “smart” chip or something) it will refuse to print even if there’s a brand new cartridge in there.

I went online, followed archaic, mystical combinations of up arrows and down arrows and start and cancel, only to be rejected over and over again.

MIND YOU THERE WAS A PERFECT, NAME-BRAND, NEW BROTHER CARTRIDGE ALREADY IN THE MACHINE.

I nearly took a baseball bat to the darn thing. I was so frustrated. And in being so upset, I knew I needed to write about this and find some shred of gratitude in my heart about this situation…..

But, I remembered from the research that I’ve done on gratitude that there’s a quirky thing – just LOOKING for a reason to be grateful – even if you can’t actually find one – activates the positive benefits of the gratitude process. So today, I’m NOT grateful for my stupid printer. But I’m definitely happy about the fact that I did sincerely look for a gratitude, and that I can still have some benefit from it.

What I’m ReadingThe Intellectual Devotional. This morning my chapter was on Hammurabi, which was in truth, the very very first leader of “law and order” that the world has ever known. Way back around 1792 BC, he wrote perhaps the first written code of law in recorded history. It’s a charming set of rules mostly resulting in capital punishment – women who entered a tavern, men who harbored runaway slaves, women who left their husbands without ‘good cause’ – all put to death. But still, it was a start, largely because it created a revolutionary system where the ruler could not arbitrarily change the laws governing their citizens. Progress!

Web Tip: (Just For fun) Go to Google and type in, “do a barrel roll.” Weeee!

Quote I’m Pondering: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” – Desmond Tutu