May I know how to start a new thread in different forum topics here?

wanted to start a new topic here...

HAPPILY lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance.


To the north, to the south, to the west and to the east stretched the ridges of the Hills Everlasting.


A little stream of Knowledge trickled slowly through a deep worn gully.


It came out of the Mountains of the Past.


It lost itself in the Mashes of the Future.


It was not much, as rivers go. But it was enough for the humble needs of the villagers.


In the evening, when they had watered their cattle and had filled their casks, they were content to sit down to enjoy life.wow gold,


The Old Men Who Knew were brought forth from the shady corners where they had spent their day, pondering over the mysterious pages of an old book.


They mumbled strange words to their grandchildren, who would have preferred to play with the pretty pebbles, brought down from distant lands.


Often these words were not very clear.


But they were written a thousand years ago by a forgotten race. Hence they were holy.


For in the Valley of Ignorance, whatever was old was venerable. And, those who dared to gainsay the wisdom of the fathers, were shunned by all decent people.


And so they kept their peace.


Fear was ever with them. What if they should be refused the common share of the products of the garden?


Vague stories there were, whispered at night among the narrow streets of the little town, vague stories of men and women who had dared to ask questions.


They had gone forth, and never again had they been seen.


A few had tried to scale the high walls of the rocky range that hid the sun.


Their whitened bones lay at the foot of the cliffs.


The years came and the years went by.


Happily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance.


Out of the darkness crept a man.wow gold,


The nails of his hands were torn.


His feet were covered with rags, red with the blood of long marches.


He stumbled to the door of the nearest hut and knocked.


Then he fainted. By the light of a frightened candle, he was carried to a cot.


In the morning throughout the village it was known: "He has come back."


The neighbors stood around and shook their heads. They had always known that this was to be the end.


Defeat and surrender awaited those who dared to stroll away from the foot of the mountains.


And in one corner of the village the Old Men shook their heads and whispered burning words.


They did not mean to be cruel, but the Law was the Law. Bitterly this man had sinned against the wishes of Those Who Knew.


As soon as his wounds were healed he must be brought to trial.


They meant to be lenient.


They remembered the strange, burning eyes of his mother. They recalled the tragedy of his father, lost in the desert these thirty years ago.


The Law, however, was the Law; and the Law must be obeyed.


The Men Who Knew would see to that.


They carried the wanderer to the Market Place, and the people stood around in respectful silence.


He was still weak from hunger and thirst and the Elders bade him sit down.

As it was in the beginning—as it is now—and as some day(so we hope)it shall no longer be
a ery nice poem

In an effort to provide one-stop shopping for their customers, the nation's largest copier companies are enlarging the scope of their businesses by purchasing systems integration and document services firms. By acquiring firms that can integrate digital copiers into computer networks and service those networks, as well as provide printing services on large projects, wow gold the firms are hoping to capture business that would typically be outsourced. "It allows us to provide a lot more solutions for a wider range of client applications," says Bob Raymond, sales manager for Ikon Office Solutions in San Antonio. "The goal is to be able to provide a one-stop shop," says Michael Fitzgibbons, president and chief executive officer of Felco Office Systems Inc., a company owned by Tampa, Fla.-_base_d Global Imaging Systems Co. "Instead of being able to provide a portion of their needs, we're looking to provide a whole turn-key program." Several years ago, national business machine firms such as Ikon, Global Imaging and Danka Business Systems plc began purchasing independent copier sales and service companies in an effort to provide competitive prices and technologically advanced products to their customers. But as more copiers have become digital - and more customers are aiming to hook up their computer systems to their digital copiers - copier firms are stepping in to service that market. What's more, since more firms are preparing their documents in-house, business machine firms are working to provide just-in-time printing services - where they are able to print large quantities of documents for their clients on a demand basis. The goal, industry officials say, wow power leveling, is to have one sales representative selling all the various office equipment services to the company's customers. To that end, Valley Forge, Penn.-_base_d Ikon recently renamed its document services unit to Ikon Office Solutions. Last December, Ikon-Night Rider, Ikon's document services division, acquired Legal Copies International, which owned Alamo Legal Copies of San Antonio. "It's important that we present our solutions to the market in a unified way so that customers can remember a single name for all of their legal and business document needs," Lynn Graham, president of Ikon Document Services, said in a prepared statement released last month. During the second quarter of Ikon's fiscal year 1997 alone, Ikon purchased 24 companies nationwide - nine systems integration firms, six outsourcing and imaging companies, and nine traditional office equipment firms. That brings the total number of companies Ikon has acquired in the first six months of this fiscal year to 47 - 19 in systems integration, 13 in outsourcing, and 15 in traditional office equipment. (Ikon, then known as Alco Standard Co., acquired Texas Copy in San Antonio in the early 1990s.) Bruce Ganger, director of digital and color programs for Danka, says that his firm has grown its systems integration and print-on-demand business internally for several years. However, last September the St. Petersburg, Fla.-_base_d company purchased the office imaging division of Eastman Kodak. That division was already a top p_layer_ in the print-on-demand business. Tom Johnson, CEO of Global Imaging, says the firm has 44 locations nationwide. In the past eight months, it has acquired two systems integration firms, one of which is the 34th largest in the nation. Fitzgibbons says his firm currently is holding talks regarding possible deals with some local firms. John Thomas, president of the San Antonio systems integration firm The Publishing Group, says he has been contacted by some of the major companies about providing services, but has yet to be approached regarding an acquisition. "They do use my services," he says. However, Sam Lorimer, vice president of SabreData of Austin, another systems integrator, says he has seen many of his peers nationwide get purchased or approached by some of the nation's major office equipment service firms. Of those, he says, Ikon appears to be the most aggressive. "I've seen a lot of peers get purchased by Ikon," he says. While digital copiers still make up only a small percentage of the market, industry analysts say it is increasing. Analysts says digital copiers make up less than 10 percent of the installed market. Digital equipment, which digitizes images electronically instead of using a light source, gears and drums, allows the use of one machine for various functions, including faxing and laser printing. However, digital equipment is becoming a larger source of revenues for the business-machine industry. For example, Xerox Corp., which has its own systems integration division, recently reported that digital sales accounted for 34 percent of its revenues, according to an industry analyst. "There's a sense that there's a lot of waste in a business environment by having a printer, world of warcraft power leveling, fax and a copier," says Kristy Thiese, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. "The (digital) products are here now and there'll be more coming in a year." But while the digital market is still small, Thiese also notes that systems integration - because it involves servicing equipment - is similar to the copier service business, making it a good business for the business-machine companies to enter. For example, they are able to use the same dispatch system they are already using for their copier service people. "It's a similar business to run to the business they're already in," she says. "It's a good growth business for them." However, Thiese says that as digital copiers do take over the market, independent copier companies could feel financial pressure to expend capital to provide systems integrations and other complementary services. Duane Meehan, president of Office Communications Systems Inc. (OCS), the largest independent business machine firm in San Antonio, says he saw several years ago that digital copiers would create the need for systems integration and formed a division to address the need. He is expecting that division to grow. Indeed, Meehan says he was recently told by a top official of a major copier manufacturer that by the year 2000, no more analog copiers would be developed by the firm. "Everything they are doing is going to be connectable," Meehan says about copier manufacturers. "As a dealer, we've had to be fully prepared to sell and service digital copiers." So far, Meehan says that adding systems integration to his business has helped fuel the firm's growth. OCS has seen its revenues grow by more than 60 percent over the last three years.
Digital propelling copier businesses to broaden scope

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, (wow gold,) courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young

An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. (wotlk gold,)

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin,but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust. (wow gold,)

... You see that big nail to the right of the front door? I can scarcely look at it even now and yet I could not bear to take it out. I should like to think it was there always even after my time. I sometimes hear the next people saying, “There must have been a cage hanging from there.” And it comforts me. I feel he is not quite forgotten. world of warcraft gold

... You cannot imagine how wonderfully he sang. It was not like the singing of other canaries. And that isn't just my fancy. Often, from the window I used to see people stop at the gate to listen, or they would lean over the fence by the mock-orange2) for quite a long time — carried away. I suppose it sounds absurd to you — it wouldn't if you had heard him — but it really seemed to me he sang whole songs, with a beginning and an end to them.

For instance, when I finished the house in the afternoon, and changed my blouse and brought my sewing on the verandah3) here, he used to hop, hop, hop from one perch4) to the other, tap against the bars as if to attract my attention, sip a little water, just as a professional singer might, and then break into a song so exquisite5) that I had to put my needle down to listen to him. I can't describe it; I wish I could. But it was always the same, every afternoon, and I felt that I understood every note of it.

... I loved him. How I loved him! Perhaps it does not matter so very much what it is one loves in this world. But love something one must! Of course there was always my little house and the garden, but for some reason they were never enough. Flowers respond wonderfully, but they don't sympathize. Then I loved the evening star. Does that sound ridiculous? I used to go into the backyard, after sunset, and wait for it until it shone above the dark gum tree. I used to whisper, “There you are, my darling.” And just in that first moment it seemed to be shining for me alone. It seemed to understand this... something which is like longing, and yet it is not longing. Or regret — it is more like regret. And yet regret for what? I have much to be thankful for!

... But after he came into my life I forgot the evening star; I did not need it any more. But it was strange. When the Chinaman who came to the door with birds to sell held him up in his tiny cage, and instead of fluttering6), fluttering, like the poor little goldfinches7), he gave a faint, small chirp8). I found myself saying, just as I had said to the star over the gum tree, “There your are, my darling.” From that moment he was mine! cheap wow gold

... It surprises even me now to remember how he and I shared each other's lives. The moment I came down in the morning and took the cloth off his cage he greeted me with a drowsy9) little note. I knew it meant “Missus10)! Missus!” Then I hung him on the nail outside while I got my three young men their breakfasts, and I never brought him in, to do his cage, until we had the house to ourselves again. Then, when the washing-up was done, it was quite a little entertainment. I spread a newspaper over a corner of the table and when I put the cage on it he used to beat with his wings, despairingly, as if he didn't know what was coming. “You're a regular little actor,” I used to scold him. I scraped, dusted it with fresh sand, filled his seed and water tins, tucked a piece of chickweed11) and half a chili12) between the bars. And I am perfectly certain he understood and appreciated every item of this little performance. You see by nature he was exquisitely neat. There was never a speck13) on his perch. And you'd only to see him enjoy his bath to realise he had a real small passion for cleanliness. His bath was put in last. And themoment it was in he positively leapt into it. First he fluttered one wing, then the other, then he ducked his head and dabbled14) his breast feathers. Drops of water were scattered all over the kitchen, but still he would not get out. I used to say to him, “Now that's quite enough. You're only showing off.” And at last out he hopped and standing on one leg he began to peck himself dry. Finally he gave a shake, a flick15), a twitter16) and he lifted his throat — Oh, I can hardly bear to recall it. I was always cleaning the knives by then. And it almost seemed to me the knives sang too, as I rubbed them bright on the board. (buy wow gold)

... Company, you see, that was what he was. Perfect company. If you have lived alone you will realize how precious that is. Of course there were my three young men who came in to supper every evening, and sometimes they stayed in the dining-room afterwards reading the paper. But I could not expect them to be interested in the little things that made my day. Why should they be? I was nothing to them. In fact, I overheard them one evening talking about me on the stairs as “the Scarecrow17)”. No matter. It doesn't matter. Not in the least. I quite understand. They are young. Why should I mind? But I remember feeling so especially thankful that I was not quite alone that evening. I told him, after they had gone. I said, “Do you know what they call Missus?” And he put his head on one side and looked at me with his little bright eye until I could not help laughing. It seemed to amuse him.

... Have you kept birds? If you haven't, all this must sound, perhaps, exaggerated. People have the idea that birds are heartless, cold little creatures, not like dogs or cats. My washerwoman used to say every Monday when she wondered why I didn't keep “a nice fox terrier”, “There's no comfort, Miss, in a canary.” Untrue! Dreadfully untrue! I remember one night. I had had a very awful dream — dreams can be terribly cruel — even after I had woken up I could not get over it. So I put on my dressing-gown and came down to the kitchen for a glass of water. It was a winter night and raining hard. I suppose I was half asleep still, but through the kitchen window that hadn't a blind, it seemed to me the dark was staring in, spying. And suddenly I felt it was unbearable that I had no one to whom I could say, “I've had such a dreadful dream,” or — “Hide me from the dark.” I even covered my face for a minute. And then there came a little“Sweet! Sweet!” His cage was on the table, and the cloth had slipped so that a chink18) of light shone through. “Sweet! Sweet!” said the darling little fellow again, softly, as much as to say, “I'm here, Missus. I'm here!” That was so beautifully comforting that I nearly cried. (world of warcraft gold)

... And now he's gone. I shall never have another bird, another pet of any kind. How could I? When I found him, lying on his back, with his eye dim and his claws wrung, when I realised that never again should I hear my darling sing, something seemed to die in me. My breast felt hollow, as if it was his cage. I shall get over it. Of course. I must. One can get over anything in time. And people always say I have a cheerful disposition. They are quite right. I thank God I have.

... All the same, without being morbid19), or giving way to — to memories and so on, I must confess that there does seem to me something sad in life. It is hard to say what it is. I don't mean the sorrow that we all know, like illness and poverty and death. No, it is something different. It is there, deep down, deep down, part of one, like one's breathing. However hard I work and tire myself I have only to stop to know it is there, waiting. I often wonder if everybody feels the same. One can never know. But isn't it extraordinary that under his sweet, joyful little singing it was just this — sadness? — Ah, what is it? — that I heard.