note 35946 added to function.date

We had finished eating at an oriental restaurant in Barcelona. I learned in Spain, at least in Barcelona, they don't hurry with your check after your meal. Actually, they don't bring it at all until you ask for it. Quite different from America where your dishes are often removed while you are still chewing and your check is plopped down before you've swallowed. So we sat talking, no check in sight. Click - Click - Click What was that sound? I looked around. It was emanating from the cash register. There was an elderly Chinese woman standing there. She was adding up the day's receipts as she passed receipts from one pile to another like playing cards. The Click - Click - Click was the sound of the beads hitting each other on an abacus. The receipts moved by with amazing speed as her hands swiftly and expertly manipulated the ancient adding machine. I watched - she added. In case you don't know, an abacus is an ancient mathematical machine. It looks like a picture frame with wire rods running through it with beads the size of marbles on it. It looks like a child's toy. Click - Click - Click No power cord. No batteries. No plastic. No LCD's, LED's, FET's, LSI's, or CRT's. No DOS, Linux, Palm OS, Windows 98, 2000, ME, CE, NT, or XP. Just wood, wire, beads, fingers, and an old lady with focus and skill. Click - Click - Click The receipts flew by. I watched. I wondered, "could I add faster with a modern calculator?" I watched one pile of receipts shrink as the other grew. I type fairly fast. I can add on an adding machine fairly fast. I've run a cash register and worked in an accounting office. I estimated my speed with the benefits of the latest silicon technology against the old lady with wood, wire, and beads. The old lady took a simple device but used it with skill and focus. You will be amazed at what you can do with the simple things of life with skill and focus. You will be amazed that often you can accomplish much more than people with much more. It's not what you have, it's how you use what you have. The abacus is a calculating device. As you grow in spirit, you calculate things differently. With wood, wire, beads, fingers, focus and skill, she added faster than most with the most expensive of modern machines. She illustrated a principle of life. ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php Edit Note -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+35946 Delete Note -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+35946&report=yes Reject Note -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+35946&report=yes