Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Eagle Who Thought He Was A Chicken

Our HR dept is fond of sending out emailed short stories with morals in them to all executives.  I thought the following original story wasn't dramatic enough and didn't have a proper ending, so I edited it and gave it a better ending and changed the moral as well.... 
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The Chicken

Once upon a time, there was a large mountainside, where an eagle's nest rested. The eagle's nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain, causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain to a chicken farm located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle's egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds."

The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar."

The eagle continued staring at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be with them.  
Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told it couldn't be done.   That is what the eagle learned to believe.

The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life like a chickenBut somehow he knew somewhere inside him there was an eagle waiting to soar into the skies.  

One day there was a lot of crying and screaming on the chicken farm.  All the chickens were flapping their wings and running around.  Feathers and dust flew about in every direction.  The eagle who was brought up as a chicken ran out to see what was happening.  It seems the chicken farm was under attack by a lone eagle from the mountain who was catching and taking away baby chickens. 

On his next attack he was surprised at meeting up with a chicken who dared to face him and prevented him from taking anymore baby chickens. 

"Stop!"  Said the eagle who was brought up as a chicken.  "You will not take anymore of my little brothers and sisters away."

"Hahaha!"  The eagle from the mountain laughed with scorn in his voice.   "And who do you think you are.  Are you trying to stop me?  What can you do stop me?  You are only a chicken!"

"I may only be a chicken, but I am going to stop you from attacking my family.  Someone has to do it.  And I am that someone."   He declared.

He immediately jumped at the eagle from the mountain, scratching and pecking at his face.  The eagle from the mountain was surprised that a chicken could move so fast and attack so fiercely.  Slightly wounded, he backed off and flew into the sky.  The eagle who was brought up as a chicken made a final jump at him with his sharp claws.   At the same time he opened his wings to balance himself.  He was surprised to see his own huge wings and also found that he could fly after the eagle from the mountain.  He chased the eagle all the way into the mountains.

Finally, satisfied that his family was safe he flew back and soared around in the sky over the farm.  He was greeted by a loud cheer from his adopted family. 

 

MORAL OF THE STORY:  

Don't judge yourself by the names they call you.  Know yourself and be the best of what you are.

Monday, February 11, 2008

English to be official language of Europe

(German Joke)
 
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English
will be the official language of the European Union rather than German,
which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English
spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year
phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English" .

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the
sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k".
This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words
like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which
have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag
is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze
forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl