Do it yourself

Perhaps you’re considering to ask for an apology through text messages, emails, by phone, or by asking others to do it, but what if the message you want to deliver is being misunderstood? I know it isn’t easy, but you need to do it by your self.

It doesn’t have to be too formal

You can always ask for an apology in a casual and simple way.

Admit your mistakes

Asking for apology supposed to be started by admitting the mistakes you’ve made. Asking others to apologize you without showing your regret about the mistake you’ve made is equal to opening up another chance for another war.

To the point

Say that you regret whatever mistakes you’ve made and you feel so sorry for that. Showing your intention to make it up is a great point, but don’t forget to make it true.

Don’t blame others for your mistake

Sounds like moving the battle field to another area. Would this make the war end? Nope. It would just raising the risk of creating a wider battle field.

Sincerely

As a friend told me, “Don’t just say, ‘I mean it’.” The person that you’re dealing with can feel whether you’re asking it sincerely or you’re just pretending to ask an apology. So, don’t fake it.

Listen

Perhaps that person you’re dealing with need to channel his/her emotion. All you need to do is listen, pay attention, and again, sincerely do so.

Lose Weight

     Need I say more? America’s favorite resolution because close to 1/3rd of all Americans are classified as obese. Obesity depends on your body mass index (BMI). This value is calculated based on your height and weight. A BMI of 25.4 and above is considered obese. The key thing about losing weight is to realize that good nutrition along with exersise helps reduce your BMI. You can’t just exercise and eat junk food all day long and expect to lose weight. Similarly, just eating less without any exercise will also not help.

Stop Smoking

     This resolution is farily self explanitory. But, it is incredibly hard to follow throught. This is because not only does smoking relieve some stress, but it also affects a person psychologically. Pure “will” to quit smoking doesn’t work because there are plenty of environmental stimuli that trigger your mind into craving a cigarette. Therefore, changing psychological associations with environment, with reduced nicotine chewing gums or nicotine patches helps reduce smoking. The key is to reduce smoking overtime, not just quit once and for all. You may face tremendous relapse.

Enjoy Life One Moment at A Time

     Whatever that means… There are guru’s who argue that we don’t live enough “in the moment.” In today’s world of efficiency, everyone seems to spend all their time planning for the future, and not really take the time to enjoy their current accomplishments or reflect on the past. A way to accomplish this resolution is to write down all your accomplishments and post them up on your wall. Also starting a journal (personal diary) or a blog where you occasionally write your thoughts and accomplishements will help you live in the “moment” more.

Help others more

     As Ali G. may say “Respect!” This resolution takes many forms such as helping kids in Africa by symbolically adopting a child or an animal. The symbolic adoption takes the form of having a pen-pal in a developing country. Adopting an animal involves donating money to an organization that helps protect endangered species such as Polar Bears. In order to help others more, one should consider not just donating money but also one’s time. Frankly, being directly involved in a cause that you feel passionate about is more rewarding than just donating money.

Reduce Stress

     May I suggest Yoga or Pilates? Kicking the habit of drinking coffee and reducing time spent in front of a screen (TV or Computer) also helps. Some people reduce their stress by joining a social club or taking a relaxing vacation. Others may adopt a dog and taking it for walks helps too. The key is to try a combination of activities and vacation.

Become Smarter

     Read, read, and read some more! Joining your local book club may help. Also, there are several excellent sources to continue your education. Local community colleges provide inexpensive classes that help you develop a hobby or a trade skill. Additionally, online lectures offered by top-ranked colleges, such as MIT, Yale, and Harvard, offering courses in subjects variying from Literature to all types of Sciences will help you in the endeavor to enrich your mind.

Stop Procrastinating

     Procrastination is more a perception than a reality. Often times we over comit ourselves and our mind is in a constant struggle to try to relax versus get things accomplished, neither of which occur. But there is certainly no need to get a psychologist to analyze you or go to therapy. Just realize that in your free time you will only be accomplish a few key goals. And yes, relxation should also be a goal. So, try to reduce your expectations in terms of goals. But, not so low that you don’t get anything accomplished.

Learn Chinese (or some other language)

Nice. This goes well along with becoming smarter. Learning a new language is surprisingly easy in today’s world of technology. There are several websites that offer free drills and exercises. But it is exceptionally difficult to master another language to the level of somone who is native to that language. The goal should be to reach a level of proficiency that allows you to think in “terms” of the language. This occurs when you don’t look to translating every word in your own language, but you start thinking in your newly acquired language.

Save Money

Wise Decision especially in this economy. Try to look for services you no longer need, or alternative for those services that you can obtain for less money. Utilities such as telephones are key money savers. For example, on your cell phone you may have purchased a data plan that you rarely use to it’s full capacity (the unlimited plan)! Similarly, you may have subscriptions to services such as home alarm systems that you don’t really need. The lesson is simple, try to figure out what you absolutely need, and what you really don’t need. Moreover, if you realize that you made a mistake in cancelling a service that you really needed, then you can always sign up for it again.

Keep Things Simple

See “Save Money”. Also, you may resolve to this if you are coming from a long and complicated relationship that ended badly. Other reasons to want to keep things simple is if you are unable to keep track of all your responsibilites at work, or manage your finances, or are not able to handle all your commitments. In order to keep things simple for yourself, you simply have to balance your expectations, strengths, and weaknesses. Start with a list of all your strengths and weaknesses. You shouldn’t really have any trouble managing your strengths. But in improving your weaknesses, make sure your expectations are realistic. For example, if time management is a weakness, don’t expect formulating a tight plan for tracking every hour of every day to work in terms of time management. However, having daily goals for accomplishing tasks, and setting reasonable deadlines for completing projects, assignments, or goals, is a more realistic way to manage time.

Find Unconditional Love

Isn’t that a condition? As humans, we will always have flaws, but don’t give up hope in looking for true love. Gone are the days when you only had access to a few people for relationships. With the advent of the internet and internet dating sites, your range has greatly expanded in finding your perfect. To many, the internet doesn’t seem like the perfect match-maker, however, think of these sites as a place to see what’s out there. In other words, it’s there for browsing. You don’t have to comit to anything.

Not Make a New Years Resolution

My Favorite! A lot of times things are going very well. There are time when we need detailed plans of actions, but for the most part things are farily good. Therefore, you can continue doing what you are doing for the next year and allow yourself to wait until you really need to change things. In fact, you may want to consider making a mid-year resolution, or a quarterly resolution. An entire year to accomplish something has no “teeth” to it. You need to be consistent in re-evaluating your goals, and making the judgement as to whether you are on track. Therefore, a new-year resolution couple with a mid-year resolution is better!

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                               Manny “Pacman” Pacauiao, the finest Filipino boxer has been the legendary hero in the stage of boxing not only in the Philippines but also in the rest of the world. He gained respect and adoration of the people of the world for his excellent ability not to mention his finest records in boxing.

Image via Wikipedia

                                His unstoppable and most powerful punches have made the Filipinos so proud of him. He hails in General Santos City, Philippines and born in a poor family. With the nurturance of his mother Dionesia, who never waver in the lake of poverty, Manny Pacquiao and the rest of his brothers and sisters were brought up in an upright moral values.

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                                       Manny Pacquiao humble beginnings has been his weapon in carrying on his life. Though he has achieved so much at his age, not to mention his indulgence as a congressman of the Saranggani where he was born, he remained grounded and put God as his priority of his life. Now, he so busy preparing for his fight against a Mexican boxer, aside from his Game show in a certain TV station where he gives hundreds of thousands of prizes that gives hope to the Filipino people.

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                                  I should say Manny Pacman Pacquiao is an emblem of discipline and a face of a genuine servant with a roaring tiger of ability to fight as a boxer .

This is my first article here i hope you learn from it. If you have any constructive Criticism or suggestions pease post your comment.

Obama has announced that Congress has reached a deal that would allow the US to avoid a default. But will this plan really solve anything. The way I see it is that we will be borrowing more to pay back loans, but then we will be even deeper in debt.

          This is an example I have made up in my head. Imagine for a second that you are going to the bank. You borrow a hundred dollars. After a month you have to pay back the hundred dollars, and interest. But the thing is that you don’t have the hundred dollars. So what you do is you go to another bank and borrow 100+ dollars to pay back the first bank. After a month it’s time to pay back the second bank. You have maybe $5 dollars in your pocket so you pay the bank. But you would still need about $103 dollars; so you go to another bank. However, later on you need more money, so you go back to the first and second bank to borrow more money. All the while you are unable to pay back anybody, but you still continue to borrow. Now just imagine this on a trillion dollar scale, and you have my view on the debt crisis. 

          This new bill would essentially allow the US to borrow more money in order to pay back its old loans. The bill will cut over $2 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, and $1 trillion dollars right now, but will that really do much? The problem I have is that after a while, somebody will have to pay back the 14 trillion dollar debt. But we don’t know who, and as of right now it looks as if the national debt is only going one way… up.

Since this my view, feel free to leave a comment down below and explain your view on what is really happening here.

If you have ever been in a windowless room, you may feel very depressed or lazy. But have you ever thought that kids might feel this feeling too? Something as small as having bigger windows will increase standardized test scores by 25 percent and progress 15 percent faster in math and 23 percent faster in reading than classrooms with smaller windows. In other words, the difference between passing and failing could be as simple as opening the blinds.

Why does this work?

As I stated before, sunlight makes us happier,  helps eyesight and suppresses melatonin, a chemical that suppresses sleep patterns. So opening the blinds would make kids happier to be at school, see better and less sleepy, which are very obvious things that sunlight does. Architects in the 70’s were pressured into designing windowless classrooms, to keep the costs down and because school administrators thought that windows were distractions. Do you remember your teacher yelling at you because you were watching the cars go by? That is why windows were taken out and kids today are paying for it.

2. Start the school day later (just by an hour)

This is something that every kids knows, but parents ignore.

Look around your classroom/office, chances are you will see one person yawning and rubbing their eyes, and another with a zombie glare. How do we know this? It is because one out of three Americans are sleep-deprived and we are pushing these habits onto our children. For kids, especially teenagers, this extra hour can save the student from failure. A high-school in Toronto, Canada claimed that 11th grade math failure rate dropped from 45 percent to 17 percent. Not only that, but the kids that go to school an hour later say that they are less depressed and parents say that they are easier to deal with

Why does this work?

It is because of the hormonal switch in the body’s natural clock; teens are often not sleepy later in the night, so they stay up longer, but society forces them to be at school by 7:30 am. As a result, teenagers only get around 6-7 hours of sleep a night, rather than the 9 hours that experts say they need. That 2-3 hours may not sound like much, but take in to account that 20 percent end up falling asleep in class. Falling asleep in class is not even the worst-case scenario. Remember what sleep deprivation does to adults? Put those ailments on to your already hormonally screwed up teenager and see if things work out (They won’t)

3. Get the kids for a walk before a test

As if kids these days need even another reason to get kids exercising. We have kids with corn syrup flowing through their veins, sitting around tweeting about Justin Beiber on their smart phones. But even for chronically unfit children, going for a 20-minute walk before a test get higher test scores and a 5-10 percent increase in cognition.

Why does this work?

Exercise makes the executive-function part of your brain work better. If you have never heard of executive-function, it is the part of the brain that controls attention span, how well you strategize and how well you manage your time. All things that are important in taking a test, or in taking an anything. 

All it takes is a 20-minute walk a day, but if you really want your children to have an edge, take them on a walk everyday. Fit children not only have a social and body edge over overweight children, they also have a bigger hippocampi, which is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory. Remember that this costs the school nothing.

Way one:

You will need:

Some ping-pong balls ( The more, the better )

Some aluminium foil

Scissors

A lighter

First, take a good amount of aluminium foil, then cut your ping-pong ball(s) on it. Then you just have to wrap that aluminium foil around all the cut balls, and it’s pretty done. But make sure you leave on hole or something so that the smoke can get out all at the same place.

It should make a good amount of smoke if you got 2-3 ping pong balls.

BE CAREFUL

The smoke is not so good for your health, I am not responsible for any harm did to you with this.

To light it up, simply put your lighter under the wraped foil, it should light up 2-3 seconds after.

Second way:
You will need:

Potassium Nitrate ( KNO3, Found in Stump remover )

Regular Sugar

A Sparkler ( Or an pyrotechnical fuse, but Sparklers works just great )

[Optionnal] Baking Soda ( Stops fire and makes the Smoke Bomb last longer )

[Optionnal] Sulphur ( To make a good ol’ rotten egg smell >:D  )

[Optionnal] Powder Food Colourant ( Makes a WONDERFUL coloured Smoke )

Some sort of container ( Empty Toilet Paper towel is good if you tape one end, or just Aluminium Foil ( NOT Plastic ) )

You will also need a good clear place ( On gravel is the best )

And for the tools:

A pan

A heat source

A spoon ( Or a fork or a stick )

[Optionnal] A balance

First, take your Potassium Nitrate, Sugar and balance if you have one, and weight 60 Parts of Potassium Nitrate for 40 Parts of Sugar ( More sugar WILL work until a certain point, but it’s not as good and as fast ) or if you don’t have a balance, try to put 50-50 by size of each in your pan. Add the Powder Food Colourant now if you have some. Turn on the heat to low and start stirring until the mix is totally melted and is brown-ish ( Too much heat may set it on fire IN YOUR HOUSE ). If you got/choose Baking Soda, add it now ( Only about one spoon for an regular Smoke Bomb )Then pour the mixture into your container ( If you got sulphur, that the time to mix it ), insert your fuse and put to the fridge for ~5 minutes, so it cools down. After that, you’re good to go!

Be careful, do NOT point it at someone once lit, the smoke and hot air can burst into their face, it is also NOT reccomended to hold it during its combustion, even though it can be safely done by adding alot of isolation around the container.

I am not responsable for any accidents/injuries this may cause.

Happy Neighbors Smoking !

1.      Energy efficient light bulbs

They may be a bit more expensive, but they last longer than normal light bulbs. Next time one goes out, replace it with this. Not only will it last longer, but it saves a lot on energy bills too!

2.      Carpool

Carpooling, even just once a week, can be a great relief to the environment. If you have a few friends at work, take turns each day carpooling. Not only will you not have to drive as much, but it will help the environment immensely.

3.      Recycle cans

Of course, recycle everything you can. Cans are one of the easiest to recycle, and you can even make a little extra cash out of it too. Most recycling centers will pay you per pound of them.

4.      Avoid fast food restaurants

When you go out to eat, choose a sit down restaurant. Not only are they a little healthier for you, but you avoid all of the packaging of fast food restaurants. Think about it; you’re at your local fast food restaurant, what do you get? Maybe you order two burgers, a fry, and a drink. You already have the two wrappers from the burgers, the fry container, and the plastic drinking cup. Even if you eat it there, that is how it comes to you. Then you get a sauce for your fries. It either comes in packets or cups. Either way, no matter what you end up purchasing, you end up with a lot of garbage at the end of your meal.

5.      Buy recycled products

If you are buying recycled products then you are supporting the recycling business. You are also making it so less new products have to be made.

6.      Use reusable storage containers

When making your lunch or storing leftovers, instead of using zip lock bags, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap, use plastic storage containers instead when possible. This will help greatly reduce the amount of garbage you throw out every week.

7.      Walk

Whenever possible, walk or bike instead of drive. Especially if you live in town, it can be a lot better for the environment if you walk to your friend’s or the store to pick up some bread.

8.      Compost

Setting up compost not only limits the amount of garbage going into the landfills, but they also are a great way to help your garden.

9.      Use a coffee mug

Instead of using the disposable cups you get at the gas station or Starbucks every morning, invest in a reusable travel mug. You can use them at the gas stations, and coffee shops will fill your drink into them as well.

10.  Inflate your tires

This saves not only your gas mileage, but it also saves the amount of rubber that is worn off.

11.  Hybrid car

If you are looking for a new car, consider a hybrid. If a hybrid is out of your price range, try looking for a smaller car for your family. These are also better with gas mileage, which means less fumes are being released into the air.

12.  Plant a tree

Planting a tree is one of the best things you can do for the planet. Trees give us oxygen and clears up the dirt in our air. Plant some shade trees around your house. Not only will they grow up giving us clean fresh air, but they can also aid in energy consumption by shading the house later on.

13.  Hang your clothes on the line

Instead of running your clothes dryer, try hanging them up outside to dry when the weather allows it. It will save on your energy bills and help the environment at the same time.

14.  Clean your filters

Clean your air conditioners filters regularly. This helps reduce energy usage, which also saves on the bills. While you are at it, check the filters in your car as well, and change them as recommended in your car’s manual.

15.  Talk to your kids  

One of those most important things you can do as parents is not only all of the above things (and more!) to help ensure the next generations of cleaner air and a healthier planet, but you can talk to them about it. Tell them what you are doing to help and why you are doing it. Teaching children from a young age the importance of this will not only get them to be more active participants at home, but it will also ensure that their children will learn those things as well.

Helping the environment does not need to be something that takes up a lot of time or energy. If you notice, there are a lot of things that not only benefit the planet, but benefit you as well! A lot of things that help also help lower your bills. Who doesn’t want that? Start incorporating just a few of these things and try to grow as you go along. Teach your children about it and hopefully they will carry it on for the rest of their lives. Remember. It only takes one to start something big.

Being bored it’s a state of spirit lately, not just because we don’t have something to do, but because the things we do and the activities in which we are implied, doesn’t include something interesting, different,  exciting, something that advertises our mind and body. So, we are bored. It’s normal, we all want to do something that get us out the daily rutine, but we can also do small things that can make us feel entertained. There are a lot of situations in which we can get bored: recreation, home, reading, working, talking with our daily friends, waiting for someone, waiting for a situation to take place, etc. It doesn’t mean that if you are working you can’t be bored. Most of the people have an eight hour program at work, but there are working 3-4 hours of that program. So in the rest of the time, what do you do? GET BORED.

Here are a few solutions for spending time in boring situations, which can help you work your mind and body and help you evolve even when  you do ..nothing:

·         Psichological and logical tests :  They entertain your brain and you can even discover qualities in yourself that you didn’t knew you can posses. Try to solve small logical problems and you’ll see that your mind can start work faster and a lot more logical after a few weeks.

·         Foreign languages tests: In every resume that we wite and send, we share our foreign languages knowledge, based on the languages we have learned in school, university, in private, from TV or other sources, but with the passing of the time, we can forget them without even understand it. SO, there are a lot of materials on the internet where you can test your knowledge in all of the languages, of speaking, writting,readind, grammar and creativity. You may learn more about yourself and  make sure that you give the right informations about the languages you know and use in a resume.

·         Meditation:  In your “boring” time, meditation is the most simple thing you can do: You don’t need anything but silence to do it. There are a lot of professional technics of meditation, but because you may not have all of the informations about them, you can try these simple steps: relax your body and try to stay comfortable in your chair, close your eyes or look to something not too complicated, and start to think very objectively to the things that happen in your life. Don’t get nervous, just think of your life as to a stranger’s life, analize your benefits, your actions, your mistakes and try to find solutions.  Meditate to the things you want to do in the future, imagine them and how do you want to put them in practice.

·         Remembering: Most of the times, after a lot of years of work and evolution, we hardly remember names and numbers in the past that we used to know perfectly. Think of your school, highschool, university or previous work and try to remember the name of the teachers, colleagues, courses, etc. It’s a good remembering exercise which helps you keep your memory fresh.

·         Search for knowledge: Because we are not perfect, we can not know all of the things and phenomenons that are taking place in the world. That’s why, when we get bored, we can put some order in our minds and see which things are very important in everyday life but you have no knowledge abut them. Write them down and search on the internet. You might be surprised to see how many lack of information we have in our brains. Examples: Foreign countries and their way of living, laws and governments, news scientific facts, new and old tabu, etc.

·         Exercise your body: So many times in our work hours, we feel tired and we need to make some different moves from the ones we do all the time. For example, sometimes our back hurts because we sit down very much. That’s why, if we have free time, it’s good to move, exercise our back,legs, hands, even eyes. 

We are all told a lot more about what’s going on in the world now, with freedom of information, 24/7 news, and mobile and internet communication technology.  At the same time, we all complain about having less and less time to spend with family and to enjoy ourselves, so is this information too much for us to handle?  I feel we are given too much information for any individual to comprehend, these days we have to keep in the know about so much!

Before, although more was supposedly hidden from public view, people claim life was simpler and that they were happier.  When people didn’t have as much to worry about knowing, when they didn’t have to worry and stress as much over what their councillors and politicians were being paid or doing behind the public’s back.  

Ignorance is bliss after all!  While these things that the public now know are important, is it really more important than being happy?  Even many economists now think happiness is more important in expressing how well a country is doing than GDP growth! 

We are so pinned down by information and things we should know and do, I doubt if it actually makes us any freer?