September 15, 2008

     Shirley Downing, a former Montana classmate of mine, is an “up” kind of person. Now, I wouldn’t say that the following is the BASIC reason she enjoys life, but it adds its bit. (And, incidentally, I tried to find the article she quotes, but Google failed me.)

     Shirley told me in a recent e-mail: “I did have a very special 70th [birthday], but then I celebrate month after month all year ‘round. Several years ago when we were wintering in Arizona, I read an interesting article in the Arizona Republic written by a lady professor from the East, telling how she celebrated each and every year. I have each year since ADDED it to my ‘year ‘round celebrations.’ You take your age and divide it by l2 months of the year. At 70 you would do SIX NEW THINGS for each of TEN MONTHS, then FIVE NEW THINGS for each of TWO MONTHS. New things can be:

1.Taking a street you have never driven on going to the store, a friend’s house, etc.

2. Reading a book on a new subject.

3. Taking a trip (day, week, etc.) to a place ‘unheard of.’

4. Taking a class in a new subject.

5. Browsing at a completely different location/shop/market.

     “LIFE IS TOO SHORT NOT TO INVESTIGATE AND TRY NEW THINGS!! SIMPLE, FREE and FUN as well.

     “Have a HAPPY TWELVE-MONTH YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS!”

     And the same to you, Shirley.

     Janette

----Table Of Contents----

1. Mom’s Day Set To Music
2. “My Mother Scares Me”
3. Gene For A Lousy Marriage
4. What Does The American Public Think?
5. New Breakthrough For Your Photos
6. Enter An International Photo Contest
7. An Easier Way To Manage Fall Leaves
8. When Consumer Reports Rated Diet Plans
9. Lose Weight More Easily With Soup
10. Soups To Take Off Weight
11. Time Is All We Have
12. 11 Websites Every Student Should Know About
13. Another Good Site For Homeschoolers
14. How To Keep Your Job
15. Virtual Therapy For The Soul

1. MOM’S DAY SET TO MUSIC

     ANITA RENFROE has taken “everything a mom would say in 24 hours and condensed it to two minutes, 55 seconds.” To the tune of the William Tell Overture. A masterpiece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W95Y8hNQiH8

2. “MY MOTHER SCARES ME”

     A video by CHONDRA PIERCE, a comedienne who is a PK (preacher’s kid). If you grew up going to church, you’ll enjoy her. If you grew up going to church MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK, you’ll love her. Absolutely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38VtyrJLTfk&feature=related

     And now look off to the right, and you’ll see a lot more videos by her. And have a good time.

3. GENE FOR A LOUSY MARRIAGE?

     Years ago, my mother claimed that people behaved the way they did due to heredity. I said, no, it’s all environment. At the time, the scientists were in my corner. Now they’ve come around to my mother’s view: they blame just about everything on people’s genes. And, as you know, they’re even finding specific genes for such things as inherited diseases.

     Now for the latest gene thrill: there’s supposed to be a gene variant that makes certain men lousy husbands. I kid you not. Find out about it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102087.html

4. WHAT DOES THE AMERICAN PUBLIC THINK?

     You don’t have to wonder. POLLING REPORT will tell you what we’re thinking about a host of topics. Politics is the big topic right now, of course, but, if you check out the site, you’ll see that the pollsters are faithfully taking the nation’s temperature in all sorts of areas, about once every fifteen minutes.

http://pollingreport.com/

     And you don’t have to wonder about all the strange political rumors that are floating about either. FACTCHECK.ORG will tell you the facts about any and all of them. You’ll note that sometimes FACT CHECK thinks the Republicans are right and sometimes the Democrats. That’s because FACT CHECK takes the time to check the facts. And so should we.

http://factcheck.org/

5. NEW BREAKTHROUGH FOR YOUR PHOTOS

     PHOTOSYNTH, a new and FREE program from MICROSOFT, “comes from a passionate little startup of two dozen people in Microsoft Live Labs. We are scientists, engineers, and designers working like crazy to deliver on Photosynth’s promise.”

     “Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world. With nothing more than a bunch of photos, Photosynth creates an amazing new experience.”

     So check it out, and make your vacation photos into something groundbreaking!

http://photosynth.net/about.aspx

6. ENTER AN INTERNATIONAL PHOTO CONTEST

     Enter the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S International Photo Contest, see the 2007 contest winners, download beautiful free wallpaper, and much more at this address:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest/photo-contest

     WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS:

http://www.outdooreyes.com/photo14.php3

     LESSONS IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY. If you poke about this site you’ll find lessons on how to achieve this demanding and rewarding type of photo.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/nature/

7. AN EASIER WAY TO MANAGE FALL LEAVES

     Let me tell you a secret: you don’t have to build a leaf cage to mulch your dried leaves. All you have to do is rake the leaves into a pile where you want to compost them. Now sprinkle loose soil over your pile of dry leaves, the way you’d sprinkle sugar on your cereal. It doesn’t take a lot, just enough so that a little sprinkle of soil is on each outside leaf. Five or six leaves will blow away, but the rest will stay. Your leaf pile will last until spring, shrinking way, way down under the weight of winter rain and snow.

     You can also rake your fall leaves into attractive mulches around your trees and shrubs and lightly sprinkle them with earth. By spring an 18-inch pile of leaves will have become a 2-inch-thick mat that lasts most of the summer. GOOD LOOKING, EASY TO DO, AND ABSOLUTELY FREE! And it sure beats poking all those leaves into bags and hauling them to the curb.

     You don’t believe sprinkling a little soil like sugar will hold a big pile of leaves in place? Neither did the editors of Flower & Garden magazine, to whom I sent a manuscript on this back in the eighties. An editor tested it that fall, his leaves stayed in place all winter, and the next spring they accepted my article for their fall issue.

8. WHEN CONSUMER REPORTS RATED DIET PLANS

     The “Volumetrics Eating Plan” came out first, Weight Watchers second, and Jenny Craig a close third.

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/healthy-living/diet-nutrition
/diets-dieting/diets-6-07/overview/0607_diets_ov.htm

     Find here a good discussion of the Volumetrics Eating Plan by Barbara Rolls, a nutritionist at Pennsylvania State University and leading authority on weight management. The plan shows you how it is possible to “feel fuller eating fewer calories.”

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/lowfatcookingtools/fr/volumetrics.htm

     If the easy way to lose weight is through eating foods with a lot of water in proportion to their weight, we arrive, of course, at SOUP.

9. LOSE WEIGHT MORE EASILY WITH SOUP

     Research shows that eating a bowl of broth-based (not cream) soup at the beginning of a meal leads people to eat less of following courses and 20 percent fewer calories overall:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070501142326.htm

     And good things happen if you make a meal of soup and salad:

http://www.healthrecipes.com/healthy_cooking.htm

     While homemade soup is usually healthier, canned soup is better than a kick in the pants:

http://foodanddiet.com/NewFiles/calories-soups.html

10. SOUPS TO TAKE OFF WEIGHT

     EPICURIOUS.COM, which has the recipes of GOURMET and BON APETIT magazines, also has, surprisingly enough, some high-fiber, low-fat, low-calorie soups for us. These are not inferior tasting “diet” soups; these are truly gourmet items.

http://www.epicurious.com/tools/
searchresults?search=high+fiber+++low+fat+++low+calorie+soup

     FAMOUS WEIGHT WATCHER’S SOUP. When Bill and I were going to WEIGHT WATCHERS, many of the best losers swore by the WEIGHT WATCHERS Zero Points Soup. WEIGHT WATCHERS has a points system: each food is assigned a certain number of points and you are allowed so many points per day. Most vegetables have zero points, and that tells you what’s in this famous Zero Points Soup. I have never tasted it, as Bill lives in fear that I will go vegetarian. I have sworn that I will never do that to him, but I must say that, as I listened to my fellow weight watchers – glowing with happiness due to the weight they lost eating that soup – I sometimes yearned toward it. Here it is, along with a Mexican and Asiatic version:

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/01/
day-285-weight-watchers-zero-points.html

     FOR MORE LOW-CALORIE RECIPES, scroll down to FOOD, RECIPES in the lefthand column. Click on “The Big Recipe Sites Bomb.”

11. TIME IS ALL WE HAVE

     This article gives three ways to increase your return on the investment. “Many people think their time isn’t valuable when they aren’t working, so they throw it away on activities that have a poor return on investment and don’t build for the future. . . . One mental model that can help you make better decisions is imagining that your life is a corporation and you’re the only employee. If you were the CEO of John Doe Incorporated, and were obliged to maximize profit on behalf of investors, what would you make yourself do?”

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/time-is-all-we-have-3-ways-to-increase-return-on-investment/

     You’ll see that the next article on the page is about “5 Types of Books That Increase Intelligence.”

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/the-5-types-of-books-that-increase-intelligence/

     Which brings me to one of my favorite topics: the Internet is loaded with FREE classic e-books you can download into your computer and then use to enrich your life. Click on BOOKS & FREE E-BOOKS in the lefthand margin and find out where the good, free books live.

12. 11 WEBSITES EVERY STUDENT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

     These websites can be invaluable to students from the middle grades through college. And they cover the waterfront.

http://www.techdo.com/10-web-sites-every-student-should-know/

13. ANOTHER GOOD SITE FOR HOMESCHOOLERS

     If you’re a homeschooler or know a homeschooler, you’ll find a treasurehouse of great homeschooling sites in the lefthand column. Scroll down to EDUCATION, HOMESCHOOL and have a good time. I recently wrote the people who are now in this section, thanking them for their good material and asking for further suggestions. DIANA DELL suggested the site below, and it is full of good things!

http://sqooltechs.com/sqoolsites.html

14. HOW TO KEEP YOUR JOB

     The layoffs have begun. You can be sure that, when the economy goes down the layoffs will go up, and now they are doing just that. This article gives tips on how to keep the job you have or, if it’s either going or gone, how to network for another.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2008/09/06/AR2008090600158.html?nav=rss_business

     IF YOU’RE NETWORKING, YOU MAY WANT TO TRY GLASSDOOR.COM, where insiders tell what 11,000 companies are like to work for; more listings are coming out all the time.

http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

     The EMPLOYMENT section of the 1000 BEST archive in the lefthand column also has excellent helps, including networking sites. You’ll find special sections for over-40s, freelancers, and work-at-home moms. For those in other categories, find top-quality job search tips, how to produce an unusually good resume, and how to interview for one of the millions of jobs listed on the big Internet job sites.

     JOB SNIPER RATED AS #1. “JOB SNIPER has been rated the Internet’s number one meta-job search engine by an independent human resources and web technology development and services organization for the second time in as many months.” Check out the details at:

http://www.advancingwomen.com/time%20management/jobsniper_rated_1_job_meta_search_engine.php

     And here’s the address of JOB SNIPER itself:

http://www.jobsniper.com/php/index.php

15. VIRTUAL THERAPY FOR THE SOUL

     Feeling a bit bruised by life? This site is like healing balm. Apply it generously, and you’ll feel better.

http://www.bettertobless.com/landing.html