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I really liked Steve Pavlina's way of realizing how much extra weight you are carrying:
Go to the gym, pick up two 25-lb dumbbells, walk around with them, and ask yourself if you really want to carry that burdensome weight 24/7 for another year.
(His post is about setting your year's goal, not about losing weight in particular.)
See more health related posts at Living Well.
Read Samantha's Story for a 3 year old's courageous battle with cancer. It's both a tear jerker and heart warming.
I wrote about calculating appreciation so now you can figure out how much your money is worth in n number of years, but what if you want to know how long your money will take to double? Since I don't know how to embed an online calculator here, you are going to need a spreadsheet (use this one) or calculator unless you can do log's in your head.
n = ln(2) / ln(1+b)
where
n = number of years
b = interest (3% = .03)
and if you want to count for inflation
n = ln(2) / ln(1+b-f)
where
f = inflation (3% = .03)
Dad always said your money would double every 7 years. Turns out he was figuring on 10% interest or appreciation. At 7% your money will double every 10 years. Add 3% inflation and it'll double every 18 years.
Here's a very simple Excel spreadsheet to run the calculations for you.
Usually I read an entire book or I try not to express an opinion because there have been books that I had to start multiple times before I made it through and then I really enjoyed them, like The Reality Dysfunction. However, I don't think I can make it through the The Law of Attraction and I think there's a slim to none chance I'd end up liking it.
I got The Law of Attraction because it was about the law of attraction that I've enjoyed reading about in other books such as the The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale. In addition, I did my research and it got a rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon from 26 people. That's pretty solid. However, in spite of enjoying the topic, and in spite of the fact that lots of other people liked the book, I really didn't like it. I didn't even make it through the whole book!
I should have paid attention to the whole title: The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham and asked who Abraham was. It turns out he's a spirit that talks through Esther Hicks, one of the authors, when she's meditating. So the whole audiobook is Esther meditating, talking in this strident, almost yelling, voice. She speaks as Abraham and always in the first person plural "we" as Abraham/Esther says he's speaking for all the spirits. The first half an hour was full of very vague advice to those of us in the material world. I fast forwarded through the book and the rest seemed to be more of the same.
I'm sure I could have dealt with the book better if Jerry and Esther Hicks had just written about the Law of Attraction and the other knowledge they wanted to impart without sharing the fact that they got it from a spirit. To top it off they spoke in the spirit's voice and to top that off, the spirit's voice was very annonying.
So the book annoyed me because (1) the voice was grating, (2) I don't believe in spirits talking though people (at least not taking over their bodies and speaking with their voice) and (3) there seemed to be little practical advice. If you really want to read The Law of Attraction , definitely read the book instead of listening to the audio version. However, unless you believe in spirits speaking through people, save your time and energy and read The Attractor Factor instead.
Do you want to read a good science fiction book? Here's my top list. In general, my top list is authors not particular books so I've listed at least one book from each of my favorite authors. Although I usually prefer science fiction, there's a few good fantasy books here too.
And this is by no means the end of the list of good science fiction! Enjoy!
Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro is a book about artificial intelligence and androids that develop self awareness. What defines who is human? The main character, Samantha, is an AI researcher who becomes involved in a cross country chase with a man most people think is an AI.
It's not as good as Catherine Asaro's other series, the
If you just want to know what your savings account will be worth in 10 years at 3% interest, you're probably best off just using one of the online calculators for calculating appreciation.
However, if for some reason, you want to know how it's calculated, here it is:
x(1+b)n
where:
x = original amount
b = interest (3% should be represented as .03)
n = number of years
I couldn't find this anywhere on the web and since it's the second time I've calculated it by hand, I thought I'd share.
Career Change � The Two Career Change Inspirational Quotes of the Day for December 28:
“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you’ll have more success than you could possibly have imagined.” — Roger Caras
I've been thinking a lot lately about why people post what they do in their blogs - and I'm talking about those blogs that read like personal diaries. I can't say I haven't been tempted to post about some pretty personal issues and my parents would say I have crossed the line, but why am I tempted? Why do people post their personal diaries?
I think they are looking to share their stories and commiserate with others. It's kind of the same reason you talk to the stranger at the bar or in line next to you.
However, here's the dilemna I keep coming to. If I'm going to post my personal diary, I want to do so anonymously. And not just anonymous to strangers, I wouldn't want everybody in my life reading what I thought about them. After I get in a "discussion" with someone I might go vent in my diary, but it wouldn't be good for that person to read my diary right away. We might end up duking it out in the comments! So if it's anonymous and I don't tell my friends about my personal web diary, then who reads it? Perfect strangers. And what perfect stranger is going to want to read about the argument I had with my best friend or how my six year old didn't listen today? Not many of them. So then nobody would read it. So if nobody is going to read my personal diary, why post it?
If I post anonymously, only strangers will know about my blog, they won't be interested in my life, nobody will read it, so then why post at all?
So then I have to assume that the only way to get someone to read your diary blog (assuming you want someone to read it - personally I think most diaries are better off unread) is to tell friends about it. Well then you better not blog about too many of the negative things that happen to you or any of the arguments you get into!
I have a feeling my kids might have very different opinions on this by the time they get old enough to have their own online presence.
From 10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism in the Los Angeles Times.
Most polls show that about 90% of the general public believes in a personal God; yet 93% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences do not.
I continue to be fascinated that:
And they called The God Delusion a marvelous book so I'll have to get after reading it. (Newspaper articles that use the word marvelous are probably just a little biased, don't you think?)
I recently switched from Bloglines to Google Reader for reading blogs and news. I've decided to stick with Google Reader and here's why:
Things I liked better in Bloglines:
I've created two new blogs. You should check them out!
This blog, Stormy's Corner, will stay the same.
Adopting from overseas is very popular but not easy. The process starts with the research - which countries are an option (including the US), what are their rules, costs, corruption levels, etc. China has published their new adoption rules. They must have more than enough foreigners looking to adopt because the new rules are much more restrictive than the old ones. (Turns out they have twice as many applications as kids.) Starting next May:
The process of adopting is usually long one, starting with the research, and it is also pricey. Getting a baby from China will end up costing a family $20,000 in fees. |
Some of this information comes from China Tightens Adoption Rules for Foreigners.
I deleted two posts today. Why?
I finished listening to The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale and I'm listening to The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. While I keep thinking The Secret is kind of hoakey, I buy into it. What it claims fits not only my life experience but what I've noticed in others. Basically the law of attraction says that you attract what you think about. So if you think positive thoughts, you'll attract postive things. If you think about money all the time, you'll attract money. If you think about how you don't have enough money, you'll never have enough money. It sounds hoakey but it works. Think about it.
I'll give you two examples. One, the woman that cleans our house always has some tragedy going on. Her granddaughter got bit by a dog, one of her kids is going through bankruptsy, her son's dog got stolen, ... I've known her for several years now and everytime I talk to her something terrible has just happened to her. I think her focus on the negative brings her negative experiences, as terrible as that sounds.
On the flip side, in college I always knew I'd have enough money. Granted, that wasn't such a big deal as Mom and Dad paid for tuition and board but the money I earned paid for clothes, eating out, entertainment, furniture, gas, etc. I always knew I had enough and I did. I remember one time getting an unexpected $200 bill and in panic sat down to rebalance my checkbook just in case. And what do you know? I'd made a $200 mistake the week before. I always had enough because I always believed I had enough. Granted, I caused that to happen - I always had at least one job if not two or three and they all paid well.
While the books make the Law of Attraction sound like some kind of voodoo (The Secret more so than the Attractor Factor), I think they are on to something. So I'm thinking postive thoughts: I have a great family, a good job, plenty of money, lots of interesting activities to keep me busy, lots of good books to read, ...
Frank says I'm too hard on our six year old sometimes. I don't think my expectations are too high or too hard but I do think I could use a more positive approach sometimes. "Don't do that!" and "that's not very good manners" are certainly not teaching how to behave but rather how not to behave. I got a great lesson directly from our six year old last night.
We were playing Uno and I was holding the baby. The baby of course was trying to get the cards into his mouth. I said, "you'd better not slobber on the cards or your big brother will be upset with you." To which our six year old immediately jumped in with a very concerned look on his face, "No, no, no .... I wouldn't be!" Now those Uno cards are his prized possesion and yet he wouldn't be mad at his little brother for slobbering on them!
Now you might say the six year old wasn't really teaching his baby brother anything. But he was saying it was ok to mess up and he was showing a great teaching style. If our six year old stepped on one of my books and bent the cover I'm sure I would sound upset! So I can learn from him ...
I was listening to The Secret on the way home and loved this thought:
Your negative thoughts never hurt anyone but yourself.
How many times have you complained about someone, sworn at the driver in front of you or fumed about the rude customer service rep? All those negative thoughts didn't hurt the people you were mad at at all - those thoughts just put you in a bad mood and probably started a spiral of negativity for the rest of the day.
I just discovered that "three of the four greatest American philanthropists have been atheists or agnostics" thanks to the New York Times. They are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Andrew Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller is the fourth and he's the exception.
This struck me for two reasons. One, I have Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion
The second reason this struck me is that I always have a hard time explaining why I volunteer. I don't volunteer because I think I'm supposed to do so for religious reasons. I don't volunteer because that's what I think I'm supposed to for any reason. I volunteer because I enjoy it. I enjoy three things about volunteering:
I believe helping people makes everyone feel good even though a lot of people don't know it! I remember leaving a bar late one night with a friend and there was a guy in the parking lot with a car that obviously had problems. I asked him if he needed a push start and when he did, I made my friend help. My friend was amazed. "You are so good!" I told him at the time that once you've owned a car that needs push starting a lot you tend to notice people that need a push start. But now that I think about it, I don't think he realized that he felt good because he'd helped. I can tell you all the times I've push started a stranger's car (a lot!) and each time I felt really good afterwards. (I can also tell you all the times a complete stranger has stopped to help me with something and that made me feel really good too - even when I didn't think I needed the help.)
But I still can't tell you why it makes me feel good to help someone who needs it.
The other day Dad was trying to tell me that young people today don't care as much about politics and social causes. I wasn't sure whether I agreed or not but I did take umbrage at his example of a dad who drove a pinto and whose son drove an SUV. Dad seemed to think that was a good example of how the child didn't believe in social causes. I didn't get it. How did having a nice car relate with not believing in social causes?
Well, this morning in the New York Times I read a stat that seemed to imply that young people are focusing on money at the expense of philosophy. Who Americans Are and What They Do, in Census Data - New York Times:
In 1970, 79 percent said their goal was developing a meaningful philosophy of life. By 2005, 75 percent said their primary objective was to be financially very well off.
So there you go, Dad. Your argument holds because the time invested to earn an SUV is replacing the time spent on social issues. (Assuming people spend time on their primary goals!)
While I was on maternity leave I decided I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Most of my friends work so they weren't available to do things with in the middle of the day and the few that didn't work were pretty busy living their lives. So what was I supposed to do all day? (Actually, I alternated between not knowing what do do and feeling like all I had time to do was run errands. How do we get all those errands done when we are working full time?) A lot of the things I normally would have done weren't possible. For example, I couldn't work out for the first couple of weeks after giving birth. I couldn't go hiking or bike riding with a two week old infant. So when I stumbled across a book called The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and Overworked- 21st Century Edition
Ernie Zelinki's main point is that most of us don't know what to do if we aren't working. (And to those of you who read my blog who are happily retired, I congratulate you!) He says we get some of our basic social needs from work:
The books are written in a pretty simplistic style but he has a lot of good points. He strongly encourages people to get interests outside of work and to not be dependent on work for a sense of community and purpose. He also gives lots of just basic good life advice like maintain your health, make good friends, etc. In addition, he provides a few exercises and ideas for doing that. I agreed with a lot of what he said, like making a few good friends instead of lots of casual friends, not watching tv, and participating in lots of different activities.
He also advocated working for yourself at something you enjoy rather than working for somebody else. I've been listening and reading a lot of self development books and blogs and this seems to be a common theme. Work for yourself, follow your passions, develop your interests, don't drone on and on at your desk job. Ernie as well as many others point out that money and/or retirement will not make you happy by themselves. You have to have a sense of purpose, a group of friends and a set of activities you enjoy in order to be happy in life.
A good observation from The Happiness Project on how to be more energetic and how it will affect others around you.
Energy (or lack of energy) is contagious. If you feel energetic, you’ll help the people around you feel energetic, too. And that makes them feel happier, too. In fact, studies show that being an energizer was one of the strongest predictors of a positive performance evaluation at work.
I buy that. Think of the best performers in your office. They probably get a lot done but they are almost always very energetic as well.
Following our family tradition, we went and cut our own Christmas tree for the 3rd time in a row. This year we did much better than last year - Jacob not only didn't get scared but he was a big help. He checked on Caleb and me regularly, pulled the tree most of the way back to the truck and offered to help me carry the bottle and blanky.
For my part, I had never hiked through a forrest with a baby on my chest, a blankie and a bottle in one hand and a six year old holding my other hand. It was lots of fun and we didn't slip on the ice even once!
Women that have epidurals are much more likely to stop breastfeeding before six months. Epidurals 'hamper breastfeeding':
Three-quarters of those who had no analgesia were breastfeeding at 24 weeks, compared with 53% who received pethidine or epidurals.
The epidural is also tied to trouble breastfeeding in the first week. They don't know why, but one theory is that the epidurals make the babies more sleepy and it's harder to breastfeed them.
I had an epidural against my wishes. (Well, the epidural wasn't against my wishes - being tied to the bed was. Once I wasn't allowed to get out of bed, sit up or turnover, I gave in to an epidural.) And I quit breastfeeding after a month - a very hard decision.
People with average net worths of $6.8 million owns homes worth $545,000. Since the average price of a home in the US is $264,540, I think we can safely say the rich don't necessarily spend lots of money (percentage wise) on their homes. Maybe it's because they didn't want to spend all the money on the bills a big home generates - they wanted to save and invest their money.
On the other hand, I know several people with $500,000 homes that have no where near $6 million in net worth. Those big homes are one of the reasons they will never have $6 million!
This CNN article talks about happiness and about how we are terrible at remembering what made as happy and even worse at figuring out what makes us happy. A couple of tidbits:
So basically, do your reasearch to figure out if something will make you happy!
We just had an ATV stolen out of our truck sitting in front of our house. Frank is smoking a turkey so he happened to be going outside a lot so we know it was stolen between midnight and 1am. When we called the police the police officer remembered it going north out of town on a Chevy truck. He put out a wire to the the county sheriff and the police departments of the two towns north of us. But all the guy(s) that stole it need to do is pull into a garage and wait a few days until the police forget and move on to bigger things.
I googled "stolen ATV" and found three sites for reporting stolen ATVs - so it must be a common and very frustrating problem. As far as I can tell the sites don't do anything. You just get to register that your ATV was stolen.
You can leave a comment on any post by clicking on the word "Comments()" at the end of every post - you can practice on this page by clicking "Comments(0)" below.
Blogs are about conversation - share your experiences, thoughts and ideas! Although this is my blog, it's not just about me - it's about all of you reading it, so please feel free to leave a comment or two!
Here's my promise in return:
I have lots of silent readers - I'd like to hear what you think. Many of you only tell me in person or via email - just post your comments! They are good and others should hear them.
I buy all the kids' clothes on eBay. I always search for "lots" which are large lots of clothes - they are usually the best deal. For example, a mother might sell a "lot" of 4 year old clothes - all of her kid's 4 year old clothes when he outgrows them. Another way to find good deals is to use the advanced search option to search in the kids' clothes category for all lots that have zero bids. Usually those are lots that have bad pictures, bad titles or bad descriptions but they might still be good clothes.
I also bought lots of maternity clothes on eBay when I was pregnant.
Also, don't forget eSnipe when you go to do your bidding!
Frank called me the eBay Queen today. I told him the problem was I'm the eBay Buying Queen and I'd much rather be the eBay Selling Queen. I'll tell you the secret to buying on eBay: eSnipe. eSnipe lets you set how much you are willing to bid on an item and how close to the end you are willing to wait. Then it bids for you. So you get to set what you think the item is worth - no bidding past what you think it's worth because you got involved in the bidding frenzy. And no getting outbid at the last second because you don't bid until the last second. I usually tell eSnipe to start bidding three seconds before the end of an auction - no human can outbid that.
So I win lots of auctions but I never pay more than I think something is worth.
Some very cool underwater pictures. I especially like the one of the turtle. Flickr: The This Is Why We Dive Pool.
I have been really, really wanting to go back to the British Virgin Islands. We haven't found another family with kids to go with though. I want to get a catamaran and go snorkeling everyday.
I just found the coolest website that shows you how big those
spaceships really are. Ever read a science fiction book or watched a
science fiction movie and wondered how big that ship must be to have
the whole story's set inside it? Jeff Russells STARSHIP DIMENSIONS
is a website that shows you mockups of the spaceships in science
fiction books and movies and compares them to each other size wise. He
has 218 so far.
Have fun! Happy Friday.
As many of you know, I'm a big Ceiva fan. Ceiva is a digital picture frame that all your friends and family can load pictures into from the web - a perfect gift for someone without web access who wants to see all your digital pictures. Now they've got another device which sounds just as good. This new HP device, Presto, is a standalone printer. People can send email or pictures to it and it automatically prints it out. I would send my Grandma a lot more letters if I could just email them to her!
This article in the New York Times suggests giving food or alcohol - something that will go away and not clutter the giftee's life afterwards.
See my other post on websites to find the perfect gift.
A recent study confirms that exercise alone can provide tremendous health benefits. BBC NEWS | Health | Obese should exercise not 'diet':
A programme which encouraged women not to diet but to take part in exercise classes found significant improvements in health and mental well-being.
The study showed exercise improved blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol levels. In addition, I think exercise is crucial to maintaining quality of life. I see too many heavy people that can't carry their kids or grandkids, walk around the mall or try new activities.
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It's Christmas time and if you are like most of us, you are wondering what to get for at least one difficult someone on your list. I found two sites to help you find the perfect gift for everyone on your list for Christmas:
So I'd use FindGift to get some ideas and I wouldn't bother with Present Picker.
Good luck in your shopping!
I found this link about How to Fall Asleep Quickly Every Time - WikiHow that basically says fall asleep to an audio book every night. Since I listen to audio books in the car all the time, I decided this was bad advice!
12/8/06: I should also note that while most people seem to find reading before bed pleasant, I find reading before bed dangerous. I'm very likely to get involved in the book and to just keep reading ... On nights Frank isn't home, I usually read until very late.
Harvard has some Implicit Association Test. You can test how much you associate career with men or science with men or take a test that checks what associations you might have with muslims or arabs or blacks or whites.
It's very interesting and highly recommend everyone go take one. Inspite of being a women in computer science, I showed a slight association between men and career. So did 76% of people that took the test! And then we worry about a glass ceiling ... for good reason it looks like ...
Interestingly enough I show a "slight automatic preference" for gay people over straight people. I think it was because I didn't like putting all the negative words with gay people. I'm used to defending them. Obviously I must not be so used to defending women in career ... I think it's because the people I hang out with (including those I work with) would never dream of putting down women in careers but gay jokes are still ok. So I'm used to defending gays but not women.
As for defending minorities, I once found myself telling a group of drunk guys to quit putting down hispanics. (I debated the wisdom of that afterwards.) I was quite pleasantly surprised when one of them said, "Good for you, Stormy."
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