wendymonster.com

Another great article from the Dumb Little Man website:

Even the introverts amongst us – myself included! – are social beings. It’s natural for us to pay attention to what other people might be thinking. The problem is, worrying about what other people think can lead us to take on too many commitments, deny our true goals and passions, settle for a life of “people-pleasing”.

On the other hand, paying no heed at all to how others might be thinking of us can lead to professional and personal relationships turning sour.

Here are some steps that’ll help you find a healthy balance.

Step 1: Pay Attention – But Don’t Worry
Worrying rarely gets you anywhere in life. Don’t spend time feeling unhappy or anxious about how others might be thinking of you. Try not to let your emotions cloud the issue here, and don’t spend time trying to “mind-read” other people.

You’re often your own worst critic – and frankly, most people have far too much on your minds to care whether you’re slightly over/under-dressed for a situation, for instance.

Step 2: Does Their Opinion Matter?
Stop caring what random strangers think of you. If you like to sing as you walk round your local park, and someone passing gives you a weird look – it really doesn’t matter. Their opinion isn’t going to affect you in any way.

The same goes for all sorts of situations. For example, a problem that many overweight people have when they’re trying to get in shape is that they’d like to go to the gym or to an exercise class, but they’re worried what people will think of them. Ask yourself “can what they think hurt me?” or “does their opinion matter?” until you feel confident enough to go ahead with what you want.

Step 3: Use the Feedback
If you get a negative reaction from a key figure in your life, like your boss, then pay attention. If your boss is fanatical about keeping a tidy desk and you couldn’t care less, it’s worth adjusting your behavior – especially if your boss scowls every time s/he sees your desk.

Don’t make assumptions about what other people are thinking, though: make sure you really do have evidence. In the absence of any real evidence, try assuming the best! For example, if someone sends you a rather curt email, assume that they were just in a hurry – don’t start worrying over whether they dislike you.

Step 4: Put Your Goals First
Perhaps you have very different goals to your family and friends. Perhaps you’re keen to get a great grade in school, but your friends think you should just join them in partying and having a laugh. It doesn’t really matter what they think: your goals should be more important than their opinion.

The same goes for all sorts of situations. Maybe you’ve ended up in a career you hate because it’s what your parents wanted you to do. Your goals should never be dictated by other people.

(If you don’t have any explicit goals, that might be why you’re prone to worrying about what other people think – because you don’t have your own plan for your life. You might want to read 11 Useful Tips on Setting Goals and Achieving Them.)

Step 5: Value Your Values
If other people scoff at your values, ignore them. Perhaps you’d like to read more about personal development and self-improvement, but you’re worried your friends would just laugh at you if they found out. Maybe you’re keen to do your best at work even when the boss is away – but everyone else thinks you’re an idiot for not joining them in slacking off.

Whatever the situation, make sure you’re holding tight to your values, rather than being swept along by other people’s. Many people will actually be impressed (even if they don’t say so) – because you’ve had the conviction to stick to what you believe is important.

Step 6: Remember That You Don’t Have to be Popular
(I personally need to always remember this one)
Life isn’t like high school: it doesn’t matter if you’re not popular. You can’t please everyone anyway – so don’t even try. Say “no” to commitments that you don’t want to take on. Be willing to do something that goes against the crowd, if it’s what you truly believe in.

Of course, there are a few people in life who you might want to be popular with – your spouse, your kids, and your boss, for example. But in general, most people’s opinions and thoughts about you are unlikely to have any real effect. Plus, if you behave as “yourself” and people don’t like you – would you really want them to be your friends anyway?

Here is part of a really great article I read about making everyday count…

Part of pursuing a focused life of purpose may include an expansion of your perspective. Expanding your worldview may help you find your niche. Here are some ways to make your world a little larger.

* Host a foreign exchange student. Not only will you help make someone’s dream come true, you and your family will learn just as much as your host student, as you learn to communicate with each other and learn about his/her country’s customs.
* Eat local. Eat and buy locally grown food, or start to grow your own. The average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles, according to CleanOurAir.com. Eating locally not only has health benefits, but will also take you one step closer to understanding the affect our choices have on the world around us.
* Volunteer. Nothing puts your problems in perspective faster than helping another with his/her problems. Volunteering is on the rise since the recession, and with the mounting economic needs, opportunities abound to make a difference in the life of someone else.
* Read the BBC. While it doesn’t have to be the BBC, reading a non-American source of news can help put our own news in context. Make sure the news you consume doesn’t only deal with what’s happening on our home turf, but the world around us.
* Hang out with people who don’t look like you. Many of us find it more comfortable to talk with and hang out with people who are like us – and look like us. If you don’t have a regular opportunity to befriend or at least have conversations with others who are from different ethnic backgrounds than yours, put yourself in situations that will. Take a free class from the library or visit a lecture or community event.
* Read a book or magazine you don’t think you’d be interested in. A mentor of mine once recommended buying a subscription to a certain news magazine and reading it from cover to cover – even the articles that didn’t interest me. This allowed me to widen my perspective on the world and introduced and educated me on topics I normally would seek information about.

When your mind expands, your circle of influence grows – allowing you to better affect change around you. Go for it!

Very cool. If you read news feeds alot, you should check out Google’s new Fast Flip. It gives your news feeds an actual “newspaper” feel to them.

http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

Never forget the bravery of those that sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom and the lives of those around them.

Never forget that hatred and terrorism should not be tolerated.

Never forget those brave words…

May God bless us all and shine the light of his glory on us all on this day of remembrance.

“Let’s roll”

I’m sure most of you would agree that Gmail has revolutionized the way we communicate and manage information via email. If you doubt it then it means that you are yet to exploit the extraordinary features of this email app to the fullest.

This article explores some of the outstanding Gmail features and tricks which make this tool a must have for anyone using email to communicate. The features discussed here will also help long time Gmail users to dig deeper and get the most out of this amazing service.

1. Consolidate multiple email accounts into one Gmail account
   This is probably the most important reason why one should make the switch if he is using a different email service. With Gmail you don’t have to worry about checking your different email
   accounts. You can consolidate all the multiple inboxes into one
   Gmail account.

   While the option to combine other email
   accounts into Gmail was always there, recently Gmail made the process a cakewalk by introducing the import option in the settings. It’s super easy now to use Gmail as your one stop
   email service.

2. Learn to use filters and labels effectively
   No other
   email service lets you filter and organize emails the way Gmail does. Using “Filters” and “Labels” in Gmail, you could always keep unimportant emails out of your inbox and be much more efficient in email management.

   Here is an old but still useful
   article from Lifehack on ways to use Gmail filters. If you are looking to learn more about labels then this article on about.com regarding Gmail labels should help you.

3. Make use of multiple Gmail addresses you get with one account
   This is a gem. And if you didn’t know about this, here’s the surprise – with Gmail you actually get an unlimited number of different email addresses. Yes, unlimited! How? Well abc@gmail.com is same as a.bc@gmail.com and abc+def@gmail.com. More on this here.

   Oh, and abc@gmail.com is also same as abc@googlemail.com. Awesome feature, isn’t it? This feature could be used in so many ways. Like in this article, the Digital Inspiration blog points out how you could use one email for multiple twitter
   accounts. That’s just one use. There could be many more such tricks. Get the picture?

4. Use Gmail Labs
   In my opinion, the next best thing the Gmail team has done after launching Gmail is introducing Gmail Labs. I wasn’t gung-ho about it initially but when the different labs add-ons started rolling out, I was completely speechless. Gmail became more amazing each day.

   There are a number of Labs tools you could enable. Here are my favorite picks.

5. Use Browser add-ons
   If Firefox is your primary browser (it should be if it isn’t), then you could also install certain add-ons which add more functionality to Gmail. Here is an article which talks about some of the best add-ons for Gmail available.
6. Make Gmail your information center
   If you were to ask me the name of one person who has exploited Gmail more than anyone else, I would instantly say Steve Rubel. The man has written some great articles on how he uses the various features of Gmail to organize information efficiently. One such
   article is about how he transformed Gmail into his personal nerve center. It’s an excellent read.

The great thing about jQuery is that talented jQuery developers often release new and useful plugins on a regular basis. jQuery plugins are not only easy to implement, but easy to maintain even when used throughout large sites.

In this article, we share with you a list of 20 useful jQuery plugins that were released recently that could help you for your next web project. There are various types of plugins here such as modal windows, image galleries, auto complete for form input, bookmarking functions, preloaders, and more. Enjoy!

http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/20-fresh-jquery-plugins-to-enhance-your-user-interface/

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently appeared on NBC’s Today Show. She spoke frankly and said a “plausible scenario” for the United States is a wide-scale flu infection this season, warning of 30,000-90,000 deaths and as many as 300,000 people requiring intensive care treatment at hospitals.
Are you ready for flu season? Are you prepared if the flu virus gets jiggy with your body?

Granted, media hype can blow just about anything out of proportion. Considering this is a fair bit more serious than the Jon & Kate situation, however, it is wise to take a few preventative steps in preparation for the fast-approaching flu season.

1. Get vaccinated
Time to get over your “But I hate shots!” whining and ranting. Educate yourself on available vaccinations, talk with your doctor, and view the CDC website. They have vaccination information here.

2. Wash your hands and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Giving high-fives should be a safe and friendly sport. I used to think only crazed soccer moms carried hand sanitizer in their purses. Not anymore. You don’t have to belong to the Church of Purell; keeping your hands clean is a must, however, to avoid the transmission of nasty germs. Also keep in mind that you should sneeze into a Kleenex, not directly into your hands.

3. Don’t touch your face.
The virus enters the body through the eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Take vitamins, eat healthy, exercise, and reduce stress.
Easier said than done but try your hardest to act upon these goals if they’ll possibly keep you from staring down at the bottom of a toilet bowl later this year (if anything it’s a good excuse not to return your mother’s voicemail until April). There are a number of natural health preventions as well. Talk to your doctor or visit a natural foods store.

5. Enjoy time in a sauna a couple times a week.
The steam and heat can supposedly kill off viruses (if it’s over 80 degrees).

6. Enjoy time outdoors.
Ever been on a plane when multiple people are sick? It’s miserable. Get outside, even when it’s annoyingly cold. Give yourself old-fashioned rosy pink cheeks. Staying cooped up indoors circulates germs.

7. Keep tissues, electrolyte drinks, household cleaners, soft foods and other items on hand.
No doubt the flu can spread like rabbits. If you come down with the flu, quarantine yourself with a stash of Will Ferrell movies to prevent the spread of the virus. Try not to use items that are hard to disinfect once the virus has run its course (such as your laptop). In any case, chances are you won’t want to haul yourself out to the 24-hour s-c-a-r-y Walgreens on Lake Street just to stock up on toilet paper and pudding cups. Not to mention few things feel worse than when you’re sweaty and yellow-green, lying half dead on the couch and someone has to actually see you to drop off orange Gatorade. Gross.

Want more information? View these resources:

* The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) influenza page·
* “Key Facts About the Seasonal Flu Vaccine,” CDC
* “FluView: A Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report·
* A Swine Flu (H1N1) overview (slideshow)
* Flu Prevention Strategies

Story taken from Dumb Little Man: Tips for Life

We have had a man in our dept that had swine flu recently, and it said it was twice as bad as the regular flu.  Thankfully I didn’t catch it from him, poor guy!

I have to admit that for most of my adult life, I have been a slave to Clinique.  I ran out of my Clinique cleanser about a month ago.  I didn’t feel like enduring the hassle of finding a parking space at the mall, fighting the crowds, and then waiting in line to purchase new cleanser.  I was at Ulta and saw the Biore Clean Things Up Nourishing Gel Cleanser and thought I would give it a try.  Heck, if I didn’t like it, I was only out $6 and a little of my time.

After using it for at least a month now, I have to say I really do love Biore Clean Things Up Nourishing Gel Cleanser.  I love it more than my Clinique gel cleanser.  With Clinique I used to have to exfoliate at least once a week, and I never really felt like my face was actually getting clean.  I had used the Clinique 3 step system for years and the Clarifying Lotion would always show me so much makeup that the Cleanser hadn’t removed.  And I have never been in love with the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, even when they came out with a gel version.  It always felt too heavy and by lunch, I was always having to use those little face blotting papers to get the oil off of my face.

After I bought the Biore Clean Things Up Nourishing Gel Cleanser, I found an old bottle of Oil of Olay lotion that I have been using, and my skin has almost cleared up.  I really think the Clinique products were part of my bad skin problems.

I am so thankful to find a great product that doesn’t cause me to waste at least an hour of my time to get it.  No more parking at the mall and fighting the crowds.  And no more snobby Clinique sales associates.  They were always so rude!

Good little article from Raymond Camden’s Blog about JQuery tabs and Google Maps. I have implemented Google Maps where I work and am interested in creating tabbed content for the output…

A really great post from an Adobe Coldfusion Newbie

found via Ben Forta’s Blog