Thursday, April 29, 2010
Im on to something...
Buy a man a fish and you feed him for a week, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
That would be the campaigns slogan because if the whole world came together as one and just donated something so little the world could and would change in a HUGE way, i mean if you really think about it what could u do with 7,000,000,000? think about how many people we could help, children we could help, diseases we could cure, animals we could save, with just one dollar from each person we could change the world, and thats why im hoping that maybe i could get this off the ground because i think that the world needs to know that even something so small as 1$ could change the world.
Quotes:
The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all. ~Leo Rosten
We can do no great things, only small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa
Monday, February 15, 2010
im back!
No one said it was going to be easy, the day you were born. Your mother never said that life would be a breeze and it will be clear sailing without any struggles, risks, or obstacles to overcome. Instead, you realized that things might not always go your way. Even as an infant, you got hungry, thirsty, bored, tired, sick, cold, hot, constipated, upset, startled, scared, confused, and frustrated by a myriad of circumstances you couldn't possibly comprehend.
As you grew up, you began to understand how you could control certain elements of your environment, yet still suffered from all the troubles I just listed. Even as an adult, we are subjected to these same issues that invade our lives. It appears that life is, and shall remain, a struggle until the day we die. It's how we cope and view these incidents that determine our character and the quality of our existence.
It's all about our attitude. With constant news reports about catastrophes striking every country in the world, how can we feel good about ourselves? There are starving people, natural disasters, political strife, warring nations, terrorism, pollution, health concerns, and over-crowding, both local and nationally. The news apparently is never good.
Add to that, daily confrontations with employers, store clerks, other drivers, and family members, you get the picture. You face a never-ending sea of bills, relationship challenges, and on-the-job dilemmas. Where will it end? Only at death, I'm afraid and some depressed individuals have already decided to end their lives sooner than later. But, for the rest of us that face these facts of daily life, what are our options?
We have to accept why we are on this planet in the first place. Assuming we have only one crack at a lifetime, we get to make the most out of it as possible. Through our own free will and perhaps some divine intervention, we control our fate. We can choose to allow the constant bombardment of negativity ruin our psyche, or ignore the obvious taunts and move forward with a good attitude. It's takes a commitment and constant effort to overcome the flow of obstacles, but it can be done. It begins with the simple things.
Do you smile a lot? Well, you should. Practice at smiling at everyone you see, whether a total stranger you pass in the supermarket aisle or your postman. Saying a kind word at the appropriate time, is even better. How's your sense of humor? Do you like to laugh? The cycle begins when you look and feel good about yourself. Surround yourself with other positive people, while divesting of the negative ones. When someone starts to offer critical feedback in a discussion, politely tell them that you prefer not to continue that particular topic. You can decide to change the subject to something more constructive.
We all have the naysayers that love to harp on life's darker side. It's time to put them aside and focus on people with a good outlook. Just like the negative news, these folks will bring you down. I dread those phone calls and now try to put a good spin on bad news. It's the old art of turning lemons into lemonade.
I relate those events back to the myth of the Phoenix bird. After a life of 500 years, it appears a tragedy is to occur when the bird builds a giant pyre of fire jumps into the inferno. But, later, after being consumed, a baby Phoenix emerges to begin a new lifespan with a renewed sense of optimism. We should all learn from this act.
Out of seemingly impossible situations, new opportunities can arise. This forward-thinking outlook can guide our thoughts and deeds at every juncture. Remember, we have this one life to survive and we are entrusted by our creator to do the best we can. I would imagine that the purpose of our existence is to create, not destroy, to uplift, not to put down, and to leave it a better place than where we found it.
How would you like to be recalled when you have passed away? As the old bitter, person that never had a nice thing to say about anyone or anything? Or as the positive, upbeat person, that embraced life and lived it to the fullest, thereby positively impacting everyone with whom you interacted? It's your choice while you're living.
If I've touched a nerve and got you to think about being a more positive person, then great, because you can make a difference from this moment on. Just get out there and feel good about yourself. Treat yourself to something decadent like dark chocolate, a new pair or shoes for the lady, or a power tool for the gentleman, because you deserve it. Hey, did I just catch you smiling?
Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He has authored 6 books and a novel, "Pursuit of the Phoenix." His latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages" which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site. i didnt read this whole article but i read most of it and although it seems negative at the beginning it gets more positive. |
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday
A host of new studies show that video gaming might actually improve visual skills and increase brain capacity.
The following is a partial transcript; for full story, listen to audio
Turn off the computer and go outside and play! We've all heard the conventional wisdom that says video games will turn your brain to mush. But a host of new studies show that gaming might actually be good for your health.
Researchers at Nottingham University found that playing certain video games could achieve in one hour what eye patches achieve in 400 hours; while researchers at the University of Rochester found that first-person shooter video games improve visual skills by increasing the brain’s capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events.
But wait, there's more! The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., found that Tetris players developed a thicker cortex than those who didn’t play. And the Nintendo Wii has been helping Parkinson's patients improve balance. So, are video games good for you?
Baratunde Thurston, host of "Popular Science's Future Of," a TV show on the Science Channel, says video gaming has more positive effects than you might think.
He says the research shows that there are several benefits to video gaming. "There's the social; There's a new sort of storytelling format, and the way of interacting with other people. It's a mental workout. It's fun, and there's also the ability to destroy things," said Thurston.
Technology writer Clive Thompson, the blogger for Collision Detection and a frequent contributor to "Wired" and "The New York Times," says some of the studies support the mental workout that players can get from the games.
"There's been studies that show for example, if you play Tetris a lot, it increases the white matter in your brain. And the more white matter in your brain, the more efficient you are at doing certain types of thinking.
"And there's been other studies that show surgeons -- laparoscopic surgeons -- if they play video games before they do surgery, they actually have almost 40 percent fewer errors. I's sort of getting their hand-eye coordination up to speed before they do a delicate task like that."
When gaming involves multiple players, it encourages both teamwork and individual effort.
"It's a little society and you learn to be a member of a society with the values and reputation and cost that goes with it," said Thurston.
The idea that gaming might improve certain skills shouldn't be too surprising, since pilots and astronauts have long been trained in video simulators.
"The idea that games could affect your behavior is intuitive because all sorts of areas have used them to train people in doing things quickly, said Thompson. "The thing that's really interesting is that the research has started to branch out to look at these unexpected ways that games might be good to you.
"There's a piece [of research] that came out earlier this year that completely fascinated me, which was the idea that you could us Tetris to treat post-tramatic stress syndrome. Now people think that PTSD as something that happens if you go to Iraq, but it most often happens if you've had a car accident. And what they discovered was if you get someone to play Tetris for 45 minutes or so after a car accident, it might seriously decrease the amounts of flashbacks they have. Essentially it occupies the visual cortex so much that you don't take all those flashbacks images of being in a car accident and read them into your brain as well."
But, Thompson says, there is still that side to gaming that isn't so positive. "Video games are designed to be very addictive. People pay tens of millions of dollars to make these things as addictive as possible. So it's absolutely true that the great danger with them is you'd rather play them than eat."
"The Takeaway" is a national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what’s ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.
