Philomaroc

Despite reassurances that the economy is slowly recovering, the average citizen knows better. Gas and food prices continue to climb. While unemployment rates drop slightly, employers move jobs overseas, or eliminate redundancies, or succumb themselves to the bad economy. And everyone knows someone with either a foreclosure, an underwater mortgage, or an unsellable house. To borrow a term from Alan Greenspan, now is not the time for irrational exuberance.

Now is also not the time to curl up in a ball and die. Despite how it might feel, life continues, albeit in a sometimes radically altered way. The question of what you can afford becomes more urgent, and in the rush to reduce, it can be challenging to distinguish the essential from the expendable. Here’s what you need to build a life that is both livable and worth living.

1. Your Health

This is non-negotiable. This may also seem laughable. After all, if you are currently struggling with a chronic disease or illness, the cost of any ongoing treatment and medication is staggering. Did you know, though, that many brand-name drugs in the U.S. are available as generics in Canada? Shop around for the best prices on these essentials. If you have insurance, do whatever you can to not let it lapse. And if you are in relatively good health, now is the time to try and stay that way. Get your teeth cleaned once a year–it’s cheaper than cavities and can often be done at a discounted rate, either with a coupon or at your local dental school. If you need more serious work later at an ophthalmologist in Durham you’ll regret not taking those steps! Have your eyes examined–did you know a number of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension can be diagnosed with an eye exam? Add a multivitamin to your diet. And exercise is still free, so go for a walk or bicycle ride. The resulting endorphins won’t pay the bills, but they will reduce stress.

2. Education

Now more than ever is the time to go back to school, either full- or part-time. Take a night course at the community college to bump yourself to the next pay grade. No job prospects in the foreseeable future? This may be the opportunity to shift careers. Do research to find what jobs are in demand in your area. Many require only a certification program or a two-year degree. Campuses can be a place to network and host to job fairs. Even if only for your personal gratification, learning something new keeps the mind nimble and and may add a line to your resumé.

3. Entertainment

Television may be just another opiate for the masses. But it’s also an opportunity to laugh, to be moved, to yell at the screen and, most importantly, to escape, if only for a little while. The problem is, cable and satellite services charge a minimum of $50 a month when you add in all the taxes and FCC surcharges. Increasingly, people are abandoning traditional providers in favor of the web, where most shows can be watched for free with limited commercials. Or for around $10 a month, you can get Hulu+, Netflix or Amazon Prime, all of which have an abundance of instant streaming options from television to movies. Going to the movies, especially if you have to hire a sitter, is now akin to going to the doctor in cost. Have a date night in instead: make fresh popcorn, get a box of Junior Mints at the grocery and watch half a season of Mad Men in one sitting. You are nearly guaranteed to get lucky after four hours of Don Draper.

4. Savings

Right now you are thinking, if I could afford to save, I wouldn’t be in this mess. The fact is, you can afford to save, even if only in the smallest increments. While experts will tell you to save 10% of your income, and to have 3-6 months salary saved in cash, for most this is completely unrealistic. But don’t let the numbers overwhelm you to the point that you don’t save at all. Even if only $5 a week, any amount of savings will help you to feel more in control and will add a small pocket of security to your financial uncertainty.

5. Love & Beauty

Don’t laugh. After all, what is all the rest of it worth without love and beauty? Without someone to hug and that feeling inside of you of something taking flight, of your breath being taken away, of tears that spring to your eyes unbidden? There is no time that calls more loudly for kindness, compassion, and patience than a time of need. If we can can connect with one another, if we can bond over our collective suffering, then we can ease the burden of it by sharing the load. It is in this sharing that we see the beauty of our humanity. Don’t forget to look around you, to notice the passing of the seasons and the way the sky changes. Every museum has one day a week or month when admission is free, so go see some art. Read a library book. Go volunteer at your local soup kitchen and see what real need looks like. Go to church or spend time with the people you love. Because ultimately, it is hard work and inspiration that will get us out of this mess. Do your part by finding out what inspires you.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that car accidents claim the lives of more than 40,000 people in the U.S. each year. If you imagine a plane loaded with people crashing every single day, you will get an idea of the magnitude of the problem. By practicing these five safe driving habits, you and your passengers stand a better chance of avoiding an accident. 

1. Pay attention to the road.

Drivers have more distractions than ever. Between the ringing cell phone, the CD player and the kids fussing in the back seat, it’s hard to focus on what’s happening on the other side of the windshield.

Establish a no-exceptions rule that you won’t use the cell phone while driving. In many states, it’s the law. When you’re on the phone, the person on the other end can’t see traffic conditions the way a passenger can.

Load your CD into the player or adjust your radio station before driving. Leave early enough to apply makeup at home, not in the rear-view mirror. Tell your children that if they become a distraction, you will pull over.

2. Buckle your seat belt.

Like the cell phone, establish a no-exceptions rule that you buckle your seat belt. Teach your children that whenever the car is moving, they must also have their belts fastened. This means that they shouldn’t unbuckle their belts as you approach your driveway, the fast-food drive-through window or the school drop-off zone. Even low-speed accidents can cause serious injuries for an unrestrained passenger.

3. Secure any unrestrained objects in your car.

During an accident, unrestrained objects may strike passengers, causing serious injury. Strategic Safety found that unrestrained objects such as soda bottles and cell phones were responsible for 13,000 injuries per year. [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=128062&page=1] Keep your cell phone secured in your pocket or purse, and keep your purse tucked into a secure location. Coolers, grocery bags and luggage should be stored in the trunk.

In an accident, unrestrained passengers can also cause injuries to other passengers in the car, so let your passengers know about your safety-belt rule.

4. Keep your distance.

You may be the most careful driver in the world, but the car in front of you could still brake suddenly. Driving expert Reed Berry recommends following the three-second rule under normal driving conditions. When the back end of the car you’re following passes a stationary object such as a light post or a street sign, begin counting seconds. If you don’t get to three seconds before the front of your car reaches that stationary object, you’re following too closely. When the weather is rainy, you’ll need four seconds of stopping distance. On icy roads, the stopping distance increases to seven or eight seconds.

5. Be considerate.

When we’re at the grocery store, most of us wouldn’t pick up the pace behind our shopping carts just to cut off another shopper from getting the ketchup. Yet many drivers perform the same action while behind the wheel of a 3,000-pound piece of machinery zooming down the highway at 65 miles per hour. Good drivers don’t cut people off, tailgate to nudge slow drivers along or irritate others by poking along in the passing lane.

Miles Walker writes about the best car insurance quotes over at CarinsuranceComparison.Org.

There are many aspects of the recent recession and the resulting recovery period that reminds people of the Great Depression.  In fact, no one would dispute the fact there are a lot of similarities.  Between the plunges in the stock market, bank failures, home foreclosures and spiraling unemployment rates over the last few years, it’s no wonder that everyone from people on the street to well-respected economists compare the two eras.  Still, there are compelling reasons to consider our current economic situation to be a pale imitation of the Depression.  Here are some examples to illustrate the point, using data collected by CNN and obtained from sources like the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and Dow Jones.

One of the main comparisons made between today and the Great Depression is unemployment

Without a doubt, many people lost jobs all through the recession and even with job retraining programs not everyone has been lucky enough to get back into the active work force.  One thing to keep in mind is that even at the lowest ebb in employment, more people were holding onto their jobs during our recession and recovery period than in the Depression.   While unemployment did move into the double digits in some states, those figures never reached the levels achieved in the early 1930’s.  Depending on which source you choose, national unemployment back then peaked at anywhere between 25% and 33%.

Bank failures are another common point of comparison between the two economic situations.  A number of major national and regional banks have gone under during the recession, but their numbers are nowhere near the number of bank closures experience between 1930 and 1933.  Estimates hold that half of all banks in the United Statues shuttered their doors during that period.  By contrast, the number of bank failures between 2007 and 2009 did not reach 1%.

The price of goods and services did undergo change in both economic periods, but the movement of those prices was very different.  During the Great Depression, prices experienced an overall drop of 25% between 1929 and 1933.  With the recession, prices overall showed an increase of 0.5% from December 2007 to March 2009.  The figures indicate a significant shift during the height of the recession, but nothing compared to the shift during the Depression.

Both periods experienced a decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but that decline was much more severe during the Depression.  Between September 1929 and July 1932, that decline amounted to –89.2%.  Between December 2007 and March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a decline of –53.8%.  In spite of the huge impact that this type of shift had during the recession, the significance cannot compare to the severity of what investors and business people experienced during the Depression.

There is no argument

From any quarter that the economic crises exemplified by these two eras altered lives forever.  In each time period, employers shut down, people were thrown out of work, homes were lost and many wondered if they would ever be able to enjoy a decent standard of living again.  Fortunately, many individuals, businesses and government officials learned valuable lessons from the Great Depression.

Changes in banking systems, investment and trade laws and even the way consumers view savings and spending helped to prevent the recession from being much worse than it could have been.  Even business have learned how to operate leaner, sometimes by using payroll service providers, more temporary employees and outsourcing other important business function as a way to keep expenses in line with income.  What this means for us today is that recovery from the recession, while not easy, will not be the difficult task faced by those who lived through the Depression.

Indie journalist Patrica H. Hugley frequently blogs about finances and payroll companies, this is one of her many great blogs – Enjoy!

2012 is the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee year. We commemorate Her Majesty’s 60th year since her coronation on 2nd June 1953.

In this time the Queen has become, unsurprisingly, one of the most painted figures in modern times. As the monarch of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Elizabeth II is one of the most recognisable faces the world over. This is the perfect time to look at some of the most memorable and famous paintings that depict Her Majesty the Queen.

Isobel Peachey

At the age of 31, Isobel Peachey is the youngest artist to have painted the Queen. Peachey was the winner of the BP Portrait Award after entering a painting of a friend, who then went on to become an artist in her own right. Shipping company Cunard commissioned the painting, but didn’t inform the artist until the very end of her interview who would be the subject. The Queen sat for three hour-long sessions at the end of 2009, and the painting was unveiled to a positive response in 2010.

Lucien Freud

Freud’s portrait of the Queen was met with strong opinions when it was unveiled in 2001. The painting is not flattering, and became a springboard for the pedestrian outrage of the tabloids. More balanced opinions came from critics, who found this image of Her Majesty to be something of an honest depiction. Instead of the more familiar, pristine image of the monarch, Lucien Freud painted his subject as a woman that has seen a lot in her years, facing opinion on her own relevance as polarised as those of the painting itself.

Sir William Dargie

An accomplished artist who worked with Australian armed forces during World War II, Sir William Dargie went on to become a winner of the Archibald Prize for portraiture an incredible eight times. Dargie was the first Australian artist to paint the Queen following her coronation. The first portrait he painted was the ‘State’ painting, also known as the ‘Wattle’ painting, which became Australia’s national state portrait of the Queen.

Pietro Annigoni

Also known for painting the Queen in the earliest years of her reign, Pietro Annagoni’s Renaissance-inspired piece was unveiled to great acclaim in 1956. Annagoni rose to fame as a painter of world leaders and other figures of note. While he enjoyed painting such portraits, he preferred to maintain the friendships he had before finding fame. As the second half of the 20th century rolled on, he had alienated many contemporaries and critics as he became frustrated with modern art styles.

Chinwe

Known for working in a variety of different media and art styles, Chinwe Chukuogo-Roy has become a well known name in the field of art. This reputation is not just from her stunning paintings but also for her educational work with the young, for which she received an MBE. Chinwe gain international attention when painting the official portrait for the Queen for the Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The Enid Hutt Gallery, based in Scotland, sell a wide range of contemporary art including artists such as Doug Hyde paintings

Ergonomics is more than a squishy keyboard helping to reduce Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  A properly designed ergonomic workspace either at home or at an office location can create a more enjoyable environment.  This will lead to increased productivity and greater mommy blogger satisfaction.

Using Ergonomics to Motivate

Everyone tries to avoid things that are unpleasant or uncomfortable.  If a work place is not designed with ergonomics in mind this can lead a worker to consciously or unconsciously avoid working.  This may mean calling in sick for out of the house jobs, lots of coffee breaks, and a great number of interruptions in general.  For individuals who work at home, this may mean the house is very clean because cleaning is comparatively better than sitting in an uncomfortable position or it may mean that daytime television becomes the new raison d’etre.

If a work area is ergonomically designed, thus more comfortable, time may pass quicker because working is more enjoyable, and an employee may be more motivated to work and finish projects.  The time and investment in an ergonomic work space will also let an employee know that he or she is a valued team member.  The money spent on designing and purchasing an ergonomic work space can pay for itself quickly.

What Should a Home Work Area Feature?

Designing an ergonomic work area is particularly important for individuals who work at home.  A home is almost by nature saturated with distractions.  From the pile of laundry waiting to be done to the DVR full of shows to be caught-up on, there are tons of things that can draw a person a way from a task at hand.  If a work space is enjoyable then the person will be more motivated to accomplish needed tasks.

So much of a mother’s life is not comfortable.  Carrying a flaying 30 pound toddler in the midst of an epic meltdown is not enjoyable (to the vast majority of us).  Nor is wrangling and refereeing a sibling fight while making dinner.  But these are part of the job.  Fun? Not really.  Necessary? Yes.  Because blogging often provides an outlet, a small part of the day that belongs not to kids, or pets, or a spouse, the place in which she works should be enjoyable and enhance the activity and foster her enjoyment, not make it another chore that is to be born.

Mommy bloggers almost exclusively work from home.  It is one of the perks of the job, the ability to still earn money and be around to watch and care for a home and children.  This does not mean mother should be hunched over their counters writing while fixing school lunches.  A comfortable enjoyable work environment is almost more important for this group than for other groups of workers.

To create an ergonomic and comfortable environment a person should design the space around his or her needs individually.  All people are different sizes and shapes, the needs of one will not be the needs of another.  So, for example a husband may have a wonderful set up for himself in a home office, the same space will probably not meet the mommy blogger’s individual needs.  The space will either need to be adjustable to suit her or she should have her own area that is specifically suited to her.

When creating a more enjoyable work space, ergonomics is part of it, but another aspect is personal taste and preferences.  One person may enjoy having photos surrounding him or her, while another finds this cluttering and distracting and prefer to have a nice view out of a window.  So take personal taste as well as body mechanics in to consideration when planning a work area.

An ergonomically designed work area can reduce work place discomforts and reduce a person’s reliance on pain medication for headaches, back aches, etc.  It can also reduce the need for chiropractic care: such as spinal adjustment.  While these are benefits of a comfortable enjoyable work space, the increased job satisfaction and productivity of employees is typically seen as the primary benefit.

About the Author

Jason Monroe, an eager researcher and freelance writer has been working with clients online since 2003.  Presently, with the help of the West Bend Chiropractic community is working on articles highlighting back pain and the importance of developing and ergonomic work station.

It’s something that has perplexed me more than any other philosophical problem I can think of. What level (if any) of free will do we really have? How much do our instincs and environment truly influence our actions? If our actions are completely deterministic, as Skinner and others have argued, how can one account for the seeming autonomy we have in making choices? Is it just an illusion? And would that exempt us from moral responsibiliby? But if we do have free will (however limited) could that ever be proved? Is consciousness a pre-requisite for free will, and what level of consciousness do you think the lower animals have? I know that’s a lot of stuff but I’m just trying to stimulate some type of discussion and am interested in what you guys think…

‎The ‘Right Hand’. When our Thoughts are quietly asking questions of Honor and Dignity; what does it mean to-be the ‘Right Hand’? The ‘Right Hand’ writes lengthy love letters of Legends and Legacies. To sit at the ‘Right Hand’ of the Table, to-be the ‘Right Hand’ Man; how we all covet the cherished Title as a core-centering Crown. Take a moment and Look down at your Two ‘Hands’; the Left, and then the Right. Two ‘Hands’ of equal Physical Traits; what separates and segregates the ‘Right Hand’ as Select? ‘Hands’ take Action, as they represent Movement. The strong-willed ‘Right Hand’ wears a Crown of Thorns, always piercing It into Action as it bleeds Its’ Sense of Duty into ‘fruition’. A Super-Hero of no Super-Powers, carrying its’ ‘Sword of Action’; always First into Battle, Last to leave the Crime Scene. The ‘Right Hand’ takes more Action than the ‘Left Hand’, rendering the ‘Right Hand’ as Dominant. Taking again now a quiet Moment to Look down at your two ‘Hands’; which Title do you and I bear?..

Is there a way to prove the substance that is known as the ego, is a product of the thinking mind through neuron generators and transmitters; fed on the surrounding energy? Let’s hear your thoughts!

The purpose of life that everyone is always asking about and brooding over and agonizing about…is to be a living being. That’s it! No great mystery to be had. You’re alive. Enjoy it. Now, why the Universe (God, for some people) chose to incarnate you as a living being? It’s none of your concern. You’re never going to be able to understand the reasoning of cosmic entity. You’re not smart enough for that, so why waste your time on unachievable goals?

Now, the purpose of civilization is to push forward the pursuits of humanity as a collective mind, but that’s an entirely different essay.

I used to think that art was the purpose of life. After all, it’s the only part of our existence that has no real impact on our day-to-day survival as a species, and yet, occupies a great deal of our leisurely pursuits. However, I soon came to realize that art is simply what we do with our human innovation and creativity when we are otherwise not using these talents to figure out new ways of surviving in a hostile world.

So, in anticipation of the next student philosopher/theologian’s suggestion that the purpose of life is to “love one another”, “glorify God”, “advance humanity”, “discover the unknown mysteries of the cosmos”, or some other such trivial nonsense, my pre-recorded response to them is the same one I gave to my niece when she was five and suggested that Barney was better than Sesame Street…”I love you, but just go screw yourself, Dude!”

When you feel alone like no one cares, read this because it’s absolutely true: Every night, someone thinks about you before they go to sleep. At least 15 people in this world love you. The only reason someone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you. There are at least 2 people in this world that would die for you. You mean the world to someone.
Someone that you don’t even know exists loves you. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look. Always remember the compliments you’ve received. Forget the rude remarks. If you like, repost this on your status