Trying to make the festival a family affair with something to do for everyone, the planners decided to implement a Kids Taste Tent and a bazaar featuring street food from around the world, including Thai, Indian, and Somalian fare.  My personal favorite was the Greek couscous with yogurt, fresh broad beans, and coriander– yum!

Not Just for Eating

Besides stuffing my face with delicious organic eats (which believe me, I did plenty of that), the festival also featured live music and dance shows, and workshops to teach the public about how to cook with organic ingredients.  Now, usually I am a disaster in the kitchen, but the workshops were designed to teach even the least talented chefs among us how to cook. I was able to learn how to make some great food (like mango chutney!) from some famous chefs.

Because of a recent article published in The Guardian that stated that the Food Standards Agency found that organic food is not healthier compared with conventionally produced food, there was also a greater emphasis on why organic food is better for you regardless of what the study says.  Sustainability was a buzzword that was floating around the air throughout the entire weekend, because the fact of the matter is that conventional farming isn’t a sustainable method.  It depletes nutrients from the soil, expends a huge amount of fossil fuel, and doesn’t allow for a high standard of animal welfare.  Organic food is just the way to go for farming of the future.

One of these was smoking. At age 18 he started to smoke every now and then, because he got in with some buddies that liked to smoke quite a bit. He figured he’d just go ahead and join them to fit in. Over the years, this transitioned into him being a pack a day smoker, if not two packs if he was feeling like spending a bit more money.

I hadn’t ever smoked, and encouraged him to quit whenever possible, while trying not to sound like a complete nag. Of course, over time it was impossible for it not to sound like I was hounding him on his bad habits and our friendship started to decline. It wasn’t a fun experience, but it happened.

He ended up dying of lung cancer at age 28, just a few months ago. I can’t help but imagine that if he had quit or switched to something safer, he would be alive today. I actually was pitching him something called e-cigarettes for quite a while before he died but he said that they just weren’t for him. When I tried to explain that you get the exact same amount of nicotine from them as you do from normal smoking and actually don’t get any of the poisonous stuff, he simply ignored me or didn’t really hear me.

The beautiful thing about electronic cigarettes is that they are totally safe – their only output is water vapor! I don’t know why I couldn’t convince him to use these, or at least give them a try. I’m confident that if he just gave them a try even once he would have seen the value in switching. I have a lot of friends now that have made the switch and couldn’t be happier. In fact, e-cigs are actually becoming the vogue and trendy thing, and it brings a tear to my eye to think that this was one of the reasons that my friend rejected them – he didn’t think they were “cool” enough for him. Unfortunately, you can’t think anything is cool if you’re not around anymore.

If you know someone like my friend, please encourage them to give these new smoking products a try. Don’t just take my word for it – do the research yourself and really try to make an impact in the life of someone that you care about. Trust me, it’s worth it. Click here for more information.

The new water bed!

Anyways, it’s been really fun, and a little nervewracking, to set the entire thing up. There’s no comparison between setting up a normal bed and a waterbed. It’s totally different! I’ll admit that I was afraid of puncturing it or spilling the water all over my bedroom. You always see that going on in the movies. It’s like the only purpose for using a waterbed in the movie is to destroy it or have a character do something silly and break it! I was determined that I wouldn’t be a caricature of these movies, so I read the directions obsessively and made sure I did the job right.

I carefully filled it up once it was in place, and watched the fill level like a hawk to make sure it didn’t explode. Once it was done, I capped it off and installed all of the bedding and frame requirements, then sort of just stood there and stared at it for a little bit. Finally! I had finished it and achieved my oldest childhood dream! It was almost too sweet a moment to ruin by getting on the bed, I’m afraid to admit. But – I did it! I gently slid my body onto the bed (still paranoid to pop it) and reveled in the glory that was my water bed. The gentle rocking of the water underneath me was enough to lull me into a daydream. Soon after that I was sleeping like a little baby – the water warming feature definitely got me into a relaxed mood. It’s hard to stay awake in a situation like that! A few hours later I woke up with the biggest smile on my face that I have had in quite some time.

If any of you are thinking about getting a waterbed, I suggest that you just pull the trigger and make it happen. Yes, it’s a luxurious purchase but you only live once. There are only so many days, months and years left in your life The worst thing you can do is postpone things that you want in life – it’s a recipe for disaster, believe me. I’ve been there. You can’t sit around dreaming about something for a long time – eventually you need to pull the trigger and do what it takes to make your dream a reality. For me, that was getting a top of the line waterbed and if that’s your dream too – do it!

Make sure you read do some research before buying one find out more about waterbeds here and here.

First of all you’ve got to help the group acknowledge the scenario. a issue is evolved by People won’t thing don’t acknowledge something requires changing. In a meeting, say something such as “Everyone nowadays seems a small edgy. What’s going on?”
2nd, talking and listening helps. If the party is irritable, create some space for people to go to town. The easy work of wasting off some water could be very washing for teams. Of course before anyone is sincere by what they’re experiencing, there will have to be some foundational levels of confidence currently in position. One thing to avoid is dismissing the feelings of the first individual who determines to speak up. Try to get your people involved and happy to be working together again, you could try team building perth  as a way to improve their communication skills and resolve some problems.
Sooner or later you need to employ the class in a conversation about perhaps the signs suggest a true trouble that really must be resolved or somewhat a negative alignment of the stars which will pass on its own. If there’s a problem making the crankiness, your task is to support the party concentrate its energy on coping with it.
The option to the activities specified above is the do-nothing method. It always does not while this can work in uncommon situations. A moody staff needs support and training like a management course such as cert iv frontline management. Thus jump in and do that which you could.

Interacting doesn’t come minute nature, to be done well, it’s a learned craft. The following are three issues that can improve your hearing abilities:
An attitude of nurturing more for what the other individual is saying than for your own ideas and worries.
The power to not and keep your attention to what’s being mentioned allow your head roam.
To fill out the holes of your comprehension through thinking and questioning about what is being said.
It’s been said, “One of the best compliments it is possible to spend someone else is to accept that what he/she needs to say is of benefit, to listen.”
Learning how to become an useful audience gives huge returns in your connections with people. By positively listening to another individual the ultimate supplement is paid by you. Your hearing indicates that what they have to state is critical. It increases their sensation of self-worth.

Save those $$!!

Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having fun. I’m a big believer that life is to be experienced and enjoyed, and that there are few better things than a steak and garlic mashed potatoes. But I was going about it the wrong way. If I saw something I wanted, I’d just go get it. I had a credit card, but luckily for me at that time, I hadn’t figured out exactly how the whole balance thing worked. I was nervous about using it because I was afraid that I wouldn’t pay it off on time only because I didn’t understand the bill and that I’d get huge fees and ruin my credit. At least I had enough sense to understand that.

Because I never used a credit card, I had to constrain my wants and needs into my budget, with the wants almost always winning out over the needs. When SD Gal and I got married, I literally brought almost nothing to the table in terms of financial help.

I imagine that if finances had come up more often as a serious discussion point during our courtship, we probably would have dated quite a bit longer, or at least until I had some more money saved up. However, I lucked out – SD Gal is the consummate saver, looking to hold on to every last cent she can. It was her reserve that helped us get through our first married months and all of the extra fees and things you need when you first get married.

Together, we’ve made a good balance. She tends to lean towards the ‘lets save it’ side, and I still have one foot firmly planted in the ‘we’ve worked hard, let’s party’ side. We’re usually able to come to a good compromise, and we’ve saved quite a bit more than we’ve spent. That tells you who usually wins in our house.

The one thing she has really figured out to save us money on every day expenses is the art of using coupons for everything. Even simple things like getting new phone plans  - she used a verizon promo code to cut her phone bill in half and when my phone crapped out and I couldn’t really afford a new one she found me a straight talk promo code that let me get the cell phone I wanted with no money needed up front – smart lady!

I’m glad we’re saving. I’m much more comfortable having a cushion in the bank, and I know that if something does happen, we aren’t going to be left high and dry because we can’t pay for anything. On the other hand, it’s still important to enjoy the fruits of our labors. Failing to do so will result in a boring life, and I don’t want that either. Now that things have balanced out we can afford fun, but I’m glad we saved first. How do you balance saving and having fun – when are you comfortable using your savings for enjoyment? Do you ever feel remorse – like you should save your savings (yes, that was intended) for a rainy day?

Without the development of Angry Birds, it is hard to say where the mobile gaming market would be as a whole right now.  The company behind the game, Rovio, absolutely blew up  the market and became the first company to prove that mobile apps can truly move a lot of money and provide a great experience for the end user.  Too many apps were focused on too much functionality and pizzazz without actually concentrating on the quality of the application.  Angry Birds succeeded because it is an extremely well polished game with a rock solid foundation of game play dynamics to back it up.

Unlike a lot of the games out on mobile right now, Angry Birds actually has characters that are likable.  This is further proven by the fact that you can go to any mall in America and buy shirts with the eyes, beak and mouth of each particular type of bird.  Name another application that has its characters on shirts at most major malls.  I sure can’t.  The characters in a game are absolutely vital to the success of a game as a whole, and the quirky juxtaposition of the angry birds and the evil, dastardly pigs is just odd enough to spark attention in someone who is being introduced to the game for the first time.

Rovio has shown that they are not a one hit wonder by doing extremely smart things with the one piece of intellectual property that they do have.  They released free updates and bonus levels for those who had already bought the game, as well as a standalone holiday game series and they continue to release new episodes every six months or so.

With the release of each new episode they add some new little tweak to the game play to keep the entire game fresh, new and exciting for veteran players.  Everyone loves a puzzle but once they have solved it they get bored and Rovio knows this.  They have designed some clever gameplay tricks to keep people hooked on the Angry Birds world.

The first is the star rating system and scoring system for each level.  Depending on your score you can earn anywhere from one to three stars per level.  The higher the score, the higher the stars you earn.  While it essentially means nothing, people love to get hooked into these systems and will spend hours and hours just developing the perfect strategy to ace each level.

The next thing that they added was the golden egg.  They decided to hide golden eggs throughout the levels which, if unlocked, would let loose even more bonus content for their users.  Bonus content and hidden unlockables are staples of addictive gameplay and I have to say that Rovio did as good a job as any mobile app company I have ever seen at implementing these features.  They truly understand gameplay and thanks to them the world has yet another amazing game to enjoy with their friends and family.

Angry Birds

Botulism under the microscope

Botulism is a deadly disease, but thankfully one we are seeing less and less of due to our sophisticated medical care and overwhelmingly great knowledge of the human body. Regardless, it still claims the lives of five to ten percent of those who contract it, which is a sad reality that we must accept. The earlier you can identify that you may have botulism, the better your chances to successfully treat the disease and make a full recovery. The symptoms are very distinctive due to the rare nature of the disease.
Basically, botulism symptoms start out as signs of paralysis in the face. Drooping of the eyelids is considered one of the easiest symptoms to spot, but there are many others. Any loss of control in the mouth, both on the outside with problems moving the lips and the inside with any difficulty swallowing are both very typical bodily responses to botulism poisoning. As time goes on the disease will spread to the extremities causing full paralysis of the musculoskeletal system.
In the most severe cases of botulism, the muscles in the lungs will also shut down which causes a total respiratory failure. This symptom is the major cause of death among those inflicted, but only occurs if a lethal amount of the toxin is ingested or present in the body. The interesting thing about the symptoms is that while all of this is happening the person remains completely coherent and clear minded. No fever or any other kind of “classic” symptoms come into play with botulism. It is strictly the body’s reaction to a toxin that is invading and taking over the nervous system.
Infants are the group of people most affected by botulism, simply because the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and stomach have not propagated enough to stop any other kind of bacterial growth. Because of this the botulism bacteria is free to spread throughout an infant’s gastrointestinal tract and actually can become a much more severe case than many adults. There are around 90 cases of infant botulism every single year, but thankfully the mortality rate is rather low with infants due to their amazing ability to recover from many illnesses.
One of the primary ways that infants get botulism is through consumption of either honey or corn syrup, which is why doctors always recommend to never give it to a child under a year of age. It’s simply too big a risk to give them either of these substances and to be honest doesn’t do much good for them even if it was not infected. To mitigate the risk of botulism in adults, make sure you do not eat any preserved foods that smell bad, and you also throw out any cans that are past their expiration date or look overly damaged or distended. The gaseous buildup inside a can is a sign that the botulism bacteria has grown inside that particular can.

Yum... free trade coffee beans taste better

Sadly the lease ended sometime in the middle of summer and we knew we were going to have to split up and go our separate ways.  Some of us moved to the city, some to the country, but me? I stayed.  I did a quick search of apartments in the area and sign the documents for the first one I could find, even though I didn’t know the girl I would be living with.  Needless to say I didn’t get to keep any of the wonderful things about my old apartment, including the ocean view and the incredible Keurig coffee maker.

 
We have a simple one that brews 12 cups at a time that we bought for maybe $15. I miss that Keurig so much.  It just doesn’t make any sense to me why a two-person household (or really any size household, for that matter) would need 12 cups of coffee at one time.  No one drinks that much coffee, and if they do there is probably something physically wrong with them.

My roommate and I barely ever get up at the same time, so if I brew the coffee first she doesn’t get it for hours later, and by that time it is either cold or burnt– but always stale.  Let’s face it: coffee tastes best within the first few minutes that it is brewed.  Anything longer than that and you might as well not drink anything.  I can’t even count the number of times my roommate left the house earlier than me, and left the coffee maker on thinking I would grab a cup, only for me to come home from work hours later and smell burnt coffee throughout the house because I failed to check the kitchen that morning.  Trust me: it’s just as unpleasant a smell as it sounds like it would be.

 
The other thing I hate about having this cheaply-made coffee maker in our kitchen is that there aren’t very many varieties of coffee that I can buy at the supermarket.  One of my favorite things about the Keurig were the cheap K cups that came in a whole assortment of roasts, made with coffee beans from all over the world.  Not only were they super convenient in that I could make exactly the serving size I would need (and not eight times more than I needed), but the selection of flavor is amazing.  I can only find a few different brands available for purchase in the coffee aisle at my local grocery store, and I am tired of all of them.  Variety is the spice of life, and I am tired of drinking the same flavored coffee, day in and day out.  I want more!

Smart investing?

In order to improve, you first need to understand the fundamentals. Only then can you build a framework that can successfully take you from knowing a little and making a little money, to knowing a lot and making a LOT of money.
Believe me, the risk is high but the rewards are worth it. As they say, with higher risk comes higher reward. If you’re willing to play that game and are comfortable with a very high variance investment vehicle then I would urge you to get into penny stocks as soon as possible. There are very few places that you can put your money that can quadruple it overnight. In fact, unless you’re spending time at a casino (which is a complete waste of time), I don’t know of anything out there that can multiply your money as fast as investing in penny stocks.
So when you hear your friends boasting that they know someone killing it in penny stocks you should always approach the situation skeptically. However, you may as well ask to be put in touch with this person because they might be one of the few who puts their money where their mouth is and could teach you a fair bit about how the whole process works. Trust me, getting experience, advice and coaching from someone who actually knows what they are doing and has been through it all is invaluable as a beginner. It can speed up your learning curve significantly and let you dodge all of the simple beginner’s mistakes that almost everyone makes.
Penny stocks are also great because it’s quite easy to get started investing in them. You can take $50 and buy 10 shares of five different companies and be fairly well diversified while also risking almost no money at all. Don’t delay – every day you wait to check out penny stocks is a day you could have doubled your investment!

One of the most interesting periods of pregnancy is the second trimester.  This is the period from week thirteen to week twenty eight that can best be regarded as the most excitable and energetic time in a woman’s pregnancy.  Thankfully, by this time the dreaded morning sickness is starting to fade or has already evaporated.  The last thing that a mother (or anyone, for that matter) wants is to be throwing up every morning for three months.  It’s one of the worst parts about pregnancy, but fortunately it is front loaded and only lasts the first three months when you don’t have all of the added stress of a larger baby in your stomach.
The second trimester marks the period of most rapid growth for the baby within you.  It starts to identify its sex by growing the male or female genitalia, and takes on more of the look of a full grown baby.  You may even notice that in the middle of the 2nd trimester the baby will begin to kick or move around in your womb, which is exciting not only for the mother but for the father.  Fathers can sometimes feel like they are left on the sidelines after conception, because the ball is really in the mother’s court at that point.  It’s up to her to nurture and nourish the child.  That doesn’t mean that a father has no responsibility or input, though.  It is up to him to support and nourish his wife and especially to provide that emotional anchor for her.

During the second trimester a woman’s hormones are fluctuating in all different directions, so the man in the relationship must be there as that rock for her to hold on to if she is feeling out of touch or overwhelmed with the whole process.
It is truly a wonderful thing to experience the joy of pregnancy, and there are a lot of things to know if you’re going to look at pregnancy week by week.  The best advice is to take it slow and remember to breathe – you’ll be just fine as long as you are a responsible and loving mother.