Monthly Archives: February 2012

So What Has Happened on Leap Years Past?

Well, quite a few interesting things, actually:

1288 – Scotland’s Queen Margaret declared that a woman had the right to pop the question to any man she wished and if rebuffed, the man would be forced to pay a fine to the fair lady.

1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies.

1704 – Queen Anne’s War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.

A YouTube video which features a frail 90 year old woman busting a move to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” has gone viral, reaching over 800,000 views since Feb 12th. The video is a tribute to singer Whitney Houston who recently passed away.

Houston, a legendary pop diva, was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room on Feb 11th of unknown causes. She was one of the best-selling music artists in the world, and has sold over 170 million albums to date.

Perhaps you have a long commute on the bus, train or subway to where you work, or maybe you are planning a long journey to visit friends or family. Whatever the reason, there are times in your life where you will be stuck in transit and bored for a while.

Rather than sitting there staring out the window or trying to avoid eye contact with strangers, there are many things that you can do with your time.

Some people love taking the bus to work and to the university, because it is a time for to be relaxed and contemplative.

So you have signed up for a gym membership, bought yourself some new running shoes, and you are ready to get in shape.

Here are some tips that will help you get the most out of each visit to the gym and will have you seeing results much quicker:

Fuel Up

Your body is like an engine, it needs fuel in order to perform to full capacity. If you do to the gym on an empty stomach you will become tired and hungry quicker and you will not be able to push yourself to your full potential.

Before going to the gym, you should eat a small meal with workout-friendly foods such as whole grains, fruit, and protein.

Has your desk become a cluttered ruin filled with half-empty coffee mugs, teetering stacks of books, dusty piles of paper, and crumbs from your breakfast bagel?

Does your working environment make you feel refreshed, energized, and inspired or do you feel cramped, tired and overwhelmed?

Did you know that by changing the features of your working environment you can actually help yourself focus better, work more efficiently, and be more creative?

Whether you work at home or at an office, there are many ways that you can improve your desk space so that you can work to your maximum potential.

Every office has at least one; the person who makes you want to curl up under your desk and cry, or beat them senseless with a stapler.

You can’t choose your co-workers, and sometimes it can be incredibly frustrating to work in an environment with someone like this.

When they don’t deliver work when promised, refuse to collaborate, and fail to listen to feedback they make your job difficult and increase the stress level for everyone else.

Do you find that after a few weeks of going to the gym at the same time and doing the exact same exercises you become bored?

If your workout gets in a rut, you can feel unmotivated to go to the gym and this can get in the way of accomplishing your fitness goals.

Also, if you always do the same exercise each time you work out, you won’t enjoy the benefit of strengthening all of your muscles. Just sticking to one exercise routine is not the best way to achieve overall fitness and better health.

So what can you do to keep your fitness routine varied and interesting and keep yourself motivated?

Here are some tips:

I’m sure you’ve experienced excellent customer service before, and know how good it feels.

Whether you called up to complain about a faulty product and hung up the phone smiling, or had a sales person help you find the perfect laptop for your needs at a great price, you know that good customer services makes you feel listened to and valued and solves your problems.

Did you know that there are things that you can do to ensure that you get good customer service like this almost all of the time? There are ways that you can “help people help you” with your questions, quandaries and problems which will make them treat you better.

No matter how much or how little you’re paid, you’ll never get ahead if you spend more than you earn.

This little piece of wisdom is incredibly common sense when you think about it, yet with so many Americans in debt it’s clear that not everyone follows it in practice.

Living within your means is one of the best ways that you can save your money and set yourself up for financial freedom and prosperity.

Living within your means is very simple, it means that you are spending less money than you are making.

Every so often you will be on an internet forum, sitting around the dinner table, or at a cocktail party, and someone else will utter an observation or an opinion which will be so completely misguided and wrong that it will make you want to smash your head against the table and weep for the future of humanity.