Archive for May, 2008
Ever since I got divorced and have custody of my children on the weekends, I cook a lot more often. Although I consider myself a fairly decent cook, being that I worked as a cook at a restaurant for several years while going through college. But never knew how took cook healthy dishes. Until I found this great website full of heathly recipes and tips. It is called EatingWell.com. It has recipes in several categories such as “Serves Two”, “Cooking for Kids” and “Healthy in a Hurry”, just to name a few. There are videos titled “Healthy in a Minute”, giving you healthy tips. Other sections are titled “Diet”, “Eat & Drink”, “News & Views” and even a shopping area to purchase cookbooks and other products, as well as coupons to help while your shopping at the market. There is a wealth of information that anyone can use. My favorite dish is the Blackened Salmon Sandwich.
Here is a picture, boy am I getting hungry just looking at it: 
I would like to ask business owners (large or small), how they go about asking/polling their customers/clients to know how your service &/or product is performing? Many companies mail surveys asking customers to mail them back, which can be a hassle. Plus it can be expensive to your business as well, with the printed surveys and postage. I came across a fairly cost efficient method for polling your clients. It is called MonkeySurvey.com. It is web-based and your able to alter the templates to fit your business. Clients can easily maneuver through the web-based survey/poll. You then log into the website and download the responses and use them to better improve your service/product. There are three pricing plans that fit all businesses, large or small. If you’re interested, here is a link to their pricing plans, click here.
Most people don’t have a clue what crimes occur near their homes. Maybe because they are too busy or don’t even care to know. I maybe both, but I came across a cool site that lists all crimes that have occurred in all major cities of the U.S. It is called SpotCrime.com. It claims to be “the most comprehensive online source of crime information.” Apparently it gathers all the information from police records and news reports. It then places icons where they occurred on Google maps. Some major cities are very frightening to see all the crimes. You can hardly see the map with all the crime icons all over the place. One thing to keep in mind however, is that these are crimes that have already occurred, not crimes that are happening at the moment. So it may be useful for people who are moving into and want to see the crimes that have happened in that area. But it is still nice to see what spots near your home are crime-infested and to stay away from. Check it out.
As we’re in the mist of a very difficult economic year (trying to avoid the R word), inflation is affecting us all. Not only in gas for our automobiles, but energy cost overall are increasing. I just had a discussion with family members about trying to control the ever increasing home utility costs. I then came across this great website called WhiteFence.com. It allows you to bundle all/most home utilities, including home phone, cellular phone, TV services, internet and utilities. You can do it from home or phone, by calling in. There are links that allow you to compare bundles, if you are moving, or if you are simply trying to lower your expenses. Great site! If anyone would like to check it out, click WhiteFence.
I recently read a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), claiming that 3-4% of adults world wide have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). On average, these adults miss about 3-weeks of work a year. Apparently this condition causes lack of concentration at work, due to the hyperactivity, plus impulsiveness and forgetfulness. The worse part of this condition is that most adults don’t even know they have a problem. I find that amazing! Did these adults all of a sudden get this condition? I doubt it, they must have lived with it all or most of their lives. If these adults were diagnosed with this disorder at a young age, did they think they were going to grow out of it? If anyone is interested in reading more about ADHD and the workplace, visit the U.S. National Resource Center on ADHD.
There have been three shark attacks on the coast of Zihuatanejo, Mexico in less than a month. This is a rare occurrence in this area. Out of the three attacks, only one survived. Fatal shark attacks are rare throughout the world, occurring on average about 4 deaths a year. This year there have been only one other known shark attack fatality, outside of Mexico. In April, a surfer was killed off Solana Beach, CA. So these shark attacks have baffled local experts. It has also hurt local merchants as well, by diminishing local tourism. There really isn’t anything anyone can do besides not get in the water, which is the hugest attraction in the area.
The Los Angeles Lakers took commanding lead against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs tonight. They won game four in SA by a score of 93-91, taking a 3-1 advantage in the Western Conference Finals. Although the Spurs are a veteran team and can come back from this deficit, it will be very difficult winning game five in Los Angeles on Thursday (5/29). Lakers only need to win one game out of the next three, and two of them are in LA.
In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics are all tied at 2-2 with the Detroit Pistons. Game five is scheduled to be played in Boston tomorrow (5/28). The winner of that game is most likely going into the NBA Finals. The Pistons have been there before and are the veteran team. Although the Celtics have many veterans on their team, this is their first year playing together. Should be a great game.
But the most exciting NBA Fianls series, would be between the Lakers and Celtics. They are both the #1 team in their respective conferences. They both have a rich history of winning NBA titles, Celtics leading with 16 titles (11 in 13 years) and the Lakers are second with 14 (5 in Minnesota & 9 in LA). That would be a great and exciting NBA Finals.
I read a very disturbing article regarding how lead exposure in children can lead to criminal behavior in young adulthood. This is a frightening association, considering children are still being exposed to lead in older buildings, especially in poor, inner-city neighborhoods, to this day. I know there have been banns of lead in paint (1978), solder (1986) and gasoline (1996), but kids from those generations are adults now. The study in this article showed that the lead level of a large population in their 20’s & 30’s are extremely high (neurotoxic range). Can they all become criminals at some point? There already have been links to childhood exposure with anti-social behaviors, attention deficits, lower IQ, weak executive control functions and hyperactivity, which according to this article, all are risk factors to delinquent behavior. Although the numbers have decreased of childhood exposure to lead, nothing can be done fast enough to eliminate it completely.
According to an article I just read, people with heart disease do not know the signs/symptoms of a heart attack. But they are about 5-7 times more likely to suffer a heart attack then someone without any heart issues or history. This seems odd to me. I mean if someone had heart issues, wouldn’t you want to know the symptoms of a heart attack, so you can be better prepared. But the symptoms can be anything from nausea to pain in the chest, jaw & left arm. I knew about the pain in chest and left arm, but jaw or even nausea? I had no idea. According to the research team in this article, they claim that the shorter hospital stays and move to outpatient treatment may have reduced the education on the subject to the patients. I guess because it is easier to tend to these heart attacks now, little education is provided. But the education will help these patients get to the hospital sooner. Apparently, patients are taking between 2 1/2-3 hours to get to the hospital, because they do not recognize the symptoms soon enough. But only education will help patients get to the hospital sooner, which will increase the patient’s chances of surviving the heart attack.
The USA Soccer team is playing England on Wednesday (5/28) at 1200 EST on ESPN Classic. Usually this should be an easy game for England; they are 6-2 against the US and last lost to them in 1993. But U.S. has come a long way in soccer. They are now a respected soccer team. This game includes LA Galaxy teammates, Brandon Donovan (U.S.) and David Beckham (England), who represent more than half the offense of the Galaxy this season. It will be a milestone game for Donovan, which will be his 100th National-Team appearance. Beckham (33-yrs old) just surpassed that milestone in March, playing against France. But Donovan will be the 4th youngest player to accomplish that feat at the young age of 26. U.S. have become a force to reckon with in National soccer competition. Hopefully they can prove that against England.
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