As we get older, life seems to go faster and faster. It seems there are not enough hours in a day to get everything done. So we tend to utilize sleeping hours to catch up. People tend to stay up a couple hours later or wake up a couple hours earlier, thinking that is the only way to be productive. In fact, less sleep actually reduces productivity and exposes us to risks. Aside from healthy people voluntarily restricting sleep, there are over 40 million people who struggle with some sort of sleeping disorder each year. On average, Americans sleep about 6.9 hours on weekdays and 7.5 hours on weekends, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Experts recommend seven to eight hours of sleep each night. In the short term, lack of sleep can affect our day-to-day performance of tasks. It can be as simple as a bad decision, miss something or even at a moment’s inattention, we don’t break in time and rear end another driver. But long term affects, can involve your health. Doctors have linked lack of sleep to weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, depression and substance abuse.
Avoid exercising closer than five or six hours before bedtime.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol before bed.
Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
Don’t take naps after 3 p.m.
Relax before bed, taking time to unwind with a hot bath, a good book or soothing music.
If you’re still awake after more than 20 minutes in bed, get up and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy. Anxiety over not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.
I am one that enjoys my sleep and prides myself on sleeping 8-hours a night. Although it cannot be done every night, due to many reasons, I still try. But I do notice when I do not get the 8 hours of sleep a night for an extended period of time, I do have difficulty getting back into my sleeping routine. I know for a fact that my sleep is a necessity and not a luxury.
I was amazed when I heard about this young activist, Severn Cullis-Suzuki from Canada. At age 9, she started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), made up of a small group of children committed to teaching other kids about the ongoing environmental crisis. In 1992, Severn (at 12-yrs old) and this organization raised enough money to fund her trip to the Premier Earth Summit in Brazil. After reading her speech at this Summit, I had to share it with everyone. Amazing that this is coming from a 12-year old. Here is her speech:
“Hello, I am Severn Suzuki speaking for ECO the environmental children’s organization. We are a group of 12- and 13-year-olds trying to make a difference. Venessa Suthie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and I. We have raised all the money to come here ourselves, to come 5000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways.
Coming up here today I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in our ozone; I am afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it. I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home, with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear of animals and plants going extinct, every day, vanishing forever. In my life I have dreamt of seeing a great herd of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry of these things when you were my age? All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want — and all the solutions. I am only a child and I don’t have all the solutions. But I want you to realize, neither do you! You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer; you don’t know how to bring a salmon back up a dead stream; you don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct; and you can’t bring back the forests that once grew — and where there is now a desert. If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it.
Here, you may be delegates of your government, business people, organizers, reporters, or politicians. But really you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and all of you are somebody’s child. I am only a child, yet I know that we are all part of a family, five billion-strong. In fact, thirty million species-strong, and voters and government will never change that. I am only a child yet I know that we are all in this together and should act as one single world toward one single goal.
In my anger I am not blind, and in my fear I am not afraid of telling the world how I feel. In my country we make so much waste, we buy and throw away… buy and throw away… buy and throw away… and yet northern countries will not share with the needy, even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. In Canada, we live the privileged life. We have plenty of food, water and shelter. We have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets… the list could go on for two days.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent time with some children living on the streets. This is what one child told us: “I wish I was rich. And if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection”. If a child on the street who has nothing is willing to share, why are we, who have everything, still so greedy?
I can’t stop thinking that these are children my own age and that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born. I can’t stop thinking that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio… I could be a child starving in Somalia… or a victim of war in the Middle East…or a beggar in India. I am only a child and yet I know that if all the money that was spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers and ending poverty… what a wonderful place this would be. At school, even in kindergarten you teach us how to behave in the world. You teach us to not to fight others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share and not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you are attending these conferences, and who you are doing this for! We are your own children. You are deciding what kind of a world we are growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying ‘everything is going to be alright, it is not the end of the world, and we are doing the best we can’. But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My dad always says, you are what you do, not what you say. Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you…”
Now over 15-years later, it appears her strong words fell on deaf ears. So now that “Green” is the popular term now-a-days, I wanted to share her words some 15 years ago. Please help spread her words and revive her plea. I have also attached a video of her speech for those who would rather feel the impact of her speech.
JetBlue Airways has been known to be a low-cost carrier, but that doesn’t mean they do not offer sky-high leisure. Its flights have offered satellite radio and DirecTV programming. So it shouldn’t surprise many that they are beefing up their WiFi program on select flights (still in beta) to widen the list of email access providers. Originally they only allowed access to the email servers to Yahoo and Research in Motion’sBlackberry. This beta testing will now allow Google, Microsoft and AOL email platforms. This service will apparently be offered for free, although with the high cost of fuel, they will most likely offer greater connectivity for a service fee at some point. I am sure they will not offer the entire Internet on their flights, avoiding content that may be offensive to others, but am sure they will continue adding more approved sites. They may be able to add e-commerce sites on flights that can add commissionable sales and ad revenue. It is nice to see JetBlue continue to be the front-runner of providing new technology for the passengers to better enjoy their low-cost flights.
KidZui is a web browser designed for kids ages 3-12. The best part of this Internet for kids is that it is now free to everyone, effective today. This browser will have access to over 600,000 kid-friendly websites, including pictures and videos, all reviewed by “trained parents and teachers”. I have downloaded the browser and it is user friendly. I now have something I can allow my kids (ages 9 & 7) to browse the Internet knowing they will not come across inappropriate content. I mean my daughter (9) already uses the Internet to do research for her reports and I am constantly looking over her shoulder on her searches to see if there are any inappropriate results. At last I can have peace of mind while she does research for her reports. I hardly ever allow my son (7) to do searches on-line. He only usually plays video games on-line. But soon he will have his own reports to do as well and now I have a safe browser he can use.
The best part of KidZui as a parent is that I also can create an account, that allows me to see what my children are searching for and looking at on-line. I can also become a member for a small fee ($4.95/month or $49.95) that will enhance my emails and on-line reports, plus gives me the ability to add or remove websites, videos and pictures. Not sure if that is something I would like, but parents have that option. This membership also enhances the children’s experience as well, allowing them to personalize their KidZui experience. You can read the Press Release for more information.
Time Warner is testing Internet metering in Beaumont, TX. What is Internet metering, you may ask? Well they are testing capping the amount of data users are allowed to upload & download on a monthly basis. Apparently there will be several tiers, from a base of $29.95/month at a download rate of 768 kilobits per second (kbps) and a cap of 5-gigabits (GBs) per month to a $59.95/monthly service at a 15-GBps rate with a cap of 40-GB’s per month, the former being a fairly slow service with the ladder being a very fast service. But here is the catch, once a user passes the cap per month; they will be charged $1/GB. Sound familiar? Similar to how cells phones use to do with minute usage. How many of us had a huge cell phone monthly bill because we passed the allotted minutes used that month.
But it is difficult to make that correlation, because 1GB sounds like a lot of data. Let me put it to you this way. Streaming video on-line is becoming the norm now-a-days with Apple TV and the new Netflix Roku box, to name a few. But a typical movie downloaded, takes about 6-MG’s of data. So in the base tier, you couldn’t download a movie on-line without going over your cap of 5-GB’s. And this does not include the web pages you surf on-line, emails you send & receive, bills you pay on-line, etc. Can you see how easily a user can surpass the cap and start getting charged $1/GB, on top of the monthly fee of $29.95 (for lowest tier). Downloading video on-line is the future of the Internet and it appears Time Warner is preparing themselves to reap the benefits of that demand. Who knows when others will follow suite with this metered Internet. Only time will tell.
As a proud parent of two healthy and active kids, I like treating them with their favorite treat…..ice cream. But I know they are full of fat and sugar, and not good for them. But I have found a great alternative called Skinny Cow. I have to admit, I have a weakness for Carnation Ice Cream Sandwiches myself, but the Skinny Cow sandwiches are also great and not bad in calories (140) with only 4 grams of fat. But the Skinny Dippers bars have only 80 calories and 3 grams of fat. The best part is that my kids don’t even notice the difference. They chow down on them like all the other ice creams, plus they are healthy. I recommend Skinny Cow products for any adult with a sweet tooth, check out all of their products, which include their nutritional information.
Has anyone seen this Genesis from Hyundai? The 2009 Genesis is due to hit the market in July. According to Consumer Reports, it will be a strong competitor to the Mercedes E-Class, Infiniti M, and Lexus GS. Could that be possible? This is a Hyundai isn’t it? I recall when Hyundai first came out, actually, my ex-wife & I owned one. The big sales pitch was the “no-hassle” deals on their prices back then. But they sure have come a long way. The Genesis’ main competitors will be the Lexus GS, Chrysler 300 and Cadillac CTS, but several thousand dollars cheaper. From all the photos, the car looks very sharp. There will be three powetrains: 3.3 Liter V6 (est. base price: $30k), 3.8 Liter V6 (est. base price: $33k) & the 4.6 Liter V8 (est. base price: $38k). They are supposed to process estimated 268 horsepower, 280 horsepower and a powerful 368 horsepower, respectfully. They will all have Luxury features similar to the luxury sedans. Amazing how far Hyundai has come and this Luxury Sedan will surely make some heads turn while driving on the streets.
Last night CBS aired the first ever prime time Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight from the Elite Extreme Combat league on a major network. I saw it, but the quality of fights were not of a high level. Kimbo Splice was the main attraction of the night, with it being his fourth professional fight.
The elite and most popular league is Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), with World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC)a close second. Tonight WEC will air a live fight on Versus network. It will be highlighted by a Championship fight between Featherweight (145-lbs) Champion Urijah Faber (20-1) against former UFC Lightweight (155-lbs) Champion Jens Pulver (22-8-1). This will be a heck of a fight, matching probably two of the best fighters in that weight class from all MMA leagues. This fight alone will top any of the CBS’ Elite Extreme Combat fights last night. Plus there will be a Bantamweight (133-lbs) Championship fight between Champion Miguel Angel Torres (33-1) against Yoshiro Maeda (22-4-2). Torres is a stud, although I really haven’t seen Maeda fight, this should be a good fight to watch.
UFC is known to match up quality fights in order to win a bigger fan base. The problem is that UFC almost always shows these fights on Pay-Per-View at about $50 a pop. They do have The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, that has gained the most exposure, and the last episode is a live telecast of the two last fighters trying to become The Ultimate Fighter. WEC is taking a different approach of showing their fights live on Versus. It is a cable channel on a higher tier then basic cable, but at least they are not charging by fight. Although UFC is probably the most popular league for the elite MMA fighters, WEC is catching up in a hurry. Tonight’s fights will show exactly how good the fighters are in this league.
As I get up there in age, I’ve noticed that living healthy becomes a bigger priority in my life. I recall being able to eat anything I wanted and still maintained my weight with little effort. My metabolism was high and I was very active with all sorts of sports. Now I find little time to exercise and need to focus more on looking for ways to live a healthy life. I came across a website forum with a wealth of healthy tidbits and information. There are all sorts of topics from comparing fruit to fruit juice (which is healthier & why), how metabolism works, the wonders of garlic, protein shakes, explaining Carbohydrates, Fiber, etc. The forum also includes some recipes and what I enjoyed the most are the inspirational messages. These quotes and such are so true and hit home, at least for me. If anyone is trying to live a healthier life, I recommend this website forum.
0 Comments 
