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Save Polar Bear Tote Bag

Warning: She’s stepping up on her soap box and she has painted it green.

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration recently added the polar bear to the “threatened” species list, agreeing with conservationalists that the bear’s Arctic habitat is melting because of global warming.

Global Warming, “living green,” Conservation, Animal Protection, Saving the Planet, and even the proverbial phrase tree hugging shouldn’t be thought of as just political issues. They’re far deeper than that - they’re human issues, they hit all of us where we live.

As with everything in life, when it comes to issues such as these, we are either part of the solution or we’re part of the problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s a personal issue such as weight, procrastination, temper, hypertension, etc. or a global issue such. We always have a choice: We can either stand up and do what we can to make the situation better or we can sit down and hope it takes care of itself.

When we stand up, we’ve chosen to become part of the solution. When we sit down, we’ve chosen to become part of the problem.

While it’s a sobering thought, one day, our children will have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  I desperately want these children to grow up in the beautifully green and blue world that I’ve always loved so much. I want them to see, firsthand, how amazing all of God’s animals are. I don’t want them to have to just read about Polar Bears, Bison, Whales, Sea Turtles, Bats, Sea Otters, Dolphins, Elephants, Snowy Owls, Woodpeckers, etc. 

Sometimes we all tend to live in our own personal little space.  I think it’s time for us to throw open our doors and windows and see what we can do to make the world a better place for us as well as future generations. 

• We should make places on our blogs and/or websites for buttons and links to support the Red Cross, the WWF,  WorldVision - to name just a few. 
• We should donate money to these causes and encourage others to do the same.
• We should support agencies seeking cures and better lives for victims of cancer, autism, alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, etc. 
• We should let our political leaders know how we feel.
• We should educate ourselves and always know what’s going on in the world around us.  Being an ostrich with its head in the sand doesn’t accomplish anything.

We know what we should do, now it’s time to see what we will do. 

If not us - who? 

Also Read:
U.S. adds polar bear to threatened list
Senate poised to take up sweeping global warming bill

Every now and again, there are so many things buzzing around my head that I want to post about that I just have to corral them all together in one place.  That would be now. 

Each of the links I’m posting will open in a new window, so you won’t lose the rest.

First of all, I’ve been reading a great deal lately about blood pressure and heart health.  My mom died from heart problems, and a much, much beloved uncle has problems with his heart as well.  High blood pressure  runs in both my husband’s family as well as my own, so I’ve been doing my homework in an effort to compile information that’ll keep both of us, as well as our three daughters, healthy.

The American Heart Association is a great place to start your own research, but don’t limit your education to just one “instructor”.  Collect as much information as possible - you’ll see a trend develop.  If everyone says something is extremely harmful (smoking, salt, being overweight, inactivity….) - get rid of it.  If everyone says something is extremely helpful (activity, losing weight, bananas, orange juice, fruit, vegetables, salmon, tuna…), welcome it into your world.

In all of the countless articles, books, interviews, and magazines I’ve read on Blood Pressure, do you know what enemy number one seems to be?  Before researching, I would have thought caffeine…. maybe stress… possibly red meat.  I would have been totally wrong.  Salt is the culprit that every expert I read mentioned first.  When asked what people could do to lower high blood pressure or maintain a healthy blood pressure, the experts all agree that cutting WAY back on salt is one of our smartest moves.

And it seems so harmless!

I got to thinking about my family’s own diet and my salty jaw hit the floor.  My biggest culprit is diet soda.  I honestly worry that Diet Dr. Pepper may have trouble staying in business now that I’ve switched to tea.  My daughters’ number one problem would be things like chips and fries.  When you’re so young, you just don’t think about things like blood pressure and sodium.  Big mistake.

The experts agree that adding potassium (white baked potatoes, bananas, orange juice…) to your diet is a great move to make as well.  Needless to say, increasing our activity is another smart thing to do for our heart’s health.

Regardless of the state of our blood pressure or heart health, losing extra weight is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves, our health, and our loved ones.  We’re all familiar with the campaigns that urged smokers to quit, “If not for yourself, for your loved ones…“  Very effective, very true.  However, it’s just as important to take care of ourselves in other areas.  If we want to be around (and be healthy while we are around) for a long time with, and for, our loved ones - we have to get serious about what we eat, what we drink, what we don’t eat, what we don’t drink, how much rest we get, how much we exercise, and how we live our lives.

No food, no drink…NOTHING… is as important as a quality life with those we love.

Of course, what I learned about stress in relation to blood pressure and heart problems was pretty expected.  We MUST do everything we can to remove as much stress as possible.  At the risk of sounding like a drama queen, our lives depend on it.

We should first identify what stresses us out, then make moves to cope with it.  If we feel overwhelmed or overworked, we should cut back asap.  Life is to be enjoyed, after all.  So many people lose sight of that.  They get so caught up in the rat race that they fail to realize that they’re a racing rodent until life has breezed right past them and their left worn out and spent.

Not a pretty image.

In that vein, I’d like you to check out: Relax:50+ Simple 30-Second Ways to Bring Tranquility To Your Life - it’s a wonderful compilation of things you can do to bring more relaxation to our days.  If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will.  This is an amazing list and, I promise, you’ll get a lot from it.

A few more heart-y links:

• Heart Insight.com 
• Lowering Your Blood Pressure with DASH (PDF)
• Power for Healthy Living with Al Sears, MD

My motto: 

Laugh as often as possible, Live out loud, and Love everything and everyone around you - including yourself.

For the most part, on my blogs and websites, I pretty much keep my political views to myself.  I don’t hesitate to give my opinion on certain subjects.  For example, I think the war on terrorism had to be waged, but I think it’s time to bring our men and women home.  And I’m all for hugging trees but not at the expense of human beings.  I’m more interested in programs and institutions that better the lives of people than I am those that better the lives of plants.

However, I personally don’t feel the need to announce the candidate I’m supporting.  As someone who is all about people making their own decisions in life and pioneering their own paths, I wouldn’t want to try to influence anyone with my own choice.  It’s my hope that everyone reads everything they can about each candidate.  Each individual is intelligent, compassionate, and has a lot to offer to their country.  I believe each would do us proud.

I think each one takes a lot of needless heat for issues that, on the grand scale, simply aren’t that important.  One of my pet peeves is when John McCain (born on August 29, 1936) is accused of being “too old.”   Do his critics think he’ll be called on to literally run a race?

Irregardless of the side of the political fence we’re on, we have to see the ridiculousness of suggesting that someone is too experienced for any position or job.

Take, for example the following ageless marvels:

• Helen Mirren not only won the Academy Award while in her early 60’s (for her amazing performance in The Queen), she had people all over the world using the word “hot” and they weren’t just referring to her career!
• Mark Twain wrote “Eve’s Diary” and “The $30,000 Bequest” at the age of 71.
• Corrie ten Boom traveled the world with her missionary work in her 80s’.
• Jack LaLanne, at 70, towed seventy boats containing 70 people for a mile across Long Beach Harbor….with a rope in his teeth….while handcuffed…and wearing shackles on his legs.
• Goethe finished “Faust” in his early 80’s.
• Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States at age 69.
• Winston Churchill initiated his protest against Hitler as Prime Minister at the age of 65.  He returned to the House of Commons as a member of Parliament at 80.
• The famous preacher, John Wesley, traveled an average of 20 miles a day for 40 years.  He preached 4,000 sermons and produced 400 books.  At 83 he was actually “annoyed” that he could not write for more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes.  At 86, he got impatient with himself because he couldn’t preach more than twice a day.  But, best of all, he complained in his diary during this time that there was an “increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning.”!

I’m just against imposing limits on anyone.  When we do so, we impose them on ourselves, as well.  Age is one of those things- along with money, time, education, etc - that people use to limit what they think other people can or will do.  Thankfully, men and women who refuse to be limited just keep proving them wrong over and over again.  The examples above are just a precious few, can you imagine how many more there actually are? 

Get this:  According to “Speaker’s Sourcebook II” (where many of the facts, above, came from), researchers studied the lives of 400 famous people.  They found that 35 percent of the group’s achievements came when they were between the ages of 60 and 70.  23 percent when they were between 70 and 80, and 8 percent when they were over 80.  As the author, Glenn Van Ekeren, concluded - ”The world’s greatest work has been achieved by people over 60.”

That’s great news for all of us.  For those who are 60 or above, you know you’re in the zone!  For the rest of us, we know our best is still ahead. 

Growing old is not upsetting; being perceived as old is. - Kenny Rogers

To age with dignity and with courage cuts close to what it is to be a man. - Roger Kahn

You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing. - Michael Pritchard

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was? - Satchel Paige

And my favorite:  Live your life and forget your age! - Norman Vincent Peale

I actually have three things I want to share with you today, things that I think will help you help yourself (Self Help Daily’s favorite scenario).  I’m going to put them all in one post rather than three separate ones… So here we go!

GREATER GOOGLING

My daughters kid me about being the Queen of Google.  Whenever we need to find anything out, my first response is, “I’ll Google it.”  And then I do…  I find what we need, too - as in every time.  I kick some serious search engine butt when it comes to knowing when to add a + sign along with quotation marks and knowing what search terms to use.  Spending your working hours in front of the computer screen has its benefits.

However, and this pains me somewhat to say it, I recently read a post by Jim Edwards that pointed out a few things I didn’t know.  Imagine!  The link is below and it’s a wealth of information for anyone who…. well, for anyone!  We all need information, and usually on a daily basis.  Jim’s post will show you how to make sure you get all of the information you need.

Improve Search Engine Results - 5 Easy Tips

YouTube and YOU!

Another amazing source of information is YouTube. It’s not just music videos and Dane Cook (though I highly recommend each! ).  Wordpress recently came out with a slick new  version - 2.5.  I have 13 of my own blogs and maintain 5 more, so I had a lot of updating to do (which explains why there haven’t been as many posts lately).  Problem was, I had no idea how to go about it or, really, if I even should try. 

Option #1 - I GOOGLED, of course.  There were countless forum and blog postings by experts and geniuses.  But all of the blah blah blahs were flying over my head and the yadda yadda yaddas were giving my headache a headache.  So I thought, “Hmmmm… I wonder if anyone has put up a YouTube tutorial…”  Eu-freakin-reka!  I searched “Wordpress 2.5″ and it produces over 40 results.  There are probably even more now.

If you haven’t upgraded, you should look into it - either by using the Automatic Upgrade Plugin or manually, the old school way.  Some of the blogs I upgraded worked with the Plugin, others had to be led through it step by step.  Neither process killed me, thanks to a great little plugin and to the professors of YouTube.

It made me wonder how many other “classes” were available at the University of YouTube.  I searched for random “How To’s” - some of which I already knew full well how to do (anything related to baking or gardening), others I had no clue about (how to save money on anything), and some I have no intention of ever doing (manual, sweaty stuff… Oh, and saving money on anything.  Sorry, honey.)  Below are just some of the tutorials available - and each has more than one.

• How to Knead Bread
• How to Change a Tire
• How to Save Money at the Grocery Store
• How to Grow Tomatoes
• Organic Gardening
• How to Prune Rose Bushes
• How to Plant Tulips
• How to Clean Your Gutters
• How to Change Your Oil
• How to Make a Million Dollars
• How to Make Fudge
• How to Build a Computer
• How to Build Golf Clubs
• How to Play Golf (over 3,700 results)
• How to Be a Better Husband (about 750 results)
• How to Play the Piano
• How to Play the Guitar
• How to Get into College
• How to Decorate a Cake 

Great stuff!

A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA

Last, but certainly not least:  This is for those of you who blog. My husband recently found (and purchased) some amazing blog themes - The Revolution WordPress Themes Package. He bought the package because we have so many blogs and wanted to use the theme on more than one.  However, the gorgeous themes are also available individually, since most people have only one blog.   

These themes are positively stunning.  You can customize them to the ends of the earth and back.  I’ve already redone three of my own blogs using various Revolution themes, and plan to do at least one more.  I’ve linked to mine below - I redid the colors on a few (simply to “match” the attitude of the blog) and created banners for the top.  Thankfully, the themes are so easy to customize you could change the looks as often as you want.  They’re also beautiful, as they are,  so you don’t actually have to do anything AT ALL in the way of changing the colors, etc.

I’ve used the following themes on the following blogs:

I have the Revolution Magazine Theme on my Kentucky Blog, and Music Blog.  I might use this theme on my Hollywood Yesterday blog as well.  I think the featured video will be perfect, and come on, the thumbnails are crazy cool!

I put the Tech Theme on our Gadget site, All Handhelds.  I wanted it to look like a cross between a website and a blog - kind of a website that happens to function like a blog.  A revolutionary idea that the Revolution Theme plays along with brilliantly.

I know I’ve given you a lot to chew on in this post - hindsight says screams, “You should have made this three posts, not one!”  The links open in new windows, though, so at least you can go check things out and then come back.  You know my door’s always open and the coffee’s always on.

With all due respect to my boy Kermit, it is, in fact, very easy to be green.  “Living Green” is simply a matter of choice.  If we CHOOSE to do our part to save the planet, we will CHOOSE to make positive decisions.  Every decision we make, after all, affects the world we live in for the better or for the worse.

Living green is what responsible, caring, and giving people do.  Fortunately, it doesn’t hurt and can, actually be pretty fun.  Below are some ways to add more green to your life and, in turn, add more green to our beautiful earth.

1. Reduce the number of “Packages” you buy.  When possible, buy bulk (think Sam’s Club).  This also is a sound decision financially - it’ll save you some green while you live green. 
2. Be informed.  Frequently check out websites such as Conservation International.  CI will keep you informed on the effects your lifestyle has on our environment. 
3. When we were first married, my husband was in the Air Force and money was about as tight as it could get.  I bought a book (yard sale!) about saving money/spending less.  It had a quote that jumped off the page at me and has stayed with me since.  While I’ve always used it in regards to spending/not spending, it also carries a lot of weight when it comes to living green.  Use it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do.  Or do without. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the book (we’re talking YEARS ago!), let alone the name of the author, but the little verse is a great one.  One of the most important things we can do is to consume less. 
4. Choose products (printer paper, canvas totes for groceries, clothes) that are made of recycled material or can be reused or recycled.   Little changes add up.
5. Give your business to companies that have proven to be eco-conscious.  A few that I know of, off hand are Office Depot, McDonald’s, and Starbucks.  (I’ll add to this list as I find more.)
6. Another change I’ve personally implemented - Use glass plates, glasses and cloth napkins, even when the temptation for paper or plastic is at an all-time high.  We have a large family, so I know how tempting it is to grab plastic cups, paper towels and plates, but it’s another of those small changes that pile up, and I’d rather pile up small changes than trash our planet has to find something to do with.
7. Reduce toxicity by reusing your batteries and use batteries with reduced mercury.
8. Find fun, creative uses for old products before throwing them out.  Be sure to get every possible use from everything you have!  Old table? Dress it with a table cloth and a gorgeous plant and give it a new lease on life. 
9. Buy furniture, toys, clothes, etc that’ll hold up and stand the test of time.
10. When planting trees, flowers, herbs, and shrubs in your yard - keep in mind that all living things (from  bees and butterflies to frogs and birds) contribute to a healthy environment.  Each has a role they play and a purpose they serve.
11. Buy food that in no way harms threatened species or habitats.  Remember: Clearing forest for agriculture is one of the leading causes of global deforestation and habitat destruction. (Conservation International.org) 
12. Buy your produce as locally as possible.  Not only is it just a great idea to support your own community, when you buy locally, less fuel is used to deliver the produce.
13. Make living green a topic of conversation.  Discuss it with everyone you know.  After all, the more people who are doing their part, the more of an impact we’ll all have.
14. Find out if there are any threatened species in your community and see what you can do to help.
15. Whenever you travel - whether it’s walking at a local park or vacationing someplace a little more exotic, be sure you only TAKE photographs, only MAKE memories, and only LEAVE footprints.  Don’t even take one acorn - that’s something’s lunch!  Make sure children don’t make a mess by leaving wrappers, napkins or other culprits lying around. Things they think nothing of can be disasterous.

* The list above will grow as more information becomes available.

 Click HERE to see how Starbucks is doing their part on Earth Day!  As if I didn’t already love them enough.  Sigh.

Photo Credits:

The top picture is from Land Between the Lakes (Kentucky) and is courtesy of a guy I know, Mike.

The bottom picture is used, with permission, from a collection photographed by Petr Kratochvil.

If you use GOOGLE Adsense, you should be aware that Google has recently implemented new policies.  Publishers need to be certain they read through the policies top to bottom.  (They’ll appear when you log in to your adsense account.)

One of the newest policies, and one that has most people pretty shook up, is the one that now requires all publishers to have a Privacy Policy in place. 

When I read that I was now to notify my visitors “specifically about cookies and web beacons,” my head nearly exploded.  Yeah, so, cookies, to me, are baked in the oven and eaten with coffee…. and web beacons?  Web beacons? 

Thankfully for people as out of the loop as I am, we have a guardian angel:  Jennifer Slegg at Jensense.com has developed a Privacy Policy template for us.

Jen, I love you.

You can copy the template, fill in the blanks with your information, and place it on your new Privacy Policy page.  And, of course, be sure to link to her blog.

….and thank God for her…. And light a candle in her honor……  And name your next child Jennifer.

You know full well how much I love books and magazines.  It verges on an obsession, but since it’s a healthy obsession, I just ride it on out - from subscription to subscription and from one bookstore trip to the next.

It’s been a really long time since I came across a new magazine to get excited about.  How long?  Well, I honestly can’t remember the last one.

Too long.

Fortunately, that dry spell just ended with a huge splash in an ocean of excitement and information.

The magazine you see to the left is the Premiere Issue of SUCCESS Magazine. It’ll be on newstands March 2008, and, believe me, you’ll want to watch for it. It’s going to be exciting to watch this magazine grow issue after issue as we, hopefully, grow right along with it.

When I got my copy in the mail, my coffee and I sat right down to see what it had to say for itself.  I literally couldn’t put it down!

It would be easy to say that SUCCESS Magazine “has something for everyone,” but I think it’s more appropriate to say that it has something for every piece of fabric that goes into making y-o-u.  SUCCESS Magazine covers money issues, of course, and does so in a way that’s actually understandable.  Typically, magazines with business on the brain are too stuffy. They read like financial textbooks and I come away having gotten nothing at all out of the experience. 

The financial articles and advice in SUCCESS actually make perfect sense to me.  I kept thinking, “Now was that so hard?  Give me the information, put it in English, and allow me to actually enjoy what I’m reading.“ 

Best of all, SUCCESS Magazine AND the wonderful web site, SUCCESS.com, are beautifully well rounded.  They don’t just have business on their mind.  How boring would that be?  Fortunately, the people behind the magazine and site know that true SUCCESS isn’t all about money.  Sure, money’s a part of a successful life - but that’s all, a part.  There are other factors that make up a successful life:  Relationships, well being, making a difference, etc.  Each of these is covered by SUCCESS by writers who are amongst the best in the business.

I hope you’ll head right over to SUCCESS.com when you leave this blog.  Take a really good look around - I promise you’ll be impressed.  Also, you might want to do what I did - subscribe to Seeds of SUCCESS, a weekly e-mail newsletter.  I can’t wait for my first issue.  The people behind SUCCESS are people I look forward to spending a lot more time with.

Click HERE for an example of one of the articles you can find on SUCCESS.com.  More can be found under the SUCCESS Channels.  Just click on the heading that interests you and bam, instant information, inspiration, and motivation.

Congratulations, SUCCESS!  You’ll have plenty of it.

Someone asked me to pass this along, so I’m making like a Manning and making the pass.

If you have or know kids between the ages of 18-31 with a high school diploma, The Federal Aviation Association is taking applications for air traffic controller school. We all have kids and know kids in the right age group (under 31) and with some effort they could reach a salary of over $100,000 with benefits in about 3 years! You need only a high school diploma to apply and credit is given for college on the exam. They need to go to http://www.faa.gov/jobs/job_opportunities/airtraffic_controllers/for details and to fill out the application immediately - even if they don’t know if they’d want to attend immediately - it’s the federal government and it may take them months to call. The key is to apply NOW.

There will be a lot of retirements coming up rather quickly and they need to line up training to accommodate these openings. It’s my understanding that the FAA rarely has an open application such as this and that the jobs are coveted. The person who shared this has a 28 year old daughter who is well into 6 figures and has plenty of time for travel/recreation and has started another career on the side. This is a great opportunity and it should be noted that choosing a site like Anchorage or Indianapolis to train is a likely acceptance into the training program, after which you can transfer anywhere in the country that has a tower.

A salary over $100,000…. holy moly!

 If one of your new year’s resolutions was to gain control of you finances instead of them retaining control of you, the article below is for you!  It could make all the difference in the world: 

How to Survive Living Paycheck to Paycheck

The vast majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, with little or no savings to hold them over during emergencies. This is a bad way to survive and a stressful way to live, but for most people, there are few other options. Unless you can find a job that pays a substantial amount more than your current bills and reduce spending at the same time, this can be a terrible thing for families.

If your family is one that survives paycheck to paycheck, even the smallest financial difficulty can have profound effects. Without the necessary back up funding, it is very easy to fall behind and suffer the consequences. Using payday loans can be a good way to avoid the financial pitfalls that litter the path of life for many of us.

Often, resorting to asking for money from friends and family is not only an unattractive option, but it can also be a non-option. Self reliance and self help are the best ways to get yourself out of the financial hole you may find yourself in. Payday loans offer you a short term loan that will give you the needed amount of cash. Repaying this loan is imperative, though, or you will find yourself in even more dire straits.

If you use these loans in the right way, you can keep both your bank account and your family happy and healthy. With a smart plan for savings, judicious use of payday loans and determination, you can actually begin to save money for future use.

My beloved Google and I were doing a little research on cholesterol earlier and I came across a great web site I’d never heard of before (Health Castle.com).  I found exactly what I was looking for and then some.

One of the best, most informative articles I read was titled “5 Super Foods:  The Next Generation.”  With respect given to Garlic, Broccoli, Soy, and Peanuts (Salmon made the cut), Health Castle listed the following as the next generation of Power Foods:

• Walnuts
• Flax Seed
• Pomegranate
• Salmon
• Dark Greens

I thought the information on pomegranate was especially interesting:

Pomegranate has quickly become one of the most talked about super foods in the past two years. Pomegranate fruits contain polyphenols, tannins and anthocyanins, which are all beneficial antioxidants. On the other hand, pomegranate juice contains high levels of antioxidants - higher than most other fruit juices,red wine or tea. Preliminary evidence suggested that drinking concentrated pomegranate juice may reduce cholesterol. It was further suggested that drinking a glass of pomegranate juice a day for one year reduced blood pressure (particularly systolic pressure) and slowed down low density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) oxidation.

The first chance you get, read what they have to say about the other Super Foods.  Be sure to bookmark the site and give it a good once over - there’s a lot of really great information just waiting to be uncovered.