Room Color and How it Affects your Mood

Published April 17th, 2007 in Tips & Tricks

Intro

While most of us may not spend a lot of time thinking about color, it affects every day of our lives. Color can influence our mood and our thoughts. Colors affect people in many ways, depending upon one's age, gender, ethnic background or local climate. Certain colors or groups of colors tend to get a similar reaction from most people - the overall difference being in the shade or tones used. So it's important to choose wisely.

To have a beautiful home, you do not have to worry about trends. Color trends will come and go. The people who live in a home make it beautiful by choosing colors that reflect their likes and their personalities. The trick is to blend those colors you like into a pleasing combination. Choosing color combinations is one of the most intimidating steps for beginners. Color has the power to change the shape and size of furnishings as well as the shape and size of the room itself.

Selecting colors is not difficult if you equip yourself with some basic information about color and its effects, so let's find more about room colors, and how these affect your mood.

Let's begin …

When selecting color for a room, keep in mind that each color has a psychological value. Think about how those colors make you feel. The main color of your room can have an effect on your mood. These colors can make you feel anything from tranquil to rage. So when trying to create peace and harmony in your home choose your colors wisely. Some colors in large amounts will have just the opposite affect on you and your loved ones' moods.

What mood do you want to create? Which colors will help you achieve that mood?

Find clear answers to these questions. If you find this task quite difficult try to look at magazines, decorating books, blogs and websites for ideas, or let your fabric be your guide. In fact, this is a good approach to take even if you're starting from scratch. Fabric, carpeting, furniture and tile are available in a more limited range of colors than is paint, so choose them first and then decide on your paint color. Once you've found what you where searching for limit the number of colors in a room to no more than three or four. Too many colors can make a room look busy or cluttered.

Paint is a fairly inexpensive and transforms a room more quickly than anything else you can do so you can afford to experiment a little.

Room Colors

Understand that colors behave in three basic ways : active, passive, and neutral , and you can easily match every room's colors to your personal desires and taste and to the room's purpose. Light colors are expansive and airy, they make rooms seem larger and brighter. Dark colors are sophisticated and warm; they give large rooms a more intimate appearance.

Now let's find more about some colors.

Red raises a room's energy level. It's a good choice when you want to stir up excitement, particularly at night. In the living room or dining room, red draws people together and stimulates conversation. In an entryway, it creates a strong first impression. Red has been shown to raise blood pressure, speed respiration and heart rate. It is usually considered too stimulating for bedrooms, but if you're only in the room after dark, you'll be seeing it mostly by lamplight, when the color will appear muted, rich, and elegant. Red, the most intense, pumps the adrenaline like no other hue.

Crimson can make some people feel irritable. With red invoking feels of rage and hostility is a color that should be avoided as the main color of a room. Sitting for long periods of time in a room this color will likely breakdown any peace and harmony you are striving to create in your home. Ancient cultures used the color red to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Yellow captures the joy of sunshine and communicates happiness. It's perfect for kitchens, dining rooms, and bathrooms, where happy color is energizing and uplifting. In halls, entries, and small spaces, yellow can feel expansive and welcoming.Yellow although is a cheery color is not a good choice in main color schemes of a room. People are more likely to lose their tempers in a yellow room. Babies also seem to cry more in a yellow room. This color tends to create feeling of frustration and anger in people. This color is the most fatiguing on the eyes.In chromotherapy yellow was believed to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Blue brings down blood pressure and slows respiration and heart rate. That's why it's considered calming, relaxing, and serene, and is often recommended for bedrooms and bathrooms. Be careful, however: A pastel blue that looks pretty on the paint chip can come across as unpleasantly chilly when it's on the walls and furnishings, especially in a room that receives little natural light. If you opt for a light blue as the primary color in a room, balance it with warm hues in the furnishings and fabrics.

To encourage relaxation in the rooms where people gather family rooms, living rooms, large kitchens consider warmer blues, such as periwinkle, or bright blues, such as cerulean or turquoise. Blue is known to have a calming effect when used as the main color of a room. When going with blue go for softer shades of blue. Dark blue has the opposite effect. Dark blue evokes feels of sadness. So refrain from using darker blues in your main color scheme. Stay with the lighter shades of blue to give you and your loved ones a calm effect.

Green is considered the most restful color for the eye. Combining the refreshing quality of blue and the cheerfulness of yellow, green is suited to almost any room in the house. In a kitchen, a sage or medium green cools things down; in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. In a bedroom, it's relaxing and pleasant.Green also has a calming effect when used as a main color for decorating. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax. Also believed to help with fertility this is a great choice for the bedroom.

Purple in its darkest values (eggplant, for example) is rich, dramatic, and sophisticated. It's associated with luxury as well as creativity, and as an accent or secondary color, it gives a scheme depth. Lighter versions of purple, such as lavender and lilac, bring the same restful quality to bedrooms as blue does, but without the risk of feeling chilly.

Orange evokes excitement, enthusiasm and is an energetic color. While not a good idea for a living room or for bedrooms this color is great for an exercise room. It will bring all the emotions out that you need when jumping into your fitness routine.In ancient cultures orange was used to heal the lungs and increase energy levels.

Neutrals (black, gray, white, and brown) are basic to the decorator's tool kit. All-neutral schemes fall in and out of fashion, but their virtue lies in their flexibility: Add color to liven things up; subtract it to calm things down. Black is best used in small doses as an accent , indeed, some experts maintain that every room needs a touch of black to ground the color scheme and give it depth.

To make the job easier, you can rely on the interior designer's most important color tool: the color wheel.

Something about Ceiling and Walls

The ceiling represents one-sixth of the space in a room, but too often it gets nothing more than a coat of white paint. In fact, for decades, white has been considered not only the safest but also the best choice for ceilings. As a general rule, ceilings that are lighter than the walls feel higher, while those that are darker feel lower. Lower" need not mean claustrophobic: Visually lowered ceilings can evoke cozy intimacy.

Dark walls make a room seem smaller, and light walls make a room seem larger.

Conclusion

These general guidelines are a good starting point in your search for a paint color. But remember that color choice is a very personal matter. You're the one who has to live with your new paint color, so choose a hue that suits you, your family and your lifestyle.And after investing time to select just the right color, make sure it continues to look that way long-term by investing in a top quality paint.

P.S - If you've found this article useful, you should also read "Things You Should Know before Buying a New Bed"

 
 

源文档 <http://freshome.com/2007/04/17/room-color-and-how-it-affects-your-mood/>

 
 

Gmail + G-Drive

We previously mentioned using filters in Gmail to organize anything you uploaded through Gmail Drive. This works simply for documents.

• 1. Download Gmail Drive
  
• 2. Create and organize folders within the Gmail drive on your computer
  
• 3. Create Gmail filters with queries such as GMAILFS: /contracts/ and GMAILFS: /receipts/ in the Subject field. This will create labels in Gmail to reflect your folders.
  

Anything you add to the Gmail drive on your computer will be sent to your Gmail account as an email. With specific filters added, each file will be moved to the corresponding label/folder in Gmail.

 
 

源文档 <http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=48954672&site=1842790>

 
 

Hangover = Negotiation Gold

Hangover = Negotiation Gold

By Craig Childs on negotiation

 
 

Negotiations are funny and I'll always take any advice regarding the subject. Add the idea that it may be better to drink the night before a big negotiation, and I'm all ears.

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten recalls a situation where his lawyer suggested this theory:

The unpleasant physical effects following the heavy use of alcohol actually work to your advantage during a tough negotiation. Seemingly uninterested you will be slouched in your chair, responding slowly and talking softly and looking generally unhappy with whatever the other party proposes.

Your move, coffee.

Alcohol: a Business Tool? - [Bomega.com]

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源文档 <http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=48954672&site=1842790>

 
 

9 Ways To Be More Positive

By Craig Childs on happy

 
 

 
 

Life is easy with a positive attitude, wouldn't you agree? Well, easier at least. One of my favorite sites, The Ririan Project, has a list of ways to perk up that disposition, if you need to.

I've always been amazed by some people's insistance on being in the negative. You can change that, and it's the first step to stepping in a more successful life.

1. Appreciate as much as you can. This is one of those very simple things you can do to bring more positivity in to your life. I have also found appreciation to be a great way to turn an angry, sad and frustrated mood around to a more positive one.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others. If you don´t then you´ll just create a lot of unnecessary pain in your life. If you pass one person then you´ll just find another person more successful than you. And your brief sense of being a winner will transform once again into anxiety, fear, tummy-aches and possibly heart-attacks.

3. Realize that it is possible to choose how you react. You don´t have live your life in reaction. You have a choice. There is always a gap between stimuli and reaction. If you focus on that gap it will widen and although it might seem in the beginning like stimuli and your reaction are tied together that is not the case.

4. Educate yourself. Self-education can be a great help to live a more positive life. Read great books on the areas of your life you want to improve. Maybe it's it your financial situation. Or your health. Or your relationships. Ask people with more success in that area than you what they did to improve.

5. Act as if. Your emotions work backwards too. So even if you don´t feel positive, confident, calm or decisive you can act like it. And after you have done that for a few minutes, guess what happens? You will actually start to feel positive, confident, calm or decisive.

6. Live in the now. Don´t let your thoughts drift into the past or future more than necessary. It's often a sure-fire way to start negative loops of thoughts in your mind.

7. Do some mental rehearsal. This is great way to improve your performance and decrease anxiety in any upcoming situation. Maybe you´re heading into a meeting soon. Then visualize now how great the events will unfold - see and hear it - and also how great will you feel at this meeting.

8. Redefine failure. Michael Jordan once said: "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

9. Focus on what you want, not on what you don´t want. One common problem is to focus your thoughts on what you don´t want rather than what you want. If you do that then it will be hard to get what you want in life. If you want to improve your finances then focus on having a great financial situation rather than your lack of money and your debts.

 
 

源文档 <http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=48954672&site=1842790>

 
 

Freeing yourself from the daily grind

Mon Jan 15, 11:00 AM ET

Now is the time of year when most Americans start to daydream about travel.  It is, after all, cold outside; the holidays are over.  We're all faced with the goals and challenges of a new year, and we start to dream about the exotic, faraway places we've always wanted to visit.

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The problem, of course, is that the American workplace isn't exactly set up to provide us with lots of time off for our dream trips.  Thus, my principle for getting more time off has always been this: Travel time is something you have to create for yourself. 

In my book, Vagabonding, I examine several strategies people use to make time for travel. Short of simply asking for more vacation time, many people negotiate long-term leaves of absence or sabbaticals (paid or unpaid, depending upon the situation) to enable travel.  Others fine-tune their careers so that they are doing seasonal or contract work, which frees them up to travel between work engagements.  Still others will quit a job and then work a long-term travel stint into their life before accepting a new job.

 
 

With the advent of new communication technologies it has also become possible to adopt what has been called a "global mobility lifestyle" — which allows you to redesign your work life in such a way that it can mix in with extended travel.  Entrepreneur and Princeton University guest lecturer Tim Ferriss has written a book about this, The 4-Hour Workweek, that will hit bookstores in April.  I contacted him by e-mail to get some perspective on making your work work for you (instead of the other way around):

What are the biggest misconceptions people have about work, and making time for travel?

Tim Ferriss: The biggest misconception about work is that you have to spend most of your life doing it. 

Take a step back and ask yourself a few questions: How do decisions change if retirement isn't an option? What is the exact dollar amount per month you need to live a well-off mobile lifestyle?  The idea of sacrificing 20-30 years in the prime of life should be seen for what it is: absolutely unnecessary.

I've spent the last four years traveling through more than 25 countries interviewing people who have automated income or escaped the office, often without quitting their jobs.  Some of them negotiate "working from the home office" while actually trekking in Africa or touring in Europe, satellite phones and Quad-band Treos in hand. Others create simple virtual businesses that enable them to quit the grind and take one-to-three-month "mini-retirements" a few times per year.  These people range from Lamborghini-driving 21-year olds, to single mothers who make $40,000 or less per year.  Once you control the most valuable currencies in the digital age — mobility and time — $40,000 can get you more luxury lifestyle than a $500,000 per year investment banker who can't escape the office.

True liberation isn't just more time off.  It is forever breaking the bonds that confine you to a single location. 

So what is the best way to negotiate your way into a mobile work lifestyle?

TF: Whatever you negotiate with a boss, the ground rules are the same: make yourself as expensive as possible to lose — and ask at the right time. 

It has to be less painful for them to say "yes" to your request than to risk losing you.  Thus, get them to invest as much as possible in you, whether community college training courses (software, selling, database management, whatever), mentoring with senior staff, or otherwise.  Demonstrate an upward curve in productivity and then make your request at a time when it would be a disaster to lose you, such as during seasonal crunch time, after other employees have been lost and the company is understaffed, or when a project requires skills only you possess.  Don't ask for the time off (or remote work) to start just then; just make them give you an answer when they can't afford to lose you.  This gives you all the leverage. 

For negotiating a remote working arrangement specifically, there is a great sequence many of my case studies use, called the "hour-glass" approach because it begins with a long period out of the office, returns to a short period, then expands back to a long period.  Here's how it works:

1) Use a pre-planned project or emergency (family issue, personal issue, relocation, home repairs, whatever) that requires you to take one or two weeks out of the office.

2) Say that you recognize you can't just stop working, and that you would prefer to work instead of take vacation days.

3) Propose how you can work remotely and offer, if necessary, to take a pay cut for that period (and that period only) if performance isn't up to par upon returning.

4) Allow the boss to collaborate on how to do it so that he or she is invested in the process.

5) Make the two weeks "off" the most productive period you've ever had at work. 

6) Show your boss the quantifiable results upon returning, and tell him or her that — without all the distractions, commute, etc. — you can get twice as much done.  Suggest two or three days at home per week as a trial for two weeks.

7) Make those remote days ultra-productive.

8) Suggest only one or two days in the office per week.

9) Make those days the least productive of the week.

10) Suggest complete five-day-per-week mobility — the boss will go for it.

My book contains full scripts for negotiating with bosses.

Many people often can't stop thinking about
work minutiae, even when they're far away from the traditional office setting.  How do you get your mind, and not just your body, out of the office?

TF: There are two requirements to get the mind out of the office: allowing alternative activities, and reconsidering the concept of time. 

Sitting on a beach and sipping margaritas is a relaxing recharge for two or three days, after which it's just plain boring.  Lacking an external focus, the mind turns inward on itself and creates problems to solve, even if the problems are undefined or unimportant.  Office-think is the default mode for most people.  Plan some leisure activities that push your limits and require focus, like diving the Blue Hole in Belize or climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan.  Remember that subtracting the bad does not create the good.  It leaves a vacuum.  Decreasing income-driven work isn't the end goal.  Living more — and becoming more — is.

Then there is the question of time.  In the experience of those I've interviewed, it takes two to three months just to unplug from work routines and become aware of how much we distract ourselves with constant motion.  Can you have a two-hour dinner with Spanish friends without getting anxious?  Can you get accustomed to a small town where all businesses take a siesta for two hours in the afternoon?  If not, you need to ask: why?

Learn to slow down.  If you create a mobile lifestyle, whether through a remote work arrangement or entrepreneurship, escaping the "too-weak vacation" world is as simple as using a few common technologies and believing it can be done.  The alternative to binge travel that I recommend — the mini-retirement — entails relocating to one place for one to six months before going home or moving to another locale.  This forces the growth-inducing introspection most of us have never had time for.

Above all, remember three things.  First, life can end at any time, so don't postpone it.  Second, if it doesn't end, the average person works 500 months in their lifetime, so there's no rush to get to the office.  Third, people have short memories and are too busy thinking about themselves to worry about you. 

Take the journey and leave the office behind.

 
 

源文档 <http://travel.news.yahoo.com/b/rolf_potts/rolf_potts19798>

 
 

Toilet Training Your Child

When should I start toilet training my child?

Do not start toilet training until both you and your child are ready. You are ready when you are able to devote the time and energy necessary to encourage your child on a daily basis for at least 3 months.

Your child is ready when he or she can signal that the diaper is wet or soiled, or when your child is able to say that he or she would like to go to the potty. This usually occurs when a child is 18 to 24 months of age. However, it is not uncommon for a child to still be in diapers at 2 and a half to 3 years of age.

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How should I prepare my child for toilet training?

Allow your child to be present when you go to the bathroom and make your child feel comfortable in the bathroom. Allow your child to see urine and bowel movements in the toilet. Let your child play with flushing the toilet.

Before toilet training your child, place a potty chair in your child's normal living and play area so that your child will become familiar with the potty. Consider placing a potty chair on each floor of the house if you live in a multilevel home. Allow your child to observe, touch and become familiar with the potty chair.

Tell your child that the potty chair is his or her own chair. Allow your child to sit fully clothed on the potty chair, as if it were a regular chair. Allow your child to leave the potty chair at any time. Do not force your child to spend time sitting on the chair.

After your child has become used to the potty chair and sits on it regularly with his or her clothes on, try having your child sit on the potty without wearing pants and a diaper. Let your child become comfortable with sitting on the potty without wearing pants and a diaper.

The next step is to show your child how the potty chair is used. Place stool from a dirty diaper into the potty chair. Allow your child to observe the transfer of the bowel movement from the potty chair into the toilet. Let your child flush the toilet and watch the bowel movement disappear down the toilet.

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How do I teach my child to use the toilet?

After your child has become comfortable with flushing the toilet and sitting on the potty chair, you may begin teaching your child to go to the bathroom. Keep your child in loose, easily removable pants.

Place your child on the potty chair whenever he or she signals the need to go to the bathroom. Your child's facial expression may change when he or she feels the need to urinate or to have a bowel movement. Your child may stop any activity he or she is engaged in when he or she feels the need to go to the bathroom.

Most children have a bowel movement once a day, usually within an hour after eating. Most children urinate within an hour after having a large drink.

In addition to watching for signals that your child needs to urinate or have a bowel movement, place your child on the potty at regular intervals. This may be as often as every 1and a half to 2 hours.

Stay with your child when he or she is on the potty chair. Reading or talking to your child when he or she is sitting on the potty may help your child relax. Praise your child when he or she goes to the bathroom in the potty chair, but do not express disappointment if your child does not urinate or have a bowel movement in the potty. Be patient with your child.

Once your child has learned to use the potty chair, your child can begin using an over-the-toilet seat and a step-up stool.

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How long will it take to toilet train my child?

It may take up to 3 months. It is important for you to be patient and supportive. Do not punish your child when he or she has an accident.

If your child is not toilet trained within 3 months, consult your family doctor. The most likely reason your child has not learned to use the potty is that your child is not yet ready for toilet training.

 
 

源文档 <http://familydoctor.org/179.xml>

 
 

Cloth Diapering: Does It Save Enough Money To Be Worth The Extra Effort?

By Trent on Frugality

 
 

 
 

My wife's best friend is a very strong environmentalist - in fact, she's often the inspiration for the more green-tinged posts on The Simple Dollar. When she discovered she was with child several months ago, she decided that she was going to use cloth diapers instead of disposable ones. We asked her to let us know how it was going in terms of cost and effort, because we were somewhat considering the idea for our second child after seeing how her experience went.

Recently, she told us about her experience. I jotted down some notes and here's the scoop on cloth diapering.

Buying the diapers If you have social connections, ask around for any used cloth diapers. Many parents who have abandoned them or have had their child grow out of them will be glad to give them away or sell them at a very cheap price. Our friend reports that between cloth diaper gifts at the baby shower and an abundance of them given to her by a friend whose daughter grew out of them, she didn't have to buy a single diaper. You'll also need several waterproof covers (to keep in the liquid and have the cloth diaper absorb it). The cloth diapers work all the way through, but the waterproof covers vary in size - you'll have to get a new batch of these a few times through.

So, the costs vary widely depending on what you can get as a gift, borrow, buy used, and buy new, but the investment can be quite low.

What's the "best" brand?
BumGenius comes recommended by tons of different sources for simplicity and cleanliness, but they're very expensive. A BumGenius or two is a great baby shower gift for an expectant mom, even if that mom doesn't plan on using cloth diapers. Why? A BumGenius is basically a cloth duplicate of a disposable diaper. Our friend has a small number of these and she claims to save them for nighttime changings because they're incredibly easy.

How many do you need? From my own experience, newborns
go through as many as a dozen a day, so at first, you should have a dozen for the number of days you want to have between laundry loads of diapers. As the baby gets older, (s)he will not go to the bathroom as often, but at some point you'll have to start double diapering because of the greater liquid production from the child.

What about cleaning? Obviously, some of the cost savings from disposables are eaten by laundry, but you're only paying with it with a bit of time, some water, and some laundry detergent. The strategy that was described to me was to wash the poopy diapers alone first with cold water and detergent, then add the wet diapers and run another load with hot water and detergent, then run it through a rinse cycle again with a half-cup of vinegar in the water (for odor removal). Then just dry them like normal clothes. If you estimate that you have a water cost of $0.05 a load, a power cost of $0.09 a load (both washer and dryer), a half cup of vinegar costing $0.10 or so, nd a detergent cost of $0.03 a load (using my science fair tested homemade laundry detergent), cleaning three dozen diapers costs about $0.50.

Does cloth diapering save money? You'll pay about $0.20 a diaper for disposables, which equates to a cost of about $7.20 per three dozen diapers. After startup costs, you spend only about $0.50 per three dozen diapers. You'll repeat this about fifty times before potty training begins, so the total diaper savings is $350 or so with cloth diapers. Of course, your startup costs aren't included here. For example, if you were to buy three dozen brand new BumGenius diapers, they would cost you about $500, but they make cloth diapering as convenient as disposable diapering.

In short, buying new cloth diapers for a single child isn't financially worth it, but if you have the ability to get used cloth diapers on the cheap and/or you plan on having multiple children, cloth diapers can easily recoup your investment and save money. There is additional time required for cloth diaper cleaning, but the tasks are simple and relatively minimal.

 
 

源文档 <http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=48058682&site=8031370>

 
 

A Frugal Project For A Warm Saturday Afternoon: Starting Your Own Tomato Plant

A Frugal Project For A Warm Saturday Afternoon: Starting Your Own Tomato Plant

By Trent on Food

 
 

I used to live in a very small apartment in the city, and I was very poor. One way I saved money was by growing some of my fruits and vegetables inside the apartment in large tubs, and the easiest and most enjoyable of all was the humble tomato. I just filled up a large tub with dirt, planted a tomato plant in it, sat it by the largest window in the apartment, and watered it about twice a week. It produced about sixty pounds of giant, delicious tomatoes, so many that I couldn't eat them all and used a few simple techniques to save them for winter.

Sound like a good plan? Here's all you need to know to start your own tomato plant. All you need is a couple hours to get started, a window that gets a lot of good sunlight (or even better, a deck), and a reminder to yourself to water it twice a week or so.

Stuff You Need

A pre-started tomato plant Stop by your local gardening store and ask them for a tomato starter. Ask for a variety that requires minimal maintenance and grows well in partial shade. They should be able to point you towards an appropriate variety.

A large pot You should also pick up a large pot while there, one that could hold ten gallons of water or so. This will be your primary growing container.

Soil/dirt If you don't have access to good dirt, then you'll need to also purchase a quantity of potting soil, an amount that will fill the pot roughly three quarters full. Once you have this soil base, it can survive for a very long time with occasional
replenishment.

A tomato cage You won't need this for a month or so.

Miracle-Gro may be needed in future years to replenish the soil; if you want to go organic, you can use another organic fertilizer.

That's all you need.

What Now?

Go home. Put the pot where you want it. Put the soil/dirt in the pot. Put the plant in the soil. Then water it.

How do I water it? Add a quart of water around the plant itself, then wait a day. If the soil is very dry, then that means you'll need to water it with more volume - try putting in two quarts of water. You'll want to find a balance so that you don't overwater it (it's always swampy) and you don't let it go completely dry, either. It'll take some work until you get the touch, so just check it every day and keep adding a little more each time until the surface is still moist the following day (if there's sitting water, you watered it too much - give it a couple of days and don't put in as much). At that point, you can water it every other day; you can keep stretching it more than that, but don't go beyond twice a week if you want a truly healthy plant.

What about the cage? After about a month, you'll need to put the cage around the plant, as it'll be growing rapidly and will need something to guide it. Just put the cage around it and lift the branches so they rest on the cage. Every two weeks or so, try lifting loose branches up gently to higher points on the cage.

You may also want to rotate the plant occasionally, but it's not fully necessary. I used to rotate it 180 degrees about once a week.

Harvest

About three months later, the plant will begin to produce fruit, and if it's healthy, you'll get more than you can believe. Eat them while they're fresh, as much as you can, but with the rest, I really recommend converting them into the most delicious substance on earth, fresh tomato sauce.

It's really easy to do - just wait until you have about twenty pounds of them, cut off the stems, put them all in the biggest pan you have, add a little bit of salt and pepper and any herbs you like, and then turn on a low heat and start slashing open the tomatoes in the pan. Let it simmer for 45 minutes, then use a hand mixer to mix up the floating tomato pieces and make it all homogenous. Let it simmer for a couple hours, then pour it into freezer quart Ziploc bags and toss them in the freezer. One bag will be plenty to make a wonderful tomato sauce for spaghetti, pizza (boil it down to make it really thick for pizza sauce), or anything else you might want.

Then, in the middle of winter, you can have wonderful fresh spaghetti sauce made out of tomatoes you grew and prepared yourself - and the cost was almost nothing!

 
 

源文档 <http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=48058682&site=8031370>

 
 

ten tips for battling a melancholic mood with free or nearly free things that may help.

 

Have fun. Do something that can completely take you away from the feelings of your everyday routine. Turn off your cell phone for a few hours and dive into something with your whole heart. For me, this is actually the library, or else a long walk in the wilderness. Because I'm cut off from the routine and the pressures that go with it, I come back feeling genuinely reinvigorated and ready to meet the challenges of life.

Eat well. Make sure you're getting enough fruits and vegetables in your diet - and, no, the lettuce on your fast food hamburger doesn't count. If you don't prepare food for yourself, try eating food at restaurants that prepare well-balanced meals.

Get some exercise. If you're out of shape, just go for a walk around the block. Stretch yourself out a time or two a day by flexing all of your joints as far as you can. A strong exercise regimen is a big commitment for some, but anyone can take the time to stretch and go for a walk.

Drink lots of water. The USDA recommends eight 8 ounce glasses of water a day, not soda or beer or anything else. Turn on your tap and drink - it's really inexpensive and one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Associate with people that you primarily associated with when you were happy. In other words, try to reconnect with old friends and family members. Sometimes, you'll discover that your social crowd is sometimes responsible for your negative feelings - and if that's the case, you need to make some changes to your social life.

Set small goals - and reach them. Don't go home and sit around in a state of sadness because you can't accomplish anything. Set a very small goal that you can reach in an hour or two, then just try to do it. When you're able to do that, try easing into a productivity plan like GTD which anyone can use and is very effective at making you feel really productive. A sense of achievement is one of life's greatest natural boosts.

Get a normal amount of sleep. For most people, a normal night of sleep is between seven and ten hours. If you're getting significantly less or significantly more than this, try to adjust your sleep so that you're in that range.

Get regular massages. My wife and I give each other massages and it may in fact be the most consistent long-term mood elevator in my life. If you don't have a significant other or a close friend who can give you a gentle massage, it may be worth saving up nickels and dimes to get a professional one.

Don't expect dramatic mood improvement overnight. If you walk around the block, get an endorphin rush, and use that rush to do four or five things that have been nagging you, and suddenly you feel really good, don't despair if the sadness returns. An overall mood, especially an entrenched one, doesn't change overnight. Try doing more of the positive things that made you feel better instead.

Go to sleep thinking about the positive things you did today, not the negative ones. Make it a goal to do at least one positive thing in a day - walking around the block, going to work and getting your tasks done, sweeping the kitchen floor, getting through your GTD inbox, whatever it takes - and then think about that success as you go to sleep at night. It gives your mind something good to focus on as you wind down in the evening and drift off to dreamland.

Learn how to Invest and Make Money by Investing

This website is primarily made for people that have very little, to none experience in stock investing, want to learn how to invest, and reduce the risk in the stock market. Although even experienced investors will be able to find some useful info, Coolinvesting.com is primarily here to help, guide and educate people who want to get into very rewarding world of investing in the stock market, and to learn how to invest, but do not have enough knowledge and experience to do so.

 

I have been investing in the stock market for over 7 years. Over that period I have learned many things, that taught me how to invest and that helped me make some good returns in the stock market. Also, I have learned that you do not have to know a lot about investing in order to make an informed decision, you just need to know the right things. There are a lot of people out there just like I was, who want to learn how to invest, but are too afraid, and do not know how. Internet is full of websites that can teach you how to invest, but none of those is so simple and user friendly like mine. See, I made this website to give you good financial advice, show you step by step how to get involved in a world of stock investing, and make money in the stock market. I have never found a website that will in a simplest way explain to me how to invest in the stock market, from scratch, and then move on from there. Most of the financial guides are all overabundant with information, and it's very hard to find exactly what you are looking for, and on top of all, none of them is completely free. Well, that's why this completely free and user friendly website exists. I will show you everything you need you need to know before you make your first investment. I will teach you basics of personal finance, offshore, penny stocks, mutual funds and real estate investing, and other most important things that you can invest in.

 

So join me in my quest for success!

 

Why invest?

 

Well, the answer is very simple. Do you want your money to work for you, or you want to work for money all your life!? Keeping money in the bank is almost like keeping money in the safe at home. I really cannot call an annual return of 3% a return, as that will not even surpass
inflation by much. A return of 3% can be made in a day if you invest in stocks. Yes, there will be some risk included, but did anybody ever made any substantial money without taking any risk? Therefore, you will have to get used to it. If you want to make money in the stock market you have to take some risk. There is no risk free investment. The only difference is that some investments involve more risk, and some less. But usually those investments that carry more risk have greater return. It is pretty exponential, the more risk you take the bigger return you can get. But beating Bank's 3% return should not involve too much risk. In fact, it is possible to make 10-15% annual return on your investment with almost no risk involved.

 

For example, you can invest in so called "blue chip" stocks. These are stocks of big and well established companies. These companies have a good record of producing continuous earnings and paying dividends to shareholders. They are called blue chip because the blue chip is the highest valued chip in Poker. If you diversify and invest in 5-10 different blue chip stocks, (preferably you should diversify over different industries as well) a risk of losing money is extremely slim. For example, there is a big chance that all of these companies will continue to grow in the coming years, as they have been growing for decades. So even if 1 or 2 companies do not do good in the current year, by diversifying, you will be able to make money out of the investment, because the other companies you invested in did well.

 

However, investing in this many different companies requires a lot of research and money, therefore your best bet would be a mutual fund.

Mutual fund gives the best risk/return ration, and requires the least time on your part. But do not forget that with mutual fund you will generally make up to 15% return annually, if that. Which is still nice if you plan to invest in a long term.

 

One downside of diversification is that if one company does really good, you will not gain a big return, as you will have 70-90 percent of money invested elsewhere. There is a correlation between the risk and return. If you invest in only one company you will be taking greater risk, but if that company strikes gold, you will as well. So forget about putting your hard earned money in the Bank. If you are willing to take a little bit of risk, reward can be much greater. Get educated and make your money work for you.

 

Personal Finance

Budgeting Your Personal Finance - Many people go through an entire lifetime constantly worrying about their finances, while others take control of their finances and become financially independent. Maintaining your personal finance can be a maddening process. A simple mistake such as a lost receipt, not remembering a payment, or even a sudden hike in gas prices can have your family eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a week, not to mention causing unnecessary stress.

 

Are you having fun yet?

Try these nine ideas and start making your work fun again

I just came across a web site dedicated to "The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun." It's not specifically about the workplace, but the principles it suggests would work really well there. Most of them fit closely with the basic principles of Slow Leadership, so I've taken the liberty of listing them here, with my own, workplace-oriented comments. I also added a ninth principle of my own:

1. Stop hiding who you really are. So many people do this. They pretend to be someone else: someone more acceptable to the boss; someone more serious and determined; someone who might appear to be a high-flier; someone who "fits in." Even professional actors need to take a break sometimes and just be themselves. Can you imagine the stress that you're putting on yourself, trying to be someone that you aren't, every hour of every working day? And what's the point anyway? You are who you are. Totally unique in space and time. Who says you aren't good enough? Don't fall for that rubbish. All that matters for a satisfying life is to be the best possible version of whoever and whatever you are: to develop your unique talents, express your special personality, and contribute all that you can to the life and people around you. Never, never, accept that you aren't "worthy." That's crazy talk. Being yourself, openly and with joy, is essential to having fun anywhere—and especially at work.
   

   
    

2. Start being intensely selfish. I'm not quite sure about "intensely selfish," but I see what they are getting at. I would rephrase this as: "Start standing up for yourself and what you believe in." No one will ever have the same degree of interest and investment in your life and future as you. No one will ever care as much as you do. No one will ever understand your needs as well, or know what it is like to be you and do what you do. People are always trying to make us into the kind of people they want us to be; to make us fit the mold and conform to their views. Do they do this for our benefit? No way! It's for them: to stop us causing them trouble, messing up their neat lives, asking for things they don't want us to have. This isn't the same as people who give us good advice or share their experiences to stop us making bad mistakes. I'm talking about those who will compel us to fit in, if they are able. Focus on yourself and your own needs. At work, it's likely that no one else will.
   

   
    

3. Stop following the rules. Yea! Those rules are there to force you into conformity. The more you follow them, the less creative, individual, interesting, and open-minded you will become. There are two kinds of workplace rules: necessary ones (like rules for safety) and the rest. The first account for probably less than 10% of all the rules around. You'll never have fun by following the rules. You'll just become a grey, boring, wage slave, with not a single difference from all the other wage slaves around you. You won't even advance your career much. No one ever promoted someone who didn't stand out from the crowd in at least some way.
   

   
    

4. Start scaring yourself. To learn, to grow, to develop who you are, to find excitement and fun, you have to take risks. If it doesn't scare you, it isn't a risk. Fun is all about taking risks—look at all the theme parks with their scary rides. Look at all the people who go surfing, or snow-boarding, or climb scary mountains, or challenge their minds with reading and listening to great music. Don't wait for the universe to start scaring you. It may well do so in ways you really don't want. Start scaring yourself. At work, this means taking on new and scary challenges, volunteering for jobs that you aren't sure that you can do, taking on learning opportunities that scare you. Dare to do what you've never done before. Practice "conscious incompetence." Just do it!
   

   
    

5. Stop taking it all so damn seriously. Especially yourself. The most boring, least fun people around are all those who take themselves so seriously it hurts. They drone on and on about whatever tedious things they are involved in. They get hung up with never losing face or admitting they are wrong. They demand constant reassurance about their inflated sense of self-importance. There's one life. It's far from perfect, but it's all there is. Crap happens—often. The more seriously you take it, they more it will worry you, and the more pain you'll suffer as a result. Most of the misery in the world that humans cause (and that's an awful lot of it) comes from people trying to control their lives down to the most minute details. They think they're so damned important that everyone, and everything, else has to be lined up for their convenience. It will never happen. Give it up, sit back, and enjoy your ride around the sun. You might as well, since there's usually damn all you can do about it anyway.
   

   
    

6. Start getting rid of the crap. I am constantly amazed at how much crap people collect around them, especially in the workplace. Pack rats look tidy by comparison. All those electronic gizmos to stay in touch, all the "to do" lists, the constant meetings, the endless e-mails and memos. How much of it ever accomplishes anything? My guess is that 80% of it is simply distraction and a waste of time. People complain that they have no time to do their jobs, yet waste most of the time that they have reading e-mails, attending pointless meetings, and contributing to the tide of organizational crap engulfing them by producing e-mails and calling meetings of their own. Give it up. You'll be amazed how much time you have suddenly; and how much fun you can pack into it, in place of all the "stuff" that was there before.
   

   
    

7. Stop being busy.
   Constant busyness is the curse of our generation. People believe that if you aren't constantly busy, you're not pulling your weight. The curse of the Puritan Work Ethic hangs over us, like a cloud full of misery and drizzle. Busy is not the same as productive. Busy doesn't mean "good" or "worthy." Mostly it means "doing things for the sake of convincing others that I am worth keeping on here." When lay-offs started becoming commonplace, people began extreme efforts to appear busy every moment of the day. As Hamburger Management became conventional, bosses starting measuring activity, because they had no idea how to measure effectiveness, and they thought they should measure something. The result is people who are too busy to have fun, too busy to live their lives, too busy to enjoy anything. Don't join them. Life has enough misery without adding to it.
   

   
    

8. Start something. I can't do better than quote a comment from an earlier post: "Trying something new is like catnip—irresistible fun. Getting better and better at something that I initially did badly—THAT breeds enthusiasm." Don't wait for others, or you'll wait for ever. Start it yourself.
   

   
    

9. Don't worry what others will think about you. This is my "extra" principle. All too many people are stuck because they're worried what others may think. The truth of the matter is that others are mostly doing what we all do most of the time—thinking about themselves. They aren't concerned with you at all. A lot of the time, they aren't even aware of your existence. So if, from time to time, they drag themselves away from self-absorption just long enough to disapprove of whatever you're doing, ignore them. It's your life, not theirs. Self-doubt and fear of embarrassment are major dampeners on any kind of fun. Throw them away. They aren't worth the time of day.
   

When do people perform best at any task, from sport to nuclear physics? When they're relaxed, intent on what they're doing and more of less oblivious of everything else. When they're having fun. So loosen up and enjoy your life.

An Average Day: Ten Tweaks I Made To My Daily Routine To Start Saving Money

March 5, 2007 @ 10:30 am - Written by Trent

Categories: Getting Started, Frugality

Bookmarks: del.icio.us, digg, reddit

I was reading through some of my older journals and notes on various things when I came across a little thing I assembled when I was first digging myself out of debt. It was basically a list of little things I was changing in my life - what I did before, and what I did after the change. At this point, the "after" column feels so normal that I can barely remember the "before" column at all. I thought it was a great illustration of how little things during the day can bleed you dry.

Before:
I stopped for breakfast on my way into work, usually for a giant orange juice and a bagel.

After: I started taking a bottle of orange juice and a bagel (or cereal bar) with me when I left in the morning. Four or five of these bottles (which I refill out of a huge jug) are the same cost as just one of the glasses, and the bagels are maybe one tenth of what I would spend at the shop.

Before:
I would speed like crazy to get to work on time, burning gas.

After: Since I don't have to stop for breakfast, I now drive a much more leisurely pace, and my truck's MPG has gone up as a result.

Before:
I'd drink a latte in the morning - and another in the afternoon.

After: I drink one about once a week. I replaced it with the coffee in the office or, now, water, since I'm working on breaking my caffeine addiction.

Before:
I would go out to lunch with coworkers every day.

After: Now, I dine in every day with a different batch of coworkers. I still get the same networking and information gathering done, but it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Before:
I'd hit the vending machine two or three times a day.

After: I keep beverages at my desk that I brought in from home. This saves money on each drink. Plus, now that I'm focusing on breaking the caffeine addiction, I'm barely drinking these and drinking water instead, which is free.

Before:
I'd stop for takeout on the way home.

After: Almost every meal is cooked at home now - it's cheaper and massively healthier.

Before:
I'd throw out the leftover food.

After: I save the leftovers and pack them for lunch the next day, reusing the food we already have and saving more money.

Before:
I'd leave my computer and peripherals on all day and all night.

After: I almost exclusively use a laptop, which is powered off except when I'm using it. The only time any peripherals go on is when I use them, too, like the printer. This results in massive energy use reduction.

Before:
I'd watch television on our 32″ CRT unit for three or four hours.

After: Most evenings, we don't watch any television at all. When we do watch something, the television is on for long enough to watch the program, then it goes off. We fill the time with our child, with reading, and (for me, at least) with blogging.

Before:
If we were bored in the evening, we'd go shopping.

After: If we're bored in the evening, we go to the library or go on a walk or play a game.

Perhaps these ideas will inspire you to find some little ways to trim the financial fat from your daily routine.

Challenge Yourself To A Money-Free Weekend

By Trent on Frugality

For the last few months, my wife and I have been doing something every other weekend or so that we call a "money free" weekend, in an effort to live more frugally. It's actually quite fun - here's how we do it. We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what. In other words, we can't make a run to the store to buy food, we can't spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on. Since we often do our grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a "money free" weekend, we delay it to Monday or Tuesday. We can use our utilities, but no extra expenses on these utilities. No renting movies on cable, no text messages that aren't already covered by our cell phone plan, and so on. An extra challenge: no television. Most of the weekends, we also did not turn on our television from the time we arrived home from work on Friday until at least Monday after work. It's an interesting challenge, and it teaches us several things about how expensive our lives really are. First of all, it exposes how many fun activities we can do that are free. We go on walks, play in the park (with our toddler-aged son), play board games with friends (our current obsession is Ticket to Ride: Europe), read a lot, get household chores done, and so forth. Sometimes after these weekends, when we go back and do something expensive, we both question the reasoning for it - in other words, because of these weekends, our values are slowly shifting. Second, we've become much more effective in milking real value out of our foods. Since we don't go grocery shopping before the weekend, we usually spend Saturday morning taking an inventory of what we have on hand and making meals out of that. This often means some strange concoctions, but it also means that we're digging into the back of the cupboard and using stuff we haven't thought about in a while instead of just letting it go to waste. Third, quality time with our child doesn't revolve around consumerism. Instead of taking him to a toy store or something, we take him to the park or to the free public zoo or to the public gardens. He wanders around these, admiring the natural beauty and asking fifty million questions. Instead of stopping at McDonalds and tossing a bunch of garbage into him, we take a picnic basket to the park, spread out a blanket, and have a nice meal outside. We'll go home and read him a few books, then he plays in the living room while we read or do something constructive. In other words, we spend our time doing activities that instill values we want in our child. In a nutshell, weekends like this directly save us money, but the indirect benefits are even greater: it works on making our values and our sense of "normal" much more frugal, plus it also shows our son that you don't have to just throw money up in the air and watch it blow away in order to have fun. Give a money-free weekend a try sometime soon - and maybe try making a regular habit out of it. Your wallet will thank you, and you may just find that your values start to shift as well.