Monday

15 Tips to a Better You

Sylvia Resnik
HappyNews Volunteer Journalist
Updated: 8/6/2006

Most of us were raised to think that we should do for others first, then if time and energy permits, for ourselves. This brought about the selfless mother, whose only thought was of her children and the equally selfless wife who put her husband first even in the face of neglecting herself. To do something that is even a little indulgent for one is too often thought of as selfish. The fact is, according to psychologists and even philosophers, finding small ways to make your life better leads to a more content self and consequently a you that makes life nicer for those around you. So in doing something that lifts your spirits and makes you joyful, you radiate a wonderful essence to everyone with whom you come in contact in your daily life. A little perk for you can bring about a big perk in your life. Try one or more of these tips to create a Better You.

1. Tell someone that you love him or her today

2. Have a pedicure

3. Call up a long time friend and reminisce about the good old days

4. Buy yourself a bouquet of flowers

5. Fly a kite

6. Watch a rerun of a favorite comedy instead of news before you go to sleep

7. Buy a new lipstick in a totally different color than usual

8. Mentor a child

9. Treat someone to a concert, play or newly released movie

10. Buy the best tickets you can affort and watch your favorite sport team in person

11. Plant a bulb garden

12. Take a nap in the afternoon and don’t forget to turn on answer machine – don’t answer the phone

13. Eat dessert first

14. visit a planetarium

15. Hire a limosin and take the love of your life out for a romantic evening

More Tips

1.Go get your make-up done for free at a cosmetic counter at a department store

2.Run barefoot in the grass

3.Hold a baby in your arms

4.Highlight the hair around your face

5.Put on your coziest robe and slippers, cuddle up on the sofa and read a book that “takes you away”.

6.Make a vacation scrapbook: collect brochures, information on your favorite destination, check out hotel rates, airline fares and sightseeing. Then give the plan up to the universe. Wishing can make it so!

7. Bake up a batch of brownies from scratch and pass them around at work

8. Buy a new hat and wear it the next time you go out for lunch.

9. Go to the beach and collect seashells. set them in a row on your kitchen windowsill for a cheerful reminder of your day at the shore.

10.Buy a DVD or video of your favorite romantic film, pop some corn and watch it with someone you love.

11. Visit a day spa and indulge in the works, including lunch

12.Read a self improvement book

13.Take your mom to lunch in a posh restaurant

14.Wear your favorite fragrance every day, even if you just hanging around the house

15.Take an art class

And more Tips

1. Learn self hypnosis.

2. Become a pen pal with someone in the armed forces.

3. Adopt a pet.

4. Wear a color you’ve never worn before.

5. Take a long, bubble bath. Don’t forget to put a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the bathroom door.

6. Write a “fan” letter to a friend on pretty paper and mail it.

7. Read to a bedridden patient.

8. Forgive your parents.

9. Buy a pair of red satin panties with a matching bra and just wear them.

l0. Have your fortune told.

l l. Sprinkle scented talc on your pillow case.

12. If you are unmarried but hoping, compose a list of qualities you want in that certain person. Read it over every day. Let your subconscious do the rest.

LOL

And on the Bath Mat. And Behind the Toilet.

Mom trying to remove splinter from son’s hand: I’m sorry it hurts. When we get home you can take a bath. Sometimes that helps splinters come out.
Toddler, in between sobs: Okay… And this time I’ll try not to poop in the tub.

Boston, Massachusetts

Overheard by: Hannah

… Somewhere Other Than a Cubicle

50-year-old woman: I can’t wait to retire so I can drop acid.

Spokane, Washington

I’m Still Tasting Yesterday’s

Crazy bag lady: Can I have that shirt? I’m all dirty and nasty.
Young guy: No, I need this for work.
Crazy bag lady: Oh. Can I shit in your mouth?
Young guy: Um, no.

Washington, DC

Kid can only eat 6 things. wtf.

The boy who is allergic to (almost) every food
Tylor Savage, 12, beginning to expand his diet now thanks to treatments

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
Updated: 10:10 a.m. ET Oct 11, 2007

Twelve-year-old Tylor Savage doesn’t have to ask what’s for dinner. It’s chicken or tuna with carrots and potatoes and maybe some grapes or an apple — the only foods to which he is not allergic.

“I’m a little bored with the same food,” Tylor told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer during a visit to New York on Thursday with his father and sister.

But the British boy is not complaining. When Lauer asked him if he wishes he could eat all the wonderful things he sees other kids wolfing down, he said, “Not really, because I know it will make me ill.”

“Ill” is a mild descriptive for what Tylor went through for most of his life. He was 4 years old the first time he got violently sick after eating. By the time he was 6, the diarrhea and vomiting were getting worse, but his doctors could find nothing wrong with him, putting his digestive problems down to stomach viruses.

“It was horrible,” his 15-year-old sister, Elycia, said.

“It broke my heart,” added his father, David Savage, who made the trip to New York with Tylor and Elycia. Tylor’s mother, Lynne, remained at home in England with the family’s third child.

By the time he was 10, Tylor’s situation was desperate. He was passing out, going into convulsions and passing blood from both ends of his digestive tract. His weight was down to less than 50 pounds, his growth stunted, his body little more than skin and bones.

His mystified doctors took out his appendix, thinking that might be the problem, but he showed no improvement.

Last September, specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where he’d been undergoing tests since April 2006, realized that what Tylor had wasn’t a stomach virus but an extremely rare condition called eosinophilic enteropathy.

The disorder causes his intestines to produce too many white blood cells that act as an immune system and attack food passing through the gut.

Doctors found that he was allergic to nearly everything he ate, including wheat, gluten, dairy products, eggs and soy products.

On the mend
They took him off all food, feeding him a liquid formula through a gastric tube inserted through his nose. They then introduced him to one food at a time, making sure he could tolerate it before adding another. Recently, tuna joined chicken as a protein source.

Although Tylor could eat again, he still needs to be fed vitamins and minerals in liquid form. The tube through his nose was causing painful sores where it rubbed against his nose, so in May it was replaced by a port in his stomach. Every night, Tylor plugs a tube connected to a bag of formula into his stomach.

Since getting the stomach tube and finding solid foods he can eat without getting sick, Tylor is thriving. Last year, he was so sick, he attended just 10 days of school. This year, he’s missed only one day.

“I’ve got more energy now,” he told Lauer. He plays soccer and bowls and can roughhouse with other kids. “It’s not like I used to be.”

His sister, meanwhile, has been organizing events — she bungee-jumped earlier this year — to raise funds to help others with Tylor’s condition.

He said that his diet will expand. “There’s a lot of things I am allowed but haven’t been introduced to yet,” he said.

The plane flight to New York, he said, was too long, but he said he’s enjoying the city. Lauer asked if there was anything in particular he wanted to do.

“I want to go to a Nintendo event,” he said. “I’ve got some games I need to play.”

Zombie Necrophilia

Monday, October 15, 2007
‘Babylon Fields’—CBS’s Buried Zombie Necrophilia Pilot Unearthed

Video 1
Video 2

Babylon FieldsZombie sex on CBS.

That is what we missed this fall.

During the development season, CBS’s “Babylon Fields” was considered an early front-runner for greenlight. Granted, “apocalyptic zombie drama” may have sounded like a strange premise for a TV series, but no more so than the rest of CBS’s slate of vampire detectives, kids in ghost towns, musical gamblers and swinger couples.

“Babylon” starred Ray Stevenson, Kathy Baker and Amber Tamblyn. Stevenson was one of a trio of actors from HBO’s stellar “Rome” to land plum roles in fall pilots (the others were Kevin McKidd, the star of NBC’s “Journeyman,” and Polly Walker, who has a supporting role in CBS’s “Cane”).

Even after announcing their “Babylon”-less fall lineup at upfronts, CBS executives held out the possibility of a midseason order. Sadly, “Babylon” missed the final cut. Had the show received a pickup, “Babylon” would have taken CBS’s fall 2007 experimentation phase to a whole new level. “Babylon” just might be the weirdest pilot you have never seen.

The show explores the emotional and societal ramification of loved ones coming back from the dead. You know, like in “Pet Sematary.” But by the end of the episode, the zombie thriller is crossed with a crime procedural. So small town police detective Stevenson is given a murder to solve while zombies wander the streets. “ZSI.”

The “Babylon” brand of zombies are not all moany-stumbly like in most films about the living dead. But they remain, quite clearly, deceased—autopsy scars, open wounds, bad skin, worms, etc. The zombies walk back to their former homes. They talk to their former loved ones. And have sex with them.

We proudly present an all-too-brief look at “Babylon Fields.”

Brain-computer interface for controlling Second Life avatars

Brain-computer interface for controlling Second Life avatars

Video

Posted on: October 12, 2007 8:50 AM
Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory at Keio University in Japan have developed a brain-computer interface that enables users to control the movements of Second Life avatars without moving a muscle.

The device consists of a headset containing electrodes which monitor electrical activity in the motor cortex, the region of the brain involved in planning, executing and controlling movements.

All a user has to do to control his/her avatar is imagine performing various movements. The activity monitored by the headpiece is read and plotted by an electroencephalogram, which relays it to a computer running a brain wave analysis algorithm that interprets the imagined movements. A keyboard emulator then translates the data into signals which can be used to control the movements of the user’s on-screen avatar in real-time.

Below is a film clip of the device in use.

Cops: ‘Karaoke’ Attacker Bites Man’s Ear

Posted on Fri, Oct. 12, 2007
The bite heard ’round the world >

Cops: ‘Karaoke’ Attacker Bites Man’s Ear

The Associated Press

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – A crazed attacker broke into a Long Island man’s home, beat him with a karaoke machine and bit off his ear, police said. Doctors were unable to reattach the ear of the victim, but his injuries were not considered life threatening, said Nassau County police Officer Mary Verna.

The 64-year-old Uniondale resident attempted to defend himself with a vacuum cleaner hose.

The 27-year-old attacker punched and kicked him in the head and face before grabbing the karaoke machine and using it as a weapon, police said. He did not flee the scene of the violence Thursday but instead crouched in the hallway until police arrived.

“This guy just randomly picked this house,” said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

Luis Hidalgo, also of Uniondale, pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and assault. He was being held at the Nassau County jail on bail of $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond, prosecutors said. The number for his home was unlisted.

What’re you, high?

Posted on Thu, Oct. 11, 2007

Burglar Steals Food, Leaves Valuables

The Associated Press

APPLETON, Wis. – This thief apparently had quite the appetite. Appleton police received a call Wednesday of a burglary , not of valuables but of food.

The burglar apparently entered the unlocked apartment and walked away with a pizza, six eggs, a can of beef ravioli, a can of peaches and one chicken-and-broccoli Hot Pocket, authorities said.

The crime apparently occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., the police report said.

Police had no immediate suspects.

,,,

Information from: The Post-Crescent, http://www.postcrescent.com