With Holiday shopping coming up millions of us are flocking to the shopping centers to find that perfect gift for that perfect person. Tis the season to give and get and be with family, but it is also the biggest season for thieves and muggers.

photo by kuzdra

The Christmas holidays are when most people spend the largest amount of cash in the least amount of time. Here are some safety tips for you and your family when shopping. They are meant to help you be more alert to your surroundings.

1. The most important tip I can give is to avoid cash as much as possible. Bring credit cards instead. Nearly everywhere accepts cards now-a-days and this is safest thing you can do to avoid losing your money to pick-pockets or muggers. If, I would not wish this on anyone, you are a victim, not only can you cancel your credit cards right away but you have insurance on your cards covering theft. This can give you peace of mind for it is easier to hand over cards when being mugged than cash. Also, when you get home, make sure you count your money and cards to make sure everything is there.

If you need to go somewhere you know you will be needing cash, go there first. Do not travel the rest of the mall first to see if there is something better. I would say plan and compare before leaving the house.

2. Along the same line, avoid wearing expensive jewelry and clothing. Muggers, thieves and pick-pockets profile people. They know who has money and who has enough money to pick. Some of the tell signs for this are: expensive jewelry, expensive name brand clothes, name brand expensive bags etc. Avoid being profiled for your money. Besides, it is a lot better to dress down and comfortably.

3. Bringing your children with you? This is also the season where children go missing easily and quickly. Pay special attention to the little ones, or go to a store with a daycare. They will watch your child while you can shop without stress and without yelling “don’t touch that” at every second.

4. Go with someone or a group. Brining someone along will make the day that much more fun and give you an extra security feature. You will be less likely to be targeted when you are not alone.

5. Buy the “Big Stuff” online. Thinking of buying a new 52” plasma HDTV? How about a brand new computer system? Not only can you buy these things online, for cheaper sometimes, but most places can deliver. For free.

6. Always be aware of what is going on around you. You might notice that suspicious looking guy in following you around, or that group of people eyeing you. This will give you a heads up if in the event they advance on you.

7. Carry a cell phone. Have 911 plugged into memory so that if you do get caught in a sticky situation you will have it readily available. Also, give your children a cell phone with you number plugged into the memory. If you get separated it will be easier to track each other down.

8. Carrying. So, it’s the end of the day and you’ve accumulated a huge number of presents. You must now trek across the parking lot to get to you car giving anyone lurking in the shadows just enough time to grab and run. There are a couple of solutions here: park as close as possible and in a well lit area. If this was impossible, leave with a bunch of people going in the same direction. Finally, ask an employee to help you to your car.

The Holiday season is a hectic time of stress and joy. The previous tips are meant to help you keep safe and to keep your head on your shoulders. They are also meant to make you aware of what could happen and what to do if something were to happen.

Many people are victimized because they didn’t think that what they wore attracted the wrong people. Keep one step ahead and this Holiday Christmas season will be that much safer.

No matter if you are a teenager or just married, you can be certain that your parents are still considering you their child, and would do anything to help you further. However, most parents think they should get involved in their children’s lives even when they shouldn’t, just because they feel (and are) responsible or because they need to be in control.

These can all lead to battleground instead of quality, peaceful family time and before it happens there are a few things you can do improve your relation with your parents.

photo by ktpupp

Discuss your problems

Young people are always very quick at taking radical measures when problems occur and this may not be the best option. If you don’t like the way you’ve been treated or you want your parents to do something your first move is to discuss your problem with them.

If you don’t, and choose a quick option like leaving home to get the stress away, the only results you will get is having your parents worried, maybe the Police on your trails and so on. Why you did it may never get discussed and you and your parents go back to square one. Here are a few tips on how to talk to your parents.

1. Comfortable and relaxed. Make sure you or your parents are comfortable and relaxed before you start a conversation about your relation. If you find them in a bad time the result is obvious, and you may not like it.
2. Focus on your discussion. Don’t watch TV, cook or play a video game while you are supposed to discuss important relation issues with your parents. Don’t be sarcastic or roll your eyes, show them respect instead and you will get respect.
3. Be calm. Using a warm voice tone in a discussion is always much more productive than one where people are screaming. Being cool when the discussion gets heated up, shows maturity and allows you to think well before giving an answer.
4. Explain. The thing parents hate is hearing “because I want to” or “because I say so” instead of the reason why you want or say so. Explain to them why it should be your way, otherwise your parents will think that you are against everything the say, no matter what it is.
5. Don’t interrupt. No one likes to be interrupted when they speak. So, unless you want your speech to be interrupted don’t do it.

Understand your parents

This is the life cycle with most of us becoming parents one day, and believe it or not we could face the same problems. You should understand that a responsible parent wishes only the best for you, but saying it may not be perfect: too much love, over-protecting and so on.

1. Moving out. Seeing their child go to college or moving to another state/city is very hard for a parent. This is why you should keep communication channels, like phone calls, emails, post cards, open. Pay them a visit from time to time to remind them how important they are, even if there are thousands of miles in between. Moving out is also a solution to show them you can do it on your own, too. It’s a sign of maturity.
2. Set goals together. Though this may sound hard at first, or after having a fight with your parents, will bond you together extremely good. This can lead to a lot of fun, depending on the goal and can teach both of you that each person should have goals to pursue. Sometimes parents only need a small thing like this one to understand that they are part of your life.
3. Everyone may have a bad day, including you or your parents be it at school or at work. It takes just a few minutes of talking or maybe a joke to get the tension away. If you see your parents stressed out, talking to them always helps.
4. Why rules? Your parents may have rules for coming home at a certain hour or want to know who you go out with. They don’t do it to have full control of your life but because they fear for your life, in a world where gunshots at the mall, drugs or alcohol have become a normal thing. When you will be a parent you will have the same fears for your kid and trust me the first thing you can do is not hiring a bodyguard but setting rules.

You may not believe it but your parents were once teenagers, too, living in a world that was so much different than their parents’ and one of the main reasons they’re afraid you’ll make mistakes is because they probably did.

If you feel like none of the above would be helpful (and I haven’t covered relations with parents that have their own problems, like alcoholism or drugs) you should look for counseling, maybe a psychologist. There is no shame in seeking help, because it’s actually about your life and your future.

I would be interested to know what you experienced with your parents and how you dealt with them. Feel free to comment below.

Giving speeches and presentations is an inevitable part of life. Whether it be at school or at a conference, speeches and orals dominate most fields of study. What is worse is that over three quarters of the population fear presentations in front of people even though, eight times out of ten there is nothing to fear or be anxious about.

For the remaining 20 percent, the following tips will help you better prepare for a public speech and to better deliver, starting today.

photy by D’Arcy Norman

1. Be prepared and practice.
Part of being nervous during an oral or presentation is due to the fact that you feel like you will forget critical pieces of information or that you will get up front of everyone and forget everything. Practice, over and over, until you are able to do your presentation with the minimal amount of cue cards. Practice in different settings, in front of different people.

2. Pick a topic that interests you.
It is hard to speak passionately and with conviction when you are talking about something that you couldn’t care about to save your life. Pick a topic that you know about so that you will be able to inject a little charisma into your speech. When questions come around at the end, you will be more equipped to answer them if you love what you talked about.

Also, picking a topic that interests you, but that you don’t necessarily know a lot about, makes information found regarding that topic easier to encode into long term memory and then to retrieve it! Easier to remember makes for an easier performance.

3. Don’t leave the audience out.
When the audience is pulled into your speech, or is forced to interact with you while you are giving your speech, their curiosity and attention will be on you. When you do not interact with the audience, you are giving them a huge opportunity to daydream, doze off and not listen. Why spend all that time on a speech to have your audience fall asleep?

4. Know your audience.
Know who you will be speaking to and tailor your speech accordingly. If you are talking to medical students you can use medical terms more liberally than if you were talking to sociology majors.

5. Make it simple to understand.
Not everyone will understand what you are saying and not everyone is interested in what you are saying. Especially when the topic is difficult to start with. Even when you define difficult terms they may not keep up. No one cares about how smart you sound. Losing your audience is not ideal either, which is inevitable if they don’t understand. If you have to use complicated terms, complement them with an easy to understand example of what you mean.

6. Complement your speech with visual aids.
Use power point slides or projectors. Illustrate your examples and put definitions of difficult concepts on simple slides. Some people learn better visually.

7. Dress properly.
Do not dress like you are staying in for the day, i.e. sweat pants…Dress like you mean it and are interested in what you are doing. Dress like you are taking this seriously. What you wear says something about you and people take those who dress seriously, more seriously and think they are more competent.

8. Keep your audience hanging and thinking.
Close your speech by leaving your audience thinking. This will perpetuate your speech and cultivate curiosity in others. It will also leave you and your speech more memorable.

Everything from dressing to the way you deliver your speech is important. It is through practice that you will be able to relieve a bit of the anxiety and fear that accompanies public speaking. Speaking slow and with conviction will captivate the audience and leave them wanting more. Remember, anxiety is normal, but if you work through it you will find that it is not as bad as you make it out to be.

If you like this article please bookmark it on del.icio.us or give it a vote on digg. Thank you !

It is that time of the year, and I am not talking about Christmas. It is the end of the semester and all your papers are due. Finals are coming up and you will be asked to write long, elaborate essay questions so the following tips have been designed to help you edit and proof read more efficiently.

photo by bmomeni

Even if you’re not in school, maybe you are looking for tips on how to write a better report for your boss, or a better research summary. Basically, no one likes to read a paper that looks like it was put together by a band of wild hyenas. Editing and proofing is simple if you follow these tips.

1. Print out. Do not correct your paper on the computer. Printing it out will let you work your way through the paper and make it less likely that you will read over silly mistakes. Pretend like the copy you print out is the ‘good’ copy, even if it is the draft. This will put you in a different mind set, one where you will be more attentive to mistakes.

2. Double space. Most teachers ask for your papers to be double spaced so that it will be easier for them to read or write comments. Use this format to your advantage. Print out your paper doubled spaced so that you will be able to write your own comments in. Use the columns to write in what you missed, or what you think should be changed. Circle words you don’t think fit. A double spaced paper allows you to manipulate your paper more efficiently.

3. Leave aside for a few days. This is an important one. Leave it aside for about a week, if possible and if not, a couple days will do. When you pick up your paper a week later, it will be fresh and not primed in your working memory. Having your paper primed in your working memory makes it really easy to look over mistakes.

4. Have someone read it over. Someone else’s opinion is an invaluable tool when doing a paper. They will tell you what makes sense, what doesn’t and what needs more work. They will also find the simple mistakes that are often looked over.

5. Turn spell check on. As silly as this is, I hear a lot of complaints from teachers and teacher’s assistants that common words are not spelled correctly. For example, the word essential is easy to misspell, essential, and even easier to overlook. But the last paper I corrected, someone had obviously forgotten to turn on spell check. Don’t have spell check? YahooMail, Hotmail or Gmail offers a spell check option. Copy and paste into an email to correct it!

6. Keep an eye on sentence meaning and grammar errors. Spell check is not without errors. The cat rode the dog into the sky. Spell check will obviously not tell you the previous sentence make absolutely no sentence. Pay attention when correcting.

7. Read one sentence at a time In order to check spelling, read sentences backwards paying specific attention to each word. Reading the sentence backwards will get rid of the automatic reading of sentences that makes it easy to miss spelling errors.

8. Correct with a bright colored pen – highlight even. There is nothing worse than trying to find what you corrected after having used a black pen. Using a red pen or highlighting your mistakes will make it easy to go back and find where exactly you need to correct.

9. Make paragraphs. This is another mistake I see often when correcting papers. Either there are no paragraphs or there are too many. Quick way to know whether or not to make a new paragraph is to ask yourself whether what you are about to write is a new idea, or new point. If it is, paragraph it.

10. Make sentences as simple as possible. You may understand what you are writing but that does not mean the person reading will,

These quick and easy tips on editing and proofing will help you write a better term paper or a better work report. After practicing them they will become automatic and effortless. Some points may not work for you…trial and error will help you decide which are good for you. Writing a paper without mistakes is easier than you think.

If you enjoyed this article please bookmark it on del.icio.us or give it a vote on digg (below).

Getting the attention of someone you find interesting can be a difficult task. Flirting is an extremely difficult art that will only get better with practice. However, the following tips will help you to be all you can be next time a good looking hunk or beautiful woman walks into the room.

photo by ahanki

1. Smile and the world will smile back. Smiling is important as it sends off a particular signal. Smiling tells people that you are approachable, happy and non-threatening. Frowning will only attract others who are just as unhappy as you. Researchers have shown that smiling is contagious and that by smiling, even when unhappy, will release the neurotransmitters involved in happiness. So, not only will you feel happier, you will spread happiness through smiling. If that mysterious and interesting figure starts to smile because of you s/he will attribute the happiness to you and may even approach you.
2. Eye contact has also been proven to have a powerful effect when flirting. Studies have shown that when complete strangers were told to stare into each other’s eyes for a few minutes that each reported they were attracted to the person at the end of the session. This is because staring into each other’s eyes dilates the pupils and simulates arousal.
3. Be confident. Confident people attract confident people. Confidence will also help you get what you want as you will be more certain about what you want. Your body will radiate and you will start more conversations with people. The more people you meet, the more likely you will find someone you click with.
4. Don’t be too serious. No one likes a downer. If that special someone doesn’t notice you don’t take it personally! There are others, billions of others! Getting down because flirting didn’t work will leak into your confidence and make it more likely that you will fail the next time. If s/he doesn’t notice you then s/he was not worth it! Move on with a smile.
5. Listen and question. Once engaged in a chitchat listen to the other person and question them on things they confide in you. People like talking about themselves and questioning your flirting partner will indicate that you really are interested in them! Besides, this will be an opportunity to see if this person is really all that interesting.
6. Don’t get away too much information. There are some things that are just not appropriate for the first talk, for the first date, even the first year! No one wants to hear about the ex or about the parents. Don’t wait to long in a relationship to discuss the important stuff, but don’t lay it all on them during the first night.
7. Wear the right clothes to attract the right person. Sure, that strapless shirt and mini skirt is sexy but do you really want to attract people on the basis on what body parts you’re letting them gaze at? Real relationships have to have an element of mind as well as body: sex and intelligence.
8. Do not use the cheese. Leave the cheesy, corny pickup lines at home. Talking honestly about how you feel will always be more sincere than those pickup lines found at the joke website. Improvisation requires a little confidence mixed in with a little intellect and a dash of emotion. Dazzle the person with your wit and creativity.
9. Buy them a drink. This will draw their attention. However, do not buy them what you are drinking. This will come off as controlling and selfish. Instead, buy them another of whatever they are drinking.
10. Follow your gut. Instincts are usually right about people being “off”. If you get a bad feeling about how someone is looking at you, or is talking to you, leave. It is always better safe than sorry.

Relationships are not easy to start and even harder to maintain. However, that feeling of someone special caring about you and you caring about someone special is worth all the effort you go through to get there! Remember that flirting is a game. Have fun and don’t be too serious. You will find that someone special, so keep up a smile and be confident!

It’s not everyday that you will want to know about online productivity because maybe it has nothing to do with you, but that’s not quite the right approach. The principles regarding productivity remain the same irrespective of whether you work online or onsite. It’s important that you have a correct approach to your working schedule. In most cases, online productivity becomes an important matter especially if you are working from home itself. This is because at work, you are constantly monitored so your productivity is in check. However if you’re working from home there are many distractions to keep you away from work.

photo by Paladin27
The other hindrance in terms of online productivity is that people tend to work longer because they think they will manage. Truth is we are human after all and you really won’t get away by pushing yourself beyond your personal limit. Once in a while it’s acceptable and may work for you, but if you continue to push yourself, you’ll burn yourself out.

PLAN

When you work online, don’t ever over stress yourself. It may seem very easy when you tell others you are working part time, freelance or full time from home itself. It paints a very flowery picture and gives the image of a very easy job, but the truth is very far from this. Yes you may find more comfort sitting on your favorite chairs surrounded by the comforts of your home, but that’s just about the only leeway. Your work is as hard as anyone else’s so plan it well. This is optimum. Know your day’s agenda and set targets. Make your work plans at the start of each work day or else you’ll be running late in a number of things.

HOLIDAY TIME

Just because you are sitting at home does not mean you continue to work without any holidays. Make sure you take the required amount of holidays. Keep your weekends off so you can do all your pending odd jobs and revitalize yourself for the subsequent week. If you work non-stop you’ll lose connection with yourself and will be a zombie at home. Do not sacrifice on your breaks and don’t push yourself and say you’ll work till your family members don’t come home each day. Take a break and call it quits for the day once you have worked for the amount of hours you have decided upon.

MANAGEABLE TARGETS

There’s times you’ll want to take on more work because it seems too attractive or the payout is great, but be realistic, you’d rather have regular freelance work for a fixed amount of hours each day to help you meet your monetary needs rather than overstress yourself on certain days. Don’t ever take on more than you can manage only because you think you can manage. This will cause you to lose clients in case you can’t live in accordance to your impulsive decisions.

BE REALISTIC

Don’t sit longer hours and do silly things like skip lunch or postpone meal times each day. It’s really not fair to yourself and honestly you really aren’t going to achieve anything great by doing so. This is because if you push beyond your limits, very soon lethargy will set in. your pace will slacken and you’ll actually be working longer hours with reduced productivity. Now that’s not worth it all so take preventive measures to avoid such unsuitable situations.

Online productivity has to be maintained each day so you reach all targets. This is possible only if you are attentive to your work needs. Make sure you take regular breaks each day. Eat on time and don’t stretch that hunger pang because soon you’ll start to loser your appetite. You really don’t want to take ill, do you? When working make sure you stretch adequately. Get up at regular breaks take a walk and rest your eyes. This is important so you don’t stress yourself and bring on fatigue. Make sure you get the right sitting furniture and not your favorite couch because that’s going to bring on a back ache that maybe chronic in time. Drink plenty of water during work hours and take a break every now and then to make sure you maintain continuity.

There are a few liberties you can take but don’t push that either. Don’t be lazy and keep postponing your work thinking you have lot of time to spare.

Online productivity needs self-monitoring so be disciplined and make the right decisions for yourself because you alone know the real story regarding your work abilities.