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Albert Bandura, aged 93, is one of the most renowned living psychologists in the field of psychology, as well one of the most cited (Haggbloom et al., 2002).
Throughout his career, Bandura contributed to many branches of psychology including social cognitive theory, reciprocal determinism, and the famous 'Bobo Doll Experiments.'
Today, Bandura continues his work to broaden our understanding of the human psyche. Unsurprisingly, he has significantly influenced positive psychology. His theory of self-efficacy, as a part of social cognitive theory, is fundamental to positive psychology.
In his own words:
Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to influence events that effect one's life and control over the way these events are experienced. (Bandura, 1994).
This article will explore the power of self-efficacy to motivate individuals to exhibit control over their life.
This article contains:
An Agentic Perspective on Positive Psychology
Bandura presents his views on positive psychology in "An Agentic Perspective on Positive Psychology" (Bandura, 2008), specifically in a chapter from a larger collection of writings.
In this chapter, Bandura expresses his view of agentic positive psychology where he emphasizes human capacity over human failings and dysfunction. In his research, self-efficacy seems to be influenced by certain factors.
When developed, self-efficacy positively affects all facets of human experience.
Throughout his writing, Bandura critiques the predominantly negative and pathology-focused approach in the discipline of psychology. This historic or "disease model" approach contrasts to positive psychology's pro-self-efficacy approach.
Bandura also addresses the "pathology of optimism," as compared to realism towards dealing with life events.
This entire chapter is an inspirational and encouraging push to research human agency and self-efficacy more. Positive psychology perspectives have been completely revolutionized by Bandura's findings.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is not a trait that some have and others do not. Instead, it is the ability to exercise and strengthen one's self-efficacy, regardless of their past or current environment.
He offers four ways to do this, which we will delve into now.
4 Ways to Build Self-Efficacy
By consolidating his research into four action-items, Bandura offers a tangible way to develop self-efficacy. As people succeed in any of these four ways, their self-efficacy grows.
1) Mastery Experiences
This refers to experiencing the results of self-efficacy first hand. The key to mastery is approaching life with dedicated efforts and experimenting with realistic but challenging goals. People need to acknowledge the satisfaction of goals that are achieved, in order to reap the pleasure of mastery.
Easy success with little effort can lead to us to expect rapid results which can, in turn, make us easily discouraged by failure (Bandura, 2008). In that same paper, Bandura describes the idea that:
Success is achieved by learning from failed efforts.
Experiencing failure is important so that we can build resilience to it. This is done by treating every failure as a learning opportunity and a chance to reach competence with a different approach.
2) Social Modeling
This means that people choose role-models who demonstrate their self-efficacy. Motivation can be found by observing those who employ this in their lives and have reached their goals despite adversity.
Seeing people similar to oneself succeed with consistent effort, raises the observers' beliefs in their own abilities to succeed (Bandura, 2008).
With modern technology, it is not necessary to draw role-models from one's own social surroundings. The internet and other digital resources can provide windows into the lives of many inspiring models.
3) Social Persuasion
When people believe in their own ability, they tend to encounter more success. In this way, self-efficacy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This mode is often about 'finding the right mentor.' While social modeling refers to the observation of a role model, social persuasion is about having others directly influence one's self-efficacy and providing opportunities for mastery experiences in a safe manner.
Due to the specific nature of self-efficacy strengthening experiences (avoiding easy successes and overwhelming failures), it is essential that mentors are "knowledgeable and practice what they preach" (Bandura, 2008).
4) States of Physiology
Lastly, our emotions, moods and physical states influence our interpretation of self-efficacy.
It is easy to judge oneself with bias based on the state one in when a failure occurs. While it is normal to feel tension, anxiety, and weariness, it is common to feel like a societal disappointment when these feelings occur.
Positive and negative emotions are magnets that influence one's sense of self-efficacy, especially in the case of a depressed mood when control can feel out of reach. People with low self-efficacy may give-up sooner than people with high self-efficacy (Bandura, 2008).
Introspection and education can prevent these physical states from being interpreted negatively. For example, when experiencing a personal or work-related "failure," people can practice compassion towards themselves as people who make mistakes.
In short, changing negative misinterpretations of physical and affective states is key, in order to build self-efficacy (Bandura, 2008).
The strength self-efficacy scale is one tool which can help build insight and introspection, and alleviate the need for judging ourselves too harshly when we make mistakes.
How Self-Efficacy Can Influence You
Albert Bandura goes on in this chapter to explain how. the degree to which someone believes in their own self-efficacy influences their functioning.
This is expressed in four categories: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and decisional.
Thinking in self-enhancing (optimistic) or self-debilitating (pessimistic) ways can influence one's functioning.
If someone believes that their actions impact their experience and the environment, they are more prone to a self-sustaining optimistic view; in other words, no matter what the circumstance is, "something" can be done to affect the ultimate outcome.
Without this belief, a more pessimistic thought process can dominate, and events might be interpreted as 'out-of-my-hands.'
When the individual is a passenger in the ride that is their life, there is no room for agency.
Based on how opportunities and obstacles are interpreted, it is easy to believe that any effort is futile in the face of obstacles. Why not give up then?
The alternative offers a way of seeing obstacles as something to overcome if the right skills and motivation are developed and practised.
Self-efficacy means believing in the value of motivation to influence any outcome. If someone does not feel driven to alter an event, then why exert any effort towards the circumstance? It would feel like a waste of energy.
Thus, feeling secure in this belief leads to self-determined motivation. It is not a question of "can I reach my goal?" but rather "what is required for me to reach my goal?"
Often, collective-efficacy needs to be considered: what does a group believe they can achieve in terms of a common goal? As Bandura quotes:
People's shared belief in their collective efficacy to achieve desired results is a key ingredient of collective agency.
States of physiology (such as our moods and feelings) influence self-efficacy, but it works in reverse as well. We discussed earlier what low self-efficacy feels like, emotionally.
Conversely, a strong sense of self-efficacy means recognizing that it is normal (and very human) to feel discouraged in the face of failure. With healthy doses of optimism and resilience in the face of "failure," humans prove to accomplish seemingly impossible feats.
This is because believing in one's ability to 'bounce back' can influence the outcome of an experience.
When we learn that we are not at the mercy of our physiological states, we become less susceptible to emotional reactions. We are then able to grow competent in our self-efficacy to deal with emotional challenges. This relates to the concept of emotional intelligence.
Self-efficacy also means that there is a choice with how we choose to experience our situation. By employing self-efficacy one can choose which environments are best suited for their growth and development.
This addresses the idea of destiny verse agency, where people develop their own destinies—and create the opportunities they desire—through thoughtful choices and deliberate actions.
Pathologizing Optimism: Visions to Realities
Albert Bandura makes a point in his writing to address the trend of "pathologizing optimism."
He proposes that while realism is useful when risks are high and failure likely, it can often act as a hindrance to progress (Bandura, 2008). He goes on to review that:
Human well-being and attainments require an optimistic and resilient sense of efficacy. This is because the usual daily realities are strewn with difficulties. They are full of frustrations, conflicts, impediments, adversities, failures, setbacks, and inequities. To succeed, one cannot afford to be a realist.
In situations where time, effort, and resources are the tradeoffs, optimism can provide the appropriate self-efficacy to achieve otherwise unreachable goals.
There are many personal and social benefits of turning "visions into realities." Bandura expresses his opinions on the importance of optimism for self-efficacy as:
"the risks of overconfidence are studied extensively, but the self-limiting costs of under confidence are largely ignored" (Bandura, 2008).
Misconceptions about Self-Efficacy
Addressing the scepticism of self-efficacy, Albert Bandura argues that it is not self-centered and selfish, contrary to what some psychological researchers may propose.
Self-Efficacy is Not Selfish
Bandura explains that self-efficacy can actually uplift society, highlighting Gandhi's self-sacrifice as an example of his "unwavering self-efficacy for social change under powerful opposition."
He also states how:
"Without a resilient sense of efficacy, people are easily overwhelmed by adversities in their efforts to improve their lives and that of others" (Bandura, 2008).
Self-efficacy remains static in its definition and benefit across all cultures, regardless of individualistic or collectivistic characteristics.
Both of these points counter the proposed ideas that self-efficacy is inherently self-centered.
How Self-Efficacy can Help Overcome Environment
Some theories of psychopathology deem inner-city populations as inclined to negative outcomes, but Bandura argues the opposite. With self-efficacy, individuals overcome their daunting environments and go on to lead fulfilling lives free of crime, psychopathology, and harmful behaviors.
Bandura proposes that it is in the face of difficult circumstances, self-efficacy is even more necessary, rather than some aloof "feel-good" goal without tangibility.
If employed well, self-efficacy can bring positive role-models, resourceful social-networks, and create nurturing environments, which result in progression and fulfillment.
Bandura feels this challenges the diathesis-stress model, which states that stress is an inevitable reaction when the internal threshold is out of balance. Bandura believes this model disregards the role of an individual's agency in how they manage their own stress.
Self-Efficacy and Substance Abuse
In the case of substance abuse, specifically smoking, Bandura goes through the proposed biological and psychological mechanisms inhibiting those who wish to quit their addiction.
He makes a strong case for self-efficacy as a mediating factor in working through these factors.
This is validated by the majority population of ex-smokers who stopped their nicotine addiction without outside aid. Bandura does not dismiss the relevance of biological and psychological mechanisms in quitting.
In all of this, he mainly emphasizes that self-efficacy can play a role in the addiction rehabilitation process.
Health Promotion
Bandura also reflects on the current medical system and how few preventive measures are available to the general population.
Research predominantly seems to focus on what and how things go "wrong" in the human body, rather than studies around health promotion of lifestyle choices and what makes humans thrive.
Self-efficacy can be a tool to make better decisions in life and take control of one's health where possible.
Examples of some preventative self-efficacy health methods are being physically active, reducing dietary fat, refraining from smoking, keeping blood pressure down, and developing ways to manage stress (Bandura, 2008).
There are many reasons for research to focus on the lifestyles that help humans stay healthy. Also quoted by Bandura in this article is the idea that:
"Current health practices focus heavily on the medical supply side. The growing pressure on health systems is to reduce, ration, and delay health services to contain health costs."
What if research also could pour time and money into how to teach self-regulatory skills and spread awareness and access to healthy lifestyles?
After all, personal, behavioral, and environmental determinants all influence each other. To increase the quality of a given human's life, perhaps it is time to research self-efficacy further, and include ways for high self-efficacy to be part of the social expectations of each other.
Albert Bandura's chapter on an agentic perspective challenges us to reconsider the popular cynicism of today.
Bandura explains that only through mastery of our thoughts, motivations, emotions, and decisions—with the guidance and examples set by role models—can we truly recognize our ability to shape the world.
To face life without self-efficacy is to narrow one's own scope when navigating the often daunting obstacles of life.
For those who were inspired by these highlights of "An Agentic Perspective of Positive Psychology" by Albert Bandura (2008), the full chapter is freely available online for a more detailed reading.
How do you think self-efficacy and collective-efficacy interplay? We would love to read your ideas in our comments section.
Want to Know More about Albert Bandura?
Find out more about Albert Bandura's life, or read his paper on social learning theory.
We also recommend this interview for further learning of one of today's most influential psychologists:
Bandura, A. (1994). Self‐efficacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Bandura, A. (2008). An agentic perspective on positive psychology. Positive psychology: Exploring the best in people, 1, 167-196.
Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, R., Warnick, J. E., Jones, V. K., Yarbrough, G. L., Russell, T. M., … & Monte, E. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6(2), 139.


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CHARLESTON — The National Business Institute (NBI) has partnered with a law firm to moderate judicial forums in Charleston and Morgantown this spring.
The upcoming seminars, set for April and May, will focus on the West Virginia Business Court and judiciary takes on litigation. The seminars will be managed by two Bowles Rice partners. Stuart McMillan and Andrew Fusco each will manage their own seminar.
The NBI is an institution dedicated to the continual legal education of attorneys. The business court is a relatively new endeavor in the state, a division of the judiciary created just a couple years ago, under the direction of seven judges. Its role is to serve as a specialized section of the circuit court system, allowing business cases to go before judges who truly find their niche in that field.
"It's still a new concept. The whole premise behind it was to get those judges who had an interest in business matters to really kind of handle the cases that interested them and take the caseload off other judges in the state. Sometimes the cases can be more quickly handled now," McMillan said.
Bowles Rice is involved in a number of business court cases, owing to their background as a primarily business litigation firm. McMillan is the chairman of their litigation department and will host the May seminar, titled "As Judges See It: What Attorneys Need to Know About West Virginia's Business Court."
"The business court is new. This is an opportunity to moderate and allow some of the judges who are part of the business court to interact and be able to talk about issues with other lawyers in the state," McMillan said.
Specifically, McMillan will moderate a panel of three judges currently serving on the business court. Those include Judge Jim Rowe of the Eleventh Circuit Court, Judge James Young Jr. of the Twenty-Fourth Circuit Court, and Judge Christopher Wilkes of the Twenty-Third Circuit Court, who is also chairman of the business court division.
Together, those judges will discuss some of the intricacies of the court they would like to see more lawyers make use of, as well as the ins and outs of the court itself. On its face, the court was created specifically to cut down on the caseloads overwhelming typical circuit court judges. Those judges can see everything from complicated civil and business matters to intricate criminal dockets.
The business court allows certain judges to ply their specialty, while relieving others of cases that might otherwise bog them down.
"It handles business disputes and a lot of document intensive cases, dealing with issues from banks and businesses. It's pretty different from a lot of other cases going before typical circuit court judges. The idea is to take some of that off the plate and give it to people more interested in having business type cases," McMillan said.
McMillan himself is a practitioner with a focus on civil trial and appellate litigation, and he tries cases in both federal and state courts throughout West Virginia. Given his familiarity with the business court, his role as moderator was a natural fit.
In April, Fusco will moderate a seminar titled "As Judges See It: Top Mistakes Attorneys Make in Civil Litigation" with Judge Richard Facemire of the Fourteenth Circuit Court, Judge Lynn Nelson of the Twenty-First Circuit Court and Judge Susan Tucker of the Seventeenth Circuit Court participating.
Fusco maintains a practice focused on a diverse range of legal areas, including general and complex litigation alike, antitrust and competition law, business disputes, intellectual property infringement, as well as mergers and acquisitions.
Both work with a full-service law firm of 130 attorneys, with offices located in Charleston, Martinsburg, Morgantown, Parkersburg and Wheeling in Wheeling Southpointe, Pa. and Winchester, Va.

subset: commoncrawl


text: I have an external Ultrasound machine that I don't use. It is really handy to check if your mini is in foal. It also works on other small animals like goats, alpaca's, sheep, mini cattle. It's NEW, I bought it but never used it..never had to since my ponies showed immediately they were in foal. My loss your gain this is a $2000 machine!!! will have you save. I had it listed for $950 will let it go now for $750 on vet costs. This unit will allow you to check pregnancy from 14 days after breeding throughout gestation. Everything is included, manual, instruction DVD, somce is hard cover case. More info see http://www.animark.us/pregtest.html


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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2009.
Mark and I've gone back and forth, back and forth on this house decision. We lay awake at night talking about it, listing all the pros (great house, great neighborhood, great value) and cons (the general hassle of selling our house and moving). We visited and revisited the house, and every time we liked it more and more. We started to feel as if it could truly be our home as we mentally arranged our furniture and hung our pictures on the walls. We spent time with the neighbors and were wowed by the freedom the children experience on that block, running from house to house and yard to yard, with no boundaries slowing them down or hemming them in. We finally decided that yes, we could see ourselves living there happily so . . . we made an offer.
This was on Friday morning when we learned that the relocation company closed at noon for the long weekend. By Monday night, we got word that a couple from California who had visited the house many times and absolutely loved it and intended to buy it once their employment was secured, had put in an offer. So bright and early Tuesday morning, Mark drove over to the real estate office with a modified offer, this time at asking price. And . . .
we lost it.
We're assuming the other couple's offer simply said, "Ten thousand more than the next best offer," or something along those lines. A bidding war in Cleveland, Ohio — imagine that! I mean, if this was the deal of the century to we Clevelanders, I can only imagine what a deal it is to Californians.
It's okay though, we 're fine with this. We're certainly disappointed and we know that if we'd acted just a little bit sooner, it would be ours (probably for $40K less too!), but we needed to be sure and so we have no regrets.
A few different people, after being told we'd made an offer, said they would pray that we got the house. This was thoughtful of them, of course, but, my feelings about prayer aside, it's just not that important. Save prayer for the big stuff. Save prayer for Austin's June scan. We live in a beautiful house with our two healthy children. We can find another house with a master suite some other time (current neighbors, consider yourselves warned).
Today, we are happy, right where we are. We have everything we need and almost everything we want. And that's good enough.
A winning team sure would be nice though, for once. FOR ONCE!
Perhaps you may be wondering how my little guy is . . . you know, the reason you all started reading in the first place. Well, right now, he's trying out a variety of brooms and mops and swiffers on the kitchen floor (not exactly helpful) while naked. So, all in all, he's great.
We have his first post-surgery scan scheduled for the last week in June, which will involve the usual one-night stay in the hospital for hydration. It's hard to know what to expect from this one; we will be hopeful, as always, that it comes back clear. They did place a titanium clip inside his belly at the spot where the tumor was removed so they'll at least know where to focus their attention. The entire "episode" (which is a lovely way of describing those insanely scary three weeks) does indeed seem like a blip on the road to a full recovery. He acts like he always did and always does — silly and wild and full of life.
I took Braedan and Austin swimming on Monday, the first time since before the surgery. Austin knew he had to wait until his scar had healed so as we were packing our bags, he excitedly asked, "Awtin no have canther in tummy? Awtin all better?" Yes, sweetie, Austin is all better.
Mark and I are obviously willing to go forward as if things are as they'll always be, as evidenced by the idea of moving to a big house and new neighborhood filled with lively friends for the boys. Of course, we're not fooling ourselves and know the possibility of another (or a first?) recurrence exists; we know we could be saddling ourselves with one house on the market and another huge one to take care of while also taking care of a sick child. But we just don' t think it's worth it to live life waiting for the worst thing to happen; it is not how we operate. We see a golden opportunity in front of us, and the harsh reality is that if Austin's cancer recurs that's gonna be awful no matter where we live and no matter what other stresses exist in our life.
I think a lot abot the way we lived our year between the end of treatment and the "blip": we lived it to the fullest. We absolutely celebrated what we believed was the end for Austin and for us. We were wrong, of course, and that was crushing. But it wouldn't have been any easier if we had sat around all year admonishing ourselves, "No, we can't go to Disney World; he's not really cured yet," "No, we shouldn't laugh too loud, what if it comes back?" That wouldn't have been right or good or fair, not for us and certainly not for the boys. So we laughed loudly and celebrated fully, we lived as much as we could.
And that is exactly what we're going to keep doing every single day moving forward.
I'm going to put the whole moving discussion on hold for a few days and go back to the news some of you have been so patiently waiting for. This may be a bit premature but (as surely you know by now) I've never been one to sit on the sidelines waiting for things to happen and I've certainly never been one to hold my cards to my chest, so even if this doesn't lead to anything, it's still exciting and worth sharing.
In October of 07, after we'd spent nearly three months in the hospital, my friend Becky showed up at my house one Saturday afternoon and planted sixty tulip bulbs in our understandably neglected front yard. After all the very necessary and appreciated meals and playdates that people provided for us, this was such an unexpected and lovely gift. I will never quite forget the feeling, many months later, after Austin had finished chemo, of standing on the porch and watching my two healthy boys run around the front yard against a backdrop of those colorful blooms.
So….(this is indeed going somehwere, just bear with me), Kelly Corrigan, who I've mentioned before, whose memoir The Middle Place has been number TWO on the NYTimes Bestseller list since it came out in paperback 18 weeks ago, who I felt like I knew after reading the first two paragraphs of her work, has a website called Circus of Cancer that helps people support their friends through cancer treatment. It's geared mostly towards women with breast cancer, since that's what Kelly had, but is filled with ideas that could apply to anyone dealing with any cancer. So a few weeks ago, I clicked on the "Contact Us" button on the site and sent a message describing Becky's gift, because it was so unique and so special. I imagined that my message was floating off into cyberspace to be retrieved by an unnamed techy in a box somewhere.
Well, lo and behold, a few days later, I received an email from Kelly Corrigan herself, thanking me for sharing such a cool idea and ending with the simple and obligatory, "I hope your son's okay."
Have I said I'm not one for sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to happen? I sent her back a message that started off with, "Yeah, we hope our son's okay too" and moved through that day's drama (the radiation dilemma) and ended with "I'm sure you get people everyday who say, 'I loved your book, I feel like I know you, I want to share my story', but what the hell….I loved your book, I feel like I know you and I want to share my story." And of course, I invited her to the blog.
Well, within a matter of hours I got a message back sounding like she was truly interested and moved by our situation and saying she would read the blog. I got all excited, oh my god, the Kelly Corrigan was going to read my blog, I can't believe this, maybe we would start some sort of a dialogue….. And then nothing happened and I figured she must say that to everyone who shares their sob story with her or maybe she really meant to but got busy and forgot all about me . . . and then one night about ten days later I opened a message from her that says she read my blog and would be happy to share my stuff with her agent!
Well, this is like stumbling upon the holy grail of the literary world. To be personally referred to an agent by one of their star clients, one of their star best-selling clients, is golden. Agents are usually looking for reasons to reject submissions, especially unsolicited submissions. But in a case like this (which I have to imagine–and hope–Kelly doesn't do very often, because why would she abuse her relationship with her agent like that?), the agent would actually be looking for reasons to like it. Long story short, Kelly forwarded my first 16 pages (with NO query letter!) to her agent who has said (to Kelly) that I am a strong writer and she will request more in a few weeks.
So I've revised it all yet again and am ready to hit send if and when that moment arrives. In the meantime, I'm occupying myself with other big things!
I think I owe Becky some tulips……..
I don't think I've ever written a post that has generated so many comments, both here and on Facebook, so thank you for your thoughts and your encouragement.
More musings as we work through this decision: A few of you referenced my mom and the fact that my family moved from a "regular" house to a larger and grander one shortly after the birth of my brother Cory. (My parents, three teenagers and a baby had been sharing one bathroom, so I guess I can't complain!) Well, my mother hated living in that new house and we moved again within eight months. But–and this is important–it wasn't the house that made her so unhappy; it was the neighborhood she'd left behind. We had lived on the corner of two vibrant blocks that were absolutely swarming with kids. We walked to school in a rowdy pack, played our summer night games (Ghost in the Graveyard and Release the Dungeon) across a dozen backyards, had elaborate block parties with bike races and square dances. My parents met people on that street who become their closest friends and have remained so to this day. So, despite the fact that we only moved a mile away, it was a huge loss for my mom. As a stay-at-home mother, she felt isolated and lonely on a block filled with old rich people. (Ironically, that very street today is alive with young families, but the turnover had yet to occur.)
So it wasn't that my mom regretted moving to a larger house (in fact, the house they moved to next and that they still live in today is larger than that one was). It's the people that surrounded them. The lesson here for me is a big one. We live on a nice street now, as I've already said and we have lovely neighbors, people who are friendly and stop to chat and follow along with Austin's story (and I know a lot of you are reading and I truly mean no offense). But these are not our closest friends and they are not the best friends of our children. In fact, there are surprisingly few families with young kids on this block.
Now the block we might move to, the block with the big house, is swarming with young children. I've been told by one woman (part of the group currently lobbying us to move there) that there are 43 kids in a block-and-a-half stretch. Forty-three kids who have bike races and lemonade stands, play wiffle ball and kick-the-can, and who walk together in a noisy jumble to public school.
My mom is actually strongly encouraging this move, saying things like, "Oh, I walked by it today and that house doesn't look all that big." Now anyone who knows my mom and her reluctant attitude towards extravagence, knows how funny this is. But, in her mind, there is nothing like belonging to a street of families who've come together to raise their children. That is the strongest bond. It is our village.
We're leaning towards it, if you couldn't already tell. We go back tomorrow with a contractor we know and trust who will help us gauge the significance and necessity (and cost) of improvements and upkeep. For those of you who've asked very specific questions, it does have all new copper plumbing and a brand new roof, and yes, we are taking heating costs into consideration (it's one of the biggest considerations!).
As Mark and I lay in bed last night discussing it yet again (you see, that's our only chance to talk uninterrupted), we noted how happy we've been here, happy as a couple and happy as a family, and we wondered if messing with that could be a mistake. But we both agreed that the happiness and the magic is not in the house. It's not in this house and it's not in that one. It's in us. And we'll pack it up and bring it with us wherever we go.
We live in a nice house. We have a yard for the kids to play in and friendly neighbors and have renovated enough rooms to make it almost perfect. Almost. I can't help but fantasize about having a master bathroom, one where I don't have to share precious counter space with Spongebob toothpaste and that doesn't smell like stale pee every other day (little boys have notoriously bad aim, you know). I fantasize about having closets in my own room instead of using half of Austin's and the one in the spare room and the drawers below the linen closet in the hallway. I fantasize about a mudroom, complete with hooks and shelves for each person's boots and cleats and backpacks, so we don't trip on the shoes that inevitably pile up in the back hall.
So we've been looking. Just casually, without a realtor, we've gone to Sunday open houses in our community, never venturing outside the borders of Cleveland Heights. Every time we check out a house I can picture us living there. I mentally move us in, decide which colors ot paint the walls, know who would reside in each bedroom. But Mark is skeptical (or maybe he's just practical), considering the cost of utilities and noting the number of improvements we'd have to make before we really loved it.
But this past weekend, we visited a house that I've passed over several times, skipping its previous open houses and not fully considering it, because it is a mansion. Not just big, not even just huge, but a mansion. And they are practically giving it away. It's owned by a relocation company and they just want to be done with it. I mean, it is an absolute steal. And there's nothing wrong with it, this is no fixer upper. It has redone floors and a gourmet kitchen and a master suite complete with two walk-in closets, an office and a "glamour bath." That is a silly word to use, I know, but this IS a glamour bath. It's on a great street with family after family of young kids. Little ones live on both sides including a five-year-old boy right next door who Braedan could walk to elementary school with every day for the next six years. There is nothing wrong with it, except that it's so damn big.
The living space is reasonable. The first floor is smaller (relative term!) than the rest because there's an attached three-car garage that adds considerable square footage to the second and third floors. But we would use the first floor in its entirety. And the second floor is divided up so that there are two bedrooms and a bathroom close to the master suite (oh, I love saying that: master suite), with an additional two farther down a long hall, that could be used as a playroom and maybe a workout room (oh, I love saying that!). So the boys wouldn't feel far away from us in the night, which was a concern in some of the houses we've looked at.
I'm not worried about living in the bigness of it. We could definitely use it (with the exception of the third floor, which the realtor aptly described as a city unto itself). But I worry that I would feel uncomfortable having that be my house. Maybe it's silly (and this is yet another way I am like my mother), but I would almost be embarassed to call that my home. It's so grand. What would it say about us? What snap judgements would people make when they see that we live there? I can already picture myself for years to come telling people we'd only bought it because it was so outrageously cheap. Do I need to excuse our excess? I don't know.
I'm always trying to instill in the boys the idea that we can't have everything we want, that sometimes other people will have fancier cars or better toys or a bigger trampoline than we do (this house comes with a trampoline, by the way, so both boys are fully committed to the move). I read them The Lorax, both for its protect-the-environment message and for its not-so-subtle hint that "biggering and biggering and biggering and biggering" is not what everyone needs. And yet here we are, thinking about seriously biggering.
I welcome your thoughts on this one. How does where you live define who you are? How do you turn down something so incredible, that you can actually afford, because it's "too much"? Mark and I lay awake last night talking about it, reminding each other and ourselves that we'll never find a house that nice for that value, and I commented yet again about how torn I was. And Mark said, "We'll make the right decision. And whatever decision we make, we'll make it right."
My mom is so herself. I mean, what you see is what you get with this woman. There are no false pretenses, nothing subtle or hidden–she is who she is. Everything she says, does, wears screams Nancy.
She's honest, to a fault even. She absolutely believes that the truth is the best policy, under all circumstances. (So don't ask her if that outfit makes you look fat unless you are indeed prepared to hear the answer.) I'm a pretty honest person myself, about the big things, but I am not above telling my kids we can't go to the park that's conveniently located right around the corner from our house because it's closed. . . for naptime. Now my mom would see this as a teachable moment: kids need to learn to handle disappointment, not be spared the truth even when it's easier, blah blah blah. And then she would gently reflect their feelings back to them: I can see that you're feeling very disappointed. It's hard not to get what we want, isn't it?
She's also supersmart (and always beats me and my brother in the adult spelling bee), but she's patient and anything but arrogant. She pays attention to everything and manages to keep up on the important details of so many lives. She's a sharp reader and a great writer and one of the few people I've allowed to go all out with my entire manuscript. She made countless corrections and suggestions and then, on the very last page, in typical supportive-mom fashion, wrote,"You're an author, Krissy! I LOVED it!!!!!"
We make fun of her in my family. She's sort of the easy target, because she does things like lose all her documents on her computer . . . "without touching anything on the keyboard, I swear!" And when she takes pictures, instead of just pushing down the single button, she pushes down the entire camera, inevitably cutting off everyone's foreheads. So we tease her and sometimes get impatient or roll our eyes, "Mah-ahm," but we love her and admire her and we're all proud to say we belong to her.
She's very well-known in our town, has been a member of City Council for almost twelve years. She's braver than she looks on the outside too. My brothers and I actually thought she had thin skin because she wants people to like her, but she's tough. She led the fight in our community to give benefits to the same-sex partners of city employees. It was quite a battle too. I'll never forget those City Council meetings with people angrily thumping their Bibles and shouting, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" (You have to admit, even if you totally disagree with the sentiment, that that's a pretty funny line.) But she knew what was right and good and she stood tall and fought hard.
We look alike, me and my mom. Except she let her hair go gray in her late twenties and I color mine with great regularity. And we sound alike and mimic each other's gestures. People who newly meet me often give me a funny look, an I-feel-like-I-already-know-you look and then halfway through our conversation, they'll interrupt and exclaim, "Oh! You're Nancy Dietrich's daughter, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am," I reply.
And I feel proud.
Happy Mother's Day, mom.
For The Rest of My Days
My husband Mark and I left a cold and snowy Cleveland on Sunday morning to fly to Washington DC, our first solo trip since the birth, cancer diagnosis, near death and remarkable recovery of our second son, Austin. Once on the plane, it was clear that we were a part of something big: everyone was talking and joking, asking which balls people were attending and what tickets people had secured. There was much excitement and a genuine feeling of camaraderie — we were in this together.
Sunday evening we attended the Ohio Gala Celebration at the Mayflower Hotel which was fabulous — good food, good drink, the entire Ohio State Marching Band! People warned us to enjoy this because it was bound to be better than the official Midwestern Ball (which we had worked very hard to get tickets for), but we didn't quite understand the seriousness of that statement until later (keep reading).
Monday was a day of rest and exploration. The entire city felt like a party: bands were playing on street corners, everyone was wearing their Obama buttons and Obama hats and Obama scarves and Obama t-shirts (it was a street vendor's dream come true), every bar and restaurant had signs advertising their Inaugural specials and hawking ObaMartinis. We wandered onto Dupont Circle where we encountered an enormous Declaration of Independence on which we signed our own names and those of Braedan and Austin (safely at home with Gram and Gramp). Mark took part in a mass shoe-throwing at a huge blow-up of George W Bush ("Give Bush the Boot" it said and we happily did).
And then came Tuesday. January 20, 2009. The day we'd all been waiting for. It was here. The future had arrived. We left our rented apartment at 7:30 in the morning and joined an already crowded sidewalk of Obama supporters, walking the 3.9 miles to the National Mall. Every step we took, the crowds and the excitement grew. And as we got closer, the confusion grew as well. We were directed this way and that by well-meaning but poorly-informed officers (many from out of town and with little sense of direction). We walked through the 395 tunnel, a stretch of highway that runs under the Mall suddenly filled with the walking masses, growing thicker by the second. We finally found our "line," a swarm of Silver ticket-holders awaiting the removal of the barricades at what we thought was our gate. Minutes turned into hours as we covered mere feet of ground. We made it to the road, believing our sacred spot was just across it, only to wait for dozens of horse trailers to cross to the parade route nearby.
We finally crossed the road only to discover we were in another holding cell: a mass of thousands in front of the American Indian Museum and none of us could see above the crowds to even know which way we were going or what was happening. Despite the cold and growing confusion and frustration, everyone's spirits remained high. People were sharing what little information they had, letting wheelchairs through, warning others of upcoming steps or curbs. There was laughter and joking about how special we all thought we were when we got those Silver Tickets (not so special after all), brief snippets of "Where are you from?" and "Isn't this something?" Finally, finally, the police removed the barricades and let us onto the Mall, where we found a good (enough) spot with a slightly-obstructed view of a Jumbotron.
And then it started, just like that, no more waiting. The screen showed the important people walking down the steps onto the Capitol, as we watched in awe, alternately cheering and booing (and relishing that sight of Cheney, weakened and weak). I turned my back as Rick Warren gave the invocation. Mark thought this went against Obama's call for unity and tolerance but I think Rick Warren goes against Obama's call for unity and tolerance. We listened to Aretha and Yoyo Ma, swaying to the music and to keep warm. We jumped up and down as Biden was sworn in.
And then suddenly the moment was upon us. The Moment. It happened so fast. One minute we were regular Americans and the next minute we were witnessing history. We screamed and shouted and jumped up and down and laughed and cried and embraced perfect strangers. An older white man stopped three black women and asked to take their picture. They stood arm in arm in their finery — full-length fur coats and hats embellished with feathers and flowers, beaming with pride. As they walked off, one of them said, "Oh that makes me want to cry" and I reached out and touched her arm. She smiled and started to go, but turned back and wrapped me in her arms. We stood there, hugging, patting each other on the back and crying tears of joy, two strangers, as different as can be, brought together in that great moment, brought together by this great man.
We listened to what we could of the speech, stuck as we were between two sets of speakers with a slight but distracting delay. And then it was over and we began filing out, star-struck and awestruck by what we had experienced. And then the real chaos began. People were still well-behaved but no one knew where to go and each time we walked in one direction, roads would suddenly be barricaded in front of us. We spent a good ten minutes stuck at one intersection where the crowd was so thick that there was literally no movement in any direction. In front of us, officers were shouting, "You have to turn back" and behind us people were shouting, "There's no room to turn back!" Mark and I kept our spirits up, shaking our heads in wonder and laughing at the insanity of the situation. I was getting increasingly worried that I would never again see the inside of a bathroom. Somehow, an hour after we'd left the Mall, we ended up back at our exit, that elusive Silver Gate, and meandered through the underground tunnel where the crowds were dispersing and we were able to move forward without being crushed. Eight hours after it began, we were back in our apartment with bowls of chicken noodle soup and cups of hot tea, exhausted and sore but basking in the O-glow.
After napping on the couch with the Parade on in the background, we picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off to put on our black-tie attire and head to the Official Midwestern Ball. Now I'd read that these balls don't really live up to expectations but I must say I didn't fully get that until we arrived. Oh, and we arrived by walking another six blocks (in heels and bare legs) because our cab couldn't get close enough to the Convention Center. Lo and behold, there was even a cash bar! A plastic cup of mediocre wine cost nine dollars. I will not tell you how much we spent on our tickets, but cash bar is not what we had in mind. We ate small plates of cafeteria-style pasta and wandered to the far side of the massive hall, away from the Motown band and the dance floor, to where a crowd seemed to be gathering. And we happened upon Our Spot. Clearly, this was the place to be. A stage was set up in front of us, with a moat around it for Secret Service, two screens on either side, and we were three rows back. We made some more friends and waited and waited and waited. Sheryl Crow helping us pass the timeSheryl Crow appeared and played five songs, rocking the house for a very tired crowd. Shortly thereafter, Joe and Jill Biden arrived. He spoke and they danced and we all cheered and snapped photos, thinking we'd be graced with Obama's presence in mere moments.
And then we waited. Guys came in to switch the musical set. We waited. Someone came and checked the sound system. We all cheered and then we waited. Someone else came and fluffed the flag. We all cheered and then we waited. The sign language interpreter arrived and took her spot on the corner of the stage. We all cheered and then we waited. The color guard appeared and a military band struck up some music. We all cheered and then we waited. And finally, three hours after staking out our spot, the glorious strains of "Hail to the Chief" reached our ears and we all screamed and started taking photos of an empty stage, wanting to catch the exact moment when they appeared.
And there they were. Just at that moment when we were beginning to wonder if it was all worth it, there they were. Michelle and Barack strode out on the stage, so obviously in love with one another, so obviously ready for the task ahead. He spoke and they danced. We took picture after picture, holding our camera up over the crowds and snapping away in any direction. It was quick. They were there for maybe ten minutes. But it was all worth it.
And we turned and walked away, wondering whether to use the rest of our drink tickets or just head home. Footsore and weary, exhausted but exhilarated, we opted for home and ventured out to find a cab, assuming there would be a line of them waiting for the thousands of exiting guests. Not so fast. The roads were still blocked from traffic, so we walked in what we believed was the direction of "home," cold and achy from ten miles of walking already. Remember the high heels and bare legs? Well, twenty minutes later with no cabs in sight, temperature in the 20s and wind-chill in the teens, we were miserable and frustrated and wondering what on earth to do now. Finally, finally (again finally) an empty cab appeared and the heat was blasting and they whisked us back to our place where we quickly fell into bed.
Wednesday afternoon we arrived back in Cleveland, thoroughly glad we did it and thoroughly committed to never doing it again. There is a reason it was "once in a lifetime." As soon as we stepped off the plane, the magic seemed to disappear. Our 1.5 million new best friends were spread back out across the country, the giddy sense of hope and togetherness was replaced by an ordinary workday feel. I tried to position my shiny new "I Was There" button so anyone I passed by could see it, but no one made eye contact, no one smiled and nodded in that "Oh god, me too" kind of way. The Moment was over and I felt sort of let down. And then it hit me. I realized, I understood, that the parties might be over, the parade had finished, the celebration wrapped up. But it was all there inside of me. Forever more, literally for the rest of my days, I will have it inside of me. I witnessed history. I was a part of history. I WAS THERE.
Austin had his follow-up appointment with the surgeon today, a quick ten-minute look at his belly after a two hour wait. Lovely, yes? But the doctor had been in surgery so I can't exactly complain about him taking his time there and not with us. He thought Austin looked fabulous and was healing beautifully. He commented yet again on how good the kidney looked when they were in there (and I literally mean "in there"). He admitted that when he did Austin's fourth surgery in October 07 and removed 40% of that kidney along with four small tumors, he never ever expected the remaining kidney to do as well as it's doing. So my little guy continues to surprise and impress, even the world famous doctors. And look at him — how could he not?
I think I've been wrong. This book started out all about Austin. And it is obviously Austin's story that sits at the center and that moves the narrative along. But this book is really about me and about being a mother. Or a parent. Or a person, for that matter. This is a book about hardship, of course, and overcoming hardship, but it is also about appreciating the little things, about relishing the joys large and small that come your way, about remembering what's important.
It all sounds sort of cliched, "every cloud has a silver lining," "life is what you make of it," but it's still true. I guess it's time for me to sit down and rewrite these queries from scratch with that as my selling point — the human part not just the cancer part. Who really walks into a bookstore and chooses a book about cancer anyway, unless you're living it at that moment. It's all pretty depressing after all. And while my book is no doubt sad, depressing it is not.
This is such a revelation for me. I'm so glad I posted those letters and got such thorough and thoughtful feedback from so many of you (through all my various modes of communication, especially — of course — Facebook) about what has kept you coming back, even when the life-and-death moments were safely behind us, and reading my every word for the past year and a half. I wish I'd done it sooner.
Thank you. Yet again . . . thank you.
See, it's a good thing when I post those big whiny complaints because I get so much encouragement and positive feedback, it keeps me going. I especially appreciated hearing from all the people who said they could tell exactly which words in the DF article were mine and which were the editor's. I guess my voice is being heard above the static after all!
I'm taking a deep breath and diving right in by posting two verisons of my query letter for your very expert review. I feel nervous about this, like it's easier to send these to perfect strangers (even perfect strangers who hold the key to my future career) than to show them to you. Sort of like how it's emotionally safer to make out with some random crush at a party than to kiss your best guy friend (I'm talking years and years ago, people). You know, that sense of vulnerability or fear of judgement that exists with the people who know you best. But oh well, I've never been one for sitting on the sidelines avoiding vulnerability, so here goes.
Keep in mind that a query letter serves as your introduction to a literary agent, who you hope will then read your enclosed pages (usually five to ten, depending on what they ask for) instead of automatically putting them in the reject pile. This golden letter is one page and one page only (and both of mine, which officially fit on one page, veer towards long so don't tell me to combine it all into one version). The query should include your hook (the quickie statement about what makes your book special, which I have yet to perfect), a brief synopsis or overview of your story, and any relevant information about the author (which can be left out if you have no publishing history). Agents receive upwards of fifty unsolicited queries a day, so they are rather quick to reject them. Feeling desperate yet?
And now…..
Version One:
Dear Gatekeeper of my Future (or Mr/Mrs So-and-So),
The luckiest. That is what we called ourselves, that is what we believed we were. We were wrong.
My 81,900-word memoir Whoosh: One Ordinary Family, One Extraordinary Year traces my son Austin's eight-month battle with bilateral Wilms' tumor, a rare and sneaky pediatric kidney cancer. All the elements of a typical cancer story are present: A family's stunned disbelief as we slowly reconcile the idea of this dreaded, deadly disease with our lively, lovely child. The litany of gruesome medical procedures, surgery after surgery, complication after infection, night after night in the hospital. The anguish of parents forced to admit that even the fiercest love may not conquer all. But this narrative touches upon the unexpected as well: The atheist mother grappling with how to accept the prayers of others on behalf of her child. The moments of laughter and joy, normal family life carrying on despite our horrific new reality. The concern for all that our other son stands to lose, from his beloved brother to the gift of growing up in a home not shadowed by sadness. And also this: There is hope, amidst the gritty and the heartbreaking, the mundane and the humorous, there is always hope and there is always love.
Whoosh tells Austin's story with raw immediacy, interweaving postings from the Carepage blog I wrote during his illness with private journal entries. The inclusion of the most poignant messages posted by Carepage visitors lends a conversational tone to the book, drawing the reader directly into our lives. Like Kelly Corrigan's The Middle Place, you can "come for the writing, stay for the drama. Or vice versa. Either way, you won't regret it," (San Francisco Chronicle). But unlike Corrigan, who is stuck between being a mother and being a daughter, trying to balance caring for her sick father with caring for her sick self with caring for her healthy children, my role is unambiguous: I am the mother. And my task is clear and pure: I will care for my son, I must save my son.
I have enclosed the first xx pages and would be happy to send the completed manuscript upon your request. Please note that I am simultaneously submitting this to other agencies. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Some comments, although I should really let you think these things on your own: It's often recommended to compare yourself to a current book or author, while also pointing out how your work differs from theirs. Of course, my comment about Kelly Corrigan is a tad obnoxious as she is on the NYT Bestseller list and I basically said I was as good a writer as she. At least I didn't say Oprah would love my book (which she would!).
And numero dos:
Dear xx,
The setting: From a hot July day to the cusp of spring the following year, from Cleveland's premiere children's hospital to our nearby home and back again and back again and back again. The protagonist: Ten-month-old Austin, a sweet and spunky boy facing the fight of his life, while his parents and brother watch from the sidelines, doing all they can but never convinced they can do enough. The antagonist: The brutal rogue that is cancer, six tumors destroying Austin's kidneys, taking up vital space in his small body and challenging him and his family to an epic battle.
Whoosh: One Ordinary Family, One Extraordinary Year, an 81,900-word memoir, traces my son's eight-month battle with bilateral Wilms' tumor, a rare and sneaky pediatric cancer of the kidney. Austin is obviously the hero of the book, but it is also a mother's story and a mother's journey, as she moves from a gloriously normal life to the edge of disaster and back again. Part medical mystery, part epic adventure, part motivational guide, Whoosh is, at its essence, a love story: a great big public declaration of a mother's love for her sick son, her healthy son, her husband, the family, friends, doctors and nurses, and wide community that sustained one family through its darkest hour.
Told with raw immediacy as the drama unfolds, Whoosh interweaves postings from the Carepage blog I wrote during Austin's illness with private journal entries. The inclusion of the most poignant messages posted by Carepage visitors lends a conversational tone to the book, drawing the reader directly into our lives. While Austin's tale is both as stunningly extraordinary and sadly ordinary as any other sick child's tale, it is rendered with such an abiding love and endless optimism that this book would appeal to anyone who has ever been afraid, down on their luck, or faced with a nearly impossible task. It is a lesson in hope, in community, in courage, a lesson in living and dying and loving.
I have enclosed the first xx pages and would be happy to send the completed manuscript upon your request. Please note that I am simultaneously submitting this to other agencies. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Alrighty, there you have it. Please post your comments here, good and bad, I can take it, I promise!


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Town Tech announces it's two-year anniversary serving Cazenovia and the surrounding area with technology support and repair needs.
Owner and founder, Erich Sparks, a life-long Cazenovia resident, founded Town Tech to fill a much-needed service in the community. From budget-friendly computer, cell phone, tablet, and other hardware repairs to one-on-one tutoring and support to business services like managed computers, website development, and network set-up. On-site or at our conveniently located storefront in the heart of Cazenovia. If it's tech, we can help.
To celebrate our anniversary and say thank you to the community we're offering one lucky person two yearly support plans. One for yourself and someone else. A spouse, family member, friend, teacher, accountant, or random stranger of their choice. That's a value of $600! A winner will be chosen on February 28th, 2019. No purchase necessary.
To enter the drawing visit towntechrepairs.com/contest.
Our yearly support plan is perfect for the individual who needs a little help from time to time. It's a one-on-one tutoring session with unlimited visits. Got a new device or just one you can't figure out? Come in, ask your questions, and get help from a patient and courteous expert.
In addition to our contest we'd like to extend an additional thank you of 10% off your next visit to everyone who's supported us these past two years and to welcome new customers to Town Tech.
To claim your coupon visit our website at towntechrepairs.com/coupon.
To enter the contest visit: towntechrepairs.com/contest
To get your free coupon visit: towntechrepairs.com/coupon


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Herbal Remedies for Backache
Back ache frequently moves when something's amiss with the delicate column of bones, muscular tissues, ligaments and joints that holds you up. But many other conditions, like strains, arthritis, hairline backbone fractures and even kidney infections, can motive your lower back to throb.
Backache, is one of the maximum common conditions with chronic pain. The ache may be moderate, tense in many ailments like leucorrhea and can be extreme in sciatica or slipped disc. The problem can cause problem in bending forward and also on sideways. Feeling as though whole area is sore and sensitive to even moderate touch.
- Herbs like Chanderprabha Vati, Kaishore Guggul are beneficial natural remedies for back pain troubles.
- If you have chronic returned ache, hold yourself warm and eat warm objects.
- Include herbs like Turmeric, Tulsi, Ginger and Garlic in each day weight-reduction plan.
- Boil ten Tulasi leaves in one cup of water till the syrup is decreased to half a cup. Add salt to it after cooling. Take this aggregate day by day. For intense backache, take it two times an afternoon.
- Make a decoction of garlic, onion, ginger, turmeric in a hundred ml water. Mix 100 ml Mustard Oil into it. Heat it and rub down it in the back. It is only among herbal treatments for lower back ache.
- Kaishore guggul may be very useful among many herbal remedies for backache. Take two pills thrice daily to put off backache, after food.
- You ought to take a mixture of 5 black pepper corns, 5 cloves and one-gram dry ginger powder, 5-gram fenugreek powder and 5-gram Turmeric and consume as a minimum twice an afternoon.
- Include in weight-reduction plan tomato, carrot, cabbage, cucumber, lettuce, and as a minimum gently cooked veggies which includes cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, carrot, culmination.
- While drowsing, sleep on a company mattress. Avoid napping face down.
- Do the physical activities each day, 10-20 times each. Increase the variety of times as your strength will increase. Do now not do workout in acute and severe backache. Just take relaxation.
- Avoid constipation. Constipation also can purpose backache.
Home Remedies for Back Pain
Back Ache is the situation which causes irritation, an interruption to our work. In olden days' elderly people used to suffer from this back pain but now a day's young people are also getting suffered. Some of the Symptoms of back ache are pain at the spine area, pain in the back and pain at the hips. Due to this back ache one feel restlessness and can't sleep. There are many reasons for this back ache due to the food we take without nutrients, lack of exercise, poor sitting position. there are many home remedies for back pain. They are:
- Garlic consists of anti-inflammation properties which are very effective in treating back pain.
- Garlic also consists of the selenium which is very useful in treating the back pain caused by arthritis.
- Garlic is also used in treating back ache because it consists of various chemical properties.
Coconut oil also consists of anti-inflammatory properties which are helpful in reducing back pain and also in strengthening the muscles.
- Take 8 cloves of garlic and crush it and take 3 tbsp. of coconut oil and mix them.
- Now heat them for some time.
- store that in the glass.
- Massage it on the back.
- Keep it for 1 hour and wash it afterwards.
- If you do that two times daily it will be very effective.
Basil leaves consists of anti-inflammation properties. Anti-bacterial properties, phenolic compounds.
- Take glass of water.
- Take 12 basil leaves and mix it in the water.
- Boil it for 30 minutes.
- Then cool the solution up to the room temperature.
- Then drink it.
this basil leaves are very effective in treating back pain.
Ginger consists of many advantages. It consists of anti-inflammatory properties so that it can decrease the inflammatory diseases like arthritis.
- Take a root of ginger and then smash it.
- Take 2 tbsp. of turmeric powder.
- Then boil it and make the tea
- If you want nectar include it for taste.
- Drink it
This is very useful. The ginger is very helpful in treating back pain.
Poppy seeds consists of very useful elements which are very effective in treating back pain.
- Take 100 gms of poppy seeds
- Take 100 gms of rocky candy
- Grind that
- Mix that two spoons of mixture in the milk and drink it twice a day.
Wheat consists of various compounds consists of analgesic effect.
- Soak the wheat for a night
- Then add coriander and milk to the soaked wheat.
- Then boil that mixture.
- Then drink the mixture.
This will give a good relief for the back pain.
Herbal Oil for Backache
Herbal oil is used for massage for getting relief for back pain and helps in the relaxation of muscles. Herbal oils such as eucalyptus oil, almond oil, olive oil are used in treating back pain. Spine is the most important part in the body which has to be taken care. The oils consist of anti-inflammatory properties.
- Take herbal oils like almond oil, coconut oil etc.
- Massage it on the back pain area.
- Left it for some time and the wash it.
This herbal oil is helpful in treatment of back ache and it is the best home remedies for back pain
These are the simple home remedies for back pain.
Have You Read my Previous Article about 12 Incredible Medicinal Benefits of Papaya Leaf Extract


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Pharmacists should have expanded role in providing naloxone, AMA says
AMA's House of Delegates adopts policies
The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates adopted a resolution encouraging a larger role for pharmacists in efforts to expand access to opioid overdose–reversing medications, specifically collaborative practice agreements and standing orders. The provision is part of a package of new policies aimed at increasing access to naloxone and other drugs that prevent opioid overdose deaths.
Pharmacists who provide non–patient-specific naloxone—not just to vulnerable patients but their families and friends—are qualified to educate patients on how to identify and respond to an opioid overdose, AMA noted in its recommendations.
Another policy supported liability protections for physicians and other authorized health professionals—including pharmacists—to prescribe, dispense, and administer naloxone. AMA encouraged similar leeway for community organizations, law enforcement agencies, correctional facilities, and schools where not otherwise prohibited by statute.
Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota, and New Mexico currently allow pharmacists to prescribe naloxone, and several more allow pharmacists who have established collaborative practice agreements with physicians to do so.
Other policies promoted timely and appropriate access to nonopioid and nonpharmacologic treatments for pain and supported efforts to uncouple payments to health care facilities and patient satisfaction scores relating to pain evaluation and management. AMA also urged health plans to include naloxone in multiple formulations on its preferred drug lists and to minimize cost sharing. In addition, the association encouraged increasing third-party (e.g., family, friends) access to naloxone.


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YOU! DEGRASSE! It's time to make Pluto a proper planet again, says NASA boffin
Cruel 'dwarf' taunts must end NOW, m'kay?
Those who feel that Pluto has always been a planet and jolly well ought to be one again have received a boost - this time from a top NASA boffin, albeit a slightly biased one.
"It's very hard not to call an object with this level of complexity in its geology, and such complex seasons, a planet," said Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute, during a press conference about the probe's latest update.
"Astronomers and planetary scientists differ on this question but that's how science works – scientists make individual decisions and consensus is reached. I think we're going through a period of transition at the moment."
Data from the New Horizons space probe has shown Pluto to be geologically active, with new glacier plains of nitrogen ice carving out new surface features and eroding away impact craters from meteor strikes.
It has a large, hazy atmosphere extending 100 miles from the surface, and the New Horizons data has revealed a lot about the dwarf planet's history.
We heard during the briefing that Pluto is almost perfectly spherical, which was unexpected considering what we think happened during its formation.
It's likely that way back in its history, Pluto was hit by a massive object that tore away a huge chunk of its mass, which went on to form into the freezeworld's five moons.
But no remnant of that impact can be seen on the surface or in its current clean, spherical form.
That means that Pluto must have been spinning very rapidly after the impact, William McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator at Washington University said, before reaching equilibrium with its relatively massive moon Charon.
Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration


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Building the Right Environment to Support AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning
According to a new report from market research firm IDC, the application development and deployment (AD&D) software market will likely generate $80.6 billion in revenue this year. That's a 3.7 percent increase over 2011. The three largest AD&D software vendors--Oracle, IBM and Microsoft--dominated the market with a combined 54.7 percent market share.
The AD&D market includes database software, distributed cache services managers, process middleware, business intelligence and 19 other software segments. IDC expects that the distributed cache services managers market will grow the most of any AD&D segment in 2013 after posting 16 percent growth in the first half of 2012. Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSes) comprise 34 percent of the AD&D category and are expected to show strong growth in sales throughout 2013 and following years.
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Fred and Ellie are twins. But not identical (because thats impossible for a boy and a girl). They do like all the same things, though. Especially video games. Which they are very good at. They arent that good, however, at much else like, for example, football, or dealing with the school bullies.Then, they meet the Mystery Man, who sends them a video game controller, which doesnt look like any other controller theyve ever seen.
- 9780007554546
- Autor
- Baddiel David
- Kód zboží
- 161220
- Rozměry
- 197 x 129 x 28


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While not as far-reaching as the GT3 platform, the GTE ranks often produces some of the top GT racing talent in the world, thanks to heavy factory participation in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Special Contributor John Dagys take a look at the top-10 drivers from the GTE/GTLM classes from the 2016 international sports car racing season.
10. Nick Tandy (IMSA race-winner)
While it was a tough season for Porsche in the GTLM ranks with only a single, inherited, victory at Long Beach after Fred Makowiecki's collision with Tommy Milner, the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours winner held strongly as one of the top drivers in the category. 32-year-old Tandy and the equally potent Patrick Pilet led the way for the CORE autosport-run Porsche North America squad in the WeatherTech Championship, which battled tire woes and BoP with its upgraded 911 RSR. Few could argue that his long-awaited promotion to Porsche's LMP1 team for 2017 is richly deserved.
9. Tommy Milner (IMSA champion, Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours winner)
Corvette Racing's year to remember included strong runs from the American driver, particularly Milner's late-race charge at Road America that delivered he and Oliver Gavin their fourth GTLM class victory of the year in the WeatherTech Championship. A race-ending accident at Le Mans was one of the only negative points from Milner's championship-winning season, although the team were not in contention for the podium anyway.
8. Harry Tincknell (WEC GTE-Pro race-winner)
The protege of Allan McNish showcased his potential at the wheel of a GT car this year, with the former Nissan LMP1 factory pilot having been one of the standout drivers in the Ford's WEC program. Tincknell's early season performance in the Ford was rewarded with an unexpected full-season drive, capped off with class wins in Fuji and Shanghai alongside Andy Priaulx. With his European Le Mans Series LMP2 title factored in, it was a hugely successful year for the likeable Englishman.
7. Dirk Mueller (Le Mans 24 Hours GTE-Pro winner)
The ex-BMW factory ace was one of the leading Ford drivers in the WeatherTech Championship. While unable to deliver a class win in the States, Mueller helped take the Blue Oval to a historic victory at Le Mans, alongside an equally strong Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais, having been the quickest GTE-Pro driver all weekend in the French endurance classic.
6. James Calado (WEC GTE-Pro race-winner)
Tasked with filling Toni Vilander's boots alongside Ferrari standout Gianmaria Bruni, the ex-open wheel ace came of age this year, showing his true potential at the wheel of a GT car. Having been hampered by BoP struggles all year, Calado and Bruni managed to score only a single victory but ended up on the podium in every race the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE finished, following retirements at Spa and Le Mans. Calado also added victory in the Petit Le Mans to his growing resume, ending the Risi Competizione team's spell of rotten luck.
5. Ryan Briscoe (IMSA runner-up)
The ex-IndyCar ace was among the leading drivers at Ford, helping deliver the first win for the American manufacturer at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca alongside Richard Westbrook, in what was arguably the strongest GTLM driver pairing in the WeatherTech Championship. The Australian's past experience with Ganassi certainly played a part in this, as he, Westbrook and engineer Brad Goldberg struck an easy rapport.
4. Oliver Gavin (IMSA champion, Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours winner)
It was a banner year for Corvette Racing and the tall Englishman played a key part in nearly all of its success. From the photo-finish at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, to a repeat victory at Sebring and claiming Corvette's 100th win at Lime Rock Park, Gavin and Milner took the Bowtie brigade to a convincing GTLM championship, despite a season-long battle with Ford. Although Gavin was unable to defend his Le Mans title, it was certainly not through a lack of effort and application.
3. Nicki Thiim (WEC GT Drivers Champion)
The rapid Dane enjoyed a standout year, teaming with countryman Marco Sorensen for the WEC GTE World Championship, with class wins at Circuit of The Americas and Bahrain. After seasons split in Porsche Supercup, ADAC GT Masters and other championships, Thiim's sole focus on the WEC with Aston Martin Racing certainly paid off, despite potential BoP favors and the controversy surrounding the constant chopping and changing during the year. An enormously popular figure in the team, 'Dansky Jr' has a long career ahead of him at this level.
2. Richard Westbrook (IMSA race-winner)
Perhaps the quickest GTLM driver in the WeatherTech Championship all year, the Englishman quickly adapted back to his GT roots and helped deliver a strong first season for Ford. Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe's class victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the first for the Ford GT, kicked off a three-race win streak for the pairing. Westbrook's season-high three poles also showed his strength as one of the best GT pilots in the world – with improved durability from the GT, the GTLM title has to be the goal for Westbrook in 2017.
1. Gianmaria Bruni (WEC GTE-Pro race-winner)
Ferrari's standout driver, Bruni was unable to show his strengths through much of the WEC season, due to factors out of his control – namely unreliability and the BoP controversy that struck the GTE-Pro class. The Italian ace, however, upped his game, especially with the arrival of Calado as his new co-driver in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. While only claiming one class victory at the Nurburgring after Bruni put a classic move on Thiim, the pairing should have won many more.
Honorable Mentions: Marco Sorensen (WEC GT Drivers Champion), Davide Rigon (WEC GT Drivers runner-up), Joey Hand (Le Mans 24 Hours GTE-Pro winner), Pedro Lamy (WEC GTE-Am runner-up) and Bill Auberlen (IMSA two-time pole-sitter).


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Now this his is something I produced for my personal Facebook account a day or so after the Manchester arena attack as I do with many of the attacks of recent. The second attack in London has since pushed me to post it here for many would be mistaken to find the past much more peaceful than our current climate. What I am trying to really get at here is that time and time again the world, the UK and Manchester in this case have had their liberties defied by fellow people we are forced to humanize. No matter how much solidarity you wish to partake in, those who brought you there will try to go the extra mile and in doing so will make you and your community go the extra mile too. Peterloo is a defining trope of this idea as those who participated did something very few 19th century working class men or women could do, they not only changed the minds of the country but they faced down the government too. The radicals of Peterloo may not have succeeded despite their reformative action but at least it shows that the extremists today will fall upon their backwards thoughts.
The Peterloo Massacre, Manchester 16 August 1819
Political radicalism is nothing but a pool of fiery tempers and violent potential but what lead to a crowd of 60-80,000 Manchestians facing a charge by British army cavalry?
Napoleon had not only left a reign of political turmoil in his wake but also a Britain disenfranchised with the state and security of her empire. Metropolitan domination of mercantilist trade put the industrial urban areas of Britain into a strained downturn. This can be seen in the boom of Manchester's textile manufacture which inevitably came with severe economic collapse as industrialists began to cut wages in order to stay afloat. Weavers who'd you expect to earn 15 shillings (£0.119 GBP today) for a 6 day week in 1803 saw their wages cut to 5 shillings (£0.0373 GBP today) by 1818. The Corn Laws introduced in 1815 only went on to push the breeches further with families struggling to pay the increasing food prices that would go on to plague Ireland and her potato blight in 1845-52. Political reform was needed but with 4 MPs taking on 1 million constituents and voting restricted to adult males freehold landowners with an annual rental value of 40 shillings (£80 GBP today) or more, it's easy to see why groups like the Blanketeers sought public demonstrations.
Meeting after meeting in 1819 of the Patriotic Manchester Union was deemed illegal and disbanded by local magistrates and later the government through spies who had intercepted a communique between Manchester Observer founder/union secretary Joseph Johnson and the radical politician Henry Hunt. The authorities were obviously worried about the violent intent such a meeting like on the 16th could hold as they saw it as an insurrection to appoint a new Member of Parliament which was strictly a royal duty. However Henry Hunt and the organisers saw it as an open forum to discuss a legal and effectual means to parliamentary reform with the only weapon to be brought being self-approving conscience.
So if the true intentions were that of peaceful discussion than how did it turn so deadly?
In misconstruing the enthusiasm of the gathered masses towards the arrival of Henry Hunt as an armed uprising waiting to happen, William Hulton who was chairman of the magistrates ordered arrest warrants for Hunt and his fellow hustings leaders. Chief Constable Jonathan seeking military assistance to take on the press of the crowd surrounding the hustings asked Hulton to a alert Manchester and Salford Yeomanry Calvary who in the rush to attend, knocked down a young woman-killing her two year old child making him the first fatality (William Fildes).
Hunt's arrest- Printed 27th of August 1819
The logistical nightmare of the warrants execution is now clear as the path made for the yeomanry on horseback was narrow enough to push the panicked horses into the crowd and as the yeomanry attempted to remove banners and flags from the crowd after the arrests, they were seen to be swiping indiscriminately with their sabres. Of course the Yeomanry's loss of commanded temper and the masses!s attempts to defend themselves from sabre blows excited Hulton to order the 15th Hussars and the Cheshire yeomanry to charge at the crowd from opposite ends of the field in defence of their horseback brothers. The 88th regiment of Foot stationed at the main exit with bayonets fixed made crowd dispersion difficult and so after 10 minutes the 600 wounded were left clear to witness the 11 dead left behind by the cavalry's charge. Those numbers are only estimates pertaining to the field alone but the socio-political consequences were resounding.
The word of the massacre spread as far into Europe despite the government ordering the police and courts to pursue the press and publications of the Manchester Observer. Their concern grew rapidly after Autumn 1819 with unrest in Huddersfield and Burnley which made armed rebellion a possible threat and so by the end of the year the government introduced the Six Acts legislation. These aimed to suppress meetings seeking radical reform and were only fully repealed in 2008 when the 1819 Unlawful Drilling Act was overturned. The government did cave in to one demand of the Union's interest in the Great Reform Act of 1832 when the newly established Manchester parliamentary borough elected two MPs alongside becoming a municipal borough in 1837.
The current plaque unveiled in 2007 by the lord Mayor to commemorate thw nassacre
Most interestingly, the Manchester Observer was disbanded soon after the massacre and was soon replaced in 1821 with the Manchester guardian founded by the Little Circle group of non-conformist Manchester businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor who witnessed the massacre. A prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would "zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty … warmly advocate the cause of Reform … endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and … support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."
This Newspaper came to be known as The Guardian which we still see support the Centre-left to this day.


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Now is a good time to buy property in the area of the Mar Menor and Costa Calida, whether you're looking for a house for holidays or permanent home. Anyway, to find the most suitable property you must do much research on the ground and help of trustworthy estate agents. In this post we will describe how the whole process of buying works.
Options vary widely depending on the usage you make housing. It's not the same if it is:
The purchase as an investment involves looking to the property is revalued and can provide income through rent. Generally, this means that will be the best is to buy in areas of interest such as coasts and islands, or in big cities like Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. Despite cottages have been increasing in value in recent times, such investments can be difficult, because it can be difficult to find people to help you with property management.
In this case, the housing must be able to adapt to occasional use. It is a home in which weeks or months a year passed. Apartments or villas are usually the best choice for this use, since the presence of neighbors help keep your property safe. Buy in tourist areas will also facilitate you can rent the house in your absence periods.
In this case you will have to find a location and type of housing that fits your budget and provide you the quality of life you want in terms of services, leisure and accessibility options. You must take into account not very isolated from basic services, as well as the existence of schools or hospitals. Transport accessibility is another point to consider.
Decide which region best for you is a subjective decision. The best way to do that is investigating different areas exhaustively. At this point any resource available to us will be very useful. Try to gather information on the following aspects.
Investigates the different cities with ease, and try to visit them before dwelling on a property specific.
The main areas are:
San Javier is known for its summer festivals and dedication to agricultural and maritime activities. Located on the shores of the Mar Menor, it is a place that goes far beyond mere expectations shirts. Modern air and flavor alternate fishing village at this stop whose main tourist areas Santiago de la Ribera and La Manga.
Located on the shores of Mar Menor, it offers 7 km of coastline from Los Narejos to Punta Brava and dedicates much of its economic activity in the service sector, mainly due to tourism.
The ideal way is to rent a property a few months in the area where you want to buy. If that is not possible, try to collect all the information possible and talk to foreigners about their experience living there. Be sure to treat this as a fact-finding mission, not a vacation. Your goal is to have an idea about how daily life is to get an idea of how to live if you buy a property there.
At this stage, it is mandatory to know how money can get in buying your home. You'll have to sort out your accounts and check mortgage lending. It's good to do this in advance as this can move quickly once you find the home you're looking for.
Then, you also need to choose the type of property that best fits your budget and your needs.
Finally, it is worth you go thinking about the state of the home you want to buy. There are different rules and taxes as if the property you're buying is:
These properties are generally safer investments because they do not have to worry about when it will end built. Taxes subject to the sale are also generally lower. However, buying a second hand property may involve spending reforms, especially kitchen and bathroom.
Buying a new property is always more expensive. Although in Spain the construction boom has led to many new construction housing, which lowered its price. As a bonus, you estrenarás your home when you buy, and not have to worry about remodeling and renovations. You get exactly what you pay for and wear will be solely for the use you make.
Before making a decision you should'll make sure you like the house and the area where it is located. If it is a resale home, you think about the idea of hiring an expert or architect to check the quality and condition of the property. Take note of any repair or reform it has to do. If you are buying off plan, be sure to consider the timing of the works and to check that the construction company is reliable and solvent.
Europahus is a real estate agency located in the region of the Costa Calida in Murcia. We have been 15 years helping people like you find the home of your dreams in Spain. Like you're looking da properties and new developments that secondhand. Our close collaboration with many local realtors makes our catalog includes all kinds of properties throughout the provinces of Murcia and Alicante.
Please contact us if you are looking for your dream home in Spain.


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Operation Miranda
Tragically this horrific tome turned out to be so influential that the killers named their project after the story's victim. They called their horrific crime spree; "Operation Miranda". Charles Ng and Leonard Lake weren't alone in their appreciation for Fowles' debut novel – serial killer Christopher Wilder, who killed eight women in the 1980s, was also said to have been an avid fan.
The crimes committed by Charles Ng and Leonard Lake are not for the faint of heart. Even those of us with a robust tolerance for horrific true crime stories, shudder at the thought of Ng and Lake's actions.
In the early 1980s, the two men abducted, tortured, and murdered entire families at a remote cabin in northern California – often recording their terrible exploits on video. In efforts to create a stable of sex slaves, the duo terrorised, tortured and murdered potentially dozens of people (mostly women) in their makeshift bomb shelter in preparation of repopulating the planet after an impending nuclear holocaust.
Ng and Lake began kidnapping their victims in 1984, holding them prisoner at a remote property near Wilseyville, California. To fund the construction of a bunker the two had built to imprison their victims, Lake killed his own brother, Donald, stealing his identity and available assets. The two are known to have killed at least eleven people, though some estimate that the number is closer to thirty-five. While some victims were killed quickly, others endured days of torture and sexual abuse before being killed.
When authorities ultimately searched the Wilseyville property and the bunker they discovered a false wall, behind which was a room of barely two square metres with only a bucket and toilet paper inside. The room was also lined with a one-way mirror so someone on the outside could watch the captive within.
Leonard Lake was a devotee of hard core deviant pornography and enjoyed videotaping the victims that he and Ng had abducted as they assaulted and tortured them. One of the horrific videos that was tendered in evidence during Charles Ng's trial, shock and stunned the courtroom when a very matter-of-fact Ng calmly told his distressed victim,
"You can cry like the rest of them, but it won't do you any good. We're pretty cold-hearted."
Making a Killer
Leonard Lake's upbringing was not ideal.
Born in San Francisco in 1945, Lake was primarily raised by his grandparents. From an early age he found an affinity for pornography when, disturbingly, his grandmother began encouraging him to take nude photographs of his sisters. As he got older he began to use these exploitative pictures to blackmail his sisters to perform sexual acts on him. Already well on his way to becoming a sexual sadist, Lake also enjoyed dissolving small animals in acid.
In his late teens, as many young people in the United States still do, Lake joined the Marines. Lake did two tours of Vietnam with the USMC, but never saw combat. He was ultimately discharged from the Corps after a psychiatric evaluation determined he suffered from a schizoid personality disorder.
It would turn out that being forcibly removed from the military was an achievement that he shared with Charles Ng.
Ng was also a Marine, though his stint in the forces was even shorter than Lake's and he saw no overseas service. After being caught stealing weapons, Ng was sentenced to three years in Leavenworth Prison. Prior to the sentence, Ng had already met Lake via correspondence through a survivalist magazine, and upon his release he met up with his new friend to begin their murderous endeavours.
As is often the case, the most terrible crimes are revealed by the most minor.
In addition to his love of sadism and murder, Charles Ng was a compulsive thief. One afternoon in 1985, he and Lake went to a nearby hardware store to replace a broken vice that had been used to torture their victims. Ng was spotted shoplifting by one of the hardware's employees and fled. Lake then attempted to pay for the vice, but authorities had already been called and when they arrived they found a .22 revolver with a silencer (illegal in California) in the pair's vehicle, which had also been stolen from one of their victims.
Lake was arrested immediately, but Ng managed to slip through the net and fled to Canada, where he avoided trial for years.
When Lake was arrested, he was immediately interrogated by authorities about the gun, the stolen car, and the missing man that it had been stolen from. Recognising his dire situation, Lake asked for a glass of water and took a moment alone to write a short note. He then removed two cyanide capsules hidden in his lapel. Leonard Lake had always kept these capsules on his person, perhaps sensing an inevitable end at the hands of the law.
After writing a self-serving and cryptic suicide letter, he swallowed the cyanide capsules and died a few days later.
When puzzled authorities searched Lake's Wilseyville property shortly thereafter, the horrific magnitude of his and Ng's crimes quickly revealed themselves. Charles Ng was extradited to California in 1991 after, somewhat now, predictably, getting caught for shoplifting in Calgary. He avoided trial for a further eight years, making it one of the longest legal proceedings in Californian history, but was ultimately found guilty of six counts of murder and sentenced to death.
Charles Ng remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison to this day.
The crimes of these two men adhere well to Nietzsche's assertion that man is the cruellest animal. Ng and Lake remain two of the most sadistic known serial killers in history. Details of their exploits, will, if you'd never heard of them, make you long for a time when you were blissfully unaware of the gut-churning cruelty of these two beasts.
By: R. J. Hawksworth
Photograph of serial killer Leonard Lake, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Mug shot of Charles Ng, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


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It's that time of year yet again. The days are shorter and the (Christmas) trees are coming out, and I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER. Is it just me or has Christmas just snuck up on us this year? 2019 is practically right around the corner. That's crazy!
With the arrival of the Christmas season comes countless shopping days and trips to the malls. It's SO incredibly easy to go over budget when shopping so I've compiled a few tips and tricks to help you get the best bang for your buck.
Give personalised gifts
Now I myself am a sucker for a personalised gift. If thoughtfulness and effort are put into a gift, I will automatically love it. This could be done in the form of a handmade item, or even a gift basket consisting of small gifts that you know someone will love. You're certain to save money AND you know that it's something that the person will use.
Compare deals
When shopping, you can compare the prices of items in different stores or on different websites in order to find the best deals. However, this tends to get a bit tedious. What if I told you that there's a website that could offer you amazing deals from various stores all in one place. This website offers a variety of deals in all different categories. My favourite category is beauty. I LOVE getting good deals on makeup. Click here to check out these AMAZING deals.
Make a list (or a few)
I am generally an organisation freak. We're talking lists galore. But when it comes to Christmas shopping, lists can be extra helpful. Creating a checklist, only including the items which you intend on purchasing for each person will help you stay on track…once you stick to it of course.
Set a budget for each item
In addition to making a list, you can also set a budget for each person and/or item that you intend on purchasing. This bit of detail makes for a more smooth shopping trip and of course, reduces your chances of going over budget.
Remember that Christmas is about giving
When Christmas shopping, it can be so easy to pick up and extra one of each the item to keep for yourself. I am always guilty of this. If I'm buying a makeup palette for a friend, I may just want to get one of those palettes for myself too. Which indefinitely throws me off budget. It's so important to stick to the list and only purchase for others.
Buy decor during after-Christmas sales
This isn't a tip that you can utilise for this year's Christmas shopping. HOWEVER, it can help you save money when it comes to shopping next holiday season. After Christmas, there's usually a huge sale on decor items and this is the BEST time to stock up on decorations for the following year. If you have a bit of wiggle room I strongly recommend allocating a bit cash towards the post-Christmas sales.
That brings us to the end of this post. Hope you found these tips useful. Stay tuned for more Christmas themed posts.
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Christmas cookie recipe (Vegan)
20 must-watch Christmas movies
Until next time,


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Talking to Gamasutra as part of an in-depth new interview, Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski has been discussing why context and motivation still matters, even in brute-force action games such as Gear Of War 2.
When discussing Epic's Unreal Engine 3-powered sequel, which is due exclusively on Xbox 360 nex month, the Gamasutra interviewer puckishly suggested that some people would ask – "why bother finding a writer you click with, because it's an action game".
However, in return, Bleszinski suggested that good use of context and narrative shouldn't be ignored in genres that he works in, commenting:
"There's a certain amount of people that will always not care about the action. I'm a big believer in empowering the user. If the user wants to skip all the cutscenes, if he wants to ignore the collectibles, if he doesn't give a crap about the story, fine, let him do that.
But if we can grab you with the first couple cutscenes and show you this is something that's compelling, then maybe people will want to hang around and pay a little bit of attention to what's going on in the universe. Because if you don't have a certain context to your game and your game mechanics, it's not as powerful.
I think if you can believe in what's going on in the world around you and really believe that this is a desperate situation, and that [game protagonist] Dom is becoming increasingly frustrated with the search for his wife, those are narrative hooks.
And… theater has been getting by with plot points for hundreds if not thousands of years, right?
So if you can infuse a little bit of that in your game, why not? Because ultimately, if you fail, and your game's still fun, you still have a great game. But if you have a great story and your game is fun, then you just might have a classic, like Silent Hill 2."
You can now read the full Gamasutra interview with Bleszinski, including lots more detail on the game's design philosophy, structure, and the design director's attitude to game creation.
Source: Gamastutra
Last Updated: October 27, 2008