Articles

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Sibling rivalry can be a source of stress at home. An older child could feel insecure about his or her status as the center of attention at home and the apple of the eye of the parents. The new addition to the family may be very unwelcome to the child who came ahead. There are ways to relieve the tension.

(more…)

Despite the economic crisis, people still have to eat, and dine out sometimes. You could save money by eating home-cooked meals, but maybe it is a way to convince yourself that things are not that bad, because you can still dine out. Just to be sure you are not forced to ask if you could wash the dishes to pay for the balance of your check, you could use some dining-out-on-a-budget tips.

(more…)

BBC News (unconfirmed report as of 3:00pm Los Angeles): Michael Jackson is dead! ROD: cardiac arrest. He is 50.

-CNN, Yahoo News, LA coroner (Fred Corral), TMZ, and the LA Times now confirm the death of Michael Jackson (1958-2009). — as of 4:28pm June 25, 2009.
-Collapsed at his West Side Home at approximately 12 noon.
-His brother called 911 and the LA Fire Department responded.
-Michael Jackson was not breathing when the LAFD arrived.
-They were able to revived Michael Jackson but when he arrived at the hospital he suffered a coma.
-Jackson family spokesman: the Jackson family is emotional and crying.

There is only one reason why such hotels are called exclusive – money. It takes a lot of dough to be able to spend a night in the hotels in this list. Most people’s jaws would drop knowing how much a single night’s stay costs at these ritzy hotels but that is why they are ritzy.

(more…)

Can you loan me a dime? In this period of the 21st century where even the lone economic and military superpower in the world admits to be undergoing financial crisis, people seeking loans to tide them over is as common as panhandlers in the streets. Times are hard. If you need a loan bigger than 10 cents, do not be embarrassed to try and get one. The following steps may be of help.

(more…)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s 2003 study, National Healthcare Quality Report, revealed very disturbing figures on depression. About 15 percent of the sufferers will eventually commit suicide. Worse, in 2020, if little or nothing is done with this disorder, depression will be one of the leading causes of coronary heart diseases for both men and women. These statistics tell you one thing: you should do something about depression.

(more…)

There are about 1.6 billion Internet users all over the world, according to a research by Internet World Stats. They log on the World Wide Web every day. This means that there are thousands of them who can be very vulnerable to Internet addiction—and around 10 percent of them really do.

Internet addiction may affect anybody from kids to seniors, and their mental problems can range greatly. Some of them can be so obsessed that they can spend almost 24 hours a day in front of their computers. Others are addicted to Internet porn. In other words, this type of addiction can potentially bring disaster to the life of the sufferer as well as to his or her family. To be brought into the right track, one of the best ways they should do is get the support that he or she definitely needs.

(more…)

What would childhood be without TV shows? Sure, there will be no better substitute for children playing with their peers, learning to interact with people their own. For those kids, however, who choose to spend a lot of time watching television, here are some of the best shows created for them:

1. Sesame Street
The granddaddy of the modern kid TV shows. It was fun, it was informative, it was innovative, and it was fast. The producers of Sesame Street are aware that the children’s shows before them failed for one major reason – they were boring. One segment could stretch for minutes–not good, when your target audience has a median attention span of three seconds. If kid TV shows were auto races, Sesame Street was either F1 or NASCAR, its competition was the Paris-Dakar Rally. Broadcast on TV since 1969, Sesame Street has received more Emmy awards than any other TV series.

2. The Electric Company
Produced by Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop), the same people who did Sesame Street, Electric Company was like the teenaged sibling of the grade-schooler Sesame Street. Smart enough to anticipate that their audience would have to change their TV-watching tastes as they grew older, CTW did the Electric Company. Its humor was more mature than Sesame Street’s, so were its teaching methods, graduating from the numbers and letters of Sesame Street to words, phrases, and multiplication/division of Electric Company. It aired 780 episodes from 1971 to 1977.

3. Blue’s Clues
Another innovative kids’ TV show, Blue’s Clues pushed the envelope in its genre. With a combination of technology and a brilliant narrative format designed for preschoolers, Blues Clues was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, winning nine Emmy awards in its 10-year run and became the most commercially successful show for preschoolers. Its most famous characters were host Steve Burns and the animated dog Blues.

4. Art Attack
Misleadingly simple but extremely entertaining, Art Attack was a resourceful British children’s show that focused on one thing only: how to do art. It involved illustration, painting, paper mache, T-shirt dyeing, and “Big Art Attack,” wherein host Neil Buchanan would come up with ingenious art pieces done on a football pitch, a tarmac, or a basketball court. Buchanan would have children guests who would show off their art and what would follow is an instructional program where Buchanan would demonstrate how to do art from beginning to end. The show ran from 1990 to 2007.

5. Barney and Friends
Starting in 1992, this show starring a purple dinosaur (tyrannosaurus rex) is still going strong. A constantly happy (and some would say irritatingly optimistic) character involved in continuous song and dance routines, this show has puzzled critics with its longevity. It was created in 1987 by Sheryl Leach and proved to be a mildly regional success in her native Texas. After Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) picked up and overhauled the show in 1992, it became a national phenomenon despite critics pointing out its alleged lack of educational value for preschoolers. Supporters, on the other hand, say that it is a very age-appropriate program.

Shopping for the latest technological gadget is a very tempting way to spend that hard-earned money during pay day. But do you really need to splurge on the latest version of iPod or iTouch when you have a perfectly functional music or video player? Here are guaranteed ways for you to resist incurring unnecessary gadget update even in the most enticing conditions.

(more…)

Summer is just around the corner, but these remaining days should not be left to brooding over what to do for the rest of the spring. The magic of spring has yet to cease so take advantage of the last blooms under the sun with these fun-filled activities with your family and friends.

(more…)

(more…)

Australia’s “Best Job in the World” ad caused a stir around the world to land on an idyllic care-taking job of the Hamilton Island. Then again, the lucky person who grabbed this employment gets to enjoy first class accommodations. But what if you are to stay in an uninhabited island without any amenities?

(more…)