Bad Business - Changing Your Truth

Change your truth and you'll change your world.

"I'm in a slump, do I belong here?"

That's one of the most common things employees say to themselves. From time to time, everyone feels stuck. You may not realize that your professional life is having a negative influence on your personal life. Perhaps, your manager just isn't very motivating. Or maybe you've turned your backs on too many customers that you knew deserved better. Almost everyone has said at one point or anther "If this was my business..."

The feeling of being stuck is familiar to most people, especially when our lives seem to be in motion, but doesn't move us forward. As if the wheels of our cars just continue to spin on an icy road, we need to take care in how we get ourselves out of the dangerous situation.

Here are five of the most common Bad Business actions that hold us back from our professional goals and a happy life.

Believing What You Think, Not What You Know

Studies say that the average brain has more than 50,000 thoughts a day and that most people believe about 99 percent of what we think. Some of our thoughts are the product of our mind manufacturing observations about the world we live in. Other thoughts are stalks that started in our upbringing and grew throughout the culture in which we live.

Our thoughts are what help us make sense of a world that often doesn't make sense. It's only logical that we hold our thoughts to be the Truth and those truths often become our beliefs. We sometimes cling to beliefs whether they make sense of not. Have you ever told someone that you are not good at sports? By saying it, you have made it your belief and so doing, in your mind it is Truth. What beliefs have you anchorage that may be keeping you in a consistent spinning effect?

Ask yourself: What do you think you could never do?

For me, it was surfing. I've never done anything in the ocean other than swim a little at the beach. One day, I took surfing lessons and conquered the belief that I couldn't do any more.

What things do you believe as Truth and what things are actual truth?

Unless you sprout wings you can't fly, but you can fly with a hang guilder or as a pilot in an airplane. Aviation Maintenance Careers

Blaming Others for the Circumstances of Our Life

"The manager is so cheap, I'm never going to have a good life with the money I'm making."

"It's not my fault, I just work here." - This is an actual quote I received from a Shift Manager at a local grocery store last night.

Life will always throw you a curveball. If it didn't, life would be boring and I would be out of a job. The best way to hit a home run is to figure out what the best way to deal with them is. Sometimes the best strategy in winning a game is to make it to first base and wait for the next hit. Some people decide to sidestep the curveballs and choose to wait for a pitch they like better. This isn't reality based view of the world and how it works. It's also not how baseball games are won. You need to see the truth in your life and waiting in the player's dug out won't get you a home run. If you're not good at something, practice, learn how to use your skills or learn new ones.

Determination and lots of practice is what wins the game.

Taking Life Too Seriously & Not Taking Life Teasingly

More than eight years of education teaches us that the key to success is hard work and in today's business world we may as well add, long days and a two hour commute. Just as T comes after S, so should our play time. Follow the old adage: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull person." And we all know what happened to Jack in The Shining...

In order to stay healthy, we need to have fun, laugh a little and remember that life isn't or shouldn't be all about serious matters. A once a year, one week vacation isn't enough for most of us. We need time to charge our batteries and learn new things that may have absolutely nothing to do with business. At these non business events could be the occurrence when we meet that hugely successful professional contact See Networking In Today's World»»

Life a beach; either you can sit back and watch everyone else or you can jump in and have some fun...Maybe meet the person who will introduce you to your dream job.

Living Life In Average

I don't know what's worse, being recognized as the bad employee or being known as average. Average employees stay mediocre, nothing too special. They're like a favorite chair. Not too bad looking but doesn't stand out, it's functional.

One of the most common ways people get stuck is by living their lives as average. They don't stand out, they don't do anything extra and they don't take chances. Rather than taking chances, they prefer to stay in they're comfort zone: by doing things the same way and avoiding change. Unfortunately, as boring as this may sound, it is the way the majority of people live. We don't always recognize it, but the average employees are an extremely crowded assemblage and it's easy to fall into believe that this is all there is.

Get out of that dull room and take some small steps towards the edge. As you start taking steps towards the edge, you'll start new things, see new perspectives and you will begin to recognize the possibilities and opportunities. Once you figure out that Average isn't for you, you'll find that life is much happier and more fulfilling.

You may even have time to pay some baseball and hit a home run.

Fear of the Unknown

Definitions of Fear: Fear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not.

Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear will protect you and sway your decision to walk away from something that could have turned into a deadly incident. Fear is what makes millions of dollars for movie makers. However, fear can also keep us from doing new and wonderful things. Nevertheless, sometimes getting our life on the road that we want takes a leap of faith and we must see that Fear is nothing more than a superficial illusion.

Have you always dreamed about becoming a teacher, or a chef in a four star restaurant? To give those dreams any chance of materializing, you must conquer your fear and genuinely know that you are the only one holding yourself back and your dreams. Do you want to own business, become an artist, or simply get your high school diploma»»? You can do it. You will be successful just by putting forth the effort. If you stop at the door, without ever opening it because of thoughts of failure... you will always be that Average employee.

Don't be left with the question "What if I had tried?"

What is your boss thinking?

The Five Things I Learned Last Week

After typing, reading and re-reading and scrutinizing myself a half million times, I realized this week's list seems to be mostly about women's view of things …. Sorry guys, but it's bi$c! week. Maybe next week I will write a “guys are jerks” week.

1) A Series of Failures – Sometimes, procrastination is good

Ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? Ever had one of those weeks where all little things that wouldn't normally bother you upsets you because they all add up? Yeah, that was pretty much most of last week for me. It didn't help that I really needed to create an inventory of career profiles for the upgraded website and I just couldn't find the desire to do so or find the appropriate information needed.

"Never do today with a bad attitude what you can put off 'til tomorrow with a great attitude".

Why produce shitty work when you know it's going to be shitty work? Instead, put it off to the side and work on it again in the next day or two. This way you have a fresh approach and a clearer mind to do what needs to be done.

2) Sometimes, "nice" is worse than direct rudeness / manipulation

Remember those popular kids in high school, how they radiated an aura that just made you want to watch them and know them? If you were popular, than you don't know. However, if you were the "weirdo" like me, than you understand what I'm talking about.

The "popular kid" charisma always seemed to dance about them and hover around them as if they sweated charisma. They always seemed to be able to take charge of situations, to lead and direct and it always looked fun and they looked fabulous doing it.

Than one day, for no apparent reason, one of the "popular kids" comes up to you. They're super nice and next thing you know, they wanna be around you, like all the time.

Here's a hint that adults continue to learn and relearn repeatedly and I learned last week. Do they only call or email you when they want something? If they do… "nice" is worse than direct rudeness and or manipulation.

The problem with confronting these types of people is that they probably do not even realize what their doing. It comes naturally… and if you blow up over something that may seem trivial to others it will make you look like your taking things out of proportion.

So where does that leave you? Learn to recognize it and if it becomes bad enough, dump em.

If you're the caller…. Being manipulative takes unnecessary effort; effort that can be better used elsewhere, stop it.

3) Stop Trying To Be Everything - Women Should Be / Women Can Be The rule can also apply to men, but this is written is the view of women.

We are the daughters of feminists who said, "You can be anything".

But we heard "You have to be everything."

Kamy Wicoff has introduced the "sandwich" generation theory, where many women were raised both with feminist expectations and independent ideals but in an impressionable and often conflicting patriarchy. Thus, we get the feminine training to be everything to everyone and feminism ends up getting used against us to make us tap dance even harder and all while questioning ourselves

• "What am I supposed to be?"
• 
  
• "Who should I be loyal to?"
• "What should I do?"

Here are the answers

• Be yourself
• Be loyal to yourself
• 
  
• Do what feels naturals.

Woman should do whatever feels natural to them. Don't let what a man (or a self conscious / self hating women) change what feels right to you.

I know that's easier said than done and I have no doubt that I will continue to fall from the literary proclamation self confident wagon at least a few dozen more times in my life. But it is a good place to return to when you find yourself asking these questions.

4) You Don't Always Need To Doubt Yourself - Always keep your mind open to new ideas and fresh outlooks, but don't let someone tell you, you don't know anything about a subject that you know a lot about. Aka I hate doctors.

This is a topic I've bitch about previously and I'm doing it again because I hated the specialist I saw on Friday. She's a conservative consedending 'know it all' that believes she knows more about my body and what's going on with it simply because she's an over educated medical Librarian. On Friday, I was wearing sweats and a tank top, which means most of my tattoos, were visible. Her very first question to me was:

"How long have you been smoking?"

What? I told her I don't smoke and haven't smoked for over five years.

She than ran her eyes along my body as if some disease would jump from my body to hers. At that moment I should have left, but I didn't…

What I didn't say & should have:

"Who are you to judge my appearance and judge the kind of person I am and the activities I participate in based on my chosen venue of art?

Who are you to decide what is in my best interest? I am more than willing to listen to your theories, opinions and suggestions, but how dare you assume that what I do in my personal life is destructive based only my appearance.

How dare you assume that I know absolutely nothing about my body and or health condition. Especially after I have related to you in Layman's terms exactly what I know through numerous months and even years of personal research as well as collaboration with medical professionals.

I am not five years old and I do not appreciate being treated as if I just announced that the moon is made of cheese for all to believe.

Furthermore, I will make decisions based on informed and researched documentation and medial research, not on your governmental bought degree of memorized exam answers.

{deep breath}

I requested a new doctor at a different office later that day.

5) Don't Grow Up (completely)

I have a friend who is playfully immature and wildly weird and she is approximately five years older than me and yet fifteen years younger than me. If you've ever hung out with her you would swear she's drunk, but the truth is she never drinks alcohol. She's crazy in a good way.

She has her career and ambitions and is just as responsible as she is wacky and life loving. I think that's why I enjoy being around her. She isn't afraid of being herself and doesn't care what other people think of her. In addition, she knows she's not perfect and often questions and asks for other people's opinions in specific topics of her personal life. She makes mistakes but doesn't allow those mistakes to prevent her from living life, being wacky and trying again.

I've been told on different occasions that I'm young at heart and positively immature. While I do take those as compliments, the world in general doesn't seem to understand that you can be both childish and be taken seriously. Women seem to be especially condemned when the title Free Spirited is attached to them. Curious, I researched what is attributed to the keywords 'Women' & 'Free Spirit'. The internet search engine results I received were mostly disappointing.

The most common blog, websites, opinion and or references attributed to 'Women' & 'Free Spirit' regarded women as shop-a-holics looking to purchase 'Free Spirit' theme items, sluts, liars, ugly women and or women who deteriorated men in some form.

I wasn't meaning to go into an off topic of disagreement about how wrong this stereo-type is; but to prove that being young at heart is still looked upon as some mythical spirituality that only the truly gifted are capable of obtaining. Do I really need to shout to the world that it isn't?

Don't put away childish things or activities… do them even more as adults. Don't go eating Play-Do or anything, but try new things

* Draw on the sidewalk in chalk

* Cover an old pair of shoes with silly drawings, glue stuff on them, paint them different colors and than wear them to the café for Sunday morning coffee and a bagel.

* Make a comic strip out of photographs that don't look so great in frames.

The point is, don't grow up too much and have some fun.

Extra helping of happiness

---> Annoying co-host Rosie is leaving The View in June

Kodak - Because they know it's grass! BOO ZHA!

Scissors Dance

I’ve been curiously reading Oddly Enough’s postings regarding what seems like a strange festival / competition: Scissors Dance Festival & Competition.

April 24^th 2007 (tactlessly) posting was titled:The annual Defy Mom and Dad Festival!

In an effort to promote my defiance of the April 30th, One Day of Blog Silence, I am clarifying their irresponsibility of a beautiful culture event with the true (or as close as I can with internet research) facts regarding the Peruvian festival danza de las Tijeras, which has been passed on to each new generation from Inca ancestors.

The scissors dance from a western standpoint can be considered a intricate manifestation of art and physical dexterity. However, the Andean folk also known as the mestizo people who live in highland communities considers it a complex ritual where the main instrument of music accompanying the dance is the pair of scissors. Inaddition to dancing, dancers also take part in trials such as glass-eating, walking on fire or sticking wires into their body to show spiritual superiority.

Originally, Scissor Dancers only danced during the Christmas holiday calendar year and new dancers are said to be recognized only by others dancers at a very young age. One week before the 24^th of December, dancers go to the mountains, to a secret location to train for the competition. The dancers are said to have a special deity, possibly called Apu or Apu Inti. Online research seems to list Apu Inti as the sun god in Peruvian history / culture.

In preparation for the festival dance / competition, the dancers offer their life and they’re dance to Apu with an contribution than consists of coca leaves, liquor, corn, potatoes and or wheat. In exchange for the dancer’s offering of his life, dance and contribution, he asks Apu to grant him strength and power to dance the danza de las Tijeras (Scissors Dance). In colonel times, many people thought the dancers were a kind of wizard or that they made ‘deals with the devil’.

On December 24^th, the dancers appear in from of the community church wearing bright colorful costumes. Traditional costumes consists of:

A large hat sometimes with little mirrors and colorful strips of rainbow colors attached to a variety of different clothing is worn as a traditional costume. The hands of the dancers are almost always gloved in rainbow colors holding two metal poles which take the shape of a pair of scissors.

As they start to dance, they are accompanied by a little band usually made up of a harp, a violin and possibly a bass drum. As the musicians play the dancer dances to the same rhythm and performs acrobatic dance steps, twirls and jumps. As they dance, their scissors sings to the same rhythm of the music. I found one source that said the scissors symbolizes the male and female and the fight between the cultures who have entered Peru. In the dance the scissors sound. Further folklore says that the dancer would dance all day, for three days, and then disappear until next year’s celebration.

Some historical Peruvian research says that when the Spaniards conquered Peru, they tried to change the culture of beliefs and put an end to the ancient scissor dance. However, sly dancers only changed the name of whom they said the dance was dedicated to while secretly continuing the sacred beliefs to the Inca god(s) to avoid punishment by catholic Spaniards.

Yapta Dabba Do

Source: The next net

I have a variety of reasons why I love to drive from one city to the next. I love the solitary silence or the rock blaring music of my car. I love seeing ‘off the beaten path’ cafes and retail shops and I hate hunting for cheap airline prices.

Trying to find the best airline prices is so frustrating. Flight prices swing from reasonable to outrageous in the span of a few heartbeats to one day. I actually had to cancel a trip because I had waited too long for an acquaintance to make up her mind on rather she wanted to go or not.

How are you supposed to know when to book your flight?

Airlines have a new nemesis and the start up’s name is Yapta (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant). Yapta will soon let you not only track price changes on specific flights, but it will also help you get a refund for flights where the price drops after you've already bought the ticket.

The service is currently still closed in beta testing but is set to launch publicly on May 15^th, 2007. Although there will be a central Yapta site for destination search engine searching, CEO Tom Romary said Yapta is not trying to be just another destination site to be frustrated with. Instead, the main way to use the service will be by downloading a plug-in for your browser that will let you tag any flight on most travel or airline Websites.

CEO Tom Romary said explains:

Our core idea is that people go to multiple Websites before making a purchase. We are allowing people to tag the trips they like, and then we track pricing for you.

Every time the price changes on the flights you have ‘tagged’, you will get an alert from Yapta. How is Yapta different?

Farecast tries to predict when prices will drop

Kayak gives you fare histories so you can try to guess what will happen in the future

Yapta will be the only commence who will continue tracking prices on a flight after you purchase it. Why bother?

“You can qualify for a refund even on a restricted ticket if it drops," explains Romary

There is an unknown consumer secret rule in the airline industry called the "guaranteed airfare rule." If you buy a ticket directly from an airline and the price of that ticket later drops, you are eligible for a refund or voucher (usually they give you the price difference minus a change fee).

The guaranteed airfare rule is a voluntary policy most airlines have agree on to calm angry customers and to create customer loyalty. Romary is very familiar with it because he used to be the VP of marketing at Alaska Airlines, where he oversaw the customer loyalty programs.

In just three months, his 275 beta testers have already accumulated nearly $30,000 in air travel savings.

Romary is philosophical about how the airline industry will react:

We recognize we are throwing a hand grenade into a big industry. There are airlines who get it and airlines who don’t in terms of building long-term relationships. Airlines looking to maximize short-term profits are not going to like us. Yield management systems are built to maximize revenue on a single flight, but the real win is building value over the long term. Look, as an airline I still keep your cash. I'm taking a short-term hit, and over the next 12 months I have the opportunity to turn that $100 coupon into a $500 ticket. I’ve locked in your loyalty.

The ecommence most affected and biggest competitors will be the online travel sites like Orbitz and Expedia. Yapta's trip-tagging software will work on those sites, but to qualify for the refunds you need to buy directly from the airlines' own Websites, not destination websites such as Priceline or Orbitz.

As Yapta evolves and learns the personal details about travel habits, they will be able to provide targeted travel-related ads that users are actually interested in. In addition, CEO Tom Romary plans to construct affiliate deals with airlines, and offer personalized alerts on travel deals where Yapta would get a small fee for every ticket sold. Future upgrades to the service could also include an alert system for frequent-flyer award seats.

The Yapta service for airline tracking and deal smoozing is based on a solid foundation and could expand to other areas of travel as well. The possibility to expand this type of service such as hotels, rental cars, and restaurants is a viable option. With prices in everything travel related skyrocketing, Yapta's ambition in putting the power of better travel decisions back in the hands of consumers is going to prove successful.

Live Longer: Be Boring?

Online Persona What You Should Know

Do you know who is reading & looking at you online?

Think before you post

What you say and show on websites such as My Space, Live Journal & even Tribe doesn't always stay there. Many employees and high school students across the country are learning this lesson the hard way with very unfortunate consequences. Teachers, school administrators and hiring managers are going online snooping postings of current and potential students and employees. The trend is growing rampant and has produced life struggling results such as detention, being denied college admission, and potential new hires not getting that much needed 1st step on the career ladder job.

While all of it is probably in fun and humor, your teachers, the college admissions officers and your parents may not be amused by the online photo of you giving a one fingered salute to survey questions regarding something they gave you. A lot of people write their blog and or journal entries as if they were behind closed doors and only they're friends will bother to look at it. However, unless you make the entries Private on Friends Only, the whole world can read what you post. People are leaving a trail of very personal information in cyberspace, and all it takes is a quick online search of their name for someone to gain access to revealing personal information.

I recently read an article that suggested everyone should Google themselves every once in a while to see what the results are. I was inquisitively amused and gave it try. I was stunned to see that my name had brought up two results at the top of the list; both former employers. While both pages were purely work related, I never thought that anything would ever come up. I than put in my online screen name that I use regularly and an entire Google page came up with all the places I'm registered including items I had posted for sale. GOINK! This should prove how easy it is to find someone if you know the name.

Nii Ahene who is a graduate of the University of California, began a Web site called Bruinpied to warn, that people they'd least expect may be monitoring their web activities. Ahene began the Web site after his friend, a math major at UCLA (after whom the site is named) struggled to land a job interview. When he googled his friend's name, an article the friend had written, "How to Lie Your Way to the Top," came up as number one in the search results.

Nii Ahene - "A lot of students don't think about the consequences of their online activities. This site is geared to shed more light on this issue."


Censorship or protection for their own good?

• Officials at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, New Jersey, have warned students they will face suspension if caught using sites such as Xanga, Live Journal, and My Space, explaining that the rule is a way to protect teens from online predators.
• Chicago area high schools Libertyville and Vernon Hills require students to sign an agreement acknowledging that any "illegal or inappropriate behavior" posted online could be punishable by the school.

Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association, says that when schools punish students for such actions, they are infringing on the student's rights. The association has been consulting a lawyer to determine the legality of this new rule.

If an adult were to post a photo of someone smoking a joint on one of these sites, police could not arrest that person, Koroknay-Palicz says. However, [if] a school sees that on a student's site, that's all they need. My concern is that schools are writing their own rulebooks and not really following guarantees of due process and Constitutional protection." Furthermore, he adds, what students do on their own time shouldn't be the school's concern, but that of parents or, in serious cases, law enforcement officials.

Last year, New Jersey school district agreed to pay $117,500 in settlement to a high school student who had created a website on his personal computer that allowed other students to post comment in a guest book regarding the school. The school's defense was that the student had posted anti-Semetic comments and caused a potential danger to students, but the website creating student denied these accusations. A federal judge ruled that the discipline ordered by the Oceanport school officials violated ninth-grader Ryan Dwyer's free speech rights.

Even though the student won the case and proved he had a right to free speech you have to wonder how many college administrators are going to be interested in granting admission to a student who

1) May or may not have made anti-Semetic comments
2) Sued his school and won a large settlement.



Many schools are putting parents on notice, sending them fliers and holding seminars to warn them about how students may misuse social networking Web sites.

A 14 year old high school freshman in Littleton, Colorado said I think that practice is unfair because I have a right to have a My Space, and I don't think the school should be able to meddle with what goes on outside of school.

In truth, it is not and should not be the school responsibility to monitor what the students are doing. Rather it is the parent's reasonability. Sadly, the computer has become the new electronic babysitter so that parents do not need to watch their kids. Too many parents assume that since it is all online, nothing bad can happen.

However internet crime has been one of the fastest growing criminal activities in America. So much so, that police agencies are rapidly creating departments specifically targeting the crimes. Internet Crime Complaint Center was established to serve as a means to receive Internet related criminal complaints.


Your life on display

An article from New York Magazine told of an increasing trend among employers to surf the web for prospective employees virtual identities as part of the job application process. By involving yourself in social networking websites such as Friendster and Facebook, prospective job candidates are unwittingly giving potential employers an open window into their personal and private lives. Through these websites, employers are able to search a job candidate's personal profiles, pictures, comments and blog postings.

One issue I have seen or heard of several times is the misguided belief that employers do not have a right to snoop into an employee's files and online activity...at work. I can not stress enough that this is wrong and the company has every right to snoop into your WORK computer station. The company owns the computer, the network and the email servers and the company has a reasonable expectation that you are working and not goofing off using their equipment. If you plan to use the computer for personal reasons, use it wisely and understand and accept that the company could and does have a right to see what you're doing on their computer.

Pablo Malavenda, is an associate dean of students at Purdue University and speaks frequently at national conferences about the dangers of Facebook. Then they're shocked and frustrated that people are stopping to read it because they put it there for their friends, Malavenda says. It's there and it's public - if you don't want anyone else reading it, don't put it out there.

Pablo Malavenda says his office does not conduct random searches of students Web pages, but does say that the information found on Facebook has been helpful with disciplinary cases that are brought to his attention. Students are implicating themselves through pictures and comments they make, Malavenda says.

Managing your online persona:

Who will read it?. Treat everything you post as if it were on the front page of the New York & Los Angeles Times, this includes photos. In addition, even postings you remove / delete may be viewable by savvy Internet users. One of the Google results that came up for my name was for a former employer I had worked for. I went to the website directly and the page had indeed been changed. However the Google result page still produced the page listing me as the Manager.

Tip: Don't add a picture of yourself getting drunk especially if your underage.

Use online screen names. Do not use your real name and don't your actual zip code. Even though you use a screen name and different zip code, your identity and location can be revealed through your friend's links.

Tip: Use a zip code that is a minimum of 10 miles away from your actual zip code.

Privacy Settings. Almost all social networking sites have some kind of privacy setting.

In My Space you can choose to let viewers see what groups you belong to or hide them. My Space: Who Can View My Full Profile - you can choose My Friends Only or Public. Lastly, you can also request that anyone who wants to Friend you must your email address or last name. However, any college administrator and employer is going to have this information.

Live Journal (LJ) gives their users options such as making all postings Friends Only.

Almost all social networking sites allow the user to set privacy settings. If your concerned with content, that should be the first step in creating a online profile. Than again, don't post anything you don't want the entire world to read.

Tip: A Friend can easily copy your post and display it in theirs with no privacy settings for whole world to read. Post with caution.

Don't give away too much personal information. We all know (or should know) not to post the obvious such as contact information. However, don't post / reveal what your admission application college plan is such the college essays. If it's good; anther college applicant could very well copy it and send it in before yours and eliminate the competition.

Tip: Use online social networking sites for ideas and feedback on subjects your considering but don't give away the finished product.

Use the internet as a business tool. Just as you shouldn't give away too much information for college, don't post your business ideas or project details for a competitor to steal.

Appropriate e-mail address. I was working as a Contract Help Desk Representative when one day a Sales Representative had to travel (1st time / last minute) to anther state. He gave me the personal email address he wanted all of his work email to be forwarded to. I refused. The email address he gave me was totally inappropriate and I didn't want him replying to clients with it. I don't quite remember the email address but it was something to the tune of bigdaddyplayer.

Tip: Have 1 email address for business / college and one for personal use.

Google your name. If something questionable surfaces, contact the site and ask to have the item removed.

Web Presence Advantage. Use online social networking sites to your advantage, not disadvantage. If you want to gripe about your stupid boss or your illiterate instructor create a completely different profile with a screen name that can not be easily guessed by employers or school faculty.

Tip: Use My Space, Live Journal and other social networking sites to market yourself, including recent awards you've won and your academic interests.

Employers have always been interested in certain aspects of their employees personal lives but it used to be much harder for them to find that information. Now, it's much easier to check someone out online if they have profiles on places such as My Space. In addition, checking someone out online costs nothing compared to background checks.

So don't be too surprised if at the next job interview your asked So, how long you have liked taking long quiet strolls on the beach, been obsessed with the music of Nine Inch Nails, and been collecting fairy backgrounds?

Driving America Past Breakfast

Usually, I don’t have time for breakfast so I end up grabbing a granola bar or just not eating till the lunch hour. Sometimes the laziness kicks in and I’ll just grab a coffee and a pastry from Starbucks. However, a recent research confirms that one of the worst habits we develop in our working lives is skipping breakfast.

Platelet (a type of blood cell that helps prevent bleeding by causing blood clots to form), can clump together inside our arteries due to cholesterol buildup in the artery lining. Platelets are the most active in the morning at the greatest frequency. Eating even a very light breakfast can help prevent the morning platelet activation that is associated with heart attacks and strokes. A study conducted at Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland found that eating a light breakfast was critical in preventing the morning platelet creation.

Anther study conducted at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., found that breakfast eaters had metabolic rates 3 to 4 percent above average, while breakfast skippers had sluggish rates, below average.

The trouble is that the food industry continues to tempt consumers with ‘Dessert for Breakfast’ packaging and corporate pile drivers push for work more, better quality and earlier hours, which means most people, either skip breakfast or eat easily obtainable junk food items.

Streusel in cereal, all chocolate muffins and monster-size cinnamon rolls may seem like a great idea, but if you would think twice about having a Dove Bar for dessert, why would you eat pancakes smothered in syrup and margarine that has been previously frozen and dripping wet in syrup? You might as well eat two Dove Bars.

For the last ten years studies have consistently shown that skipping breakfast and eating trouble-free breakfast does more damage that we later wish we didn’t had. Contrary to health activist beliefs, it is our own fault. No one put a gun to our head and said

“Eat this previously frozen, reheated, easily driving friendly packaged food source, it has .2 percent of the yearly suggested vegetable / protein ingredients in it”.

Thankfully, the US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has not only acknowledged that breakfast is dangerously skipped but has introduced a small but much needed breakfast awareness program into the public school system. A USDA's farm bill proposal would increase the department's purchases of fruits and vegetables for use in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. This means that more than $3 billion would be used to supply healthier breakfast programs and lunch options for public school children.


Other large benefits to eating a healthy or even a somewhat healthy breakfast include

• Boosts memory
• Improves behavior and school grades
• Controls weight
• Provides fiber and vitamins

Best Cold Breakfast Cereals

My favorite recipe:

• Pre-packaged cold cereals (my favorite Honey Bunches of Oats)
• A carton of milk (I use rice milk) stored in the office refrigerator
• Mix
• Enjoy

Prep Time: Less than 1 minute

Other ideas

A batch of ricotta with the almond extract, add a different fruit or ingredient to the mix eat day
Scrambled eggs with mushrooms at home, refrigerate the night before and then heat them up at work.

Buy a package of “just add water” oatmeal, pick up a bag of bagels & margarine or jelly from the grocery store and keep them at your office for easy 1 minute breakfasts.

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