The Recession Is Over? And Financial Principles To Live By

By Heather, CPA (Balance With Purpose)

We have all felt the down economy in one way or another, whether it’s through loss of a job, a pay freeze, drop in value of stock portfolios, or increased expenses.

According to a NY Times article dated October 16, 2009 titled, "By Some Reliable Measures, Recession is Over," the recession is in the past. Don’t you want to leap for joy at hearing that headline? No? Me neither. Why? Because I’m skeptical.

I actually heard the news of the recession being over while I rushed around the house one morning last week getting my family ready for the day and trying to get myself out the door for work. That very same day I learned that a dear friend of mine’s husband lost his job.

Click to read more ...

Life Is Funny: Innocent Words

By MAD21

My daughters were in a wedding this summer. Needless to say they were beautiful, and thankfully, they did everything they were supposed to do during the ceremony.

The plan was that when the bride and groom were pronounced 'Man and Wife,' and started back down the isle to leave the sanctuary, that my girls were to follow right behind them before the rest of the wedding party.

My girls started walking, and just when we thought we could breath (because everything had gone just as we had hoped)... my youngest stopped at the front row where we were sitting with the bride's parents. She leaned in and said quite happily (and loud), "Uncle Chris, I'm married now!!"

Just when you didn't think they could get any cuter...

My friend and fellow blogger Wendy at Weight..What? has a fun carnival at her blog called "Life is Funny." Every Monday we talk about something in life that we find funny. Be sure to go visit her blog to read her post along with links to other blogs who are participating.

It's Time To Get Off The Couch And Start Running!

By Kevin (Shooting the Breeze)

I want to share with you a running program that I have used to help me go from couch potato to runner!  It is called the Couch to 5K program.  This is a fantastic program that's been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometres (that is 3 miles for my friends in the USA) or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks!  Its secret is that it's a gentle introduction to getting the body moving, starting off alternating between walking and running small distances, and slowly building up until after 8 weeks, you're ready to run 5 kilometres or 30 minutes non stop.

Too many people have been turned off of running simply by trying to start off too fast. Their bodies’ rebel and they wind up miserable, wondering why anyone would possibly want to do this to themselves.  This was me!  I must say that I was a little sceptical when I started the program.  I hadn’t run in more that 20 years but it worked!  By following the easy schedule outlined by the program I was able to overcome my scepticism.

Each session should take about 20 or 30 minutes, three times a week. That just happens to be the same amount of moderate exercise recommended by numerous studies for optimum fitness.  Be sure to space out these three days throughout the week to give yourself a chance to rest and recover between efforts. And don't worry about how fast you're going. Running faster can wait until your bones are stronger and your body is fitter. For now focus on gradually increasing the time or distance you run.

Here is the schedule:

Week One: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Week Two: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Week Three: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following:  Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)/Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)/Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)/Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Week Four: Day 1-3  Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)/Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)/Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)/Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week Five: Day 1 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week Five: Day 2 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)/Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)/Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Week Five: Day 3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking. 6

Week Six: Day 1 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week Six: Day 2 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then: Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)/Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)/Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)

Week Six: Day 3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 25 minutes) with no walking. 7

Week Seven: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).

Week Eight: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).

Week Nine: Day 1-3 Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

I am planning on re-starting the program.  Unfortunately, I stopped running through the summer because of busyness but I am ready to get going again!  Who is willing to join me in getting off the couch and starting running?

Kevin Martineau has been married 16 years and has three beautiful daughters (10, 7 and 4). He has the honour of serving God through his role as Pastor at Port Hardy Baptist Church on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He enjoys blogging, reading, photography and watching hockey.

Scotty! We Need More Power!

By Alan

I was asked the other day what "The Smart Grid" was, and what it was going to do, and I had to pause a bit, because the term means different things to different people. Predictions about what it will mean are even more difficult, if not impossible. In fact, in order to know more about what's going to happen in the future, we need to understand what's there now. So, we'll do this in two parts. What we have, and what we'll be getting.

First, let's explain a little bit about the Electricity Grid in the United States.

Demand and Supply?

Unlike nearly all other products, electricity must be instantly generated as soon as it is consumed. Notice the order of importance there. Production has to keep up with consumers, not the other way around. Nearly everything else that we produce and consume is opposite: Someone creates the product, and develops inventory, and the consumer buys what's available. In the current electrical market, consumers just consume, and everything else is geared towards keeping up with that demand. Blackouts, brownouts, and sudden soaring prices are all directly related to unexpected difference between demand and supply.

Click to read more ...

Can Eating Candy Lead To Crime?

By MAD21

Ok. So my hubby sent me this story last week and when I saw the title, I was like, "Oh, common! Seriously?" I've had a few of those reactions this week, like here.

Yahoo News posted the story, "Eating Candy in Childhood Linked to Adult Crime." I almost didn't read it because it seems like just another one of those articles full of quotes from people/researchers who have gone off the deep end. But I was intrigued.

There seems to actually be some legitimate research to back up their claims. Even the researchers were skeptical at their results so they tried to eliminate and switch around their control factors. No matter what factors they changed, the results were the same.

"The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the study of vulnerable youngsters. Moore had been investigating the factors that lead children to commit serious crimes, when, during the course of his work, he discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets - breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips," he says.

Click to read more ...