Hey! 2015 upside down is 2015!

So what are your new goals for this year? Going to go exercise some more? Eat less fat? Fall in love? Well that's all cute and all but will you stay true to your word? More than one fourth of Americans give up on their resolution before a week has even pass. Some even forty percent of Americans don't even make resolution. How does that make you feel? Feel special yet?


People usually fail to meet their goals because of many reasons. The number one reason is (well obviously) weak self control. It's easier to picture yourself fit and muscular rather than lifting fifty pounds, isn't it? Maybe instead of saying "I'll be more fit," you should give yourself a goal like "I'll lose ten pounds in the next week." Another popular reason is being lazy. That's a killer one. Sadly, I got no tips to help you fellow lazy ones.


With the new year coming, do you think you'll be able to keep true to your word? Or will you come down with the laziness syndrome. No matter what, just believe in yourself! Good luck to everyone out there. Well, I was gonna sign off with a joke, but it was so last year. Have a happy New Years and more to come! ^-^

Ha Ha Ha! Oh That Wasn't A Joke?

Laughing has been going on since who knows when. It’s something everyone can understand. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Englishmen talking to a Chinese, if you laugh, they will know exactly what’s in your mind. You’re happy! Or really crazy. That too.

What if I told you it’s impossible to force yourself to laugh? Try it right now, are you really laughing? Well of course not. It’s been proven that you can’t trick your brain into a real laugh; they’re too smart for that. Now try recalling what you and your friends did today that made you laugh. It felt great didn’t it? Well did you know that we laugh thirty times as much with our friends than when we’re by ourselves?  Plus, laughing helps the bond between individuals. So next time you’re with your friends, don’t forget to laugh! Not that you weren’t going to anyways.

You know the old saying, “laughing is the best medicine,” well believe me, it’s true. Laughing helps fight away harmful diseases. And by diseases, I mean stress. I don’t remember the last time a person who was laughing and having a good time had a load of stress. Unless, well you know, that person was procrastinating. On that note, it has been scientifically proven that laughter can help extend your lifespan. So what are you waiting for? Get laughing! Here are some jokes to get you started.

How does NASA organize their company parties? They planet.

Two fish are in a tank. One turns to the other and asks “How do you drive this thing?”

Last night I almost had a threesome, I only needed two more people!

Why didn’t the lifeguard save the hippie? Because he was too far out man!

The dyslexic devil worshipper sold his soul to Santa.

Why don’t you ever see hippopotamus hiding in trees? Because they’re really good at it.

I was also going to tell a street joke but it wasn’t very concrete so. Well hopefully I could get you to laugh a little. If not, hang out with your friends! You’ll be surprised on how much you laugh. Ciaooo  

Zzzzzz

Sleep. Oh how I dream of the day when humankind can pause time just so everyone can catch up on their sleeping. Till then, we still wonder, why is it that sleeping is so important and why does it have to be an everyday necessity? Let’s dig deeper and learn about sleep! Oh and please do be sure not to fall asleep on me. You good? Okay, let’s begin then.

First, let’s go over where sleep may have originated. One of the earliest theories of where sleep originated goes all the way back to the first few animals of earth. Some animals at night instead of panicking would actually think things thoroughly and just stay still and quiet for hours and hours in order to survive. Since they weren’t active at night, they were not killed by their predators because you know; it’s hard to see something that’s not doing anything at night. Through natural selection, this behavior is what scientist believe evolved into what we call sleep nowadays.

That theory could just be one of a million but heck, it sure got me convinced. Now that we got that covered, let’s move onto the embarrassing facts. Well they’re not really embarrassing but they’re just true. The average, normal human being requires eight hours of sleep. You know what that means right? Either we’re not normal or that we just seriously suck at getting enough sleep. Back in 1942, we humans averaged around eight hours of sleep, but now we average at about 6.8 hours. The amount of sleep we get is slowly going down and eventually, the world will be taken over by Starbucks with their coffee keeping us awake for twenty or more hours for days on end.

Now that we got that covered, let’s see why sleep is so important. I’m sure most of you know that lack of sleep causes stress and misery and tears. But is that really all it causes? Lack of sleep can cause health problems such as heart diseases, infection, cancer, and even death. Oh and headaches, those too. This is because while we’re sleeping, our immune systems go to work. If you don’t get enough sleep, they don’t get enough time to work causing, well you know, headaches. Oh and death too.

The most ironic of consequences of lack of sleep is that it hinders our ability to learn. Get it? Because school is one of the main reasons that make us stay up. Well this is because lack of sleep causes a disruption in our focus. This can be taken to an even more deadly level if you think about this. You’re driving at night with your family who’s all gone asleep. You realize that you’re just as tired from those four hours of sleep you got. You slip from Earth to dreamland and somehow make it to the other side as well.

I hope this has been insightful to you just as much as was to me. Be sure to get enough sleep and to shut off the internet early once in a while. Wait, you still there? Please don’t tell me you didn’t make it through the whole thing. Well look at the time, I guess I’ll let you off the hook for now, till next time from your always dreaming (not figuratively) blogger.

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-if-you-dont-get-enough-sleep-2014-2

Trick or Treat!

Ah Halloween, the holiday all about candy and chocolate and costume competitions, or so we think. Halloween, surprisingly, used to be a serious transition of life or death. I know what most of you are thinking and no please don’t go yet to eat your candy. Let’s hear about the true story of the night of the dead and the dark and cold. Muahaha*cough*

According to this article, Halloween’s origins date back to the Celtics who lived 2,000 years ago in modern day Ireland. They celebrated their new year on November 1^st, which marked the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. The Celts believed that on the night of October 31^st, the boundary between life and death became distorted, causing ghosts and the dead to return to earth. That’s not what it says on the news nowadays but you know. Anyways, the Celtics would gather around a campfire in costumes of dead animals (yay) and burn crops and animals in hopes to survive the “attack” of the undead or in other words, the coming winter.

So how do we go from burning animals while wearing dead animals to where we are now? I have no clue. Good thing this article does. By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of the Celtic territory. They would influence the Celtic traditions with various traditions they enjoy doing, such as bobbing for apples. By around the first century, the Roman Christian church presented the All Souls’ Day which is believed to have replaced the Celtic’s sacred festival of the dead. This All Souls’ Day was also called All-hallows day, which is where the name Halloween is believed to have originated from.

As most of us should probably know, churches are good and try to keep things dead animal free. So the church tinkered with the Celtic tradition a bit. Instead of trying to scare away the undead or satisfy them with the flesh of animals, the church decided to celebrate them with parades and fun and costumes and stuff. Now it’s starting to sound like the Halloween we know and love huh. Well, that’s because it is.

The British came to America and along with them, the practices of Halloween. Yaay. The British weren’t the only ones trying to show the goods, however, immigrants from Ireland, the homeland of Halloween, spread ideas of Halloween in America as well. Taking from both English and Irish traditions and some ideas of their own, Americans began to dress up in costumes (not the dead animal kind) and go door to door asking for candy and sometimes even money.

Well there you have it folks. That is the story of how people went from wearing dead animals to taking two pieces of candy when the sign says only take one.

Sources

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

Are Video Games Affecting You?

Have you ever thought about what you’re playing is physically affecting you? Well I, for one, have not. Recent issues on video games, however, have sparked my interest to look deeper into the matter. Although video games aren’t typically known for bringing out the best of a person, most people don’t know what about video games affect them. Yes, you can have increased reflexes and yes, you can obtain great eye coordination but if you see it in a different perspective, will you still think video games are worth it?

According to an article, video games and one’s physical health have a pretty direct relationship with one another. Most people while playing video enjoy eating snacks or drinking soda and may not even notice it. This could lead to over eating if one’s not paying close attention and at the same time a way to empty your wallet faster in the desperation for more food. Distractions like this from video games can also lead to other mistakes such as forgetting a homework assignment or a date you and your friends made.

Playing video game is an easy way to lock someone up into their room for days on end. This could mean losing outside communication, but more importantly, outside physical exercise. Physical exercise is a necessity for almost every human to stay healthy and fit. What video games do is take that away from the individual as instead of spending time working out; the person would rather spend it sitting down on the coach doing nothing. The NPD Group revealed in their studies that there are over 34 million “core gamers” with an average of 22 hours a week spent on video games. This means 34 million people locked in their room for hours doing nothing but video games.

Video games can affect a person in other negative ways other than physically. According to this article on video games affecting students, they state that violent video games can cause violent people. In 2008, a study to see the correlation between violent video games and unhealthy behaviors was taken.  The study revealed that violent video games can cause increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In another article, however, through two years on study, it’s revealed that kids become less violent even while playing violent video games because the kids matured. However, these kids will still be slightly more aggressive than those kids who didn’t play the video games.

Although it’s fine for one to pick up on that last saved file every once and awhile, too much of a “good” thing can become bad. Don’t forget too that there is always more to life than what is inside your house.  So what do you think? Do you want to put that controller down and go for a jog?

Sources

http://www.education.com/facts/quickfacts-video-games/gaming-physical-health/

http://bgr.com/2014/05/14/time-spent-playing-video-games/

http://www.acsd.org/article/the-effect-of-videogames-on-student-achievement/

http://time.com/34075/how-violent-video-games-change-kids-attitudes-about-aggression/

Community Post #1 Response

After reading the article, "Exposing Hidden Bias at Google," I have come to agree that "Google, like many other tech companies, is a man's world." Altough women are just as competent to take on the jobs of the tech world, why is it that seventy percent of the workforce for Google male? This doesn't stop at Google too, however, other well known tech companies such as Apple and Facebook have the majority of the work force lean towards the male populace. Why is that?

Being male or female should be irrelevant because both genders have the same mental capabilities. No matter what way we look at it, we're all humans, and we're all the same species, and we're all built up the same way intelectually. It has yet to be proven that being of different genders can cause dissabilites when it comes to the fields of work. This is why I am concerned as to why tech companies prefer men over women. 

Altough it's true that being biased has a factor as to why male are prefered over women, we can't just judge our all our assumptions that Google and other tech companies are completely biased against females. In the article, we never did get a statistic on how many female applied to work at said tech companies compared to the amount of males. Maybe females don't prefer working at tech jobs and enjoy nursing or teach thus have a lower apply rate, causing less female workers at tech companies. Maybe even males don't really have any other jobs to go to, so they all try to apply for tech companies. This reason can lead to as to why males have a population edge over woman in this type of job. 

All in all, I would have to say that for now in our current age, tech companies are a man's world. Employers will always have a little bias in their eyes when looking at resumes. There will always be a bigger workforce of men compared to woman in these types of companies. And as long as women are all right with that, it will probably stay that way for a long time.