You want this once-in-a-lifetime outfit to look great. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on your dress (or the groom’s suit). Try out one of these ideas for paying less.
It’s finally here… Summer! The warm beautiful weather, outdoor activities and family fun are plentiful this time of year. Unfortunately, so are the opportunities for sunburns, heat rashes, bug bites, water dangers and many more summer activity hazards. Below are five important summer safety tips to help ensure a super spectacular summer.
1. Avoid sunburns like the plague
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, getting one blistering sunburn when you are a kid doubles your chances of developing melanoma. It goes without saying the best way to avoid a sunburn is to avoid the sun, but during the warm summer months that is near impossible, so always apply at least an SPF 15 sunscreen to exposed skin 30 minutes before exposure. Also, whenever possible, try to provide shade for your child in the form of umbrellas, loose clothing, long sleeves, light pants and wide-brimmed hats. For children under 6 months old, consult a physician before using any sunscreen.
If sunburn occurs and your child starts to feel ill, consult your pediatrician — seek immediate medical attention if your little one’s temperature reaches 105 F.
2. Swim Smart
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 800 children drown every year. That number is scary and beyond heartbreaking. For that reason, when around any body of water with young children and poor swimmers, stay within arm’s reach.
Here are a few top tips from the Red Cross on pool/water safety:
Always swim with a buddy; do not allow anyone to swim alone.
Do not trust a child’s life to another child
Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets around water, but do not rely on life jackets alone.
Establish rules for your family and enforce them without fail.
Safety covers and pool alarms should be added as additional layers of protection.
Teach children to always ask permission to go near water!
If you are around water and your child is missing ALWAYS check the water first. Seconds count.
Secondary drowning occurs after a child has struggled in the water. It is rare and accounts for only 1-2% of drowning cases, but still be aware that if your child has struggled in the water and swallowed water as a result, secondary drowning is possible. Look for these warning signs:
The bottom line is that you know your child, after a near drowning incident or long day of swimming, Be aware of any sudden changes from the norm.
3. Stay Away From Stings and Bites
With lovely, warm weather comes evil, pesky bugs. Unfortunately, bright colors and floral prints (summer colors!) attract bees and wasps, as do those sweet sticky faces and hands. If you are going to a park or area that you know will have a high concentration of bugs, bees and wasps, stick to clothing with muted light, solid colors.
If your child is stung, don’t pull out the stinger with fingers or tweezers. Scrape gently with a credit card to push the stinger out in the direction in which it entered. Once the stinger is out, make a paste out of baking soda and water, or a 0.5 percent hydrocortisone cream can provide relief.
As for insect repellents… DEET can be toxic! Repellents with 10 to 30 percent concentrations of DEET can be used on exposed skin, clothing and shoes, but do not apply it to little faces or hands. If you want to avoid DEET, the CDC recommends repellents that are made up with picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus, both are non-toxic and work just as well as formulas with low levels of DEET.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the CDC recommend that for children older than 2 months of age, use 10% to 30% DEET. DEET should never be used on children younger than 2 months of age.
Combination sunscreen/insect repellent products should be avoided because sunscreen needs to be reapplied every two hours, but the insect repellent should not be reapplied.
4. Overheating/dehydration/and heat rashes
The key to avoiding overheating is to stay hydrated. Never wait for your child to tell you he is thirsty. According to the AAP, your child is already dehydrated when he asks for something to drink, so offer lots of fluids both before going outside, and once your child is outside playing.
Hot, humid weather can lead to blocked sweat glands that lead to nasty rashes in the folds of your child’s skin. If this occurs, place your child in a cool, soapless bath. Dry him completely then apply cornstarch powder to the rash, and avoid unnecessary clothing. The rash should clear up in two to three days.
5. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CHILD UNATTENDED IN THE CAR FOR A MINUTE!
Next time you are alone in your car, turn it off and count to 60. Within one minute your car can increase by ten degrees. Under no circumstance should your child be left in a car.
Even the very best parents and caregivers have been known to forget about a sleeping child in the backseat. A good rule of thumb is to keep a small stuffed animal in the car and every time you get in, place the small stuffed animal in your lap to remind you that your child is in the car. Or place your purse/laptop bag in the backseat with your child, so you have to get in the backseat before leaving your car. This is especially useful in the mornings. This may save your child’s life.
The Fourth of July is a highly anticipated event for many of us. We get together with family and friends; we barbecue, see fireworks, go to the beach or watch a parade. We spend ages planning the perfect outfit that evenly distributes equal amounts of red white and blue, and yes, we get the day off! But we rarely take time to reflect on what the day really means. Fourth of July isn’t just about gathering together as a community. It’s about independence: what it means for each of us to be the navigators of our own lives, work towards a stronger nation, and to work individually for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So let’s rethink Independence Day, and amongst the grilling and outdoor fun, let’s celebrate what makes YOU independent.
Remember that moment when you left home for college? When you left for summer camp for the first time? OR when you put down that deposit for your first apartment? The prospect of doing something on your own may have been daunting or exciting. It may have filled you with pride to step on your own two feet and face the world, or you may have been terrified. But whatever it was and however you felt, YOU did it. You took the plunge and made something happen. This Fourth of July I invite you to celebrate an accomplishment for yourself. Did you leave your job to start a business? Did you fight all of the “no” in your life and pursue your dreams? Did you attend college? Commit to your family? Create something artistic? Tell someone you love them? It doesn’t have to be the greatest thing you’ve ever accomplished; it just has to be something you did independently that catalyzed change in your life. A single thing you did for yourself that ultimately helped you lead a happier life and change the lives of those around you. It could be as simple as a kind gesture or a phone call. There is no wrong answer.
It was a simple change that gave me the tools I needed to open my own business. After working in marketing at a corporate magazine I wanted a change. I wanted to build a business based on wellness and personalized results. I wanted to create a close-knit community in New York City — a neighborhood feel in the fitness world. I wanted to really know my clients and establish a supportive and nurturing environment. I saw Nalini Method’s potential, and I knew I had to pave my own way. I owned up to the fact that I owed myself that chance. So I made the choice to move forward alone and begin my journey as an entrepreneur. It wasn’t always easy. I spent the first few months as a business owner handing out flyers on the street, getting to know as many people as I could and asking questions to as many people that would listen. But step by step, things began to work out. It took resilience and a lot of newfound faith in myself. Today, I look back at that time fondly, knowing that it was a need for independence that laid the foundation for my business. I always encourage my students to say thank you to someone in their lives that has helped them along the way. Now it’s time to thank yourself.
The Declaration of Independence cites that as independent states, Americans have the right to wage peace, provide commerce and develop laws. Yet within this independence, “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Yes, Independence Day is about that collective pledge of honor, but it goes deeper. It is about a group of individuals making the choice to pledge their commitment to a sovereign nation. This Fourth of July I encourage you to take some time to think about what makes you independent and how you, individually, contribute to the success of your family, friend group, community and country. “Mutually” we make pledges to each other to combine our skills and pursuits to create harmony. No man is an island, but it is the combination of our individual journeys that make this nation great. Happy Independence Day!
The holy month of fasting is a challenge for everyone observing Ramadan, but some Muslims have it harder than others.
People fasting typically wake up before the dawn prayer, Fajr, to eat the meal that will have to hold them over for the whole day. They abstain from all food and drink during the daylight hours, breaking the fast after the sun has set and the call to Maghrib prayer has gone out.
Twitter has made it easier to find out the exact timings of the beginning and end of the fast each day, which vary according to date and geographical location. By tweeting @AlArabiya with the hashtag #iftar and a hashtagged city, users will receive a reply with the time the fast will end.
HuffPost Religion has created an infographic to show how long the fast will last in cities around the world, by calculating the time between Fajr and Maghrib. Check it out below:
Graphic by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post.
“Consumer experience” is one of the big buzzwords in today’s marketing lexicon. But what does it really mean and what comprises consumer experience?
Most marketers plan for how best to have consumers experience the company’s brand, and have the consumer do so in a way the marketer wants consumers to experience it. Given the way brand actually works, perhaps this is not the most valid focus. Moreover, this focus assumes an amount of control that marketers no longer really have in the current digital-mobile context.
First, the essence of branding is no longer the product as brand, with the company’s brand as the ultimate referent. Nowadays, people are more attracted to brands that serve as a venue for an individual’s own self-expansion. “ME-as-brand” is now the base coin of business success. The emphasis has turned 180 degrees, from product to people.
Personal Authenticity
The idea is, if the product-as-brand can be viewed as a challenge and provocation to bringing forth some latent aspect of a person’s idea of self, then that is a brand experience in the truest sense of the term. What people value most now is a growing sense of who and what they truly are. That’s a brand experience that increases customer loyalty, but a loyalty that stems from a loyalty to one’s own idea of self, and not first-and-foremost to the product. Personal authenticity is the prize possession.
Here are two examples of the customer experience that demonstrate today’s definition of value as peoples’ quest for authenticity:
Listen to an iPhone owner’s monologue: “The iPhone, like Apple, is a circle; it’s smooth and it glides. It’s easy and makes me feel I can do things more easily and do more. All other phones and network providers are a box; they have corners and squares, are highly structured, have too many rules, and are too technical and linear. The iPhone helps me be a better and bigger me.”
Similarly, a recent purchaser of a Montblanc Fountain Pen, said: “I’ve wanted to buy a great fountain pen for as long as I can remember, but never had. Despite the economy, or maybe because of it, I thought I should buy one now. I did and I’m so happy. The Montblanc feels so sensual, so luxurious in my hand. I think better writing with it. It helps me get down to my deepest thoughts and feelings. I find ‘me’ with this Montblanc in hand.”
Turning Off Your Auto-Pilot
The underlying key to customer experience is having an experience that helps nudge a person out of their habitual routines of behavior, so they, in effect, unplug from auto-pilot.
Today, life is fast; life is complex. There is no off-stage anymore, and everything is plucked while still green and hard. Add to that, nothing is all of one piece any longer.
In this context of too fast and too complicated, it is typical in each moment’s press of “there’s-so-much-to-do” that we go on auto-pilot. In a defensive mode, we stay on the surface of experience, go for the efficient and stereotyped routine and hunker down… until the next moment, living life as a series of staccato “nows.” The result: Life becomes disembodied and disjointed.
When we’re on the job, we tend to live an extensive — but not an intensive — life. It’s emblematic of our time-pressured workdays that we skim over the top of many tasks, flit from one thing to another, never going deep into anything. Workers hardly ever have the opportunity to discover something new about what they are doing or what they each are. The gap between what one does and what one is grows larger with each tic of the clock.
The rub is that life is short. In a flash, days turn into years, and years into half an expected life span. And too easily, we become separated from our own true nature. Overly vigilant and responsive to the rapidity of external demands coming at us 24/7, we lose track of who we are internally. Our lives shrink. People know this. Yet, given the onslaught of time, we accept less than who we are and what we could be.
The Indispensable Aspect
Any consumer involvement that aids in bringing a person out of that mundane numbness can be conceived of as the ultimate customer experience. Anything that opens up a person, taps into their sense of curiosity, and immerses them in feeling, is what people really go for. Something new, something surprising, something spontaneous, anything that stirs up emotions and memories, and let’s people see their familiar in a new and bigger way is the sine qua non of life and of business.
Putting experience back into ‘customer experience’ means satisfying a hunger while at the same time stimulating a new hunger — a new hunger that comes from peoples’ expanded sense of self. When business thinks about that — instead of cramming people into experiencing a company’s product, store, or online display — then sales will rise, and more importantly, so will people’s vitality.
Who:
Craig Robinson
Where:
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 307 W 26th St, New York, NY
When:
June 23, 2014
What:
Craig closed out this week’s Whiplash by leading the audience in a late night jazz club gone gloriously off the rails singalong, including a stab at LL Cool J’s “I Need Love“, which no one in the audience except me, apparently, knew. (Craig, I love LL. If only I could sing, I woulda done a duet!)
Check out the new Whiplash Instagram. They’re running archive photos from the show’s entire run, since 2008.
Stolen Moment of the Week is a series featuring the work of photographer Mindy Tucker, who has been documenting the comedy scene in New York for the last seven years. Each week, Tucker picks her favorite image from one of the many stages, green rooms, after parties and private sessions she shoots, and gives you the details behind it.
North Korea is threatening a “resolute and merciless” response against the United States, labeling it “reckless US provocative insanity” and saying it will consider it an “act of war.”
Moreover, a statement attributed by North Korea’s official news agency KCNA to an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman calls it “a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable.”
But what is “it“?
Has the United States sent its Special Forces or drones into or over the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? Or, worse, has the United States prohibited Dennis Rodman from celebrating any more of Kim Jong-Un’s birthdays in North Korea?
No, “it” is much worse than that.
“It” is The Interview, a comedy directed by Evan Goldberg, in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play celebrity TV journalists who secure an exclusive interview with Kim, but are then recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. The film is slated for release in the US on October 14
At first, North Korea just “rubbished” and dismissed the comedy.
About a week ago, Kim Myong-chol, executive director of The Centre for North Korea-US Peace and an unofficial spokesman for the regime in Pyongyang, told the Telegraph,”There is a special irony in this storyline as it shows the desperation of the US government and American society…A film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine,” and he added, “…let us not forget who killed [President John F.] Kennedy – Americans…In fact, President [Barack] Obama should be careful in case the US military wants to kill him as well.”
A a week later, however, North Korea seems to be pulling out the big guns calling the movie “the most blatant act of terrorism and war [that] will absolutely not be tolerated,” and threatening that “a merciless countermeasure will be taken” if the “US administration allows and defends the showing of the film.” Even vowing “all out war.”
It appears that the film’s plot has touched a nerve inside the regime, which takes a dim view of satirical treatment of its leaders and is notoriously paranoid about perceived threats to their safety.
[..]
The [North Korean] foreign ministry official, in typically bombastic style, berated the film’s makers as gangsters and described the film’s release as “reckless US provocative insanity.”
The film had sparked “a gust of hatred and rage” among the North Korean citizens and soldiers, the official said, although ordinary North Koreans are probably unaware of its existence and, with very few exceptions, will never get to see it.
[..]
Kim, played by the Korean American actor Randall Park, is portrayed as an overweight cigar smoker, although the 31-year-old leader is thought to prefer cigarettes. It is not clear if Kim, who was partly educated in the west, where he developed a love of NBA basketball, has seen the trailer.
His father, Kim Jong-il, was a well-known movie buff who ordered the abduction of the South Korean director Shin Sang-ok in 1987. Shin was forced to make propaganda movies for the regime until his escape.
This story most certainly falls in the category of “we’re not making this up.”
Below is the “official teaser trailer” for The Interview — nothing to rave about, but also nothing to go to war about.
For most of the past week, much of lakefront Chicago has been shrouded in a very thick, very eerie fog like something out of a horror film, allowing the bulk of its iconic skyline to pull a vanishing act.
The situation has a relatively simple weather explanation but has, nonetheless, set the scene for some incredible photos of the city.
Incredible photo taken by our @cbschicago helicopter pilot of the fog over #chicago #boggeddowninfog pic.twitter.com/kZC4KD7Lp8
— nwsgrl (@nwsgrl) June 27, 2014
Holy fog Batman!!! I’m exploring #Chicago on this cool morning until my tour guide @EllieBodner awakes. pic.twitter.com/eiI75NnUkD
— Suzanne Boyd (@SuzanneBoyd) June 21, 2014
Chicago-area fog advisory extended, but no flight cancellations reported so far: http://t.co/0piXTvhdsn pic.twitter.com/rxkqTySoh5
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) June 21, 2014
Dense fog advisory in effect for Chicago http://t.co/K0mGLUrz3o pic.twitter.com/Zgu30dHbSO
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) June 27, 2014
@JimCantore – Here’s what the fog rolling over #Chicago last night looked like from @SkydeckChicago > pic.twitter.com/zMkjzX9DYe
— Nick Ulivieri (@ChiPhotoGuy) June 27, 2014
AccuWeather meteorologist Frank Strait explained to the Chicago Sun-Times that the extremely foggy conditions are largely due to the fact that Lake Michigan remains unusually cold for this time of year — the result of the historic, record-breaking “polar vortex” the city experienced this winter.
In addition, Strait said, when the high-moisture air mass currently over the region moves over the lake, it causes fog to develop rapidly. From above, it looks like a giant cotton ball has swallowed up the city:
@NASA modis satellite image of fog on Lake Michigan hugging the coastline yesterday. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/MltzLMGDqS
— Chris Dolce (@chrisdolcewx) June 27, 2014
According to the National Weather Service, the city has seen quadruple the normal amount of fog and low cloud cover in recent days, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The foggy conditions caused a number of flight delays and cancellations at Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports.
Other cities along the still-chilly Great Lakes have also seen much more fog than usual for the same reason.
Duluth, Minnesota, has also been coated with fog:
Incredible fog at 4pm here in #Duluth as it thickens .. 1/4 mi. pic.twitter.com/W0HIpGdsGl
— Daniel Dix (@DDwx) June 22, 2014
As has Muskegon, Michigan:
Dense fog in Muskegon with 1/4 mile visibility. #wmiwx pic.twitter.com/EJbLw40Fr8
— Aaron Ofseyer (@aaronofseyer) June 26, 2014
Baby don’t buy me roses. Take me somewhere new.
I’m single, and I guess I really like it. I feel free to roam and travel. To explore and adventure. To take cliche travel quotes and associate them to real experiences.
I haven’t found the urge to find another “half” because I’ve felt “whole” as traveler. When you travel, you discover more than places… you discover more than the world… you discover yourself.
But if I did have a boyfriend, husband or lover, I’d want him to know the following:
Baby, don’t buy me roses, take me somewhere new.
Swim with me in the Great Barrier Reef and help me overcome my fear of drowning.
Hike with me along Mt. Fuji, to leap high above the clouds, with only the sky below us.
Let’s enjoy a pirate ship dinner on King’s Landing… a real life Game of Thrones, b*txh!
Hug me like the elephants in Chiang Mai, and make my heart beat like the boa wrapped around me in the Amazon.
Show me that “Splash Waterfalls” is more than a dirty Ludacris song; let’s get wet at Iguazu Falls.
Let’s re-define a British “tee” party and rage on to the Holy Grail at Wireless Festival.
Make me say “Ha Long” will this moment last in Vietnam, and take me to a better place Down Under.
Give me the security to take real life risks; not those as simple as the bungee jumping in Queenstown. After all, being an adrenaline junkie is a habit, but life-changing decisions are another kind of rush.
Consider expat life, or a month long vacation.
Let’s learn to sail Whitsunday Islands and run with the bulls in Pamplona.
Baby, let’s do everything we’ve dreamed of; and let’s create new dreams, hopes, and goals once we’ve finished those.
Well, oops, I’ve already done those things without you.
I guess we don’t need someone special to create memorable moments. But if I do find a fellow lover of living, truly living, I won’t have to tell him to not buy me flowers because flowers die. He will know to take me to a garden on his own.
– – –
An original TRAVELBREAK blog post, this was first published by Thought Catalog.
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by Ryan Shepard
I remember when Saturday mornings were like poetry: the rainbow colored fruity pebbles sitting in my spoon, a fluffy teddy bear brilliantly named Teddy, the sounds of Ahmad Rashad previewing the day’s NBA games, and the sounds of my brother trying to play basketball, indoors. Then there was the day’s biggest gift–my own personal gentle giant whom I called Dad, author of the poem. His everlasting line was that incredibly wide grin he wore across his face. He seamlessly presented Saturday’s poetry as smooth as the feel of his casket ten years ago. Today I am evolving with the memory of the poems along with the wide grin that travelled with him everywhere. Now they guide my definitions of comfort and confidence.
Seven years after I put his casket behind me, I picked up the pen, paper and microphone that were in front of me. My talents grew as wide as my father’s grin, but on my own terms. The younger me wanted to be just like him–part of me still does. Yet I’m more artistic than he could have ever imagined. Last spring, I filled sheet after sheet of paper, exposing innermost secrets by way of poetry and music. In doing so, I came to expand my own grin. On the stage of a packed ballroom at Disney World, I performed my poem, “17 Dreams”, which takes the reader into my visions of my future. With each line, I gauged the audience’s reaction, opening myself to new vulnerabilities but also becoming more confident and comfortable with myself. My grin became a bit wider, almost like my dad’s smile way back when.
Poetic memories of my father’s Saturday grins carried me from North Plainfield Middle School lunch lines into ninth grade at Choate Rosemary Hall. I suddenly found myself amongst those born with golden spoons or even famous last names. I questioned my place among them. Nonetheless, I grew to see the value of my Saturday morning spoon even more, thanks partially to Colin Lord, a mentor and admissions director at Choate who once detected a little self-doubt in me. He said, “We wouldn’t have brought you here if we didn’t think that you could handle it.”
My talents grew, but on my own terms. I became president of the Choate Afro-Latino Student Alliance and Slam Poetry clubs. I was also named Prefect, becoming a student mentor to freshmen. As a Choate elder, I now share stories of my experiences with others, such as my first track meet as a freshman. My legs pounded against the red pavement of the track during the first race. I was nearly fifty yards ahead of my only competitor, when it hit me: I had broken into a sprint too quickly. I was that young, naive freshman who thought he could sprint 400 meters. Meter by meter, I could feel the senior runner coming up behind me, ultimately beating me by a full 50 meters. As I neared the finish line, I heard the voices of both my parents: “It’s not the end all, be all.”
My dad’s grin, smile, voice, presence and spirit are still powerful forces in my life. My reality opposes all the studies that suggest I am lucky to be a part of the 4% of boarding school students who are African-American and not the nearly one million blacks who are incarcerated. These figures are mere background chatter to me. My father taught me well; his influence has weakened and trumped those studies. My goal now, above anything else, is to continue to grow into my own person and solidify my own incredible grin.
Ryan Shepard, a recent Choate Rosemary Hall graduate, will be attending American University this fall.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.