CLASSES & JOBS

We all want to give the best gifts possible. But what defines an excellent gift? Does the gift have to be used often? Does it have to be what the person told you they wanted? Does it have to look really cool? Do you want to be told that the person really liked your gift? Everyone has different measures. Some people just like to get whatever the gift receiver asked for, whereas I like to give presents that will be used. Personally, I define a successful gift by how often it is used. If someone uses my gift once, it was a waste. This is why whenever I go to a wedding I always give a pizza cutter and a cheese grater. I know that it is boring, but I know they will be used.

My goal is to never give someone a trinket, or in other words something that will sit in a drawer for a few years then be thrown away. Souvenirs can be fun if they are used as a decoration, but if I own a really modern house, I won’t be hanging up a cactus sculpture from the Grand Canyon. Giving a great gift isn’t easy, but if you give out enough gifts, eventually you’ll get a winner.

Recently, I had a friend who started a diet that was very strict. It limited her food choices to about fifteen things. It was very ambitious, but it only lasted a few days, so therefore it turned out to be essentially pointless. At least with gifts it is the thought that counts, but in regards to diets, you can think about being healthy all you want, but if you don’t walk the walk, you won’t see any pounds drop. Starting a diet is one thing, but finishing a diet is a completely different beast.

The most successful people I know at dieting don’t set up extremely rigid diet plans. They simply cut out little excesses (i.e. Diet Coke not regular, never “Biggie Size” anything). A diet plan needs to include little treats. For instance, if you are out celebrating something, allow yourself to have some cake or dessert. It is better to do a flexible diet for an entire lifetime than a strict one for a few days. Just maintaining regular exercise and eating remotely healthy will do wonders for you, as opposed to shifting from extremely healthy eating to poor eating every few weeks.

Everyone has different ideas of what constitutes beauty. To some, beauty means preparation. It means applying makeup, dressing in your finest clothes, and making sure to walk, talk and act appropriately. To others, beauty is more natural and spontaneous; beautiful hair can be messy and beautiful skin can shine without makeup. Whatever your idea of beauty, health is important. The healthier you are, the more beautiful you will feel.

You can be healthy by eating right, getting plenty of sleep (at least 8 hours), drinking a lot of water, and exercising. Also, wearing sunscreen and cutting down on the stress in your life will help you live a healthier, more beautiful lifestyle.

In middle school my friends used to joke that I thought they all smelled bad. They said this because one year I gave pretty much all my friends soap for gifts. I got all the soaps from a bath and body store, which was fun to shop at and had everything I needed. I didn’t really mean to do it, I just kept finding really fun types of soap for different people.

At this bath and body store, there was confetti soap, soap crayons for drawing on the shower, soap that smelled good, etc. It became a running joke and still to this day whenever I see any type of soap that different or interesting I send it to a friend from middle school. It’s fun to try different kinds of soap and body wash because some smell amazing, some wake you up, and some calm you down. It’s a simple thing that we use every day, but it can be made a bit more fun with some variation.

I’ll admit it: I am a pen thief. Of all office supplies, pens are my weakness. I will start my day at the office with one pen, which is usually the pen I stole from the clerk at Starbucks when I signed my receipt. By the end of the day I have one pen behind each ear, one in my shirt pocket, another clenched between my teeth and I’m twirling one in my hand. I’m a pen thief, but I don’t mean to be. It just happens.

Unfortunately, at the end of every week someone is complaining that we don’t have any pens anywhere in the office. You see, when I inadvertently steal pens from every co-workers’ desk, they end up in a drawer in my apartment. You would think I have the common sense to clean out that drawer and return the stolen office supplies to their rightful owners, but the truth is I’m a bit embarrassed to show up one morning with a garbage sack full of pens. Then again, maybe I found everyone’s Christmas gift for this year.

Music and politics have long been bedfellows. For centuries, music was used in protest or praise of a leader. Oftentimes composers or their works were banned for political reasons. In 1930 Stravinsky stated in a Roman newspaper, “I don’t believe anyone venerates Mussolini more than I.” His music was soon banned by Nazi Germany.

More recently, rock groups have banned together to promote political participation by their listeners. Groups like Rock the Vote have strived to educate a younger generation as to their value in the political process. R&B artists are even getting involved. Sean “Puffy” Combs led the “Vote or Die” campaign in 2004. His aim was to register overlooked racial minorities and all 18-29 year olds.

This week it seems the planets are aligned, my Chi was centered and the heavens were smiling down on me. How else can I explain my stumbling onto the wonderful world of strangenewproducts.com? If you’ve never been to the site, go there now.

It’s the most frustrating site I’ve been to in a while because as I stroll through the list of products I think to myself, why didn’t I come up with that? Take for example the company Throx that sells socks in pairs of three, thus solving the lost sock phenomena. Or how about Kidz-Med Inc., who have developed a non-contact thermometer? The company claims the device can read the infrared heat radiating from a person’s forehead and provide accurate results…so accurate it may be the next new thing!

With the holidays just around the corner, I’ve been trying to decide what to get some of the important people on my list.

The iPhone has been one of the more popular products on the market for the past few months, and though it seems expensive, and is, I think it’s a good buy, especially as a gift for a loved one in your life. The iPhone has so many useful features, from navigation to games to music space to a touch screen, I feel that it has it all. Furthermore, Apple is one of the best companies around when it comes to being helpful and replacing broken products under warranty.

One of the specific reasons I like the iPhone is that it is a phone and carries all the capabilities of an iPod as well. You get both in one device. This is awesome because if you are shopping for an iPod and a phone you can get both at the same time. When looking at my own iPod and phone, I realized that I had spent more on both items combined than I would have if I had just gotten an iPod. So, next time you’re out shopping, stop by an Apple store and check out the latest iPhones.

Recently, I watched Saturday Night Live where they had a skit featuring Andy Samberg pretending to be celebrity movie star Mark Wahlberg, where Andy walks around talking to animals. It was hilarious if you are a fan of Mark Wahlberg. What was even more funny though was when Mark Wahlberg showed up the next week and poked fun at the skit, telling Andy is was not like him at all, yet Mark talks to a goat during the middle of their conversation.

I know this is just acting, yet little things like showing up on SNL or making a joke at an interview really make me grow fond of certain celebrities. The fact that they can make fun of themselves and show us that some celebrities are not elitist or “too cool,” really goes along way. Another example is Peyton Manning. I have never been a Colts fan, but I will always be a Peyton Manning fan. He has done numerous commercials and appeared on SNL as well, and after viewing all of those it is hard not to cheer for him. Celebrities who can make fun of themselves will always be my favorite.

At any given grocery store there is an entire portion dedicated to hair care and hair dye. I have never bought anything more than the generic, coconut smelling shampoo and conditioner. I never thought it made a difference, but clearly it does as I have begun to find out. I dyed my hair black for Halloween, which is not that bad for your hair. However, when I wanted to dye it back, I was told that it would kill my hair if I went blond.

By bleaching your hair, it sucks all the nutrients out of it. This is a reason a lot of girls do not dye their hair platinum blonde. In order to not have split ends and frail, course hair, you have to buy special shampoo for blonde hair. All of those commercials showing vitamins and minerals being sucked in by your hair actually are legitimate. But here is the catch: special shampoo is very expensive. I am not willing to spend more than about five dollars for a bottle of shampoo, so I do not want to dye my hair back to being blonde. So instead of dying it back, I am going to just wait for it to grow back enough that I can just cut my hair and save the money and hair damage.