Tips for Being Positive

In this video, I discuss why you should accept who you are, ways to take care of yourself while highlighting the importance of staying physically active, how setting goals for yourself doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and the power of showing compassion.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Three Things That Make Fall My Second Favorite Season

For me there’s nothing like wearing a pair of colorful shorts, a bright tank top and comfy flip flops while spending the long days beneath the shining sun. Maybe drink some freshly squeezed lemonade after taking a stroll along the beach with my feet in the ocean, toss a Frisbee around in the sand, wind down at a barbecue for dinner and then eat a fruity Italian ice, followed by roasting marshmallows beneath the glistening stars, laughing with my friends and catching the leftover hint of suntan lotion swaying in the warm air. And I must mention that driving with the windows down and radio up is what gets me from point A to point B. But it’s time to stop fantasizing about the past because today marks the first day of my second favorite season on our pretty earth: fall. Or autumn, as some of you may like to refer to it as. First of all, let me just say that I’m a fall baby — I trickled down to this earth like a leaf in November — it’s embedded within who I am. Right behind summer, so super close to it, just a tiny little nudge away from it in my heart lies my adoration for this gorgeous-stricken season, and here’s what I love most about it: Read More

Things I Hate About My Commute

On average, it takes me about an hour to get to work, and the ride home usually stretches out to be about 15 minutes longer. During my rather frustrating or overly boring drives to and from my job, I’ve noticed a few small things that never really bothered me before have now become overly annoying. These unenjoyable occurrences include:

The red lights on the ramps before entering highways—“One Vehicle Per Green,” states the sign in big bold letters below the light that can’t seem to decide if it likes being green or red. I passionately hate these stupid lights. Personally, I don’t see the point in stopping at a red light for a second and a half just a few feet before entering a highway rushing with stressed out, competitive maniacs on five different pills, soaring at least 70 MPH and angrily jerking their steering wheels to fly their dented SUVs with ugly stick figure families on the back windows into the next lane because the guy in front of them is only going 68 MPH as he looks down at his iPhone 5. Read More

The Fake-Nice Phone Voice

My voice changes when I’m talking to an animal or a small child. It becomes high pitched and gentle at the same time. But you know what? It’s real. It’s out of my control but it sounds how I want it to come across because it’s how those cute critters make me feel. Welcoming, kind, and affectionate.

Marshall Phone

That phone voice most of you have – that stuff is just phony. Seriously, what’s up with that? That’s one thing I’ll always remember about my mother. That false voice she puts on whenever the phone rings. She doesn’t have an ugly voice or anything, but when having a conversation with some stranger on the other side of the phone across the world or something, her voice becomes soft as a baby’s ass and she pronounces each letter in every word. She becomes so proper as if she’s talking to the president of the United States. Let me explain. Naturally, she doesn’t pronounce her Rs. She’ll normally speak like this: “I fuhgot to wawta the plants. Um so ty-ud. Damn it.”  Now let’s say some pushy, pervert, thief, puppy-hating salesman happens to call her to try to sell her an alarm system. She doesn’t know this guy, but she’s sweeter to him than she’s been to my father throughout her entire life, and the guy’s clearly pressuring her. “No thank you. No, not right now,” she’ll gently say. “Thank you (fake laugh). We already have an alaRm system and a big dOG to guaRd the house. No, I don’t need that, thank you though. No (fake laugh). Nope. Alrighty. You too. Alright, buh-bye.” (Hangs up, says bad things about how annoying he was.) It’s so bizarre.
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Things to Do When Someone is Staring at You

Dog_Stare

Herro. (Note: This image is not mine.)

People like to stare at you for a number of reasons. They like the way you look, they don’t like the way you look, you have something on your face, etcetera. I found myself in this somewhat awkward situation not long ago, as I was standing in line at the bank to deposit a rather puny check of mine. I felt the eyes of another crawling up and down my frame, from the corner to the left of me. With a quick glance I saw her, and then focused my attention to the back of the balding head in front of me. I still felt her eyes. She was waiting for her obnoxious grandmother to dump her life savings into the coin-counting machine. I soon passed my deposit slip and check to the teller, took my receipt, and turned around. My eyes met the young woman’s, and what did I do? I smiled. Lame, I know. I should have done one of the following.

Wink. They won’t see this coming, and will be aware that you know they were staring. They’ll most likely force a quick laugh,  flush with embarrassment, and be done with it. Or maybe this can backfire and they’ll mistake your flick of an eye as a signal to initiate some small talk. It depends on who this person is. Use your judgment.

Have a staring contest. Hold your gaze. Don’t submit to them, even if your eyes are drying up. Fight the blink. You’re better than them.

Pose, pretend to be a model. They won’t expect this from their eye candy. Flaunt it.

Make the craziest face you can possibly make at that moment. Scare them off, you lunatic. They won’t know what to do, but I can guarantee that their eyes will roam elsewhere. That, or they’ll keep their eyes shut for days. This will be especially funny if you make eye contact while creating your monstrous facial expression.

Give them the thumbs-up. Aw. They were praising your body with their eyes. How nice. Let them know you appreciate their existence.

Point, gasp, and run. This will teach them that staring is indeed very rude. Make sure to glance back a few times as you’re sprinting away. After a few seconds, steady your pace and act as if nothing happened.

Flip the bird. This one is daring, but they will most likely be speechless. Or not. (Warning: this may turn violent.)

Wild Beauty

Some fascinating photography of my two favorite animals, the wolf and the cheetah. These images are not mine, though I wish I was lucky enough to have taken them myself (from a safe distance).WOLVES

What I admire most about wolves is how they work together as a unit, how they’re social and emotional like we are. I think they’re capable of love, like most pack animals, and I respect their wild beauty and power.CHEETAH

Cheetahs are graceful, though tough for their fragile build. I think they’ve got the most skill in the savannah for being solitary hunters. They can reach up to 75 miles per hour (in short bursts), and have the ability to accelerate from zero to 62 miles per hour in three seconds. I find that absolutely amazing. I also think they have one of the earth’s most stunning patterns. WOLF PUPPIES

And of course I’d love the chance to meet a wolf pup or a cheetah cub.

CHEETAH CUB AND MOTHER

Your Life’s Questions

  1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
  2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
  3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
  4. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
  5. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
  6. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
  7. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
  8. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
  9. If you could offer a child only one piece of advice, what would it be?
  10. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
  11. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
  12. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?
  13. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?
  14. What are you most grateful for?
  15. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
  16. Do you remember that time five years ago when you were extremely upset?  Does it really matter now?
  17. What is your happiest childhood memory?
  18. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
  19. If not now, when?
  20. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
  21. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you had the best conversation ever?
  22. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?
  23. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?
  24. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?
  25. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?
  26. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?
  27. What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
  28. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right?
  29. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?
  30. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
  31. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?
  32. What do you love?  Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?
  33. In five years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday?  What about the day before that?  Or the day before that?
  34. Decisions are being made right now.  Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

Scorpio Season

It’s Scorpio season! I’ll let you other stars peek into the mind of a Scorpio just this once.

Scorpios can be difficult to really know, and it takes time to understand. Upon first meeting one, most see them as serious, though polite, or a bit quirky and uptight (mainly at work or in a professional atmosphere). Once a Scorpio feels connected with you, they’re laid back and always looking to have fun.

Scorpios finish what they start, no matter how much time it takes.

This sign doesn’t forget anything, ever. They’ll remember all they’ve collected about you, even if your lives crossed for a short period of time. Read More

My Super Powers

Some cool super powers I wish I could have.

Teleportation – Being able to be anywhere in the world (even beyond the world!) in the blink of an eye would be absolutely astounding. I could see so much without the hassle of planning and getting on a plane or a boat or a crazy super rocket ship and at no cost. Just think it and explore it. If I’m running a little late for something, whoosh, not anymore!

Invisibility – I don’t mean to sound like a creep, but sometimes I want to watch people when they think they’re alone. Not during any of those private moments, of course, but in the way that this super power defeats what I want out of saying I want the ability to read minds. Watching someone when they’re at their most honest points, alone, seeing their actions says a lot about them. So don’t invade their minds (that’s too private!), just hang out in their room with them (totally not in a creep way) and find your answers through their actions. Invisibility would also come in handy while investigating something, or when you have one of those moments when you just want to vanish.

Flight – Who wouldn’t want to be able to take off into the blue? Flying at your own pace would be so peaceful and freeing. The closest I’ve been to flying was when I went skydiving, and the rush was incredible. Once the second parachute was pulled and we slowed down, the view was breathtaking and having the time to let the experience sink in was phenomenal. So if I want to just casually fly to work or to a friend’s house, I can float over, see what’s going on below, and enjoy the ride.

Time Travel – Nothing like learning about something than actually being there or doing it yourself.  Chuck those bogus books out the window and get in your time travel machine. The big bang theory, dinosaurs (turn on your invisibility when you come across the velociraptors), Benjamin Franklin. I’m not sure how I feel about sneaking into the future though. That would be unfair, but definitely helpful, when it comes to certain things. That would just turn the world into a mess, I believe. It’s giving me a headache just thinking about it. So let’s only time travel to the past. Educational purposes only. Now that I think about it, you should be invisible at all times so that you don’t interfere and mess up the future (this reminds me of A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury and you should read it).

Healing with a touch – A sick person or a wounded animal, right in front of me, and there’s nothing I can do about it. If I could heal with a touch, I’d be able to restore them to their healthy self and we’d all be happy. Then comes the thought of extreme over population, but in a world of super powers where there’d be invisible people and others time traveling and teleporting off the planet, it would be fine.

Having the perfect amount of money when I need it – $26,000 for a Toyota FJ Cruiser, $60,000 for a Master’s degree, $60 to fill up my gas tank, $28.73 for dinner and drinks, how about some giant cannolis? Do you like cannolis? I’m not much of a fan, honestly, but here, take ’em. Have ’em all, they’re on me, don’t worry ’bout it. No matter how much something costs in this money-run world, I wish I could have the exact amount I need at that very moment.

What do you think? Which super powers would you like to have and why?