Weird & Wacky Holidays

Do you know that we are celebrating the air conditioning appreciation holiday?

Men’s Grooming Day is August 17. Photo from groceryheadquarters.com

Christmas is among the biggest holiday, but the birth of Christ isn’t the only cause we celebrate. Even the minute affairs have their own days:

January. For the first month, we have the annoying opposite day and couple that with nothing day, we should have high dose of playfulness or tolerance. Our feet was taken into focus alongside blaming someone else for starting a rumor.

Blame someone else day – 13th (or first Friday the 13th day of the year)
Nothing day – 16th
Measure your feet day – 23rd
Opposite day – 25th

 

February. If you’re dying to change your name, this is good; but if you love your name already, you’ll have to change it for a day. You could cry any day on a spilled milk but not on the 11th.

Read in the bathtub day – 9th

Don’t cry over spilled milk day – 11th
Get a different name day – 13th
Wear red day – 25th

 

March. Fantastic month. There’s a day of awesomeness, which I celebrate everyday, be nasty day and oh, waffle day! We better get a great haircut because haircut appreciation day is coming. And there’s Bunsen burner day. Wait, what is a Bunsen burner again?

Be nasty day – 8th
Day of awesomeness – 10th
Waffle day – 25th
Hairstyle appreciation day – 30th
Bunsen burner day – 31st

 

April. Start the month fooling and end it with honesty (handle both with caution). Stop the housework and look at the sky. High five with a friend after picking your nose; then memorize the meaning of DNA. This is April.

April fool’s day – 1st
No housework day – 7th
Look up at the sky day – 14th
High five day – 19th
DNA day – 20th
International nose picking day – 23rd
Honesty day – 30th

 

May. I think people are hungriest at this month. They invented the no diet day, which you would eat without any regard. Count a few days then there’s eat what you want day, pick strawberries day and even chicken dancing day – it can be any type of dance but it has to be chicken. Star Wars day is May the 4th, get it?

Star Wars day – 4th
No diet day – 6th
Eat what you want day – 11th
Dance like a chicken day – 14th
Pick strawberries day – 20th

 

June. I get to practice my acting skills by getting panicked exaggeratedly on seeing the news. One question, why the hell would you take your dog to your work? Veterinarians, don’t answer.

Dare day – 1st
Hug holiday – 11th
International panic day – 18th
Take your dog to work day – 23rd

 

July. You think the geeks would let the awesome to have a day on their own? They’ve got their day too. There’s a day for getting out of the doghouse, which you should have not waited for this day to come out if you entered it. Sorry bee sting victims, you can’t avenge and step on a bee on the 10th. Maybe step on bees?

Stay out of the sun day – 3rd
Compliment your mirror day – 3rd
Don’t step on a bee day – 10th
Embrace your geekness day – 13th
Get out of the doghouse day – 16th

 

August. Woohoooo! Bad poetry day – I’ve got an excuse. Wiggle thy toes, thou breath today, you shall groom, if you’re a dude. That bad, eh?

Fresh breath day – 6th
Wiggle your toes day – 6th
Men’s grooming day – 17th
Bad poetry day – 18th

 

September. Video games day is the most important day on any month. Don’t ask why, it’s not stupid.

Be late for something day – 5th
Video games day – 12th
Talk like a pirate day – 19th
Ask a stupid question day – 28th

October. It’s possible for gay people to come out many times this month. They face the fear of coming out on 9th, coming out day on 11th, and shout out their coming out in caps lock on 22nd.

Face your fears day – 9th
Coming out day – 11th
Caps lock day – 22nd
Increase your psychic powers day – 31st

 

November. If there’s a day dedicated for cleaning refrigerators, does that mean I can do it once a year?

False confession day – 21st
Clean your refrigerator day – 15th
Beautiful day – 20th

 

December. I’m interested, how does a bathtub party work? I guess being nice starts on the 4th, it’s Santa’s list day.

Eat a red apple day – 1st
Santa’s list day – 4th
Bathtub party day – 5th

 

It may be silly to form holidays for appreciating the air conditioners or looking at the sky, especially when holidays are widely celebrated for the esteemed dates in history. I think this is a great, great thing to remind us that it doesn’t have to be a huge deal for us to celebrate. It would add an exciting spice to life if we just abandon everything and take the moment to celebrate the little things – it matters!

I’d like to have an act like drunk day. What weird and wacky things/situations you’d like to be a holiday?

More Moments for you:
Loath these Laws
SillyWebsiteNames.com
10 Gorgeous World Leaders of 2012

Sources:
Days of the Year
Holiday Insights

 

Fitness Industry Secrets

The fitness industry is more marketing and psychology than physical.

Fitness Membership. Photo from fitfreedom.wordpress.com

The fitness industry has a spur of growth these recent years, due to illnesses like diabetes and obesity. And of course, thanks to Hollywood we all want to be hot. And that’s the promise of the Fitness Industry, be it a club membership or DVD take-outs – you will be hot and sexy when you buy their products and services.

You decided to join a fitness club. On the façade you saw beachfront bodies, hot, sexy, and sizzling! Expectedly, models are the lean and muscular ones. It doesn’t mean that they got fit in that gym, but seeing them makes you believe. Admit it, most people are visual people. Seeing what you want to be is enough to persuade you.

You may or may not notice, but the trainers are marketing savvy. You signed the contract and gave them permission to bill your credit card. Often times, they still make you choose your personal trainer. And you’ll see, some are more expensive than the others. Paying them more doesn’t guarantee you better results. It’s still all you, you do the work for your own body, not the jam-packed trainers themselves.

The next step is to measure your current fitness or health status. How can you know if you are obese, overweight, fit, or underweight? They measure your BMI (body mass index). This scale, created by the US government is flawed! Its purely based on height and weight butwhat about fats proportion? What if you just have huge bone density that adds to your weight? And all other considerations are not accounted. According to this scale, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Michael Jordan are all overweight. However, it’s the most popular and easiest measure. But if your BMI surprised you, you may just have the body of Brad Pitt.

They offer the services of in-house nutritionist. They will give you a tease, and make the nutritionist assess your diet for the first time and recommend some changes. Diet and nutrition is common sense. Eat what the caveman eats, all natural and avoid processes and you’re good. Paying extra for nutritionists or books is expendable.

Gym Equipment Exercise. Photo from inletfitness.com

You got started. The leeway to steadfast weight trimming and strength building is the equipment and machinery. But you and your trainer will spend less time in it. Instead, your trainer will drive you to “stability balls, resistance tubing or bands, and balance tools”, more on exercises you can’t do alone. These trainers are told to veer away from constant use of equipment, because when the person learned how to use them (and it’s damn easy to learn), they won’t need trainers and will stop the service (DeFranco, 2012).

It’s a psychological game! They get you psyched up in the start, then when it’s been months and you do the same exercises over again, they intervene and re-psych you up to keep you paying the membership. It’s an industry, meaning a business. It doesn’t care if you get healthier or leaner. What it cares about your money.

Their programs may not work out for you, really. Our genetic makeup is part of the equation, but would they say it? No. They trick you to believe what the best looking body is, but each of us look at our best differently. And then they promise you that the best way to achieve it is through their gym.

If you noticed nothing’s changed, or at least on the timeline they promise you, it’s also planned out. They’ll say that despite the program, diets and supplements they served you, it all falls down to individual differences. It didn’t work out for you because it isn’t right for your body, and you keep on finding what works for you. Yeah, you’ve gotta pay them more.

Their gym is a breeding ground for germs, thanks to the sweaty bodies all around. From athlete’s foot to flu, they have it. And these clubs, not all of it, are not mandated by law to handle medical emergencies. Some trainers can’t even do CPR. Thing is, we are prone to injury when exercising, isn’t it? And heart attacks, due to improper exercise or overexercise, will need immediate help in matters of minutes.

Fitness industry doesn’t have a federal regulation to keep private data. Doctors, psychiatrists, lawyers, all these professionals are ruled by law to preserve nondisclosure of any private information you shared with them. But the fitness industry doesn’t have that, and unfortunately you have to share your medical history to them at the beginning of your program. Be prudent as these people are free to gossip about you.

It’s hell hard to terminate a membership. Even if you communicate that you want to quit, chances are you signed a contract in day one and they’ll keep earning from you credit card even after you stopped. You better read before you sign, because if you sue them, they just present your signature and they win.

I’ve been a member of a nationwide fitness club. I know many success stories. Sure, there are people who got their magazine cover body, and fitness clubs helped them. But victim here, not all trainers are qualified to be one. Their management will employ many to meet the sky high demand, and see for themselves if they’re good with being a trainer. If not, oh well, drop him and get another.

Personal Trainer Encouragement. Photo from methodfitness.com

Even the professional and ethical can’t escape the demands of business, and what kept their growing bank account are some tricks here and deceit there to get you excited and believe all the miracles they claim.

I’m not implying that we quit our membership. Our body will always clamor exercise, and their services shot straight to that humane need. But you deserve to know all their secrets; and you can be fit at home, at work, at school, at Disneyland park, wherever.

How was your experience in fitness clubs?

More Moments for you:
Fast Food Industry Secrets
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Sources:
Fitness Industry Secrets;   Fergus Niall Personal Training
Seeing Is Believing If You Want To Burn Fat – Or Is It?; FatBurning Furnace
10 Things Fitness Clubs Won’t Tell You; SmartMoney
5 Secrets the Fitness Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know; Ezine Articles
What the diet industry won’t tell you; Low-Carber

10 Things Your Personal Trainer Won’t Tell You; IDEA Health and Fitness Association

Lucky (Call It)

The moments people call it lucky.

Photo from photoXpress

Alexandria Genesis, a superhuman. She was born with deep purple eyes, perfect vision, immune to all known diseases, never gained excess weight, her aging slowed down at 21. Others thrust it as a rare genetic disorder, even existence debated, but she’s lucky.

A California teen was struck by a train advancing at 45 miles per hour survived it, without any injuries. He’s lucky and miraculous.

Someone in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland are winners of $640M Lotto Jackpot. Though they ended our Mega Million fantasies, they’re lucky.

The luckiest I’ve got was when Katy Perry kissed me onstage in her concert. But then I woke up.

When are the times you call yourself lucky?

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Life Facts: 1912 and 2012

Life Facts: 1912 and 2012
by Diana Leagh Matthews of ALookThruTime

Photo from photoXpress

Facts in 1910-1920
• Population: 92,407,000
• Life Expectancy: Male 48.4 Female: 51.8
• Average Salary $750 / year
• The Ziegfeld girls earns $75/week.
• Unemployed 2,150,000
• National Debt: $1.15 billion
• Union Membership: 2.1 million Strikes 1,204
• Attendance: Movies 30 million per week
• Lynchings: 76
• Divorce: 1/1000
• Vacation: 12 day cruise $60
• Whiskey $3.50 / gallon, Milk $.32 / gallon
• Speeds make automobile safety an issue
• 25,000 performers tour 4,000 U.S. theaters

Facts in 2012
• Population: 312,780,968 in the United States
• Life Expectancy: Male 75.6; Female: 80.8
• Average Salary $50, 233 / year
• Movie star earns $1.5 to $3million {depends on many variables}
• Unemployed 8.3%
• National Debt: over $15 trillion
• Attendance: Movies 1470 million per week
• Divorce: 41.8%
• Vacation: 12 day cruise $4-15k {depends on many variables}
• Gas $3.89 / gallon, Milk $3.39 / gallon

*Statistics are According to the United States Census Bureau

What is the biggest change for you?

More Moments for you:
Life Upgrades
10 Gorgeous World Leaders of 2012
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ALookThruTime is run by Diana Leagh Matthews. Leagh has been a genealogist for over 18 years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share.

What Your Birth Order Says About You

No two children are alike, and your birth order appears to sway that difference.

Photo from photoXpress

You don’t have the choice to be born the eldest, or the youngest, but have you yearned to be born in a different order? Perhaps you despised your eldest bro being bossy, or the youngest being spoiled while you, the middle child, was given the least amount of time from parents. Or have you died in the immense expectations, as the eldest, to be the one that the family will be proud of?

Our birth order affected us.

Renowned psychiatrist Alfred Adler elaborated in his theories that the child’s characteristics are based on birth order. Here are the descriptions by the simplification of Dr. Stein:

Oldest Child

• Family Situation: Dethroned by next child. Has to learn to share. Parent expectations are usually very high. Often given responsibility and expected to set an example.
• Characteristics: May become authoritarian or strict. Feels power is his right. Can become helpful if encouraged. May turn to father after birth of next child.

Middle Child

• Family Situation: Is “sandwiched” in. May feel squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance.
• Characteristics: May be even-tempered, “take it or leave it” attitude. May have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice.

Youngest Child

• Family Situation: Has many mothers and fathers. Older children try to educate him. Never dethroned.
• Characteristics: Wants to be bigger than the others. May have huge plans that never work out. Can stay the “baby.” Frequently spoiled.

Are you the only child, have a twin, the only boy, only girl or in any child position not in the typical above? Head on to Adlerian Overview of Birth Order Characteristics.

A few more interesting findings from birth order studies:

• Firstborns claim IQ advantage, having more IQ points than the younger sibling. Concurrently, a secondborn is smarter than the third based on IQ.
• Elders weight more and stood taller than later-born siblings.
• High-paying professions often inhere with elders, while the “exhilarating life of an artist or a comedian, an adventurer, entrepreneur, GI or firefighter” are for the youngest. Middle children remained a puzzle, as it seems that their record differs profusely.

Psychologist Diana L. Walcutt added that spacing between children matters. It is especially true when the gap went over 6 years, meaning the siblings belonged to different generation of fad, music, events, and even exposed to different administration of governance.

It seems, to my case, that these birth order findings held true. I’m a middle child, and you can only imagine the existing and unsparing competition between me and my elder sister. How about you, what does birth order says about you and your siblings?

More Moments for you:
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Sources:
Adlerian Overview of Birth Order Characteristics; Adlerian.us
Birth Order and Personality; PsychCentral
The Power of Birth Order; TIME