We’ve tried shopping and New Age cures, making money and spending it. We`re still miserable. What`s missing from our lives?

Did you notice an outbreak of joviality and generosity last week? People beaming at you as they let you go ahead in the bus queue, grinning as they shared your morning traffic jam?

No?  Four out of ten of us think life has become worst in the past five years. Two million of us are on antidepressants; only a minority of us think ‘people can be trusted most of the time’. Mix in some road/air/phone rage, a rise in reported incivility and a good dose of political apathy and the gloom looks even starker. We`re wretched lot.

All this when average house prices have just blasted through £100, 000 mark, when life expectancy continues to lengthen, mortality rates are dropping and more than a third of young people enjoy what was once the elite privilege of higher education. We are healthy, wealthy and wise. Yet we’ve never felt so bad.

If we seem like a nation of ingrates it may be because all the goodies that are supposed to make us happy don`t do it for us any more - even if we have yet to wake up to the fact. So, your house is worth half a million. Karl Mark, who for all his faults knew a bit about capitalism, captured the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses dynamic of market economies perfectly: “A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies all the social requirements of a residence. But let there arise next to the little house a palace and the little house shrinks to a hut.” With mass-media, the palace doesn’t have to be next door - it can be beamed into our living room.

Money doesn’t make us happy any more. It never did. Poor people, understandably, see their life satisfaction rise with income but for the most of the population in a country as affluent as ours, any jump-start to well-being from a pay rise quickly wears off.

But what about health? Surely virtual elimination of most fatal diseases, rising life expectancy and falling mortality should be cheering us up? Not a bit of it. All that happens is that our expectations rise just as or even more quickly. Objectively, our health is better on almost every count, but this doesn’t translate into our feeling any healthier. We are more aware of our health, so we get more anxious about it.

Like the answer to many great problems, however, the answer to the question of happiness may be quite prosaic; once countries and households are free of material need, the biggest contributor to life satisfaction seems to be a healthy set of personal relationships. The relative happiness of late teenagers and those passing middle age may relate to their spending more time on friendship. The fighting on the two fronts of work and children , are the most dejected. Those between full-time education and retirement may be spending more time on the activities they think will make them happy - earning and spending - than on those that actually will: spending time with friends and family.

The secret of happiness?? Not money. So leave the lawn, forget your investments and call in sick tomorrow. Do yourself a favour. Call a friend.

A classic of our times or an escapist yarn? Although its popularity is unparalleled, some intellectuals dismiss The Lord of the Rings as boyish fantasy. Andrew O`Hehir defends Tolkien`s ‘true myth’ as a modern masterpiece, and attempts to discover the secret of its success.

Attitudes in America are arguably more relaxed about this kind of thing. No one from American educated classes expresses much dismay when a 1999 poll of American on-line bookshop Amazon.com customers chose the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as the greatest book not merely of the century but of the millennium. Tolkien`s book is so deeply ingrained in popular culture, after all, that a great many of today`s American academics and journalist probably still have those dog-eared paperbacks they read avidly in eighth grade with their hallucinatory mid-1970s cover art.

Furthermore, members of the U.S. intelligentsia fully expected to have their tastes ignores, if not openly derided, by the public at large. To some American intellectuals it seems gratifying that so many millions of readers will happily devour a work as complicated as ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Whatever one make of it, it`s more challenging read than ‘Gone with the wind’( runner-up in the Amazon.com), not to mention ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer`s Stone’(fifth place).

Hugely ambitious in scope, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ occupies an uncomfortable position in 20th century literature. It has enjoyed massive and enduring popularity. It would seem that Tolkien`s work supplied something that was missing among the formal innovations of 20th century fiction, something for which readers were ravenous. But what was it, and why was it important?

Answering this question would probably require a book rather than an article. But is seems that the crux of the matter lies in Tolkien`s wholehearted rejection of modernity and modernism. This is so powerfully attracts some readers, and just as powerfully repels others.

This book is also deeply grounded in Tolkien`s linguistic expertise - he invented whole languages for his characters. Sometimes he became so absorbed in the creation of languages, in fact, that he put the story itself aside for months or years at a time, believing he could not continue until some quandary or inconsistency in his invented realm had been resolved. But Tolkien`s immense intellect and erudition is not the source of his success; without his storytelling gift, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ would be little more than a curiosity. And this gift seems to stem straight from his refusal to break from classical and traditional forms.

Tolkien himself often spoke of his work as something ‘found’ or ‘discovered’, something whose existence was independent of him. As a result, his details have the weight of reality, linguistic and otherwise, and because of this great sweep of story feels real as well; you might say that his imaginary castles are built with a certain amount of genuine stone. Other writers` fantasy world are made up. Tolkien`s inherited.

It`s good to know that the photos`s retouching implies a lot of work and patience, the best results being obtained with little steps. For example, if we want to use a tool, we should choose a small value and to apply it until we obtain the best result, than to apply it just once at big value. The results will be more natural. Also, a bad framed picture will never became a masterpiece.

That`s why for remaking, you have to choose those photos that are good framed and are not moved. The good results are obtained by  experimenting.   Work on a layer for erasing some effects.  Choose a photo and try on it, the tools and the functions from Photoshop. Before starting with the remaking, it`s good to know which are the most frequent problems and what are the best tool for remedying them.

Basic

- In the case in which the colors are not those from the reality, you should use the Auto Colors function.

- If the photo is colorless, choose the Auto Contrast to correct the contrast.

- If the photo seems to have a lack of details, use the Shadow/Highlight tool (–>Image/Adjustment/Shadow/Highlight).

Attentions! Never work on the original photo!

Remove the “red eyes”

One of the main problems of the photos made with the flashlight is the “red eyes”. This is the way you can solve the problem:

1. Duplicate the photo and close the original one.
2. Duplicate this photo and put the windows one near the other. Zoom on the eyes.
3. Use the Lasso tool to cup up the red parts.
4. Use the eyedropper tool to take the color from the iris.
5. Paint the red part from the iris with this color.
6. Filters/Blur/Gaussian and then give a 1pixel value blur to harmonize the borders.
7. Set the layer on Saturation (layer style/ blending options).
8. Duplicate this layer and then change the layer in Hue.
9. It`s working!

An attractive sky

Often, the persons and the objects from the pictures taken at the seaside have a colourless background.

To ‘cheer’ it up, here`s a quick advice:

1. Open the photo and go to Image/Adjust/Selective Colors.
2. Choose Blues with all the values set on 0 beside Black. The selected method will be Relative.
3. Create a new layer.
4. Combine the layer with the Color burn method.
5. On the copied layer, erase with the Erase tool all that`s under the horizon line.
6. The photo is ready.

Attractive photos

You can ‘cheer up’ quickly a grey and boring photo.

1. Open the photo and apply the Sponge tool set on “saturate’ and 100%. Choose the areas from the photo that you want to cheer up.
2. The photo is ready for printing.

Have you ever rent a mountain shed with your friends to spend your Christmas holiday? To gather up outside watching the falling flakes of snow? But how about the idea that the snow does not stop falling and you are not prepared for this? It`s getting dangerous. Learn how to survive in extreme conditions.

Maybe this scenario isn`t very plausible. Maybe you think that you will resist on the mountains with a pair of normal shoes. You are wrong in this case. In this kind of moments it is very important to know how to take care of yourself. And, of course, this can be thought. There are people which can thought you what means how to work in a team and how to find your way out in wilderness.

The main word is “team”. Once you are in a extreme situation, the team is your only way out. So, what does it mean a survival tour? First, you have to cover a line, organized in teams. Going over a settled route, the team must build a raft, swim, walk or ride a bike. If you want to have lunch you must be able to fish and if you want to sleep, you must give up at comfort and spend your night in a tent. Resources must be managed carefully and shared between the team members. But for this, each should learn to assume their responsibilities.

The main purpose of this survival tour is to learn how to adapt to a new and unknown environment. A clear mind is more capable to take the right decisions. The team must take together decisions and don`t be surprised if sometimes will appear quarrels. Is not the first time, when in stress conditions, people do not tolerate anymore the other`s defects. But it`s important to learn to get over this and to be capable to mobilize yourself for reaching the settled purpose.  At the end of the survival tour, you will find out  that you know your team better. You will know exactly how much trust you can have in your partner. And surely, you will feel stronger in everyday`s life.

The tour  can last between a day and a week and can include activities as climbing, rappel, zip-line, rafting, mountain bike, snowmobile etc. Whatever activities you will choose, you can be sure that at the end of the survival tour you will discover your limits and the city life will seem a trifle from now ago.

The DVD piracy costs the Hollywood million of dollars, but the industry should ask itself very serious why people have started to buy pirate DVDs.

Big Boss isn’t having fun these days. In the first place, because he was forced to admit that that internet`s pirates have almost destroyed the musical industry. The musicians seem to have survived. Now it`s the turn of the movie industry… So, how sweet is the devil?

According to the recent research of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), almost one of for users have download illegal a movie, and half of them are intending to continue. They also say that in the last years people have been downloading more movies than music.

Broadband

MPPA estimates that Hollywood had lost 1,9 billion dollars last year. Smaller video cameras helped pirates to create very comfortable the “bootleg” copies. How much time has to past until Jude Law or Kate Winslet will become unemployed?

The big “players”

A big group including Microsoft, Disney, Sony and IBM have concluded to offer to consumer the legal possibility to make DVD copies for portable devices. This represents a concentrated effort of the big “players” to make a step forward before the pirates.

At present, the DVDs are protected by a system named CSS (Content Scrambling System), which theoretical  prevents the plagiarize. But programs as DVD X Copy have succeeded to break the CSS codes.

It`s pretty hard to see piracy a crime when to stay at your computer downloading Spider-Man 3. The questions that should Big Boss respond is ” Why so many people prefer to by pirate goods?” The answer isn’t that we became delinquents over night, the problem is that we are displeased with the services received.

Why should we wait?

We want to see the recent movies immediately that they appear, not at 3-4 months after the Americans. So, the challenge for the movie industry should be how to offer more value to the clients.

Linux proves to be a very good solution at a convenient price, irrespective of the services we want. The problems that could appear are not related with the operating system, but with the lack of knowledge of those who administrate it, although every component is extremely well documented. For the moment, the graphic tools do not reach the level of the commercial systems, that`s why Linux is not that popular in the market.

Hoping to realize a Linux easy to handle, the young company Lycoris (ex Redmond Linux Corp.) has launched Desktop/LX (recently renamed RedmondLinux Personal). That`s why are missing the packets which offer services (excepting the samba 2.2.I and openssh 3.0.2 servers) and are included just those which are office, multimedia and amusement type .

The interface is built around the version of KDE 2.2.2, modified to be much alike with the one from Microsoft Windows XP. The package of office type is Koffice I.I, which contains an editor  text (Kword), a spreadsheet (Kspread) and an application (KPresenter). For navigating on the internet is included Mozilla, with its connecting applications: LICQ (client of ICQ), KSIRC (client of IRC) and KIT (client of AOL). Neither the transferring of files was not forgot: Gftp, QTella, KNapster. The administration of audio/video files is realized with the programs XMMS, KSCD, RealPlayer and Xine DVD/Divx. For amusement you can find 10 games as follows: Solitaire, Tetris, Galaga and Asteroids.

The installation of the system is probably the simplest one. The distribution from Lycoris doesn`t permit any kind of packages`s selection. So, the process starts immediately after choosing the partitions and the system configurations are rolling up simultaneously.

An application extremely useful is Network Browser, which permits a simple intercommunication with other systems Linux or Microsoft Linux. Are included facilities as drag&drop in netting, so you do not have to use the operation “smbmount”.

Because this version of Linux is addressing to those who are used to Microsoft Windows, there have been made some changes at the interface to eliminate the sensation of unknown. So, the desktop contains “My Linux System” and “Network Browser”. The system`s configuration is realized through the “KDE Control Center”.

Lycoris Desktop/LX is built around the kernel 2.4.I2, with the version XFree 4.I.0 of the system`s graphic. The system`s documentation can be found through KDE HelpCenter.

You want to make your child happy, so you`ll buy him a toy. But have you ever thought about the toy`s influence over your child`s opinion about this life??

Playing games, the children are developing their cognitive functions, which later can be applied in their daily life. For example, the “marketplace” game is useful for children because they learn to develop complex abilities: calculation, sorting products by their color or size. So, children are learning without knowing that they are learning.

Empty boxes and cars

In the last century, the toys for children have changed drastic. Long time ago it was normal to see your kids playing with empty boxes, which could have became in their imagination cars, spaceships or an entire world. Nowadays kids do not play anymore with empty boxes. Now, the technology affords to the parents to buy the world in miniature.  A five year child is no more motivated to use its imagination. You can describe him as being comfortable, and this is not indicated when he needs to develop, to be challenged, to put questions, to explore.

Double risk

In his book “The Importance of Play” , Bruno Bettelheim shows a double problem:

1. The child`s imagination is no more provoked by games

2. The child is no longer a creator, but a consumer.

Of course, to drive a car toy may develop a little his imagination, but not at the same intensity. With other words, the creativity is dulling and the material values take the first place.

A few years ago, if you had taken in your hands a simple stick it could have became a magic wand, this developing the creativity, but nowadays you can find all kind of wands, your child receiving everything in readiness.

Violent games

It`s been almost a century since Albert Bandura`s researches have proved that an aggressive model for children can develop an aggressive behavior too. For an experiment, the children were made to watch actors beating dolls. The effect was that all the children have started to beat their dolls. Almost all the movies that we watch, presents too much violent scenes. We can see the effect at news or on the streets. What should happen in the future so that cartoons will stop to offer negative models?

The healthy game

An healthy game could teach your children: not to cheat, not to abandon, things that he might use later in his life. A kid should play a game just if you,  as a parent, will make sure that he is learning a useful message for his intellectual, emotional and spiritual developing.

Psychology for producers

In this conditions, it would be best for everybody if those who produce toys will learn a little about the child`s psychology. In this way, maybe they will realize what kind of impact the toys have on child`s developing. So if we want the future to be bright, we need to pay more attention to the toys that we buy for the children.

Non-verbal communication with the little children

You communicate even when you don`t want to - by your gesture, voice and attitude.

Decisive seconds

90% of the opinion about somebody  it is built in the first 50 seconds of interaction. It`s about the famous “the first impression”, which predominates even when you talk with the babes. From here results the importance of communicating with the children, especially the nonverbal communication (mimicry, sight, gestures, bad or good mood)

Interaction with 2 directions

The influence of the nonverbal behavior is the same as a road with 2 directions. On one hand are the grown-ups, trying to teach the children. On the other hand are the children trying to have positive nonverbal behavior. In this way you, I propose you a little test. Notice your child`s reaction when you say to him “Listen ! You make me angry!” in two ways:

-using a calm tonality and intonation

-using a firm expression, a raised tone of voice.

“The Pygmalion effect”

The Pygmalion effect is a very interesting concept, meaning that a teacher has an exactly opinion about a child and then he is building him up according to that idea! I mean,the image that the grown-up has about the child is transferred to him. How can this be possible?

According to the latest researches, it has been noticed that the teachers, which believe that one of the children is very smart, tend to give him a lot of attention. The teacher smiles to him, stimulates him to answer frequently, gives him harder exercises and helps him to find the best solution.

Parents guide

So what this research proves? That not only what we are saying can help our children, but our attitude, too. For this, try to follow some steps:

• Get involved in your child`s life. Find out what he likes and what he doesn`t. In this way, he will feel respected, improving his self-esteem.
• Develop the communication between you and your child. For example, a rule is established between two persons. A rough “advice” will intimidate him and forget about the thought rule. Once a rule is established, its breaching can take to negative consequences. But don`t forget: you should respect the rules too in the relation with the child!
• Encourage his discoveries. Encourage his positive behaviour and his effort. Guide your child without imposing yourself.
• Find motivating situations where you child can improve his abilities, even if he`s weak. The compulsion and the imposing can make him feel inferior.
• Collaborate with his teacher to know your child better.
• Come to know other parents, too, maybe they have good solutions of how to work with their children.

Find out which are the effects of the fruit and vegetables juices over our organism, then test them. Here are some delicious recipes! Bon appetit!

It`s about the juices that we make at home, squeezing the fresh fruits or  vegetables. The juices you prepare can bring more benefits than you ever imagined. You can fondle your friends with the diverse colouring and the perfume of fruits and vegetables. This juices have an amazing healing proprieties and a miraculous adornment.

For example, a Canadian research (published in “American Journal Of Medicine”) has demonstrated that the ones, who drink more than three times a week a cup of fruit juice, have 90% chances not to get a disease as Alzheimer (senile insanity). In the same time, fruits and vegetables help at maintaining the blood pressure in the brain.

The doctor from the fruits

Apples

A apple a day keeps the doctor away! This is because apples protect the heart, prevent the constipation, stop the diarrhea. Contains A, B, C vitamins.

RECIPES

Apples juice + cucumber  + fallow

-prevents the cancer , reduces stomach aches and headaches.

Carrot juice + apples + ginger

-fortifying effect for the whole body.

Tomatoes juice + carrots +apples

-improves the skin`s aspect

Pine apple juice + apples + water melon

-reduces the excessive salt from the organism and feeds the kidney.

Apples juice + cucumber + kiwi

-improves the skin`s aspect.

Bananas

It`s one of the essential fruits, containing potassium, calcium, magnezium and zinc. The bananas protect the heart, strengthen the bones and block the diarrhea. It`s useful in a lot of diseases: stress, depression, anaemia.

RECIPES

Bananas juice + pine apple + milk

- contains a lot of vitamins.

Pear juice + bananas

- regulates the level of glycerine.

Strawberries

An American research sustains that strawberries are efficient against losing memory. This fruit has a strong antioxidant which strengthen the memory. Also, strawberries are a good source of iron, vitamin C, calcium and potassium.

RECIPES

Orange juice + bananas + strawberries

-against constipation and improves the kidney`s functions.

Orange juice + strawberries + papaya + watermelon

-used for weight loss and acne.

Everything from the world we live in is related with rhythms and changes. But how does this apply when it`s about our health?

During the times, the man learned to live and to adapt to the nature`s rhythms. The detachment from the nature means, for the modern man, a life without the natural rhythms which causes the lowering of the immunity and implicit it affects the health.

For every seasons are characteristic certain energies and for every energy are illustrative specific organs, which are influences by the changing of seasons.

Spring

It`s growing the Yang energy. The plants and the whole nature are awaken and inside the body it is activated the liver. In this period, symptoms as dizziness, asthenia, weakness or headache shows us that the liver reached the maximum. Also, this period is characterized of nervous plight, melancholy and difficulties in taking decisions.

How to take care of yourself?

For treating this symptoms we have to take care of our liver by having a good nourishment: a lot of fruits and vegetables, tea plants as St. John`s wort, crowfoot etc. We have to add walking, exercises, massage and acupuncture, for adjusting the liver`s activity.

Summer

It`s the season of the Yang energy`s flourishing, a warm season, in which the heart and the nervous system are in maximum activity. The drawbacks are the insomnia, palpitations, aches in the chest and tiredness.

Summery protection

It`s important to combine the physical exercises with the rest and to drink enough liquids. The acupuncture completes this treatments by equilibrating the pericardium and improving the sleep.

Fall

Now, the Yin energy is starting to grow. It`s time for crops. In this period, the lungs and the intestine are in the maximum activity. It`s the season, in which the acupuncture treats successfully the asthma, the allergies and stimulates the immunity.

The autumnal health

We have to dress up properly and to drink a lot of liquids (teas).

Winter

Yin energy is now at maximum, meanwhile the Yang energy is hidden. The kidney`s energy is at the maximum activity. In the Chinese medicine, the kidney is considered a spring of energy for the organism.

Winter treatments

In this period, can be cured diseases as: rheumatism, infections. We have to use plants like :prick, birch and supplements as: sulfur, astragalus. Also, the fear and the anxiety can appear, but we can cure them by acupuncture.

Between seasons

In the Chinese philosophy appears the notion “inter-season”, meaning the passing from a season to another. Months as February, May, August and November are the months of stability, in which the stomach and the pancreas are in full activity. That`s why gastritis, distension, ulcer and diabetes appear.

The health means the harmonization with the nature`s rhythms and the understanding of the fact that just living in harmony with the nature we can maintain our freshness .