Right back at you, Kes Oh, another recommendation? Exercise! As I mentioned elsewhere, I started to exercise earlier in January, making a routine of it 3 times a week, and as a result, I not only feel better physically, but mentally as well. I even got my sister into it, who enjoys it as a stress reliever. So, my recommendation is to set aside some time (30 minutes at least!) in your day for exercise. Doesn't matter where you do it, but that you do it.
Good advice. I've been telling myself lately that I need to take more regular exercise, having found that what you say here about feeling healthier is entirely true.
And for the second... Make something with your hands, anything: food, clothing, whatever. No computer allowed.
Eh, I'd allow building a computer, rather than just sitting behind it. Hell, I wish I knew how to build a computer. I can build structures & furniture & clothing. I can grow my own food & preserve it. I can handle basic maintenance on home & vehicle. I can split wood for fuel & clean my own chimney. In short, I can pretty much provide for myself, but I cannot build my own computer....
I liked Baltimore very much. Lovely city, nice people, wonderful ballpark, awesome waterfront, and Tora Ziyal (whom I had the distinct pleasure to meet personally). Any city which has those, is OK in my book!
You, every one of you, has the power to give yourself years of extra life lived. This is a very simple recommendation which has an enormous payout to those who can shake off the grips of societal expectation. We all know that a person spends between one and a half and three years on the toilet in an average lifetime. This is completely unfair but there is nothing to be done about it and this recommendation is not going to be about using a transporter to remove waste from your body to save time. Because there are MANY MANY more things that if someone presented you with a list of on your death bed you would weep to read and it's time we got real and got our minutes and hours and months and years back from this bullshit. Making your bed or anyone else's bed: Seriously this is pointless. Remember when you said "but mom I'm only going to mess it up again when I get in at night"? You were right. And before you say you like to get into a tight bed, well you can do that quickass as you get into bed without all the cosmetic smoothing of coverlets that you will be getting no comfort benefits from in the dark. Cracking eggs in a separate bowl individually in case one is off: So you spend how many days of your life if you're a regular baker washing out that extra bowl? And how many times was an egg off, not even once a year. Maybe not even once every five years. Okay so maybe ONCE in your entire life you destroyed a cake because you dumped an off smelling egg into it and you had to throw the whole thing out, isn't this worth the days of your life you got back when you threw your hyper-vigilance out the window? Ironing: This is the most obvious thing in the world and yet still people are willing to spend YEARS of their life being smooth. Unless you need an item ironed because of work place requirements don't do it. PLEASE don't do it. If the entire planet stopped ironing EVERYTHING tomorrow in one hundred years we would be at least fifteen years ahead of our current development trajectory in all fields and endeavors. That is how devastating this completely retarded habit has been to humanity. I think you get the picture here. I haven't done any of these things in years and I know that when I die I will have a lot more books read and posts posted because of this. I could also include things like: washing, vacuuming and polishing cars, pumicing any part of your body, returning phone calls, and washing already washed potatoes. This is just scratching the surface, you could easily come up with ten times more activities that could be dispensed with.
I get what you're saying teacake, but there's no way in hell I'd ever stop ironing. I'm way too fussy about laundry for that. Besides, ironing is a great time to listen to an audio book, a good radio programme or just natter with my kids. The rest of the house can go to pot, mind. What I've cut down on over the years is watching television. Not being glued to the telly has given me much more free time to get on with other things. If I want to watch something I'll put on a DVD.
If I'm allowed my second recommendation now, it'd be to never disregard the idea that useful and even life-changing advice can come from people you only know online, at a remove. In other words, this sort of thing isn't just to make us feel momentarily a bit brighter (though that always helps), it can have real significance. On a related note, this is a good place (seeing as it's her thread) to thank Kestra for some advice she gave me recently regarding useful reading material, which has arrived and is already helping me greatly.
Oh good, I'm glad you're finding it useful! A lot of people are reluctant to believe that a book could help them (and obviously you need to do other things), but it seemed relevant to your situation and concerns.
The only time I crack eggs into a bowl separately is when I'm separating them for meringue or chiffon cake. That way, if a bit of yolk gets into the white, you haven't destroyed the entire bowl of egg whites. Perhaps I'm just less perfectly coordinated than you are, and don't trust myself not to screw it up, but it also takes me 2 seconds to wash an additional small bowl. But then, yes, I make my bed, mostly because I made the quilts & afghans on it & like to see the results of my hard work & skill.