MAKE new friends & enrich your LIFE

We all feel lonely sometimes, even in the midst of a crowd. Old friends drift away, migrate, or become so engrossed in their own issues that they have less time for us, and we find ourselves with too many Saturday nights indoors with a book, and too many heartaches that can’t be lessened by sharing. You know it’s time to welcome new faces into your life, but the pessimist in you sneers at the idea.  This isn’t a school playground, and ‘making new friends’ is easier said than done. Winning friends can be hard, but it’s doable, and the rewards are beyond measure.  Here are a few hints on how to get started.
Get off your tail. Sitting around burying your loneliness under a mudslide of chocolate ice-cream might make you feel better, but it won’t solve the problem. It will also make you fat. Not a party animal?  There are many ways to get out and mingle that don’t involve loud music and a cover charge. Take a class, read to sick children, help feed the poor, go back to church.  If you’re handy with a glue gun, offer to stick on pailettes at your local Mas Camp.  All these experiences are full of potential for meeting people like you…or people so different you just have to get to know them better.
Shift your focus. Notice we didn’t say “lower your standards” or put yourself in a position where you might feel uncomfortable.  But if all your friends look like they’ve been stamped out with a cookie cutter, it’s time to widen your horizons. If you’re the type to say, “I could never be friends with someone who (insert blind prejudice here)”, it’s time to widen your net.  Vegetarians and carnivores can be friends.  Friendship is possible across divides of age, gender, sexuality, education, creed, class, race, or any other categorisation you feel is keeping you from getting to know someone. What’s more, your new acquaintances will probably bring a fresh perspective, which could shake up the way you think, feel and act.

Click here for more tips on making friends.

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The day the LOLcats died

Okay, i’m not a US citizen so there’s not much I can do about SOPA or PIPA, but I’m horrified at how much the world could lose if they get passed.  At least I can post this.

The day the LOLcats died

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Self-publishing, here I come

Thinking about…no, intending to self publish.  I’m very encouraged by the story of Amanda Hocking here. Not that I expect to make $2 million, but it’s nice to know self-published authors are coming out of the ghetto of the book world.

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Vindra Amar, humanitarian without borders

Vindra Amar

Vindra Amar is well groomed, her skin flawless, hair, makeup, clothes and jewellery elegantly understated. This businesswoman, attorney and notary public is also co-owner of Brava International, producers of local Twist juices, with her husband, Rawlins. Over the past 16 years she has developed her own special style and acumen to become an astute businesswoman. “My philosophy of life is to be the change you wish to see in the world,” she says, quoting Mahatma Ghandi.  Nice to say; hard to live by.  But if anyone embodies the idea, it would be Amar. She’s careful to give due credit to her family of strong values and high achievers and to her Alma Mater, Naparima Girls, where she was a Vice House Captain and represented her school at four Music Festivals. While at the University of West Indies (UWI) she sang with a pop group, Cruze.  “Then I developed nodules on my vocal cords,” she says with a trace of regret, “and can’t sing as much anymore.”

Learn how Vindra met Daniel Ortega and Jimmy Carter.

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How not to be daring

Simona Taylor

Ladies, a little advice: When you’re on a date with your husband, and want to taunt him with no underwear, make sure the hook-and-eye on your miniskirt ain’t broken. Disaster narrowly averted. Almost ended up on YouTube.

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Balls to the wall

Well, last year slipped under my radar, but not this one!  This year, I am going balls to the wall with my writing career, starting with bringing out as many e-pubs as possible.

Anyone out there has any experience in the scary world of the E-book, I’d love to hear it!

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Gillian Wall Tapping into her Potential

“We’re here to change the world,” says Gillian Wall. She laughs, but there’s no doubt she’s dead serious. Wall is Group CEO of the IBB Global Group of companies, the first company, being International Business Brokers (IBB) Limited, a company she founded 13 years ago. “We’re here to help local organisations think a little bigger, dream a little more.”  IBB grew fast, as Wall added different partnerships with local and international organisations, expanding their scope of services each time. They now have eight international partners and six business lines, including Organisation Development, Leadership Development, Service Culture, Strategic HR Services, Lifestyles and Financial Coaching. “I’m passionate about the concept of globalisation, but many local companies see it as competition and loss of business.” Wall disagrees, saying that globalisation simply reminds us of all the other markets out there. “We need to look at diversity beyond these shores.”

Find out how Gillian got into trouble with her school principal here.

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Missed it by that much!

Friends, as 2011 draws to a close, I have to announce that I made it to Book #49 in my 50 Book Challenge.  Sorta sad about that, but I guess it’s my fault for abandoning so many books.  But at least I didn’t have to finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!

So, with great fanfare, I announce that Book #49, my final book for ’11, was Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. (Okay, maybe its more of a novella than a book, so I’m cheating…just a little.)  But it’s the sweetest little book you’ll ever read, about a mentally retarded young man who’s turned into a genius…for just  a few weeks and regresses again.

I read it as a young teen and loved it and hankered for it again.  I’m glad I did.

I dare you to finish it with dry eyes!

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Book #48 makes it cool to be dead

I’ve really taken to the Sookie Stackhouse series, and Book #3, Club Dead, was as sexy and delightful as all the others.  I generally don’t go for human/non-human sex, but Eric is to die for (ha) and so is the Werewolf, Alcide.

Can’t wait to work my way through all the others!

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When your friends lead double lives

Oh, how we all love secret superheroes: mousy little Selina Kyle donning a skin-tight Catwoman costume and purring as she teaches Gotham City’s bad guys a lesson.  On-screen, double lives make us root and cheer. Back here on Planet Reality, however, finding out that someone you care about is leading a double life, can be upsetting.  You’ll probably never fall in love with a nice-but-boring guy and then discover rocket-powered boots in his closet, but at some point you’ll run into someone with a dirty little secret.  Here are a few examples, and how to deal with them.

Your man’s got kids you don’t know about
He neglected to tell you he has a child living in the next town.  Before you pronounce him a rat and tell him to stay away from your cheese, ask yourself WHY he failed to mention this over the past five or ten dates. If he was hiding his extra baggage to make it easier to get with you, ask yourself if there are other areas where he hasn’t been completely honest.  Does he have any communicable diseases or bad habits he hasn’t ‘fessed up to? But if he has a policy about protecting his children from his dates until he’s sure he’s in a solid relationship, cut the man some slack.

Your girlfriend’s flaunting expensive stuff…but hasn’t got a penny

Your friend rocks the hottest styles, hits all the trendy parties and gives away expensive presents.  You’re half-convinced a rich uncle left her his estate…until you find out she lives in her grandmother’s back room and survives on ramen. Before you sneer at her duplicity, do a little cold, hard analysis.  Is she just being one of those creatures that rhyme with ‘witch’, glad to make others feel small, or is she so embarrassed by her humble origins that she feels the need to overcompensate?  If so, be kind.

More double-talkers and how to deal with them

 

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