How to play animals

While sitting around with friends this weekend I discovered the greatest card game ever. The name of the game is Animals, and the game is very easy to learn, easy to play and a great source of entertainment.

The game is not a gambling game but gambling can be done easily enough, but I would not expect to see this game in your local casino anytime soon.

I suspect the game started out as a memory game for children, then was taken you young adults and turned into a drinking game, but it does not matter if you are gambling with this game, drinking with this game or just trying to have a fun evening with friends, because it is fun whatever you are playing for.

The best way to play the game is with at least 4 people but no more then 8. You will also need 2 or 3 decks of cards to play Animals and a table for everyone to sit around.

Before the game starts each player must choose an animal noise and a hand gesture to represent them in the game and going around the table each player must announce the name of their animal, the sound the animal makes and its hand gesture. An example of this would be to say I am a cat, meow and the hand gesture may be wiping your face with the back of your hand.

In this game the dealer remains standing the entire round. The dealer will go around the table continuously dealing 1 card to each player until all the cards have been dealt. The dealer must stay at a steady pace and go not too fast and not too slow.

the players must continuously scan the other players top cards and when someone has the same number card on top of their pile as you, you have to make that persons sound and hand gesture. If you do it before they do you get all their cards.

That person is not out of the game the next time the dealer goes around they still get another card. The person with the most cards at the end of the game winds, and is the dealer for the next round.

For kids this is a great game because they have to remember everyone's noise and gesture, this is a fun way for them to help develop their memories, and a great way to get them away from the television for a little while.

For those looking to gamble this game may not earn you as much as playing Blackjack but it is a lot if fun to sit around and make fools of yourselves and make a few bucks. All you have to do is set an amount and everyone puts their money into a pot and the winner gets the pot. It does not get any easier then that.

The drinking game has an extra rule or two. If you make someone's noise and gesture before they do yours, besides getting their cards they need to drink and at the end of each round all the losers need to drink.

Mindfulness And Mental Health Improvement

What's going on in your head? Until you know, there can be all sorts of problems. Uncorrectable problems. You can't fix a problem that you don't see, right? That is where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness and mental health are intimately connected.

Your mind is busy in there right now, talking about all sorts of things. It may be telling you that you are tired of your job, or that you are a victim of circumstance. It may be running through a list of all the things you need to be doing. It may be saying all the wrong things, and yet you may hear none of it. You may just feel a slight anxiety building as your day goes on.

When I first learned how to do basic mindfulness exercises, I was amazed. I found that whole conversations were going on just below consciousness. Not only was it interesting to see, but the most amazing part was that I could now often end feelings of worry or anxiety. All I had to do was stop and watch my mind until I found the cause.

Yes, it actually is often that simple. If you forgot to write down an appointment, for example, it may be bothering you for hours. As soon as you see that, you write it down and you feel relaxed again. If an argument is playing and replaying subconsciously in your mind and stressing you out, often just bringing it to consciousness will make you laugh and dismiss it.

Mindfulness And Long Term Mental Health

Don't underestimate the power of short term happiness and good thoughts to influence the course of your mental health over the longer term. Resolve anxieties and stresses now, and regularly, and you'll be healthier, and you'll be developing good habits. Good feelings now lead to good feelings in the future, and habits are what we need for any long term results.

As for the big problems, mindfulness is a way to see them more clearly for what they are. As you get better at tuning into your own subconscious mind, you will start to see patterns. I found, for example, that my mind was mulling over and worrying about all the possible choices in decisions that weren't made. It caused me endless stress.

Seeing this clearly, finally recognizing how destructive this habit of indecisiveness was, lead me to change. I started making decisions more quickly, just to try a new way. I immediately experienced how stress diminishes once a decision is made. My habits began to change, and I was getting more done with less anxiety.

The most basic mindfulness exercise is to just sit quietly and start paying attention to everything going on in your body and mind. Of course this can be difficult if you've never done it, and this article isn't a how-to. This is just to make the case that it's worth learning. There is definitely a connection between mindfulness and mental health.

How to get back in shape

Before starting to work out make sure you get a full physical from your doctor and a letter stating it is ok for you to do physical activity. Many gym and aerobic centers will require this before letting you start.


Depending on how long it has been since you last did regular exercise it is recommended that you start off slow and gradually build up your workout to harder levels.


It is generally recommended to start off at the gym with just the treadmill and the lifecycle for the first week or 2. This is to wake the muscles up and to slowly get you prepared for a harder workout.

You will generally want to find a speed on the treadmill that is a pace you can keep up with little discomfort and do it for 20 minutes. After this take a 5 minute break, stretch a little and have a drink of water, then go back and increase the speed just a bit then do another 20.

Remember that pushing yourself too far is taking a gamble that you may not be able to live with. In a casino you can put everything you have on the roulette table and maybe you win and maybe you lose, but in the gym if you push too hard you can die, so take things slowly.

Many people make the mistake of getting back into an exercise program and going all gung ho an trying to get back in shape in just one hour, well let me tell you this will not work. The only thing this will do is make you very sore the next day and you will not be able to workout that day, and it will make you lose interest fast in the gym. Discomfort in ok pain is not.

Depending on how long it has been since you last worked out, I recommend working out 4 or 5 days a week. This may seem like a lot but if you were trying to win a poker tournament you would go to a casino or an online casino and poker room to practice almost every day right? So you will have to do the same with the gym.

Working out 5 days a week does not necessarily mean you have to go to the gym every day. I recommend the gym 3 times a week and the other day or 2 you can just go for a long fast paced walk around your neighborhood. Try to vary the things you do so that you do not work out the same parts of your body 2 days in a row.

Most professionals will tell you that if you work out your arms and chest on a Monday do not exercise those muscles again for at least 48 hours. This is to give the muscles time to heal and grow. It is this straining and resting of the muscle that makes it grow not just the working it out. If all you did every day was work the same muscle group in a few days the muscle would be more likely to tear in a painful experience and the only thing you will be able to do for several months will be playing in an online casino from your laptop in bed.

why

Many articles supply answers, but here I do not. Here, I ask the questions. If you want to rack your brains for finding the answers to these life conundrums. But, I warn you. Beware. These are not easy, and though somewhat hilarious and funny, they are real and true to life.

Should I begin? Ok, here I go:

1) How come Tarzan has no bears even though he grows up with wolves in the jungle?

2) Why does glue not stick to the insides of the tube or can that it comes in?

3) Why do they use sterile injections when executing someone who is condemned to death?

4) Why do we press down harder and harder or the remote controls even though we know that the batteries are low?

5) Why is it that when someone hits us in the ankles with his supermarket trolley and then appologizes, do we say that everything is ok? I mean, things are not really fine. Why is it that we do not say that it hurts?

6) Why is it that whatever the color of the bath soap, the bubbles are always white?

7) Why is it that you will never find a day when mattresses are not on sale?

8) Why is it that online casinos always offer big prize money for their tournaments but never reveal the real name of the winner after the competition is over?

9) If human beings evolved from monkeys, why is it that there still are monkeys?

10) Why did the Japanese Kamikaze pilots wear helmets during the second World War?

11) Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest but, then, duck when the empty gun is thrown at him.

12) Why do banks charge a commission when you go into debt even though they know that there is no money in that account?

13) Why do people go back again and again to the refrigerator hoping that something new to eat will appear there?

14) Why do people move their vacuum cleaner over a thin thread lying on the floor, bend down, pick it up, examine it, and then, place it on the floor again and move the vacuum over it again?

15) Why do people believe it when they are told that there are more than four billion stars, but when they see a sign that says wet paint, they have to touch and check?

16) Why does a plastic bag not open at the end where you first try to open it?

17) Why do you never hear jokes about father in laws?

18) Why are there dead insects inside enclosed electric lamps?

19) Why is it that in winter we try and keep the house as warm as it was during the summer when back in the summer we hated the heat?

20) Why is it that every time you try and catch something that is about to fall off the table, you always hit something else and drop that instead?

Conclusion:
Life has many oddities and conundrums: some funny, some less. I have mentioned but a few. Think of more? Send them to me.

Learn Speed Reading --- Read Faster --- Read Better

Let’s face it, the ability to read faster, and still comprehend what you’re reading, is an essential skill in today’s fast moving environment. We must read extensively if we want to be successful in our studies, or careers.

There’s no doubt, learning to speed read is probably the most valuable and time saving skill you can acquire. Frankly, under today's information pressures you must read faster and read better if you are to get ahead at all.

Of course, some people will say you can do fine without knowing how to speed read. WRONG! Young men and women trained in Modern Speed Reading show distinct advantages over those who lack this kind of preparation. Schools and colleges have discovered that courses in reading skills give enormous aid to students struggling under the heavier loads of today's scholastic programs. Their higher grade point averages speak for themselves.

Just imagine being able to read a novel in less than half the time it takes you now, and knowing how to skim an article effectively so the information you’re seeking seems to pop out of the page for you to find. Once you can speed read, your whole attitude toward reading changes. You will enjoy reading a great deal more and will read with greater intelligence.

Once you have become proficient at speed reading, you’ve prepared yourself to move with confidence into the wonderful world of books. It will be a rich experience with your newly developed skills, for books are an opening of new horizons, a road to new adventures, and a source of unending pleasure and delight. People who have really learned to read are never at a loss and are never lonely. A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

Learning to speed read is not a difficult or painfully long process. In fact, a recently released e-Book (Learn To Speed Read - Read Faster, Read Better) that I have just finished had me reading faster by the fourth chapter. Truly fast reading skills come with time and practice of course, but this book can teach you to read faster and read better right from the beginning.

If you are a High School or College Student, read extensively for your work, like reading the morning newspaper each day, or just enjoy reading a good novel occasionally, you really should consider learning to speed read. Once learned, it is a skill that will benefit you throughout your life.

Ken Asselin

Problem Solving Strategies

What could you use a few good problem solving strategies for? New ideas for your business, perhaps. New ways to deal with your children. To come up with different approaches to building things, writing stories, or finding a job. Whatever the purpose, here are a couple powerful problem solving strategies.

Use Your Unconscious Mind

Use your unconscious mind to do your problem solving. Start by outlining a problem in your mind before going to sleep. Then tell your brain to go to work. Albert Einstein had good luck with this technique, sometimes getting his "ah-ha" insights while shaving the next morning.

Instruct your mind to keep working on the problem while you do other things. There is more than we know going on inside our heads. If you first work on a problem, then move on to other things while waiting for and expecting a solution, an answer may come to you when you least expect it.

You can also try working on problems when you are in a drowsy state. This is usually an "Alpha" state, and can result in more creative solutions. This is one of the best problem solving strategies for artistic work.

A Systematic Problem Solving Strategy

Train yourself to solve problems with one or more techniques. Just use a technique for several weeks, and it should become a habit. Here are a few to try:

1. Assumption-challenging. If you are assuming you need a better or higher-paying job, ask "do I really need a better job?" You could get a raise, or somehow make the job you have better. Starting a business on the side might be an option too. Never let your assumptions limit the possible solutions.

2. Solve the parts. To buy a house is a big move that is really a bunch of small steps, which is true of many problems. Address the components of a problem individually, and it may not seem so overwhelming. It is easier to motivate yourself in this way.

3. Ask other people. Whether or not they have good ideas, this helps you be sure you're not overlooking anything obvious.

4. Write the problem down. Find another way to express the problem and write that down. Keep writing down solutions and ideas that come to mind. Later you can pick the diamonds out of the dirt.

5. Change perspective. What if you were rich, poor, a child, a visitor from another planet? How would you see the problem from this new perspective? Einstein imagined riding on a beam of light, which lead to his theory of relativity, so this technique has been known to work.

There are dozens of good techniques you can use to solve problems. There are also other general methods, like clearing a space to work in, or alternating between intense analysis and intuitive daydreaming. However many ways there are, though, it is using them that counts. If used well, you only need a few good problem solving strategies.

Need A Lift? Try A Success Program…

If you are like most people at some time in their life you have or you will enter a rut in life. Sometimes this rut is referred to as the mid-life crisis, some times it is called the prodigal period, but whatever it is called the same basic ingredients exist. They are questioning the meaning and direction of your life and evaluating whether or not you should make changes (often major) and how you should go about doing them. Often it is brought on by a feeling of discontentment in the place that they are in life compared to where they wanted to be. In short they feel that they are not achieving the success that they can and want to change that. I want to suggest that these people try out (or at least look into) a success program.

What is a success program? Well it can be a lot of different things really. They range in value and quality just like anything else and it is good to keep in mind that you often pay for what you get. What the essence of the program should be is how to change whatever you are doing to adjust your trajectory in order to achieve the things that you are setting out to do. This mainly has to do with adjusting your thinking.

These programs are often a conference in a nice (often exotic) location that allows people to break away from whatever might be holding them back in their home place and invigorates them for success. After all if a success program didn’t get people “up” for success then it really couldn’t be called successful could it? Any way there is often a guest speaker most of the time someone with two things. One a gift for motivation which requires a certain personality that is supposed to be infectious and persuasive. And two a story of the time in their life when they went through a similar phase and how they got out of it. They are often very successful and can prove it with real life dollars and cents figures that convince people they are just a bunch of fluff.

There often are books at these events that allow people to take the message home to ponder it and there are many times different “specialty” workshops that allow people to hone in on their area of expertise or interest. Again the major goal of a success program is to make people change their way of thinking that allows them to change the course of their future. The mind is a powerful thing and if you can get it bent on success rather than futility, you have done a wonderful and potentially life altering thing for them!