America’s Fat Future is a new infographic created and developed by the Medical Coding Career Guide. The troubling trends identified below are powerfully motivating for me. The team that created this infographic are keen to get your feedback. Good, bad, or ugly, please share your opinions in the comment form below.
Created by: MedicalCodingCareerGuide.com
Doodling is a polarizing topic; most people are firmly against it or strongly for it. Whatever your position might be on the fine art of random marks there is strong evidence that this helps our brains connect the dots.
First, a disclaimer: I’m a mad doodler. One of my earliest birthday gifts as a child was a doodle art set. I used it virtually non-stop until the psychedelic markers ran out of ink. My old school books are filled with seemingly random lines, notes, and scribbles. My desk has always had a large calendar pad where I make endless notes and then cover in doodles. I’m firmly in the pro-doodle camp.
The Incident
I’ve never thought to psychoanalyze my doodles and never really aware of what others may have thought if they happened to glance at my workspace. However ,I will never forget one workplace incident early in my career.
Working in a call center environment I spent most of my time speaking with finance customers. My desk pad was filling up with doodles. I took notes as I listened to clients and always had a pen in hand filling in the space on the large sheet of paper.
A senior manager stopped by and examined my doodles. Pointing at the page he remarked that this was clearly a sign of extreme stress and something I needed to work on. Clearly, he was not a doodler. I’ve been known to take things too personally, but I was devastated by his 15 second psycho analysis. Anyway, I’ve never stopped doodling.
Doodlers Unite!
I was really happy to see Sunni Brown’s recent TED conference presentation on the many benefits of doodling. The action of mixing notes and marks with visual and audible stimuli enhances the learning experience. Doodling helps the brain organize and store our thoughts. In short, it’s an amazingly productive mechanism for efficient memory and understanding. I’ll let Sunni explain in the video below.
Do you doodle?
Installing a toilet is a fairly simple project. With a little confidence you can do it yourself and save money. We upgraded our throne in under 30 minutes with no further instruction than those printed on the box.
It really is as easy as choosing a new toilet from your favorite hardware store and bolting it on. We chose an inexpensive model, however we think it looks pretty sharp. The oval-shaped bowl is an improvement from the round unit it replaced.
The new throne also has a dual flush option; half-flush for light duty, and full-flush when required. This really is a great feature as most of us underestimate the cost of water. Water is our single most expensive utility so any savings are a welcome bonus to the bottom line.
This was one of the final D.I.Y. projects to be completed before we vacate our house and put it on the rental market. I hope our future tenants will enjoy their comfortable new commode.
Before…
Toilet to be installed here!
After…
Sleek new toilet!
New toilet, from another angle.
New toilet from above. We also installed new baseboard trim to finish this project.
Dual flush! Save water, save money.
We have several more D.I.Y projects underway and I look forward to sharing those before and after photos with you very soon.
Did you know that there are nearly 50 million people in the United States without health insurance? This is a huge problem that is continuing to get worse with each passing day. There are many reasons why these people lack coverage. Even if you currently have health insurance, you may realize that you are paying a lot of money every month.
Is there any way to save on the cost of health insurance when prices seem to be going through the roof? The short answer is yes, but only if you know what you are doing.
First things first, you should see if you qualify for health insurance through your employer’s group plan. If you do, this is generally the best way to save money. If you have been missing out on this benefit, touch base with your company’s HR department. Soon enough you will have more information on whether or not you qualify for health insurance coverage (if it is offered).
Did you know that you may be able to get on your spouse’s health insurance plan offered by his/her employer? Again, this is a great way to get the coverage you need at a more affordable price. This is not available to everybody, but it is at least worth looking into.
If you are in the process of buying individual health insurance (not through an employer), there are a couple of things you can do to increase your chance of finding a high quality policy at a reasonable price:
- Compare three or more companies
- Compare three or more policies
- Use the internet to compare health insurance as opposed to relying on a broker
With many companies offering a variety of health insurance policies, you should be able to find one that matches your every need.
As you compare your options, saving money may be the only thing that you are concerned with. In this case, you should take a strong look at high deductible plans. With one of these, you are in position to save quite a bit of money. You may have to pay more out-of-pocket if you need medical assistance, but until then your monthly payment is going to be quite reasonable.
The biggest mistake you can make is not having any health insurance coverage. If you find yourself in this position, you are taking a big risk. You never know when you will need to seek medical care. If you don’t have health insurance, this could end up costing you a lot of money.
With this advice, you should be able to save on the cost of health insurance despite the fact that policies are more expensive today than ever before. What are you waiting on? Once you have affordable, quality coverage you will feel better about what the future holds.
One of the risks when choosing to take on home improvement projects yourself is that they may take longer than anticipated. The D.I.Y. option can save you lots of money but as a deadline approaches it’s time to dig in and never lose sight of your goal.
With military orders in hand we’re currently looking at our ongoing projects through a rapidly shrinking window of time. Now’s the time to get it done or face trying to rent our house out while it looks like a construction zone. We’re determined not to let that happen and want to maximize our rental income by offering a house with no compromises. Maybe this is a newbie landlord mistake, but that’s the way we’re approaching it.
My wife and I are very capable and enjoy learning new skills as we take on renovation, outsourcing only a fraction of the work when we must. However, we’ve been living in a state of semi-completion for three years and we’re both focused on wrapping it up.
Today I am sharing a few images of various projects that are approaching completion. Some were started a few days ago, and others have been in limbo for a while.
Paint top kitchen cabinets. I ripped the kitchen out 2 years ago and now we only have this task remaining. A solid weekend of painting and well be done.
Change blue room to beige (Parisian Taupe). We love our blue room but renters don't. This requires taping, patching, priming, and two top coats. Fun!
Complete Shower. We recently renovated the master bathroom and removed the fiberglass shower. We need to install a shower pan and tile in a new one. It's going to look great.
Install toilet. The toilet is also part of the master bathroom renovation. We also need to trim the wall and install the mirror, and then we're done.
Each project will only take a day or two to complete. You’re probably wondering why we haven’t just done it all by now. Well, it’s complicated. With three children, me spending too much time blogging and having a super-ambitious wife, life sometimes gets in the way. I hope to share the ‘after’ pictures with you when we finally have this house move-in ready for our prospective renters.
Some people do all the work on their home improvement projects while others won’t lift a paint brush, where do you fit in the D.I.Y. spectrum?
