Language is always evolving to reflect the technology, new culinary delights and trends of the era. That's why the dictionary is never really "done." We took a look back at Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary for a sampling of words that debuted each year, and we found a few surprises. For instance, "text messaging" is way older than you think. Take a peek at the other words that found their way into our everyday language each year. Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/the-new-word-that-debuted-the-year-you-were-born/ss-BBysi7G?li=BBnb7Kz
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"Intimacy is built on the ability to feel safe enough to be vulnerable and authentic in your relationship. Your partner should never ask you to just take their sudden angry outbursts because they had a bad day or are stressed. This will ultimately foster a sense of anxiety and resentment in your relationship." -Imani Aieshah, certified couples relationship coach, Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family-relationships/20-things-your-partner-should-never-ask-you-to-do/ss-BBCznSd?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1
The early birds will inherit the earth.
At least that's what a 2009 University of Leipzig study found. The researchers concluded that "morning people were more proactive than evening types." But being an effective early riser isn't just about waking up before everyone else. It's about putting yourself in a positive mindset and getting important things done before everyone else. So there's no point in setting your alarm clock at a crazy-early time if you're just going to zone out in front of the television for a bit before slouching off to work. To start your day right, you've got to get into some good habits. Following are eight morning rituals that may seem hard to adopt but will ultimately help you reap major rewards, if you stick with them. Read more: www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/wellness/8-morning-rituals-that-are-hard-to-adopt-but-will-pay-off-forever/ss-BBCO1NH?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1 In today’s blog post, I would like to share what is going on with my writing. I have a new novel (The Symphony of Life, The Shop Side series book 2), and a book of short stories (Life Is Short So Are My Stories) currently in my publisher’s hands. Our hope is that these will be releasing before the end of the year. It possibly may be the beginning of 2018 however. I am looking forward to these two releases, especially the book of short stories. I think these short stories are some of the best writing I have ever put on paper
I have also just finished my fourth novel. I will keep the title to myself for now, as I have not sent it in to my publisher yet. It is in the very beginning stages. I want to thank all of you who read my blogs every Sunday and Wednesday and those of you who follow and purchase my work. You are why I do this. Below is an excerpt from my soon to be released novel The Symphony of Life, which is the sequel to my first novel Shop Side. Have a good day and enjoy. Keith Living with my landlord would take some getting used to. I rented this house from Kaley six months ago, and now she has moved back. She cut my rent in half, which was cool, but damn, I liked my privacy. More than likely I’d look for another place, which sucked, because I just got settled in. Kaley seemed nice enough. She had been here two days, but I had not seen her that much. She'd give my deposit back if I wanted to move, but the thought of packing up and moving seemed exhausting. Her relationship didn’t work out for some reason. Relationships were tough, I should know I had been in several. My mother had a different boyfriend every month, which was who I learned from. She wasn’t much of a role model. She did the best she knew how, but it wasn’t that good in my opinion. She never beat me or anything, just never there and she put men before me. Luckily, I had a friend who’s parent’s thought the world of me, so I managed to be ok in this world and not a juvenile delinquent. Salvador my brother was also there to guide me. As an adult the world was much better to me. I went to College attaining my degree in business. I managed an electronics store in Memphis, and found this nice little house in the suburb to rent. Things were awesome until my freaking landlord showed up. I’d get used to it, it was just awkward. I felt she was watching everything I did, and it didn’t feel at home. She probably didn’t feel comfortable either. It was a trigger because when I was a kid my mother always had strange men in the house, which was uncomfortable. In a way, living with Kaley was like that. One cool thing about Kaley was that she was a writer and had several published works. She was even working on a novel. I’d never known a writer before. She was hip for an older person. She would smoke a joint with me, that’s for sure. She didn’t seem square. She was going to College at the University for teaching. I didn’t know people her age went to college, but to improve oneself was good. When my mother was Kaley’s age she was partying and banging any dude she found. My mother drank herself to death about five years ago. The hard stuff destroyed her liver. My older brother and I were the only ones at the funeral. My mother used people. When she got tired or bored she threw them away, even us kids. Brother and I still loved her, even though she was an alcoholic and whore. My old man split on us when I was seven and my brother seventeen. He came home one day, packed a bag, and drove off down Fielder Street leaving us standing in the dust of the dirt road. “Well, I guess he is gone sister,” brother said. We never saw him again. When Salvador turned eighteen he was gone, he left only to come visit once a year. He called me every week though and sent me money. During my teen-age years I found safety in a friend’s family and when I turned nineteen, my brother offered me a job. I took him up on it and enjoyed my job in his hardware store. I learned about business, tools, and gardening. Just about anything there was to know about the business I learned it. I worked there for six years putting myself through college. Salvador also helped me through university. I was thirty when I graduated. I got my job at the House of Electronics a year after, and two years after that I made manager. I moved up fast due to my experience in the years of working for my brother. Being a manager required working many hours and getting many calls when I was at home. Pulling in good numbers every month and getting a bonus was rewarding. I was good at what I did, and was firm, fair, and consistent with my employees. I didn’t have much time for a social life but I went out with friends and dated when I could. I enjoyed my free time. My favorite outdoor activity was to hiking. Nature and the universe were my higher power. It guided me through my personal decisions, my business decisions, and my life in general. Lately I’ve dated a woman that’s a customer in the store. It was fun, nothing serious. I had encountered problems in past relationships by rushing into them. Two times in the past, I’ve lived with the person after knowing them for only a short time. The first one was with a man named Tom Price. I met him at a bar in Memphis on New Year’s Eve. We got high, he took me back to his place, and before I knew it, I was his girl. He turned out to be a dick. He tried to boss and control me every chance he got. The point when he timed how long I was gone to the grocery store was the last straw, I told him to fuck off and I was out. The other time was with a woman named Bobbie Lee. She was sort of a dyke that I didn’t know what I was doing with. She caught me making love to her sister and that was pretty much that. My relationship history had not been stable. I've been to therapy and learned how to choose healthier intimate partners and friends. When I was younger I felt like I didn’t deserve good things to happen to me. Once there was a girl I met made me so happy, and she was perfect in my eyes. I felt like I didn’t deserve her and that the relationship would fail, so I cheated on her so she would break up with me. I self-sabotaged myself. I learned in therapy that what a person felt on the inside, they’d confirm with their actions. If they felt good about themselves they made good things happen. If not they made bad things happen. We confirmed in our actions how we felt on the inside. Driving home, I couldn’t wait to crash in my big king size bed. It had been a long day full of bitching customers and employees. It wasn’t the customers that created the biggest problems for me, it was my staff. I swear some of them were fucking moronic. The kids working for me were not perfect, but some of them were better than the older people. One guy came to work baked every day. I fired him, which was a shame because he had good weed. He fell asleep in a chair in front of the big screen televisions. My brother always told me that customers were much easier to deal with than employees. Salvador was right. Home at last. Kaley was up watching television, which sucked because I was hoping to go to my room, fire up a joint and sleep. “Hey girl, what’s up?” Kaley asked. “Not much,” I said. “How was your work?” She asked “Tiring, I just want to eat and go to bed, I have to be back at 7:00 a.m.,” I told her. “How was your day?” I asked. “Not bad, I got some writing done and talked to a friend of mine for a while on the phone. I cleaned out the shed in back, nothing exciting.” We sat in the kitchen and she served me a plate of spaghetti she made earlier. It was nice to come home from work to a meal. I got tired of cooking and eating out all the time. She even poured me a glass of wine that was nice. We sat and talked for a while and before I knew it I wasn’t tired anymore. I wasn’t used to drinking so I could feel Mr. Buzz engulfing my body filling me with warmth. Before I could control what was coming out of my mouth I asked Kaley if she wanted to get high. She said yes, and we smoked and talked until midnight. It was nice talking with her, but I knew when the alarm clock rang at 5:00 a.m. I would regret staying up so late. I went to bed thinking about the evening and having trouble falling asleep. Kaley seemed like a caring woman. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad sharing the place with her for a while. Retirement might seem light-years away, but if you get to your golden years with insufficient funds it's guaranteed to be even further.
Saving enough over a 40-year career to maintain your lifestyle in retirement is challenging. But there's a lot to be learned from the people who have managed to hit their savings goals well before that point, even if you haven't been bitten by the early retirement bug yourself. Grant Sabatier, a 30-something self-made millionaire, and founder of Millennial Money, pointed out on his website that average Americans spend 70% of their money on housing, transportation, and food (not including income taxes and Social Security). Sound familiar? In some parts of the country (New York and the rest of the Northeast), the percentage spent on housing, transportation and food can be even higher. That might leave you feeling defeated before you even start saving, but for Sabatier and others striving for early retirement, it's an opportunity. Here's Sabatier: "If you can spend less on [those expenses] (say 25% or so) then you can bank the difference. If you move to a smaller apartment, walk to work, and cook at home, you could realistically increase your savings rate to 25%+ or even higher," he wrote on Millennial Money. To do this, you might have to get creative. But there are some guidelines you can follow. Housing If you're part of the one-third of Americans who overpay for housing, start by looking for a place that meets the standard measure of affordability: 30% or less of pre-tax income. But to really make progress on your savings goals, you'll want to limit it as much as you possibly can. If you can find a place that allows you to spend 25% or less of your after-tax income on housing, your savings account will thank you. Even billionaire Warren Buffet keeps his housing costs low. Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth .001% of his total wealth. Transportation After housing, transportation is the next biggest household expense, according to the BLS data. It's not surprising, since Americans borrowed more money last year to pay for their cars than college. Having a reliable car is important, but you don't have to commit to paying $500 a month for the next six years to get one. When shopping for your next car, make sure you can either pay cash up front, or pay off the auto loan in three to four years at most. Food As Business Insider's Alex Morrell reported, eating out accounts for 43% of the annual food expenditures for the average family — an obvious area to save some cash. One area that might be easier to target, depending on your social life, is cutting back on "miscellaneous" grocery expenses such as premade meals and snacks (Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisines, Morrell writes, as well as Doritos). You might also consider skipping extras like condiments and vitamins, since most supplements are a waste of money anyway. For Sabatier, who was able to amass over a million dollars in five years, cutting back in these three areas has been more than worth it. "At the end of the day it comes down to a personal choice, but I was happy moving to a smaller apartment, moving closer to my office, and eating out less, to bank the difference. And I definitely was able to bank the difference — saving at least an additional $13,000 per year by cutting back." Lauren Lyons Cole |
AuthorKeith Kelly currently lives in Rio Rancho New Mexico. Archives
October 2020
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