Eat the Strawberry. Facts, Opinions, and Beliefs. Part 1.

Part 1. Facts and Opinions: One of the most powerful questions you can ask an “opinionated” person that is driving you crazy is: Is that a fact or an opinion? I love this question. It is the clear way for you to tell the person you are talking to that what they are saying is just their opinion. People seem to throw opinions around more and more these days. And often, they are speaking as if what they are saying is a fact, when in FACT it is just their opinion. Another statement that you can say that is not so polite and a little more blunt is: Opinions are like A/.>,

Improving your Memory Tips and techniques to help you remember... ...you know, that thing... I forgot. Having problems forgetting appointments, to-dos, errands, feeding your children and pets, picking up after yourself, getting out of bed... not to mention forgetting birthdays, and even anniversaries? If you are like many people, you will often find yourself forgetting something. In an age of computers, PDA’s, and many other devices - this my be ok for some folks, unless you forget where you put those devices. Others may want to increase their ability to memorize things - luckily there are a few creative ways you can improve your long and short term memory. Use your Senses & Be Aware Practice creating vivid images/concepts in your head - using all of your senses. Analyze your surroundings by sound, sight, smell, taste, and touch. Being aware all of your senses will give your mind more ways to associate (and thus remember) when it is time to recall something. This is like form of meditation -- which is good for your brain in a variety of ways. (see our article: Interesting Ways to Improve Your Brain for more info). Practice this tip of simply being more aware of your surroundings everyday and you will find your general memory greatly improved. Humor & Vulgarity If you need to memorize something specific try using humor or vulgarity as a memory aid. Make a nasty or funny limerick about something that needs to be remembered and you'll have a hard time forgetting. (Great tip for students). Don't worry, be Mindful There has been a lot said about the power of positive thinking. Recently, a huge bandwagon of new-age positive thought = positive outcome theories have been on tips of everyone's tongue from Oprah to your local convenience store clerk. Just do a google search for "Law of Attraction" or "The Secret" if you aren't in the cult loop. Negative thoughts fog our minds, but clearing out the negative and focusing on the positive also improves memory & concentration. Stress is a big brain buster, so minimize stress and negative thoughts to keep your wits. Apt Quote: “What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can't move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won't be troubling you much longer.” See the Future Have trouble remembering to-dos, appointments, meetings, deadlines, birthdays and other future events? Here is the secret: When you know you have an upcoming event you don't want to forget, picture yourself at the event. What are you doing, who is there, what does it smell like? Imagine the event...even better: imagine yourself taking the steps that lead to the event. For example... let's say tommorrow you have to call the someone. Picture yourself in your home/office, picture yourself picking up the phone, imagine dialing the number and talking to the person of the other end. Associate Association is among one of the easiest and most used tools in learning. This is the process of taking the information you wish to memorize, and linking it mentally to something else that is natural to you. When learning something new, try to associate the new concept with one to which you are already familiar. Couple association with being aware using all of your senses and you will have a higher rate of successful recall. Chunky like your mom Chunking information is a great mnemonic method to remember multiple items. Many people naturally use chunking to remember phone numbers: Instead of thinking "17342876642" we chunk it as 1-734-287-6642. The concept of chunking comes from a famous 1956 paper by George A. Miller: The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information. If you are a sucker for classic works in the history of psychology (I know, who isn't?) you can read the whole original paper here. Write it Down We generally think of "writing things down" as a means to NOT have to remember something. The paper does the work for -- we just need to remember where we put that piece of paper... But, writing things down has another effect: you clear your mind and take away the stress of "having to remember", and by doing so you actually have more room in your noggin for remembering stuff. I know that explanation wasn't scientific, but it works. To-do lists are championed by business gurus and soccer moms alike. Try writing everything down for a week or two and see how much this improves your memory & focus. A great digital tool for "writing things down" is provided by a website called Nozbe.com -- I recommend it for clearing your head and also organizing your thoughts. __________________________________________________________________________ Memory and Concentration Games on Blifaloo.com: Memory 3 Memorize color patterns to test your short term memory. Music Memory Test your memory while training your musical ear with this game. Balls & Boxes Memory Game Use your memory and put the balls back into their original boxes. Classic Memory Game Old-school card matching memory game.

Become a Whirlwind Cleaner Now MULTI SERVICES shows you how the right products and a few insider tips from the experts can make every cleaning job easier and quicker. Keep a cleaning carry-all (available at dollar stores or hardware stores) or a simple plastic bucket pre-packed with cleaning supplies to take from room to room. Ensure you have the right products on hand for the cleaning jobs you face around your home. We suggest this selection: Power Cream Degreaser for tough grease, sticky residue and burnt-on food. Power Cream Lime & Grime to make easy work of limescale and soapscum buildup. Bathroom Spray for shower doors, walls, shower cutrains, tape and tiles. Thick Bleach for toilet bowls, tubs and sinks. Multi-Surface Cleaner for glass, mirrors, counter tops, sealed wood furnishings and sealed granite. Gel with Baking Soda for stovetops, sinks, faucets, chrome fixtures and stainless steel appliances. Cream Cleanser for countertops, pots and pans, casserole dishes and BBQ grills. In addition to these cleaning products, the whirlwind housekeeper also keeps some secret tools on hand, including: Snuggle Fabric Softener Sheets Q-tips Cotton Swabs 2 to 3 small sponges a dry cloth a small brush a discarded tooth brush latex gloves Where to Start - Where to Finish Start in the kitchen. Clean your laminate counter tops, around your cook-top rings, food-spattered backsplashes, the fridge door and the sink. Moisten a damp sponge. Do your cabinet doors, drawer pulls, light switches and the telephone next. Check the shelves and door slots in your fridge, too. Peek in the microwave. Is the lunch-time pizza welded to the roof? Here's a trick: Half fill a cup with water and add a squirt of Cream Cleanser. Place in the microwave and run on high for 60 seconds. Wipe clean with a damp sponge. Wipe down the kitchen table and chairs. Then clean the floors last with diluted Vim Floors. Move on to the bathroom. Spray the shower walls and bath tub with Bathroom Cleaner. Leave it while you wipe down the counter and sink with Vim Gel with Baking Soda. Use the tooth brush in your carry-all to scour around the drain hole. A Q-Tip Cotton Swab dipped in Vim Gel will make quick work of grunge around the taps. Wipe all surfaces with clear water. Return to the shower and tub. Turn on the shower and watch the cleaner and the scum disappear down the drain. Apply Vim Thick Bleach to the toilet, let sit and flush. Voila. And finally the rest of the house. While moving from room to room, keep a look out for finger marks on doors and door frames and for sticky door handles. Clean with All Purpose Spray. Is the picture on your TV or computer screen looking foggy? See it brighten before your eyes when you gently dust the surface using a Snuggle Fabric Softener sheet.

Halloween in Canada

Halloween is celebrated in Canada on or around October 31. It is a day to mark the single night in the year when, according to old Celtic beliefs, spirits and the dead can cross over into the world of the living. Some people hold parties and children may trick-or-treat in their neighborhood.

Black cats are part of the Halloween superstitions. Some people put a lot of effort into decorating their homes, yards and drives. They may even construct life-size replica graveyards or dungeons and invite people from the neighborhood to view their creations or hold a themed party. Other people may organize fancy dress parties for adults or children. Popular activities at parties include watching horror films and trying to make fellow guests jump in fright. Many children go out to play trick-or-treat. They dress up as ghosts, witches, skeletons or other characters and visit homes in their neighborhood. They ring doorbells and, when someone answers, they call out "trick-or-treat". This means that they hope to receive a gift of candy or other snacks and that they are threatening to play a trick if they do not get anything. Usually, they receive a treat and tricks are rarely carried out. There are special types of food associated with Halloween. These include candies in packets decorated with symbols of Halloween, toffee apples made by coating real apples with a boiled sugar solution, roasted corn, popcorn and pumpkin pie or bread. Halloween beer, which is made by adding pumpkin and spices to the mash before fermenting it, is also available in specialist stores. Children also take part in a long-standing Canadian tradition of "Trick-or-Treat for Unicef". Pumpkin-carving contests, pumpkin art tours, a reading marathon, and symbolic Walks for Water are just a few examples of the educational and fundraising activities schools and children develop to help provide thousands of children developing countries with basic quality education. Public life October 31 is not a public holiday. Schools, organizations, businesses, stores and post offices are open as usual. Some organizations may arrange Halloween parties, but these do not usually disrupt normal affairs. Public transport services run on their regular timetables. If people are driving around the neighborhood in the late afternoon or evening, it is important to be particularly aware of children, especially those wearing dark costumes, who may be unfamiliar with traffic conditions. Background Halloween has Celtic origins. In pre-Christian times, many people believed that spirits from the underworld and ghosts of dead people could visit the world of the living on the night of October 31. These spirits could harm the living or take them back to the underworld. To avoid this, people started dressing up as ghosts and spirits if they left their homes on October 31. They hoped that this would confuse the ghosts and spirits. Halloween was also a time, when spirits might give messages to people. In some areas, it was traditional for unmarried girls to poor molten lead into water. The shape that the lead took when it hardened was seen as a clue to the professions of their future husbands. Halloween traditions were brought to Canada by Irish and Scottish immigrants. Halloween is now celebrated in a range of other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Symbols There is a wide range of Halloween symbols. Symbols include animals, such as black cats, bats and spiders, and figures, such as ghosts, skeletons, witches and wizards. Pumpkins, graveyards, cobwebs, haunted houses and the colors green, orange, grey and black are also associated with Halloween. These symbols are used to decorate homes and party venues and are seen on costumes, gift paper, cards, cookies, cakes and candy.

The Real Meaning of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving in Canada falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the United States. Because of the longstanding traditions of the holiday, the celebration often extends to the weekend that falls closest to the day it is celebrated.

The Order of Good Cheer, 1606 by Charles William Jefferys, (1925). The origins of the first Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving celebration was not for harvest, but for homecoming. He had safely returned from an unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Newfoundland to give thanks for surviving the long journey.[3] Years later, the tradition of a feast would continue as more settlers began to arrive to the Canadian colonies.[4]

Oven roasted turkey The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving can also be traced to the French settlers who came to New France with explorer Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, who also took to celebrating their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing their food with the indigenous peoples of the area.[5] Champlain had also proposed for the creation of the Order of Good Cheer in 1606.[6] As many more settlers arrived in Canada, more celebrations of good harvest became common. New immigrants into the country, such as the Irish, Scottish and Germans, would also add their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey) were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.[5]

The meaning of Autumn Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Southern Hemisphere) when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier. The equinoxes might be expected to be in the middle of their respective seasons, but temperature lag (caused by the thermal latency of the ground and sea) means that seasons appear later than dates calculated from a purely astronomical perspective. The actual lag varies with region. Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as "mid-autumn", others with a longer lag treat it as the start of autumn.[1] Meteorologists (and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere)[2] use a definition based on months, with autumn being September, October and November in the northern hemisphere,[3] and March, April and May in the southern hemisphere. In North America, autumn is usually considered to start with the September equinox.[4] In traditional East Asian solar term, autumn starts on or around 8 August and ends on about 7 November. In Ireland, the autumn months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are September, October and November.[5] However, according to the Irish Calendar which is based on ancient Celtic traditions, autumn lasts throughout the months of August, September, and October, or possibly a few days later, depending on tradition. In Australia, autumn officially begins on March 1st and ends May 31st[6] According to United States unofficial tradition, autumn runs from the day after Labor Day (i.e. the Tuesday following the first Monday of September) through Thanksgiving (i.e. the fourth Thursday in November), after which the holiday season that demarcates the unofficial beginning of winter begins. Where does the word come from The word autumn comes from the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French), and was later normalised to the original Latin word autumnus.[7] There are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but it became common by the 16th century. Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day (cf. Dutch herfst and German Herbst). However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write,the only people whose use of language we now know), the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, as well as fall, began to replace it as a reference to the season.[8][9] The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".[10]

Cleaning Tips Ideas by other people 1. I spray Febreeze on my vacuum roller brushes when I vacuum, makes the whole carpet smell fresh. Submitted by Carol L. 2. I use a lot of waxed paper to cover counters for dirty jobs... I hate scrubbing flour that has gotten wet and hardened! Submitted by Marcia S. 3. The bathroom will be much easier to clean after a steamy bath or shower. The steam will help loosen the dirt. 4. To get copper clean use orange koolaid. Submitted by Ruth G. 5. Apply a good paste wax to shower tiles and buff with a dry cloth to deter water spots. 6. Alcohol on a rag cleans keyboards great! Submitted by Rhonda W. 7. Rubbing alcohol takes off the sticky stuff left from scotch tape. Submitted by Becky S. 8. Use fabric softener sheets to collect dust off blinds. Submitted by Mary B. 9. Avon's Skin So Soft gets off the adhesive gunk off windows & mirrors. (no, I don't sell Avon.) Submitted by Ruth S. 10. When dusting, start at the top and work your way to the bottom. Vacuum last. ........................Continued in next blog post............................. Thank you for being a loyal reader of Multi Services Blog MULTI SERVICES Residential & Commercial Cleaning Professional Cleaners without the Professional Price 416-782-3417 www.multiservices-janitorial.com Derrick & Kerry