Expenses - Money = Worry

The year 2008 gave Americans an unending supply of dizzying ad jaw-dropping events that affected jobs, businesses and personal fortunes. A year long poll conducted by Healthways, a health management company, took the daily pulse of Americans’ physical, emotional and economic well-being. It discovered that worries about finances grew sharply as the year 2008 progressed.

Healthways' poll concluded those ranging between 30-49 (often raising children while assisting aging parents) were the most likely to worry. Those ages 18-29, are just starting to build their financial futures, followed. Americans 65 and older worried the least because their senior years are cushioned by traditional pensions and government benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. Among ethnic groups, Hispanics were the most anxious about finances, just ahead of African Americans. Caucasians and Asians tied when it comes to worrying about finances. According to Joseph Priester, former president of the Society for Consumer Psychology, excessive worry such as losing a job, can lead to emotional states such as depression and anxiety. About 14 million people worried about money at the end of the year than at the beginning. Also, excessive worry can affect not only individuals but families. TV Personality and renowned psychologist, Dr. Phil McGraw says that many marriages ended in 2008, because of financial troubles.

President Obama says that in the year 2009, things will get worse before things get better. During the year of 2009, we all have to find ways to cope during this difficult time in the world. A few ways to cope are as followed:

1. Hold a fundraiser. A few examples of fundraisers are having a carwash, selling candy or holding a silent auction.
2. Budget your money. Watch your spending habits.
3. When you get stressed over finances, take a walk. Not only does walking relieve stress, it's healthy!
4. Turn to your religion.

Things will get better before you know it! Don't lose hope!!!

By: Vanessa

Hey, you got any cheese?

When you think of cheese, you think of macaroni and cheese or Swiss cheese, right? Unfortunately, that's not the type of cheese that I am talking about.

I was talking to a friend of mine and she asked if I heard of the "cheese drug." I laughed at her because I thought she was playing around. She told me that the "cheese drug" is a heroin mixed up with Tylenol. This drug is popular among middle school age children.



According to CNN.com, "Cheese heroin is a blend of so-called black tar Mexican heroin and crushed over-the-counter medications that contain the antihistamine diphenhydramine, found in products such as Tylenol PM. The sedative effects of the heroin and the nighttime sleep aids make for a deadly brew."

This cheap, highly addictive drug came on the scene between 2005-2007. It has already taken the lives of 21 teens who lived in Dallas, TX. According to the CNN.com article, police are trying to stop this fad before it spreads across the U.S. "This drug can be snorted with a straw or through a ballpoint pen. It causes drowsiness, euphoria, excessive thirst and disorientation."

To see more of this article, visit http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/12/cheese.heroin/

So, when your 13 year old cousin asks you if you want some cheese, slap them in the face and take them to rehab!!!

CELEBRITIES CAN GET AWAY WITH ALMOST ANYTHING, ALMOST

As an adult one thing I have learned is superstars can get away with almost anything. They can steal from stores (referring to Paris Hilton trying to steal her sex tape), they can kill a person (referring to Brandy killing an illegal immigrant), and they can continually go to rehab and still have a job waiting for them aferwards (referring to well if you watch tv you know)

But the one thing celebrities cannot get away with is abusing dogs. They cannot treat dogs wrong and think they are going to get away. They will go to prison and they will not be going back to their same jobs afterwards.

Michael Vick, famous football player, learned this the hard way. After Vick finishes up his 23-month prison sentence he will not be playing football anymore. Instead, Vick will have to go into the business of construction...

OUCH, big pay decrease for the former football player who is now in debt...

Wifey Material

I have been hearing a lot of talk amongst men about women not being "wifey material." When I hear men talk about this, I always wonder what do they really want in a wife. Men are the same and different in several ways, so it's not a right or wrong answer what they want in a wife. What I have a problem with is that men are always saying how they want wifey material, but they can't do the husband thing. Some men are still trying to chase the "shawty with the gifts" and when they unwrap her, they find out she has a lot of baggage. She's either a gold digger, a whore or a girl that needs to be locked up in a mental institution. I think men need to stop taking the easy way out and blaming the women that's not "wifey material" and evaluate themselves. What is it about you that keeps attracting the wrong women? It's some good girls that out there that you keep overlooking, because you are too worried about what your friends are going to think about her. Do you realize that your hating ass friends are single too?

I am not trying to say that all men are like this, but men do slip up sometimes, just like women do. We can look a good man in his face and treat him so bad, then leave him for that trifling man that wants someone that is "wifey material!"




**Disclaimer---I know that men are going to look down on this, but it's my opinion. If you can't say something intelligent, then don't say nothing at all!

Phillis Wheatley Profile

Phillis Wheatley was born around anytime between 1753 and 1755. Phillis Wheatley was a slave child of seven or eight and sold to John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston on July 11, 1761. Her first name was apparently derived from the ship that carried her to America, The Phillis. She was especially fond of writing in the elegiac poetry style, perhaps mirroring the genre of oration taught to her through the women in her African American tribal group. Her elegy on a popular evangelical Methodist minister, George Whitefield, brought her instant success upon his death. She also was well versed in Latin which allowed her to write in the epyllion (short epic) style with the publication of "Niobe in Distress." She died during childbirth in Boston.

Below is a poem of hers called On Imagination

On Imagination
THY various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp
by thee!
Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.
From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,
Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:
To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,
Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.
Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,
Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,
Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,
And soft captivity involves the mind.
Imagination! who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behind:
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.
Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.
Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,
And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;
Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,
And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:
Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,
And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.
Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,
O thou the leader of the mental train:
In full perfection all thy works are wrought,
And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.
Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.
Fancy might now her silken pinions try
To rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:
From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,
Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,
While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.
The monarch of the day I might behold,
And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,
But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,
Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;
Winter austere forbids me to aspire,
And northern tempests damp the rising fire;
They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,
Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.

Honoring Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim. Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1872, Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33 from tuberculosis. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts of African-Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised by the prominent literary critics of his time and literary contemporaries.

We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Published Work by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

*Oak and Ivy (1893)

*Majors and Minors (1895)

*Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)

*Folks from Dixie (Short Story Collection) (1896)

*The Uncalled (a novel) (1897)

*Lyrics of the Hearthside (1899)

*Poems of Cabin and Field (1899)

*Lyrics of Love (1903)

*Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (1905)

*Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905)

(Post by: Vanessa Dennis)

JUST A FANTASY...

In 1996 when the song Fantasy by Mariah Carey came out everyone was dancing to it. It had a great beat and a lot of the words spoke to single women everywhere. Plus, Mariah Carey has not sung one bad song so that also helped... The song was real life for single women everywhere. It was real for those women who had fall into love and then later fallen out of it and it was real for those women who had never experienced love..

Problem is then and now women are constantly looking for real love from men and not a fantasy. Women do everything to get men. Some women cook while others clean. Some women practice the art of shoning to get their men while others think that if they give a man all their money they will have those men for the rest of their lives. Women don't just come out of nowhere with this desire to want a man in their lives.

From the moment most little girls start growing up they are exposed to Barbie dolls and doll houses. They are told to watch movies such as Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid. As they watch these movies and play with dolls they plan out how they are going to grow up, get married, and have lots of children. Women are taught from day one to go out and start a family. By the time a girl is eighteen she is anxious to find the man she will spend the rest of her life with.

On the other hand, according to experience and Steve Harvey men are not thinking like that. Harvey says men want to profess, protect, and provide for a woman but before that can get to that poin they have to know who they are, what they are good at, and what job title they have. Also, while men do want attention from women, when they are little it is not on their minds.

Question is if men are only thinking of their careers when they are young and women are focusing on the men of their dreams, how can the two have a successful relationshhip? My thoughts on this is the only successful relationship is the one that lasts until someone dies. There are no truly successful relationships because no one is perfect. Mistakes will always be made. Men and women will never agree on everything. We are raised to think differently by society. We are taught to learn how to deal with each other..well "more so" women are taught how to handle men.

But you'll know if your relationship is successful if you can tell your grand or even great grandkids how wonderful your marriage to your significant other who after so many years of marriage died....




to check out Mariah Carey's song Fantasy go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7iyjsLlsyk