How to Prepare for your First International Travel

First international travel is always fascinating and anxious.
One becomes really nervous especially while preparing for the very first international travel.
There is so much to do like shopping, packing, reaching the airport on time, security clearance,
collecting boarding passes, waiting in the rest area for connecting flights, immigration,
collecting our baggage and the list goes on.

Broadly we can classify the first international travel into six major steps.

• Home To Airport
• Airport To Your Flight
• Boarding
• Seating
• Connecting Flight
• Immigration To Hotel

Now you can just relax and follow the steps provided in my very first article to make your journey a pleasant one.
Also provide your valuable comments in my article.

A 9-Year-Old Bride: Dying Wish Comes True

A 9-year-old Jayla Cooper got married to 7-year-old Jose Griggs on Sunday, February 22, 2009 in Texas, United States.

Both Jayla Cooper and Jose Griggs are cancer or leaukemia patients. Jayla has battled this health problem for the past two years.

Jayla is expected to succumb to the disease in the next few weeks and it was her last wish to get married to her best friend.

Jose and Jayla met at Children's Medical Center two years back and quickly their friendship grew strong.

They both helped each other with their battle with illness.

"He knows what's going on," said Charla Griggs, Jose's mother.

The sad part is that Jose, the groom will be missing her soon.

At least he will have some good moments to recall and cherish.

A young Girl dying wish "Granted". Nothing wrong with that. Age is irrelevant for wishes and dreams.

This symbolic wedding was a celebration of life and friendship.

Choose Self Confidence Over Fear

In my opinion, everything in this world is contagious, irrespective of good or bad.
It is up to us to decide which one to resist and which one to encourage.
We are responsible to choose self confidence over fear, enthusiasm over apathy and love over hate and so on.
Our world is filled with positive possibilities. Within all those challenges, disappointments and frustrations are the greatest possibilities and opportunities to transform our life into the best with joy and fulfillment.
Each weakness is an opportunity to develop new strength and there is always much room for improvement.
Don't get caught in the trap of defining your goals based on what others say it should be.
Every day is a day for making progress.
Choose self confidence over fear and live fully each moment of your life.

Walnuts - The Health Nuts

Today, I thought of sharing some benefits of Walnuts.
If you really want to take care of your health and skin problems, all you have to do is have some 1 ounce of walnut every day.
Walnuts are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids which makes it very important for everyone including kids.

Healthy Heart
* Lowers total cholesterol
* Lowers LDL cholesterol
* Increases the HDL to total cholesterol ratio

Healthy Skin
* Prevents Eczema
* Prevents Psoriasis
* Nourishes your skin with their proteins

Healthy Brain
* Maximizes the brain cell's ability to usher in nutrients while eliminating wastes.
* Protects from Alzheimer's disease (most common form of dementia, most noticeable deficit is memory loss)
* Strengthens the functions of the nervous system

Healthy Bones
* Promotes healthy bones through omega-3 fat "Alpha linolenic acid"
* Reduces bone loss (During a person's lifetime, the body constantly breaks down old bone and builds up new bone. Any time old bone is broken down faster than new bone is made, net bone loss occurs)

Improved Immunity
* Rich antioxidant provides you strong immunity.
* Prevents cancer cells from replicating.

Parents, Breast Feeding Moms & Pregnant Ladies
* You would pass on all above benefits to your baby too.
* Before giving to your toddlers consult your pediatrician.

Roasting or heating walnuts diminishes their benefits, so enjoy them raw.

In a nut shell, Walnuts are "The Health Nuts". Go for it and have a healthy body with a strong mind.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

We watched the movie "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" this weekend.
I liked the first part and I felt that this second part is even better.
The penguins, next to Julian were the only characters that made the first part interesting.
In this release their roles are increased and as usual they made this movie more interesting.
Alex, the lion our hero, reunites with his family and proves his skill to lead the pride.
The family reunites using same old decision making using "Mark" between
brothers or father and son :-).
I liked the movie very much and would recommend this movie to anyone irrespective of what age they are.
If you've not seen the previous part, I suggest you to start with the original movie Madagascar.

You Could Get Pregnant - Careful!

Wishing to start a cute little family, things might get little easier if you make a trip to
Ripley's "Believe It or Not" museum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The museum opened the display of "One of its kind of" statues last week.
Could you guess what they called? Yes, they are called "Fertility Statues".
Ripley's says that they acquired these 5 foot wooden statues from the Ivory Coast of West Africa in 1990's.
Within months, 13 women became pregnant after placing it in its corporate headquarters in Orlando, Florida.
Since then, the statues are on display around the world and more than 2,000 women
have reported becoming pregnant after touching these statues.
Ripley's says couples wanting to have a baby can touch these statues for free in their Myrtle Beach museum.
Since there is no cost involved, I think it won't be any kind of prank.
I'm very thrilled to test it myself, ha ha.

Valentine's Day.

A greeting or gift, usually a card or message sent to a person, one loves or is attracted, as a token of love on Valentine's Day.
All know about this popular day yet very few knew it had a long history.

It began over 2,700 years ago as celebration to Lupercus, the Roman god who watched over sheep and shepherds.
But as the years passed, it became a holiday for Juno, queen of Roman gods for marriage and love.

By the year 496, the Christian church had become powerful.
Pope Gelasius head of the church, didn't believe in the old Roman gods.
He decided to make Juno's holiday into a church holiday.
He looked around for a saint to honor and found one named Valentine.
Valentine died on February 14, 269. Juno's holiday was on February 15.
Pope changed it to Saint Valentine's Day.

Because Valentine's Day was now a church holiday, it spread too.
Pope Gelasius had planned Valentine's Day as a religious holiday. But in most countries it didn't work out that way.
People enjoyed the old holiday of love too much to change it.

Wish you all a happy Valentine's Day in advance.

Too Much Pizza Not Good For Health

John Schnatter, founder of one of the America's largest pizza chain "Papa John's" said too much
pizza is not good for health. There are more than 3000 restaurants worldwide for Papa John's.
During an interview on BBC's - Radio Four program in the United Kingdom, John Schnatter,
said, "you can't eat five or six slices."
He further added, pizzas are actually healthy if you limit themselves to only one or two slices,
"You can't eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it's very nutritious".
I know lot of us have extreme craving for pizzas, we just don't count slices until we are filled to our capacity.
I think we should respect this surprising and unusual advice from the founder and take this in to account
next time for the sake of our own health and loved ones.

World Population.

The world population, as of February 2009 is estimated to be about 6.75 billion.
The current growth rate is about 130 million per year against 160 million in the late 1990's.
Death rates only around 60 million per year. It is expected to reach 90 million by 2050.

If the World were a small village of 100 people, then we would have

61 Asians (20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian),
14 Africans,
11 Europeans,
9 Latin or South Americans,
5 North Americans,
0 From Australia, Oceania, or Antarctica.

51 would be male.
49 would be female.

30 would be under 18 years of age.
10 would be over 60 years old.

2 would be near birth.
1 would be near death.
1 would be dying of starvation.

82 would be non-white.
18 would be white.

57 would be non-Christian.
33 would be Christian.
10 would be non-religious.

37 would be unable to read.
33 would have cellular phones.
22 would have access to the Internet.
20 would not have any electricity.

77 would live in substandard housing.
45 would be malnourished.
39 would have inadequate sanitation.
35 would have inadequate access to a safe water supply.
29 would smoke.
18 would be obese.
1 would have HIV.

27 would be unemployed or underemployed.
6 would control 50% of the entire wealth.

1 would have a college education.

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader ?

As a continuation to my last topic, smartness will have different definitions in various dictionaries.
I'll describe smartness in simple words as "Common Sense".
Sometimes with over confidence and pride over our intelligence, we adults forget to use our common sense.
For example; in an interesting test, many graduates flunked all the below questions.
However, many fifth graders gave several correct answers.

Questions:
1. How do you put a giraffe in the refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator?
3. The King, Lion is hosting a conference; all animals attend except one. Which one does not attend?
4. You must cross a river that is infested with crocodiles. How do you manage it?


Answers:
1. The way to put a giraffe in the refrigerator is to open the door, put in the giraffe, and then close it.
2. The way to put an elephant in the refrigerator is to open the door, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant, and then close it.
3. The animal that does not attend the conference is the elephant, because it is in the refrigerator.
4. The way to get across river is to swim across it. It is safe because all crocodiles are attending Lion's conference.

Now tell me, what is your score?

Intelligence - How do we define it ?

Intelligence, one of the mostly debated term through the ages.
Is it okay to consider intelligence as the general ability to learn, remember, recall and solve problems?
Intelligence Quotient (IQ), tests were originally devised specifically to predict educational achievement.
The score is compared with the person's real age in years to give the IQ.
Whether it can be measured by any single test?
Is it very vital for success in the real world?
There is no certain definition that is agreed by all.
I think one should be smart and wise to become success in the real world, rather than getting declared
as an Intelligent guy based on educational achievement.
What do you guys think about it?

Blessed Are The Meek

Only a humble heart is a teachable heart, it is because there is so much to learn, that those
who think they know everything cannot be trained.
Once a great king was told by GOD that he could have anything he wish for.
He wished for the gift of wisdom, acknowledging that he did not have enough wisdom.
His humbleness pleased the GOD, as his request was to rule wisely and did not ask anything
for himself like long life or riches.
So GOD wished him wisdom, also wealth and long life for being humble.
One must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom of GOD.
GOD live with people who are humble and repentant, so HE can restore their confidence and hope.