Category: In the News

fireworks show gone wrong — two levels of epic fails

July 4th is a day we celebrate America’s independence with grilled food and fireworks. Many people go to community events to watch organized fireworks shows, which is usually a good time. But it’s also fun to shoot your own fireworks. It’s also quite dangerous. It’s easy to take it for granted that no one will get injured, yet kids get to play with little bombs.

A basic safety rule of fireworks is to not have the fireworks-for-later pile near the fireworks-in-use pile. This should be obvious. But obviously it’s not. LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING! (Referencing Fire Marshall Bill here, from the TV show In Living Color. He didn’t make this video, but this is about how it would’ve turned out if he had been there.) Watch this:

That’s an epic fail at a front-yard level — way more epic than anyone should experience. But what if a whole warehouse of fireworks caught fire? It happened just a few days ago in California. This video is a LOT of fireworks going BOOM.

The International Day of Happiness

Happy happy day!

Today, March 20, is the International Day of Happiness. So, obviously, you should try to be happy today. 🙂

Funny conversations are usually better in-person.

Whether or not you choose to participate is up to you. We might think we want other people to make us happy, but really, they can’t, nor do you want to be dependent on other people to be happy. Or, even if we don’t expect them to, we might blame other people and circumstances when we aren’t happy. And while everything around us is an influence on our mood, the good news is that we are in control of our own happiness.

Research has shown that what happens to us makes up only about 20 percent of our happiness. The rest depends on our expectations and the narrative we tell ourselves to explain our life, both of which you can control. A full discussion on that is way beyond the scope of this post and this blog, but there is a series of blog posts on how to find happiness, if you want to learn more about it and improve your life. (It’s still a work in progress, but I know what’s coming and recommend it.)

So, what will you do today to be happy? Even if your schedule is full and you’re too busy, there’s opportunity to enjoy life where you’re at. Talk to someone who spreads humor, listen to music you enjoy, take a 5 minute dance break, go for a walk outside, relax for a few minutes when you normally wouldn’t, sit in the sun (or the shade) for a few minutes, eat a cookie, read a good book (or this blog), savor a glass of sweet tea, etc.

Remember, your happiness is up to you. So if you want to be happy, do something about it.

brewing tea reduces heavy metals from water

glass of sweet, iced tea, plate of fried chicken and sides

You really don’t need any extra reasons to drink tea other than it tasting good. Having a glass of sweet tea is a great experience and makes your day better. But fortunately, tea is good for you in numerous ways, like providing antioxidants. This is already known.

New research has shown that brewing tea reduces heavy metals like lead and cadmium from the water, making it safer for you. That’s convenient! A quote from the article:

“Across a population, if people drink an extra cup of tea per day, maybe over time we’d see declines in illnesses that are closely correlated with exposure to heavy metals. Or it could help explain why populations that drink more tea may have lower incidence rates of heart disease and stroke than populations that have lower tea consumption.”

If it makes me healthier to drink an extra cup of tea per day, I can do that!

It’s nice to hear good news once in a while…