Alright, here you go, scroll down to what you want to know.
Life Tips
1. You are not perfect. Don’t worry, no one else is either. Don’t dwell on your own issues more than needed to acknowledge them, plan for them, and work on them a little. You can go a bit mental going over it.
2. You are not unique. Let me put it this way, if you have a problem that affects just 1 in 1 million people with about 8 billion on earth that means there are 8 thousand people trying to deal with the same thing. The challenge is how to deal with the problems you have by going out and finding the connections that are out there. Giving up means nothing changes.
3. Life isn’t fair. You may not be as athletic, attractive in your view, well off financially, or whatever. Enjoy what you have. I always wanted to play basketball or football competitively. But I was never going to be tall enough to even see if I could compete at that level. I’ve never gotten over that silly “what if?” Have I done ok in life? Yup but that itch will never be scratched and whether you have a minor desire or a life affecting problem you will just have to work around it.
4. Everyone is nuts, to some degree. Whether it is a silly fear of spiders or a debilitating mental issue everyone has some quirks. Again, don’t dwell on your own issues more than needed to acknowledge them, plan for them, and work on them a little.
5. You or someone you know are going to be the cause of most of your problems. Whether it is lifting something too heavy, not getting the right tool for the job, betting on something, getting in a bad relationship, etc.
I can’t emphasize this enough, think about everything you ever do. You will make mistakes. No one is perfect, but if you think about every little thing you are about to do and don’t rush around without giving things a thought you will experience less problems in every way: financial, relationships, physical accidents, etc.
Also, ask your coworkers, friends or family for advice. Most of the time someone else’s view will differ from your own so they will have different solutions which you can weigh as options.
6. Listen to your gut. It won’t lie to you. If you feel that something is a bad decision, you’re probably right. Don’t make a bad decision because of friends, the rush to end a long work day, a slight inconvenience in the way of a better a solution, or any number of a million obstacles in the way of our every day.
7. Take breaks and eat. My wife will bring me a glass of water when I’ve been working outside for a bit. Why? She knows that when I don’t drink or take breaks I get irritable and speak sharply. I’ll get angry over nothing because of not taking care of myself.
Everyone is affected when they don’t take care of themselves. This can lead to poor performance, anger and believe it or not … death (think about heat stroke). So every day work in what you need to perform well. At work breaks may be scheduled but if you schedule your own time set up electronic appointments in your calendar saying things like “get up and stretch”, “go get some lunch”, etc. If you have a watch with an alarm use it. Make a system that will help you take care of yourself.
8. You are not alone. We all go through periods in our lives where we feel the weight of the world is on our shoulders alone. We are tempted to do bad things to ourselves or others. But most of the time even if we’ve burned our closest connections there are still people that want to help. The hard part is getting out of our own head to see it and not being so prideful, stubborn, ashamed, lazy, etc to reach out for it. To be willing to live with the consequences of our own actions so that we can do the right thing, pay the price, and get back to a good life is pretty tough.
9. Help people. There are lots of ways to journey through life but my experience is that people who are kind, sympathetic, and want to help others are happier and also have their kindness returned. Every day people think about my well being and do things just to make me feel better. People want to do that for people who do that for them. I've had the most wonderful things happen when I really needed it because of the kindness of others. I hope I've been able to do that to but I always feel I could have done more.
9. My personal experience is that the best thing you can do with life is to enjoy it. How do you do that? What do you like to do? That's one of the hardest questions ever asked for many people. Others know exactly what they want to do and enjoy every day.
10. Exercise every day. For most people they envision pain, sweat, and stuff they don't want to do when they think of exercise. Strenuous daily exercise does pay off throughout your whole life but that isn't for most people. Exercise is something physical that you enjoy or that you can get into a pattern of doing. If you don't mind going for walks, build walks into your day. Don't take the elevator. Go the long way. Find what you like and do it.
11. I'm on the low end of social interaction. I've never liked a party where the main reason to get together was to just talk compared to a gathering where we had something to do. I like quiet time. And even with all that said, I need to interact with people or I don't feel right.
So, even if you are someone who is a loner, trust me, build some interaction into your schedule. You will do better.
12. I figured something out a couple of years ago on caring for your teeth. The perfect time to brush your teeth is ... right before you shower. Don't spit out the toothpaste till you finish the shower.
What's the point of a mouthwash? To bathe your teeth in flouride, stuff that kills bacteria, and breath freshner. That's what's in toothpaste. What's the problem with a mouthwash? Standing there swishing it around gets old pretty quick.
In the shower you close your mouth as you don't want soap or shampoo to get in your mouth. You do this for way over 5 minutes most likely. Also, when you have a thick fluid in your mouth that long bits of stuff you think you brushed out start to float and you have less debris between your teeth.
I've been doing this for 2 years now and my historically bad gum recession has actually started to heal and my dental hygienist wants to know what I'm doing. I told her but she said she couldn't do it.
Read when you brush your teeth. You need to be looking down otherwise the toothpaste pools by your tongue and isn't really used when brushing.
13. Stereotypes often are based in fact. Older folks do tend to slow down. Imigrants do have issues integrating into a new homeland. The problem with a stereotype though is we tend to just assign someone to that group at a glance. We color our whole perception of what they are like without any information.
Don't assign a stereotype to a person as you meet them. This person may not meet that expectation in any way and you could miss out on a good freind because of a proconcieved notion.
14. See natural wonders. The redwoods (as seen on the home page) always leave me awe inspired. The grand canyon, waterfalls, caves and so much more is out there and for most people leaves them feeling something deep.
15. Age is a bugger. There ain't no way of getting around it. I started getting old when I turned 20. No kidding. Before then if I got hurt, like a kid I'd be fine the next day. But when I turned 20 I noticed that the next day, things weren't all better. There has been a steady decline since then and now at age 50 I'm at the stage where I can get hurt doing nothing. I don't know why it hurts, I didn't do anything, and it hurts.
So with that in mind I have some recommendations. If you have some physical activity you want to do, do it before you hit 35. Now you might be able to do it after, but you are rolling the dice of life to see if some random injury hits you that you don't really recover from or if your body has something happen to it early.
16. Getting some people to talk can be very difficult but very worth the effort. Very often when you are making a plan some coworker might have thought of a really good solution but they don't say it. People are risk adverse. Many don't want to expose themselves or their ideas to a discussion.
Also now a days there lots of different ways to communicate and your way might not be their way. I had one boss tell me to come see him and not email. He didn't check email much and when he does he might miss it as he scrolls down.
One peice of advice I got from a management class was when making a big decision say your conclusion and then make everyone say yes or no at the end. Just getting to them to start talking might bring out what they were saying inside their head.
17. Wear bright colored clothing. Most of us have had two things happen.
1. We end up staying out later than we intend and have had to walk somewhere.
2. Driving in a car at night and out of nowhere you see a pedestrian who you couldn't see because they wore dark clothes.
Lets put these two thoughts together. If your habit is to wear bright clothes, you are more ready for the unexpected than if you wear dark clothes. What if you have car problems and now you are on the side of the road? Ok, I actually store a reflective jacket in my car, so you could do that but if you didn't, having bright colored clothes gets someone to stop for you.
Also, don't think that vivid reds, blues, etc. are bright colored clothes. In the dark they might as well be black.
Ergonomics - Furniture
Ergonomics is a science dealing with how the we interact physically in the world. How much weight should you lift? How deep should the counter be so you can reach to the work you need to get? The real problem for ergonomists though is that we are all different. So it's impossible to design furniture, a tool, or a work station that fits everyone. Most things are designed for the "average" male. Specialty items might be designed for women, "tall people" or "short people" but usually those groups have to deal with something that doesn't fit them.
Home Furniture
99% of the furniture built is not designed to fit you. Look at your thigh length and then look at the length of the cushion on your couch, recliner, etc. Most couches don’t fit anyone. Home furniture is especially bad where sales people that do not know anything about how to fit you physically to furniture put on kind faces and hope the styling or some other feature will be enought to sell you something.
In 2022 I went to over 10 furniture stores and found two person who understood the question "do you have any furniture that can fit my wife?" She's on the shorter side. Some stores had furniture aimed at shorter people but the sales people didn't know what to look for and just asked if it felt comfortable without being able to see the problems.
Most tables are built 29” high for an average guy. If you are a girl, then unless your quite a bit above the average height of a girl that table will always feel too tall as your feet dangle off the floor in a chair that was not designed for your height either.
When buying furniture for the family most of the time the guy gets something close to his size but it doesn’t really fit him and the girls are screwed. They are always curling their legs up, putting their feet up on something, laying down, moving pillows around trying to find someway to be comfortable. It’s not you, it’s the bad furniture that is a standard.
They do make some smaller and taller furniture. You might get lucky and find something that actually fits you. Ask sales people for what you need and and see what they have.
Office Furniture
Office furniture is much better at fitting people than most home furniture. Chairs come in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes which all are still even more adjustable to fit more people. A good chair will have adjustable seat height, seat pan depth, backrest angle, lumbar height, height armrests, width armrests, a locking position for the seat to tilt or stay upright, a tension screw to adjust the resistant force in the tilting seat and cost several hundred dollars. There are even more options like depth of lumbar, angle adjustable armrests, and more. In general, more adjustments means you can make it fit you better.
Desks and cube style workstations frequently are height adjustable. This means you can set the desk height to your height and not be forced to adjust your chair height to match the desk height. THe best stations will electronically adjust in height enough so that you can change from sitting to standing through out the day.
Yes most employers only buy one size chair and make everyone else live with something that will never fit them. And yes most employers set the desks to 29" high messing with the posture of over half the people working. But the ability to fit you is in most office furniture. You can ask to have table top height changed and then adjust your chair to fit you.
How to fit yourself to furniture
So what do you need to know to find something that will fit you? You may have specific issues that may alter your posture, but as a guide, when you sit your legs should be flat to the floor, your feet should be flat on the floor. Your seat height is the most important thing to set as it effects everything else.
Now you shorter people are going to hurt yourself. Here's what happens, you set your chair to a lower height but your other furniture is still set to a taller height and you feel like your sitting in childs furniture height wise. Now you may be comfortable but it won't matter as you don't like how the high tables make you feel. So the low back pain never goes away after you settle on a high seat hieght instead of lowering the desk height. I always like to make people sit in chairs away from tables so they aren't distracted by their stuff.
Now once you have found your seated height you can look at the fit of the rest of the chair. The seat shouldn't push on the back of your calves. You will scoot out.
The back of the seat should touch your back. If there is a lumbar support it should fit in the hollow of your back above your butt. Armrests should be just under your arms. If they are to high you might shrug with your shoulders and feel stress.
Buying Furniture
The problem is at home where many people will be sitting down on that couch, recliner, etc. My question is where will you sit? You are going to use that spot more than anyone else. That spot should fit you. I don't care if your spouse is a different height. They get a spot set for them and you get a spot set up for you. Be comfortable in the furniture you buy for yourself. That may mean you get 2 completely different recliners. Ahhh it won't match! Breathe, it's ok.
Now don't trust salespeople. Most don't know what they are talking about. Also many use buzzwords or act confident as part of their salespitch. Their main function is to walk you around, offer options and tell you specifics if they know any. You need to be able to assess the fit and comfort.
Make sure you can return the furniture. You aren't going to spend an hour sitting in a couch at a store. When you get home frequently you find the cushions are too hard or soft, that the head rest is too far forward, or something else isn't comfortable. Don't live with something that isn't comfortable. Return it. You can be happy.
That's the basics. For more go to my Health and Safety section.