U.S. Cities to Take Your Family This Winter
If you want a dramatic change of scenery in the coming holiday season, head on to any of these five American cities for a white Christmas full of new experiences.
- Cape May, New Jersey
Cape May is the oldest Victorian seaside resort in the United States and, when the snow comes, it transforms into a bonafide wonderland. Check in at Congress Hall where you can have breakfast with Santa, listen to stories from Mrs. Claus, and sing Christmas carols through the night.
- Park City, Utah
Park City has three impressive resorts you can go to (all within a 35-minute drive from the international airport). Here you can spend the magical time of the year snowboarding to your heart’s content, take a real-life sleigh ride on the streets, or shop around the city’s historic Main Street.
- Aspen, Colorado
Few locations in the world can match the beauty of Aspen in wintertime: majestic mountainous terrain, bright snowy landscape, and miles of gentle slopes. If it’s going to be your first time to ski, this is the place to go.
- Upstate New York
As with the other entries, here you can ski, snowboard, snowshoe and explore the outdoors. What sets Upstate New York apart, though, is the beautiful Adirondacks Mountains. Where you can book cosy cabins to spend a quiet and relaxing winter.
- Whitefish, Montana
If you want to avoid crowds and long queues to the lifts, Whitefish is your best choice. The place has over 3,000 acres of terrain for skiing and the resorts offer tickets, meals and lodging cheaper than most resorts charge for a day pass in more popular locations.
How to Avoid the Nastiness of Arguments
It is natural that couples argue – some overtly bellow at each other while there are others who clandestinely avoid conversation and contact. However you put it, the results of argument are the same – pain and embitterment. Arguments can be a positive experience or otherwise. If in this case you want the argument to positively solve problems, here are some tips that you can consider:
- Understand anger: You argue because you are angry. You have to understand that anger in essence is not damaging. Anger is different from rage. When you are angry, you merely state your feelings whether you say it calmly or shout but if you break things then that is rage.
- Discuss your feelings: Before you get angry, it is important that you discuss your feelings. When your partner hears you out and deal with it right there and then, it may not lead to argument. You have to verbalize your feelings so your partner can understand.
- Never raise your voice: When you are angry, shouting is easy and to others, shouting is how they express their feelings. However, raising your voice or shouting is destructive enough. It can intensify the hostility. This time, try whispering or speaking normally whenever you are faced by an argument and you will be surprised of its outcome. Needless to say, it is better to speak calmly.
- Avoid emotional blackmail: You are furious to your partner that is why you threaten the relationship. Just know that emotional blackmail will only make things worse. If you consider breaking the relationship, your partner may panic or give in to deep depression.
- Do not stockpile: Arguments turn nasty when your partner bring up past issues and use it to hammer you. The trick here is to deal with issues one by one and talk about it. If there are unresolved issues from the past, you have to consider it to avoid stockpiling it. If things amass, it will blow and it cannot be mended.
- Do not allow abuse: Abuse can be in different forms not only physical. If your partner turns physical like slamming the door or breaking plates, for that moment, leave the house. If your partner starts hitting you, filing a police report is best. No one deserves abuse.
- Do not engage: There are people who always want to argue because they are gratified by it. If your partner at the moment entices you to an argument, do not yield. Wait for things to calm down but never engage.
Going Over the Forms of Art
Yes, you studied about art in school and yet you seem to forget about it completely. Every day, you encounter art however, you fail to recognize and appreciate it. This is the time that you go over the forms of art and restore your appreciation to it.
Here are the forms of art:
- Mosaic: Mosaic is a form of art that is created through gluing together glass pieces, small stones and other hard materials to create images. This is a decorative art. In ancient times specifically in Mesopotamia, pebble mosaics (floor mosaics) were famous.
- Painting: The most common form of art is painting. It employs paint or pigment and other mediums with implements like brush, knives and sponges. You see paintings on surfaces like walls, paper, glass, canvass, wood and the like. One of the most identifiable painting is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
- Drawing: Drawing is another famous form of art. The artists use instruments like color pencils, crayons, graphite pencils, pen, charcoal, chalk and pastels. Anyone can draw that is why it is one of the major forms of expression.
- Sculpture: Moulding something out of a thing is truly a great talent. If drawing is two-dimensional visual art, sculpture is three-dimensional. Carving is involved. The mediums include stone, ceramics, metal and wood.
- Pottery: Like sculpture, pottery also involves moulding something. Instead of using mediums like metal, wood and stone, pottery include fired clays. When ceramics and plastics were not available, prehistoric people employ clay bowls.
- Weaving: Weaving is another art that should not be dismissed lightly. Weaving is intricate the result (like tapestries and rugs) give color, warmth and beauty to your floors and walls.
- Photography: With the use of camera, capturing photos has been easier and fun. You see photographs every single day be in in your computer, magazines or newspapers.
The purpose of art is not absolute since it offers different functions. Its purpose is hard to confine it in a single concept but it does not mean that art is vague. Art has diverse reasons for being created and whatever that reason, the artists seek to convey it through their works.
You do not need to be an artist or a fine art student to appreciate art. Art is everywhere and whatever blossoms from your hard work, it will be art. If you want to consider expressing yourself, art may be the one. For more inspiration, you can explore art galleries here in Singapore – there are aplenty after all. If you want to do away with the traditional form of art, you can consider new media art forms like computer imagery and video.
Foods that We Should Keep Away From
If all foods out there are healthy, then we will have no problems with our diet and wellness. Unfortunately, the world is full of foods that can harm the body. We have to be vigilant and take our greatest resolve to keep away from unhealthy foods.
It is important that we know what foods to avoid before it is too late for us. Here are some of the list of foods that we should keep away from:
- Processed meats: The first on the list is processed meats. Meats are very tasty but it cannot do us good. According to the recent study released by the World Health Organization, processed meats especially red meats can result to bowel cancer. We have to keep away from hot dogs and hams.
- Soda: As per the Harvard School of Public Health, soda drinks are not good for the body. Sodas are sugary drinks which gives us 26% of developing type 2 Diabetes. Even diet sodas can harm us. The sodas can also lead to kidney damage and obesity. The best drink is water.
- Frappucinos: Forbes actually reminded people to stay away from Fraps because it has at least 480 calories.
- Microwave popcorn: Microwaveable popcorns have perfluorooctanesulfonic acid which can deter fertility and increase risk of cancer. To be safe, we have to make our own popcorn.
- Non-organic eggs: Due to demands of eggs around the world, we are not quite sure whether our eggs are non-organic or not. Non-organic eggs from factory farms are fed with caffeine and other ingredients that can harm our health.
Actually the list goes on.
Everything You Need to Know About Cashback Sites
We are not familiar about cashback sites because we are not fans of online shopping but it does not mean that we ignore its predominance. There are others who are familiar of the notion because of advertisements whilst browsing the internet or they heard it from friends.
Online shopping has been around Singapore for a long while now. People consider this because it is the easiest and the most convenient way of shopping. A few clicks while sitting minus the queue can make a difference at the end of the day.
More and more people are spending money online thereby the prevalence of cashback sites. Cashback is a website’s way of gathering loyalty. We have to set up an account first, accumulate our savings through purchases and transfer the savings to our bank. The crucial thing here is to choose the right website. We should select the cashback offering different partners and merchants.
There are sites that offer shoppers membership free of charge. When we are asked to pay more, we have to consider other cashback sites. The bottom line is to save more not to incur more costs. We should also be familiar with cashback timeline. We’ve established that we can transfer our accumulated savings to our bank but what about the timeline? The timeline will usually take up from 2 weeks to 3 months.
If the cashbacks are rather doubtful, we can read reviews and complaints. Many people have used this service and they are better judge for cashback sites. There are different sites out there crafted according to online shoppers.
