After reviewing co-star Dylan O’Brien’s first pitch at a New York Mets game, James Corden asks Michael Keaton about his love for baseball and Michael shows us a whole different side of passion.
Left Handers Day
To all our left handed followers and customers, today is your day!
To celebrate Left Handers Day (August 13, 2017), BIC commissioned a survey* that revealed the day-to-day struggles and feelings on being a “leftie”. Findings include:
- Two-thirds of lefties (66%) frequently feel frustrated by everyday objects that are made for right-handed people, such as writing utensils or objects with right-sided handles
- More than two-thirds of left-handed Americans (67%) have ruined an important document or project specifically because their left hand smeared the pen or pencil on it
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- Interestingly, that figure is higher for millennials as 80% of millennials surveyed recall a time that an important doc was ruined thanks to the smear
- 58% of lefties believe they are more creative than right-handed people
Luckily, BIC has created the new Gel-ocity Quick Dry gel pens that dry 3x faster** and come in a variety of vibrant colors for less smearing and more creativity! After all, it doesn’t matter whether the pen sits in your left hand or your right – it’s the final creative product that counts! And now, thanks to the new BIC Gel-city Quick Dry pens, what you’ve created, stays created.
BBB Offers Tips for Holiday Shoppers
The biggest holiday shopping weekend of the year is almost upon us, and many consumers are eager to take advantage of sales on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. According to Accenture’s annual holiday shopping survey, spending on holiday gifts is expected to hit an average of $718 per shopper. In addition, the National Retail Federation is anticipating that 140 million holiday shoppers are planning to shop over Thanksgiving weekend.
“Savvy holiday shoppers should plan ahead by creating a shopping list, checking it twice and being mindful of their budget,” says Warren King, president of the Better Business Bureau of Western PA. “By developing a game plan in advance and being aware of retailer policies, you’re more likely to have a successful and stress-free shopping experience.”
BBB Survival Tips for Holiday Shopping
Tis the season for holiday shopping! One of the busiest shopping periods of the year is right around the corner, consisting of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 140 million consumers plan to or will shop over the weekend to take advantage of extended store hours and retailers’ holiday promotions.
“While it is understandable to want to find the perfect holiday gift for a loved one at the best rate, it is important to read all of the fine print and store policies regarding returns and exchanges first,” says Warren King, president of the Better Business Bureau of Western PA. “All deals are not created equally, so plan ahead to ensure your experience is as smooth and stress-free as possible.”
Before embarking on your holiday shopping adventure, consider the following helpful tips from your BBB:
·Avoid overspending by creating a gift budget for friends and family members. Make a list of the potential gifts you are considering for each person on your list to help prevent purchasing impulse presents that may exceed your budget.
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Treat Yourself Like a Royal Mother: Twelve Tips to Make Pregnancy and Baby’s First Year a Fairy Tale (Well…Sort Of!)
Here, I offer insight and advice to help expectant and new mothers give themselves and their babies the royal treatment.
(Don’t worry…I may be royalty but I’m also a working mom who keeps it real!)
By Princess Ivana
As soon as that plus sign first appears, your life is changed forever. The next twenty-one months (nine for pregnancy, twelve for the baby chaos that follows) are a whirlwind of adjustments, uncertainties, and expectations…with a really steep learning curve. You’re sure to get advice—on everything from birth plans to breastfeeding (or not) to baby gear—from everyone. (Grandma, the grocery clerk, and even that grumpy neighbor lady with the fifteen cats will weigh in!)
But what if you could get no-punches-pulled advice on what you really need to know from someone who’s not only done this a couple of times, but has done it in style? And what if that “someone” were a modern-day princess?
Figuring out what you actually need to know during pregnancy and baby’s first year doesn’t have to be a royal pain. My new book, A Simple Guide to Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year, cuts through the noise and provides expectant and new moms with the essential information they need.
Soon-to-be-moms don’t have to wade through heaps of info—much of it contradictory—to make the “right” choices. Get the epidural or go natural? Use the pacifier or not? Do homemade baby food or opt for jars?
Born Abandoned
By Tim Gomes
Anyone who has felt abandoned may find some solace in my experience of abandonment and redemption.
Last year I learned that I was abandoned at birth.
For the last 60 years I have always known that I was adopted. My parents (adopted) had always introduced my younger brother (natural) and me as “Timmy, our adopted son, and our son Ronnie.” There was never any distinction between my brother and me, or our older sister from our father’s first marriage, within our very large family. I was at all times numb and dumb about my adoption. It meant nothing to me.
My parents divorced when I was six, and my father never had anything bad to say about my mother. My mother never had anything good to say about him. Ronnie and I spent every other weekend and two weeks in summer with our father. Once I turned 14 conflicts with my mother grew so frequent and intense that I chose to live with my father. When he married his longtime girlfriend I returned to mom.
A Blueprint for Life After Divorce: Pittsburgh Author’s Book Inspires and Empowers Others to Find their “New Normal”
Gina Mazza
By Daniel Casciato
Pittsburgh-based journalist, author, editor, and publishing consultant Gina Mazza lives by the philosophy that everything happens for a reason, and as she writes in her book, “Everything Matters, Nothing Matters,” it’s not about what happens to us in life—it’s our response to it and, more importantly, who we are going through it. Her book is the story of her inward journey to fully embracing creativity and higher consciousness. It offers principles for finding balance, embracing the sacredness of every day and living an intention-based life with gratitude.
It’s not lost on her that the book launched just a couple of months after Mazza and her husband of nearly 20 years separated. It was “a supreme opportunity to road test the veracity of my life philosophy,” Mazza says. “Our core beliefs are most profoundly tested when a crisis or moment of truth arrives—that’s where the rubber meets the road. The book’s principles served as a continual blueprint towards my own self-realization through the divorce process. It helped me through it immensely.”
The most challenging part of the whole divorce process for her was dealing with ongoing betrayal and dishonesty; that was an affront to her emotional sensibilities and, being an emotion-based person who feels things deeply, she says that it was no walk in the park.
“In spite of that, my goal was to go through the experience with as much grace, dignity and integrity as possible,” she says. “Ultimately, I reached a point where I wouldn’t accept being bullied anymore—that was my lesson to learn. After I made that decision and took action in that direction, everything shifted.”
There is Life After Loss: Widow Helps Others Along their Healing Journeys
Carole Brody Fleet
By Daniel Casciato
After caring for her husband Mike (a national record-holding police officer) through his over-two-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; or what is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Carole Brody Fleet became a widow on December 19, 2000. For her, it was a journey that culminated in physical and emotional shambles for the two of them as well as complete financial ruin.
Fleet, who has one daughter, Kendall, was married to her late husband for five and a half years, and were the best of friends for almost 20 years. She learned to cope with her husband’s loss by coming to understand two fundamentally important facts.
“Going into the fetal position and staying in a place of pain and grief was not going to be an option,” says Fleet. “Also, that just by being here, my daughter and I were still entitled to a life of happiness and abundance – and that it was up to me to show my daughter the path(s) to doing just that.”
Finding Strength through Faith and Writings
Susanne M. Alexander
Relationship and Marriage Coach Susanne M. Alexander has been a widow for about 18 months. Her husband, Craig A. Farnsworth was just 57 years old when he passed away of brain cancer. They were married for 10 years, a second marriage for both of them. Alexander has one child and 3 stepchildren, all adults and married, with 3 grandchildren.
The couple started a relationship and marriage education company together, Marriage Transformation, LLC (www.marriagetransformation.com; www.bahaimarriage.net), so part of her life adventure has been deciding whether to stay in this line of work, which Alexander has. In fact, she has decided to re-launch the business. In the weeks before he passed, she wrote and read to him a book to share his fact-based, spirit-guided approach to cancer called Empowered Healing, Creating Quality of Life While Journeying with Cancer. Alexander will start selling it as an eBook. She has completed a number of new relationship books since his passing as well.
One of the actions that was very helpful throughout Craig’s illness was doing blog postings to keep family and friends updated and connected to them. For Alexander, it helped them to process such a huge experience.
Tweeting Advice and Offering Encouragement to Other Single Moms
Michelle Johnston
Michelle Johnston’s divorce was final in November 2006, but the marriage was falling apart before that. She lived in separate rooms from her ex-husband starting in 2004. For Johnston, it took her quite a long time to gather up the courage to say no to living in a loveless marriage.
“I went to speak with three lawyers to discuss the legal process and began seeing a therapist to help me understand the emotions before making any decisions,” says Johnston who was married for ten years.