The latest from your experts.
Check out Nutrition Diva debunking the top weight loss and nutrition myths on FOX News Live!
Her brand new ebooks, Nutrition Zombies and How to Win at Losing, are now available for pre-order for just $2.99 each!
Get started on your New Years resolution today!
By Grammar Girl |
One of my best finds this year was a site called Ujam that lets you easily create your own songs. For someone like me—who loves to fiddle with lyrics and the idea of music, but doesn’t own any instruments or live with a musician—Ujam is miraculously empowering. You sing a song, and it creates music (real, multi-instrument music!) to go with it.
My Funny Version of “Jingle Bells”
Here’s an example: A couple of nights ago, I fiddled around with their Christmas music and made “Jingle Bells: The Bitter School Teacher Version.” I’m not happy with my singing because I accidentally posted it live when I meant to save it to improve later, but I still wanted to show it to you so you can see just how easy it is to make a song.
It took me less than an hour to do this: Jingle Bells: The Bitter School Teacher Version. (Please, seriously, just know that I can sing better than this!)
Please e-mail us at contact@quickanddirtytips.com if you are experiencing any technical difficulties. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. Thank you!
Fax machines can be one of the most frustrating forms of technology in the office today. And let’s face it, technology can be a nightmare if we don’t embrace it with some patience. So with that, make sure you add a new cover sheet on all your TPS reports and check out my top 3 Quick and Dirty Tips for how to properly handle the office fax machine:
Tip #1 – Patience Is a Virtue
Proper Office Fax Machine Etiquette - Fuse, GettyImages.com
I recommend allowing each person to use the machine on their designated time. I know that you can’t always anticipate a fax coming in or how urgently you need to send one out, but allowing each employee to send out their faxes alone, without colleagues forming a line and energetically tapping their fingers, will make for a more comfortable and polite work environment. Continue reading ‘Proper Office Fax Etiquette’
Q. I have recently started eating a lot more vegetables as snacks and making fruit smoothies for breakfast. To make it as convenient as possible, I chop up veggies and put them into Ziploc bags so that I can just grab a bag from the fridge as I’m going out the door. I also chop my fruit in advance and put it in the freezer so I can pull out a bag and dump it in the blender with some yogurt in the morning. However, a friend told me that as soon as you cut them, fruits and vegetables start losing nutrients and that by the end of the week there may be nothing left. Are my time-saving maneuvers ruining my new eating habits? Continue reading ‘Are Pre-Cut Vegetables Nutritious?’
by Grammar Girl
Ben Zimmer has an interesting post today over at Language Log about something Newt Gingrich recently said that is hard to parse because it has so many negatives:
It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee. (ABC News, emphasis added)
Ben’s post didn’t address the problem with the “high odds” part of the sentence though, and I just happen to have consulted recently with a mathematician about that topic for my upcoming book GRAMMAR GIRL’S 101 TROUBLESOME WORDS (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s). Here’s what he helped me conclude: Continue reading ‘Are High Odds Good or Bad?’
Sharing a bed can sometimes be tricky. So hop in the sack with me and check out my top 3 Quick and Dirty Tips for how to properly share a bed:
Tip #1 – Mind The Gap!
When sharing a bed, it’s perfectly okay to indicate which area is for you. It allows you to snooze more comfortably knowing you won’t bother the sleep of your partner. I recommend allowing a small gap to stay untouched between the two of you. Making sure everyone has enough room is the
Is this proper bed sharing etiquette? (PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou)
only polite thing to do, and minding your partner’s space will allow you – and them – to wake up on the right side of the bed in the morning.
Tip #2 – Man’s Best Friend
by Money Girl
An anonymous podcast listener asks:
Do you only have to pay interest charges on a credit card if you carry a balance from one month to the next? Also, how does using a credit card help you boost your credit score?
This is a great back-to-basics question. If you don’t really understand how a credit card works, it’s easy to get into trouble using one.
Credit cards start charging interest the day you make a purchase, take a cash advance, or transfer a balance from another account. You’re typically charged a daily rate that’s equal to the card’s annual percentage rate (APR) divided by 365.
For instance, the APR for new purchases could be 11.99%, cash advances 23.99%, and balance transfers 5%. The balance for each of these transaction categories accumulates each day until you pay them in full.
The good news is that credit cards give you a grace period for purchases (but typically not for cash advances or balance transfers) that allows you to avoid interest on new charges if you pay your balance in full by the billing statement due date.
Will eating carbohydrates after 6pm make you fat? (via Microsoft)
Q. I’ve heard from some friends that they lost weight by eating lots of fruits and veggies (plus a treat every now and then). Also, they didn’t eat carbohydrates after 6 p.m. They argue that we typically don’t move that much in the evening and this causes excess carbs to be stored in our body and turned into fat. Is there anything to this?
A. I think the best part of your friends’ advice is to eat lots of fruits and veggies and limit treats. The rest of it doesn’t make a whole lot of much sense. If you consistently eat more calories than you need to fuel your daily activities, you body will store the excess as fat. It doesn’t matter whether the excess calories come from carbohydrates, proteins, or fats. It also doesn’t much matter what time of day you eat them or if you move around after eating them. (Although moving around does burn calories, the calories you’re burning are not from the food you’ve just eaten but calories from previous meals.) Continue reading ‘Should You Eat Carbs at Night?’
