Month: October 2006

Kids Activity Queen has a great post on Preparing for Halloween Fun in Houston:

Here’s an excerpt:

Trick or Treating Safety Tips
– Shoes should fit (even if they don’t match the costume). – Avoid wearing masks when walking from house to house. Your child should be able to see properly through a mask. – Children should wear light-colored costumes with reflective tape for better visibility and the garment should be short enough to prevent tripping.
– Participate at church or local organization’s festivities where the environment is more controlled.
– Carry a flashlight after sunset.
– Approach only houses that are lit. Children should be accompanied by an adult at all times, should stay within their neighborhood, and only visit homes of people they know.
– Look for costumes made of flame retardant material. Avoid hard plastic or wood props such as daggers or swords. Foam rubber is a good substitute.
– Make sure your child eats dinner before heading out. Get the vegetables in early!
– Stay on sidewalks, obey traffic signals and don’t cut across yards or driveways.
– Inspect candy before any is consumed. If any candy appears to be tampered with, throw it away. If this is your child’s first time to trick or treat, remember that he/she could be 1 in 15 kids under age 3 who are highly allergic to the nuts in many candies.

Add you own tips, while you’re there.

As I ponder the possibilities of going back to school and getting a graduate degree, I find myself wondering if I’m too old to work and study. Lifehacker pointed me to this “how-to” by California Polytechnic, which gives the basics of being a student:

• Prioritize your life: Doing well in school should be your top priority.
• Study: There is no substitute.
• Always attend class.
• Do all of the homework and assigned reading.
• Develop self-discipline.
• Manage your time.

Of particular interest is the section on Time Management:

No matter how you slice it, there are only 24 hours in a day. Good time-management requires:

1. Not taking on more than you can handle.
2. Reasonably estimating the time required to perform each of the tasks at hand.
3. Actually doing what needs to be done.

Only you can do these things. A couple of thoughts, though, that may help spur you on:

• A minute now is as precious as a minute later. You can’t put time back on the clock.
• If you’re not ahead of schedule, then you’re behind schedule. Because, if you try to remain right on schedule, then any mishap or misjudgment will cause you to fall behind—perhaps right at the deadline, when no recovery is possible.

By the way, you might want to check out LifeHacker’s ongoing list of tips, tricks and aids for students.

Two good tools to pass along:

• Joe’s Logbook
• Joe’s Goals

Why should you care?

Track your daily thoughts, dreams, and activities!

• Understand your life!
• Create as many logbooks as you want.
• Edit and update on the fly with no page refreshes.
• Use tags to group your logbooks together.
• Add log entries to your goals via Joe’s Goals.

Then…

Achieve your goals!

• Get control of your life!
• Have as many goals as you want.
• Place multiple checks on the same goal for those extra-productive days.
• Share your progress with your friends.
• Use negative goals to track your vices.
• Keep track of your progress by watching your daily score.
• Add notes via Joe’s Logbook to track your successes and failures

I’m not the organized type, but I know others strive for an organized life. These tools might actually help. (Found via LifeHacker posts.)