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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Secret Starbucks Deal- Exciting!

You don't have to be rich to go to Starbucks every single day. You just have to make it work for you. I've calculated that (including taxes) you can drink brewed coffee at Starbucks for less than $1.07 each day. I've based the numbers on drinking there 5 days per week, for 52 weeks of the year, and I've used Canadian dollars.

If you're someone who is out and about as much as I am, or more, then this cost-savings will please you. Depending on what you order normally, this calculation could save you more than what I've calculated below, but what I've calculated are some pretty amazing figures.


  1. The first trick is to load up a Starbucks card and register it at Starbucks. Once your card is registered, you will earn one star for every transaction that you make at Starbucks. Stipulation: if you buy more than one coffee in a single transaction, then it still only counts as one star earned.
  2. Here's what you order every time you go to Starbucks:


A Short brewed coffee in a Tall cup
with 2 pumps of Hazelnut (or other delicious flavor included when you use your registered card)
Top it off with steamed Soy (also free with registered card), or if you don't like Soy, then just leave the space and add your own cream afterward (cream is free; not like at home when you have to buy it).

Normally, this drink would get you to close to $3.00. But with the registered card, it comes to $1.74 (taxes included). Because you registered your card, you've just earned yourself a star. Once you get to 15 stars, Starbucks mails you a Free Drink Certificate (for a drink of your choosing- doesn't need to be a brewed coffee).

If you don't register your card, and you buy a Short coffee Monday-Friday, for 52 weeks of the year, you will be paying Starbucks $452.40. Obviously that number is increasing depending on your drink choice. Quadruple it if you buy lattes. (Wow, some people spend $2000.00 at Starbucks in a year?)

By registering your card, ordering this drink, and making use of your Free Drink Certificates, you will only be spending $304.82 for the year.

WAIT! There's more below...

If you bring in your own mug/tumbler, you get an extra $0.10 off your purchase. Therefore, you will only spend $278.82 in the entire year, which comes to $1.07 per coffee.


You're only saving, in this case, $0.67 per coffee. But, if you look at that over an entire year, you're saving $173.58 (which is the equivalent to 162 coffees!!)


I think I've just blown my own mind.






New Relationship Status

Why do single people who find potential partners, and who begin relationships with those partners, not like to label their relationship as anything other than "friends" or "friends with benefits"?

People are ready to label everything in their lives (and everything in other people's lives). People label themselves funny, outgoing, shy, persistent, and yet they hold themselves back from love, or at least labeling love.

Maybe facebook is changing this with their "relationship status" function, but maybe that's not changing anything at all.

I think that the one and only way to find love is to first and foremost be willing to accept love and ready to label yourself as "in love." I don't care if it's true love or not. What's important is that you're able to open your heart enough to love, even with the possibility of getting hurt in the process.

I'm not saying you should fall in love with the first man/woman you encounter. I'm saying that if you're really wanting a relationship with someone, and they are showing that they want that with you, then you had better plunge in and be okay with being in love with them. And, most certainly change your facebook status!!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Generations X, Y and Baby Boomer

I am studying for a midterm on the Strategic Role of Human Resources Management (sounds like far less fun than it actually is). Here's what I'm supposed to regurgitate for the test:

Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964):

  • Are driven to succeed
  • Question authority
  • Value personal achievement
  • Are loyal and logical

Generation X (born 1965-1980):

  • Make up 18% of Canadian population
  • Will replace the Baby Boomers in the workplace
  • Like flexible work arrangements
  • Want to be valued NOW
  • Don't necessarily believe in corporate loyalty
  • Like to make decisions

Generation Y (born since 1980):

  • Are also known as Echo Boomers
  • Make up 23% of population
  • Are entrepreneurial
  • Are independent
  • Don't want to be managed
  • Are not trusting
  • Have low levels of loyalty to their employer

My main source: The textbook "Management of Human Resources" by Gary Dessler et al.
If you love this kinda stuff, you can buy the text too: Buy Text

Monday, February 27, 2012

Do you Talk to Yourself?

I don't think this idea is revolutionary- and that in itself may be part of the problem.

While I was on the phone with my mother yesterday (most often when I have my grand epiphanies), we began discussing self-talk.

The way we talk to other people is not the same way we talk to ourselves, correct?
Or, is that only correct for a few people?

I asked my husband, "you know how you congratulate other people; our son, or the kids you coached...Do you congratulate yourself like that when you accomplish something worthwhile to you?"

He said, "no."

Okay, so that's 2 people out of the world's population who doesn't say, "good job Self! Well done out there today! You're working hard and you should be really proud of yourself. I know you will keep working hard and you will do even better the next time. Way to go champ!!"

Are you proud of you? I'm curious how many people actually do this kind of self-talk. Would love some response!


One and One Doesn't Equal Two


 “One and one does not always equal two.”

I think this statement is true of most things in life. Our perceptions tell us so little of a situation. We may think of multiple reasons for the way that something is, and it is very likely that none of our reasons resemble the truth whatsoever. Human brains are good guessing machines, but the truth does not seem to lay in what it is that we are seeing.

In the case of a couple conceiving a zygote, one mother plus one father equals three family members. One plus one, in this situation, does not equal two; it equals three. In cell generation, one cell, as it splits, equals infinite cells over a short period of time. One plus one almost never equals two, and almost always equals an infinite number, over a period of time.

Peculiar life is in how it cannot be grasped fully as one thing, how it passes through our ears and our fingers, past our eyes, and our bodies, and left are we with what? It is fleeting and yet it appears to be so real. For some people it is so very physical, and for some it is mind. 

My Nightmares


When given a series of moments (such as driving in silence for 20 minutes), I am awakened to my thought processes and I am awakened to the way that I can use the power I have over my thoughts to manipulate my reality.

This morning when I woke up, I thought back to the dream from which I had just awoken. For approximately one year, I have been experiencing nightmares almost nightly. Recently I have been enjoying my dreaming experience again- dreaming pleasantries. I relate this difference to the way that I fall asleep. 

Before, I resisted sleeping; I felt guilty to not be awake and doing things.  Now, I get excited to go to sleep. I get cozy, and my thoughts have shifted around the idea of staying awake to get more done in the day.

It’s true for me that the things I think about during the daytime also appear in my sleeping hours. When I was having nightmares, the things appearing were more subconscious thoughts that were dream-manifesting. But now that my dreams are pleasant, they are beautifully conscious manifestations.

Here is an example: Yesterday I was thoughtful and thankful, remembering the time that I had sent my mother a parcel filled with new clothes. She was so very happy to have received that gift. Later last night was when I fell asleep. My dream included my mother and I out together, happily shopping for clothing (something we have very rarely done together, but would both love to do).

Saturday, February 25, 2012

What is THE Truth?


The idea of “truth” is what I find to be excruciating at times. Excruciating because no matter how much a person proves a point to be truth, the reality is that truth is a perception.

If millions of people believe that something is truth, and it starts to be taught in public institutions, and I start paying to learn about their truth, and I don’t believe that their truth is accurate, and I express my opinion on an exam, then I will do poorly in class.

If I choose “false” instead of “true” on a multiple choice, and the answer is indeed “true,” even if there are a hundred reasons to back up my position for "false", my paper will be graded poorly.

I decided not to take art class after grade 10, even though I spent nearly all of my free time drawing and painting. I could not get past the grade of “B” I had received on an art project that I had worked on and submitted proudly. How can a grade 10 art project be graded as a “B” instead of a “C” or instead of an “A?” It’s not as though I didn’t follow the rules. It’s not as though I slacked off. The grade is what I deserved, according to the truths of my art teacher (or at least to the people who paid him to grade in a prescribed manner). 


Is it THE truth that my project deserved the grade he gave me? Is it THE truth that I deserved a better grade than I received? Is it THE truth that artwork can not honestly be graded by anyone because it's all subjective anyhow?

Truth: what I've come to so far is that truth is whatever it is perceived to be by the person who is perceiving it.

The View from a Dream Bedroom

Even just for a weekend retreat. This view completes me in many moments like now.




Image source:
http://homedesignview.com
/luxury-bedrooms-with-beautiful
-panoramic-view-of-the-beach/
bedroom-view-of-the-ocean/