Get help to make life better (Monday)
Life Scholar • Play Curator
World Writer • Tech Officer
Human Advisor • Sport Analyst
Have A Positive Attitude
The lives of two sisters and mothers with very different attitudes shows the incredible power of humans and the mind to drastically influence and affect their life and the lives of those around them, negatively for the worse or positively for the better.
A Negative Attitude
- One sister lives in an idyllic and spacious two story home with fences and a nice backyard
- She has one healthy son and a kind hard-working husband who provides everything for her
- She has no job and does not have to work because her husband makes all of the money
- She is very negative, pessimistic, depressed, hateful, fearful, hurtful, frowny, and angry
- She is afraid of almost everything including all living beings, and even nature and plants
- This sister thinks negatively despite an easy life, appreciates nothing, and hates life
The Negative Result
- One sister constantly criticizes and complains to salespeople, doctors, and anyone she sees
- She constantly yells at her husband and doesn't appreciate him or give him any affection
- She constantly berates her overweight son, doesn't love him or accept him or his passions
- She is resentful towards her deceased mother and feels her childhood was very difficult
- She doesn't thank her son at all or want to touch the flowers he got her for Mother's Day
- This sister thinks negatively, acts poorly towards others, so she feels depressed and upset
A Positive Attitude
- One sister lives in a small, run-down, upper floor apartment which she adorns with plants
- She has two healthy daughters and she no longer has a husband or anyone who helps her
- She works hard as a hairdresser and makes all the money to support her and her daughters
- She is very positive, optimistic, content, grateful, hopeful, helpful, smiley, and happy
- She is peaceful with everything and everyone, including upset customers, and loves nature
- This sister thinks positively despite a hard life, appreciates what she has, and enjoys life
The Positive Result
- One sister listens to her friends, her customers, and enjoys providing a service to everyone
- She loves her daughters, who enjoy being around her and are talkative and playful with her
- She supports her daughters, who exercise and help her any way they can around the house
- She is respectful towards her deceased mother and feels that her childhood was enjoyable
- She appreciates the small things like a glass of wine with her plants after a tough work day
- This sister thinks positively, acts kindly towards others, so she feels content and happy
Hard Truths - Rotten Tomatoes
December 4th, 2025
- 2026 Jan - 12.9" MacBook Air M5
- 2026 Jan - 14.2" MacBook Pro M5 Pro (+16.2")
- 2026 Mar - 3X" Display + Mac Studio M5 Pro
- 2026 Jun - 13.3" MacBook A19 Pro
- 2026 Jun - 13.6" M3/M2/M1 Discontinued
- 2026 Oct - 3X" iMac M6 (2027 Mar?)
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. - Italian Proverb
Theory - Reading and writing are fundamentally different and more important than listening and talking. We are unable to comprehend, use, dissect, debate, act on, or retain knowledge from listening and talking anywhere close to when we read and write ideas down.
Create daily habits and practices to improve your wellbeing, be happier, achieve goals, and make your dreams come true.
- The only way you can make something stick is to create a habit through daily practice.
- So if you want to exercise, set up 10 minutes every day, at the same time of day, when you’re going to do your yoga or pushups or jogging/walking.
- Put it on the calendar, and make it an unmissable appointment.
Feeling determined to change - Zen Habits
But we've discovered that owning things, and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. - Jimmy Carter
Find and meet up with people who are doing things that you are interested in doing.
- Find people online doing interesting things, meet up with them in real life.
- Find people who are passionate, who are building things, who are pushing themselves, who dream big, who are mindful and joyful and healthy and friendly and shy and gregarious and adventurous and curious.
- Befriend them. Be there for them. Be helpful. Make them laugh.
- These are your people.
Advice for people in their early 20s - Zen Habits
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. - Thomas Edison
Cultivate a positive environment by reading and listening to more positive information and entertainment sources, and choosing to spend time around positive people.
- Who you choose to spend your time with and the input you get from further away like the TV, the internet and magazines will have a huge effect on your outlook.
- To be able to stay positive it is essential to have influences in your life that support you and lift you up instead of dragging you down.
- So carefully consider what you let into your mind.
How to stay positive: 11 Smart habits - Positivity Blog
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. - Louisa May Alcott
Your beliefs and thoughts influence your mind and your life, so any expectations you have about your self, your character, your abilities, your goals, and your dreams can and often will come true if you believe they will.
- A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true at least in part as a result of a person's belief or expectation that said prediction would come true.
- In the phenomena, people tend to act the way they have been expected to making the expectations come true.
- Self-fulfilling prophecies are an example of the more general phenomenon of positive feedback loops.
- A self-fulfilling prophecy can have either negative or positive outcomes.
- Merely applying a label to someone or something can affect the perception of the person/thing and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Self-fulfilling prophecy - Wikipedia
Here are my predictions for the 2025-2026 NBA standings, ranked by western and eastern conferences. I think the western conference in particular may be as hard to predict as ever this year.
Western Conference
- 1 - Oklahoma City Thunder
- 2 - Denver Nuggets
- 3 - Los Angeles Clippers
- 4 - Memphis Grizzlies
- 5 - Dallas Mavericks
- 6 - Minnesota Timberwolves
- ----
- 7 - Houston Rockets
- 8 - Phoenix Suns
- 9 - San Antonio Spurs
- 10 - Golden State Warriors
- ----
- 11 - New Orleans Pelicans
- 12 - Los Angeles Lakers
- 13 - Sacramento Kings
- 14 - Portland Trail Blazers
- 15 - Utah Jazz
Eastern Conference
- 1 - Cleveland Cavaliers
- 2 - New York Knicks
- 3 - Milwaukee Bucks
- 4 - Toronto Raptors
- 5 - Philadelphia 76ers
- 6 - Boston Celtics
- ----
- 7 - Indiana Pacers
- 8 - Miami Heat
- 9 - Orlando Magic
- 10 - Charlotte Hornets
- ----
- 11 - Atlanta Hawks
- 12 - Detroit Pistons
- 13 - Chicago Bulls
- 14 - Washington Wizards
- 15 - Brooklyn Nets
- Barrett - Bench - 30 MPG 2025 vs 32 MPG 2024
- Gradey - Start - 24 MPG 2025 vs 30 MPG 2024
- Barrett scores as 6th man, Gradey shoots
- Barrett in for Gradey, SF when Ingram out
- Agbaji/Murray/Walter can start some too
- Walter bench PG when Barrett bench
Raptors Lineup And Depth Chart 2025
Two things are infinite, the Universe and human stupidity...But that just might be me being stupid. - Albert Einstein
Take a quick break every hour to evaluate what you have done and refocus on what you should do next.
- STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus.
- Set your watch, phone, or computer to ring every hour.
- When it rings, take a deep breath, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively.
- Then look at your calendar and deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour.
- Manage your day hour by hour.
- Don’t let the hours manage you.
An 18 minute plan for managing your day - Harvard Business Review
I appreciate the gusto if this is purely experimental, but I think the design, function, and placement of this separate bottom toolbar in the Music app may be the single worst UI change in macOS 26.
Suggested Changes
- Move and merge the full toolbar back to the top
- Stay in same place when queue or lyrics selected
- Make volume popup from toolbar and have mute
- Collapse volume popup when clicked second time
- Don't blur song title and info when mouse over
- Move star icon to the toolbar and always show
- Make all icons including playback the same size
- Move shuffle to right of playback, left of repeat
All great achievements require time. - Maya Angelou
I still dislike transparent elements, color changing elements, floating elements, and moving elements in UIs. Imagine if light switch on wall was see-through so hard to see, changed colors so hard to recognize, was covering part of TV, and was in a different spot all the time.
Give honest and sincere appreciation. - Dale Carnegie
- Lincoln once began a letter saying: "Everybody likes a compliment."
- William James said: "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."
- He didn't speak, mind you, of the "wish" or the "desire" or the "longing" to be appreciated.
- He said the "craving" to be appreciated.
- Let's try to figure out the other person's good points.
- Then forget flattery. Give honest, sincere appreciation.
How To Win Friends And Influence People - Goodreads
Because of the importance of shooting in NBA today, I see a potential alternative vision to success for Raptors in the short-term, with Ingram All-Star at 26 PPG, Quickley All-Star at 23 PPG, Dick at 16 PPG, Barnes All-Defense at 16 PPG and 9+ APG, passing to great shooters.
