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If you were 15 years old, and your dad hired you and your best friend to work the graveyard shift at his explosives plant, all alone, on a Saturday night, what would you do? It was 1972. I was a long-haired bell-bottomed burboid boy. My dad was an immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island with nothing and made his American dream come true by working his way up from bottle-washer to owner/manager of his very own explosives plant: the Zeus Powder Company, smack dab in the middle of a huge cow field between Dallas and Fort Worth, just outside a little shit-kicking dot-on-the-map called Euless, Texas. Useless, we called it.

As me and my best friend pondered our Saturday night graveyard shift, it quickly became clear that there was only one logical thing to do: work our asses off like madmen, fill our quota by 1 a.m., then throw open the gates of the explosives plant to our menagerie of exotic party animal friends for the blowout of the century, as Zeus fills the heavens with lightning bolts.

So, 10 p.m. Saturday night, it was high ho high ho, off to work we go. We toiled like men-children possessed, busting our buns to the bone, shrink-wrapping case after case of explosives. At midnight it looked like there was no way we'd be done, but somehow we kicked into maxi-mondo-overdrive, sweat pouring off our fevered brows, fingers flying, muscles aching. Perhaps it was the exuberance of our youth. Maybe we just wanted it bad enough. But I like to think that Zeus himself had a hand in the miraculous completion of our mammoth work load. Whatever, suddenly it was 10 till 1, and we were done, Hallelujah, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! Sure enough, as we strolled triumphantly into the parking lot of the explosives plant and breathed in the sultry Texas night, we could see the first headlights of our fabulous furry freak brothers and sisters arriving, and with great glee we greeted our sweet revelers as they rolled in, ready to make merry till the cows came home.

There was Todd the Toad, Cindy Lou Who, Brad the Beast, Johnny Fuck You, Pickles, Ginger, the two Larries, Billy Bob Bobby Joe Willy Dick, and the blissfully breathtakingly blindingly beautiful Brenda. Brenda was my best friend's girlfriend, and normally I woulda been jealous, but given what little good luck my best friend had, I did not begrudge him the joy of Brenda. Besides, I had hooked up with Cindy Lou Who, a lovely, up-for-anything Olive Oyl type, who was all eager elbows and knees, built for speed, if not entirely for comfort. Cindy Lou Who and I hadn't been going out long, and we'd only ever messed around, but she was a firecracker and had indicated several times since that she was totally stoked about going All the Way with me. At this stage of my life, when my penis and I were like the two characters in the popular song, “Me and My Shadow”, the idea of being inside Cindy Lou Who was all I could think about, and in the days preceding our blowout I used the fantasy of it to fuel more than a few fabulous whack-off sessions.

When Cindy stepped out of Billy Bob Bobby Joe Willy's beat-to-shit T-Bird decked out in a halter top and a microminiskirt with legs that seemed to never end, my heart soared and my penis roared. She seemed so happy to see me, giggling infectiously, lovely and silly and altogether delicious. And when she leaned in to kiss me she had a heavy, velvety Jack Danielsy smell that seemed to me to be the very essence of sex.

There followed the cracking open of many beers and the guzzling of much tequila. After everyone oohed and ahhed and ogled at the explosives plant, Todd the Toad broke out some world-class Lebanese hash and we all became quite excited. There was only one rub. The Toad, in his stoned stupor, had forgotten to bring any matches. So a quest was begun for fire. Incredibly, after an exhaustive search, there was not a match to be found.

Much head scratching ensued, as we put our collective, albeit feeble, brains together and stormed with them, like party-hardy cavemen trying to discover the secret of the sacred flame. Cigarette lighter! someone exclaimed. So we packed hash into pipe bowls, and dashed out into the parking lot. But no matter how hard we tried, the cigarette lighter from Billy Bob Bobby Joe Willy Dick's beat-to-shit T-Bird just wouldn't light the Lebanese. Johnny Fuck You insisted we should go out and get some matches. I quickly put the kibosh on that, as the nearest place was at least a thirty minute drive away, which would mean it'd be an hour before any world-class Lebanese hash could be sucked into hungry lungs. Totally unacceptable.

Suddenly I had a blinding flash of inspiration. I remembered that the liquid component of the explosives was highly flammable. We could douse paper and/or cardboard with it, then ignite the whole thing with the cigarette lighter from Billy Bob's T-Bird and thus light the pipes full of hash. When I shared the idea with the group, they stared at me slack-jawed like a school of particularly dim fish. But the looks of confusion soon changed to admiration, and I was showered with congratulations. We ran back inside the plant, where I grabbed a plastic bottle full of the maroon colored liquid explosive, and the rest of the group snagged cardboard boxes and paper. Then together the motley, ragtag crew of partiers streamed out into the parking lot like so many addle-brained Athenas screaming out of the head of Zeus.

Some among us shredded cardboard into a small pile, while others improvised wicks from office-paper. While we worked Billy Bob Bobby Joe Willy Dick lit lots of lovely joints with his cigarette lighter, and as we passed them around, the air quickly thickened with pungent smoky skunkiness and we all got high, higher, highest.

When a nice little pile of paper and cut-up cardboard was prepared, and our wicks were made, I unscrewed the top of the plastic cylinder that contained the crimson colored liquid explosive component, and a severe chemical stench rushed out and assaulted me. Smelled like some powerful shit. As everyone watched breathlessly, I poured the crimson liquid over the shredded cardboard carefully, and doused several of the office-paper wicks.

Looking back it seems inconceivable that none of us were even vaguely aware of the potential for catastrophic bloodshed, dismemberment, and the splattering of brains all over Useless. Not one among us seemed to fully appreciate that if a spark somehow ignited the bottle of liquid explosives, it could've blown sky high, and that could've triggered a blast inside the plant, and Zeus, along with all of us, could've been blown to bits in a fiery conflagration of biblical proportions.

“15 DALLAS TEENS KILLED IN EXPLOSIVE PLANT TRAGEDY!!!”

But youth is blissfully ignorant, and as the Toad cranked the Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and the singer dude crooned about how the lunatic was in his head, we gathered, poised, with our bowls full of world-class Lebanese hash all ready to smoke, completely unaware that Death was standing there laughing at us, just waiting for us to fuck up so he could haul our souls away to Hades.

In the still of the night, with all those teenage hormones bombing towards the billions of stars in the big huge Texas sky, the click of the cigarette lighter being expelled from its red hot hole sounded like a bomb going off. Billy Bob Bobby Joe Willie Dick yanked the fiery cherry out of the dashboard, and with all haste brought it toward us. We held our collective breath, as my best friend quickly stuck his long, liquid-explosive-saturated office-paper wick onto the red coils inside the lighter.

POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF!!!

Flame blazed as if from the mouth of an angry dragon, and my best friend dropped his wick onto the shredded liquid-explosive-saturated cardboard, which ignited, sending a blast of heat and light fluming, mushrooming up into the air, driving us all backwards, and oh my Sweet Baby Jesus, it was like a phantasmagorical, supernatural magic trick, elemental and powerful, worthy of Zeus himself.

After it became clear that that no one was singed, burned or had burst into flames, we all cooed about how cool it was, and watched in wonderment as the blaze died down nicely, and the shredded cardboard burned beautifully. We then stuck unsaturated office-paper wicks into the fire and got several bowls going at once. The world-class Lebanese hash was even better than advertised. Smooth, cocky, insouciant, an amusing blonde with the kick of a turbo-charged mule. Certainly worth getting blown up for.

After we'd smoked our fill, we let the fire die down, and headed back into the explosives factory to do more heavy drinking. I gave Cindy Lou Who a ride on one of the forklifts, and when I squealed around the corner she held onto me tight and shrieked with delight. Suddenly Todd the Toad jumped into the other forklift, and with a wild war whoop, roared breakneck straight at me. How cool! my brain screamed, high-speed forklift chicken! As everybody shouted and cheered and carried on, I hit the gas and jammed as fast as the forklift would travel on a direct collision course with Todd the Toad, who threw his long-haired head back and wailed like Dionysius swooping down on the back of Pegasus. Closer and closer we sped towards each other, and if one of us didn't swerve soon we were going to smash into each other head-on. I was determined to show everyone that I had the biggest of all balls, and the fact that Cindy Lou Who was clinging to me like a wet dream made it even more imperative that I be the one not to blink. But I also knew that Todd the Toad was a lunatic nut job, as I had once seen him pull off his own toenail to win a bet. And he had to use a pair of pliers to do it. And he only won 20 buck. At that moment I realized there was an extremely good chance Todd the Toad was not going to veer off. In fact it would have been kind of shocking if he did. So at the very last second I jerked the steering wheel as hard as I could to the right, and we swerved, curving around him with barely a short hair to spare.

The party applauded raucously as the Toad and I screech to a halt. Todd bounded out of his forklift and did a maniac victory-lap dance, ranting like a madman and slapping hands with the half-drunk, fully-stoned revelers:

“Hey man, I totally smoked you, I ate your ass for lunch, I own you, motherfucker!”

I took my medicine good-naturedly, with supplication befitting the situation. In the roaring good-vibe din of the party, as Led Zeppelin wailed over the sound system about wanting a whole lotta love, the sound of the crunchy rock bellowing through the hallowed halls of Zeus was spooky and majestic, and I noticed how spectacularly stoned I was, how floaty and euphoric, how the tequila had made all jazzed, jacked up, and ready to ruuuuuuuuuuuuuumble!

The only problem was that I'd somehow lost track of Cindy Lou Who. Dammit, I cursed myself! I looked up and down miles of aisles. I looked in shipping. I looked in receiving. I looked in the lounge with the coffee pots. I looked out back in the parking lot. I scoured Zeus through and through, but there was no sign of Cindy Lou Who. Dammit, I cursed myself!

I was rapidly going from frantic to desperate as I walked into the large men's bathroom. I stopped, stunned to see heaps of steam streaming out from the shower area, like there was a supersized cloud in there trying to get out. I crept on stoned tiptoes toward the entrance to the shower. Over the hiss, spit and splat of ten gushing showerheads, I could hear a rhythmic moan and groan. Moan. Groan. Moan. Groan. Holy Shit, someone's actually Doing It right here in the shower! How cool is that?! Moan. Groan. Moan. Groan. Somehow the fact that the sounds were disembodied made them that much sexier, like two hot ghosts were making beautiful love right there in the room with me. I saw a glimpse of movement. A shift in the air. And suddenly there she was. Brenda. Stark raving naked. Going all cowgirl on my best friend, her eyes rolled back in her head, her mouth gaping open, twin roses blooming on her perfect pale cheeks.

Suddenly the sound of loud rowdy teenagers headed my way. I took this as my cue to exit stage left. The immediate result of my voyeuristic shower encounter was the overwhelming, all-consuming, irresistible desire to find and woo Cindy Lou Who. I burst out of the steam and stormed into the main room of Zeus in hot pursuit of a whole lotta love of my own. I strode determined past boxes loaded with ammo. I turned left and looked up an aisle. Lying on the concrete floor was an embryonic lump. If this had been an urban street it would have looked like a homeless person. But there at Zeus it just looked like a sad party casualty. As I approached I felt bad. You hate to see one of your comrades fallen so early and so hard. Poor lightweight.

But as I closed in on the lifeless form a horror chilled all the way through me. Holy dear Christ, my brain shouted, it's Cindy Lou Who! I bent down quickly, my heart pounding with concern, world-class hash and alcohol. I put my hand under her head and gently lifted up. I felt something squishy in her hair, as a bad rancid sour sick toxic hooch-drenched smell wafted out of her. I felt her pulse. Everything seemed to be in working order, even if she did have a nasty hangover waiting in her mailbox. But what is that squishy shit in her hair? my brain asked again. Gently I laid her head back down and removed my hand from the tangle of her rat's nest hair. OH MY GOD!!! It's puke. Spew. Urp. Hurl. Blown chunks. Tossed cookies. OH MY GOD!!!

I stopped my gag reflex and tried to find something to remove the puke with. I started to wipe it on the girl herself. But that seemed cruel and a bit inhuman. So I wiped it on a box of explosives. I don't know if you've ever tried wiping sick of your hands onto a cardboard box of explosives, but it's just as hard and gross as it sounds.

Just then my best friend screeched around the corner a little too crazy-eyed and out of control: “Hey man, we gotta go, there's some crazy shit coming down.”

“What is it, man?” I asked, sufficiently traumatized, “What happened?”

Apparently, unbeknownst to any of us, Brenda had made a deal with her father. She'd agreed to be totally honest with him, no matter what. So at a certain point that evening, she'd had some kind of epiphany and called him, confessing that she was partying at the explosives plant, and not at a sleepover. Naturally, as soon as Brenda's dad discovered the shenanigans we were up to, he'd called my dad.

Half an hour later, when I heard a car and saw headlights, my stomach flipped over and a sick feeling settled in its pit. We'd only just finished evacuating all of the partiers from the plant, but we hadn't even begun to clean up the massive mess. And now my old man/employer was headed toward me, furious anger radiating through the grill of his wood-paneled station wagon. I glanced at my watch. 4:35 Sunday morning. Still the middle of the night, but if you listened closely you could hear the sound of dawn careening around the corner.

My father jumped out of the car like his hair was on fire and strode towards me, preceded by a large vein that was pulsating in the middle of his forehead. My next clear memory is sitting on the big wraparound couch in our living room with my best friend as the sun was coming up and my father was screaming about what an immature, irresponsible, immoral, selfish, ungrateful, unappreciative, wicked, stupid, spiteful, hateful, awful, atrocious monstrosity I was, while my long-suffering mother sat in the chair across from us and wept. Wept and wept and wept. To me that was so much worse. After a while my mind tuned my father out, and I watched his mouth move up and down, but the words sounded like nonsense, gibberish, the barkings of a mad dog. However, the more my mother sat there weeping those huge wet tears, the saddest tears imaginable, a mother's tears, the worse it made me feel. I sat there asking myself, Why did you do this? What were you thinking? Are you out of your mind? Only a very very bad person would do something like this. At first I asked for their forgiveness. Then I begged for it. But no matter what I said, my dad kept yelling, and my mother kept crying and crying and crying..

I don't recall my father ever actually saying the words, You're fired. But it was certainly implied. And I never again saw Useless, or set foot inside Zeus. Very soon thereafter I was shipped off to a boarding school, and my best friend was in the Army. A year later I was homeless and a prostitute, studying existentialism with nuns. 10 years later I was the Master of Ceremonies at Chippendale's male strip club in New York City, and a cocaine addict. 10 years later I was acting with Will Smith on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, and a sex addict. 10 years later I am about to be a dad, and in love with my wife. My best friend is currently doing a long stretch of hard time in prison.

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In today's recession, the job market is at its lowest. Major corporations are laying people off at an alarming rate. Even though the economy is not doing so well, you can still generate income through your creativity.

Now is the opportunity to look at new ways to generate a cash flow into your household. Everyone has a creative gift but often times we do not use our gifts because we are busy working jobs that we don't enjoy.

Don't see being laid off from your job as a negative. Instead see it as an opportunity to harvest in your talent and make it a viable source of income.

The following are Five Creative Tips to Generating Income:

1. Start Looking at Your Talent - Think of things that you are good at such as writing, drawing, painting, singing, and etc.

2. Think of Unique Ways to Make Money Off of Your Creativity. For example if you like baking home made cookies at home, then maybe you can start your very own cookie company.

3. Study the Market - Read about the new industry that you would like to go into. You should research to see if it is feasible for you go this route in utilizing your talent. Research to find ways in which you can tap into the new market.

4. Go Back to School - Some talents may require for you to go back to school to get more training or to polish up your craft.

5. Go Out There and Make Happen - After careful planning with a business plan you are now ready to make things happen. Make sure you take small steps which will lead to bigger ones.

So what are you waiting for? The time is now to take action and make your dreams come true. Don't waste your precious gifts with fear. Have the courage to walk out on faith and utilize your talents. Your opportunities are endless when you are following your soul purpose in life.

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It used to be that when people spoke of eating disorders, they were talking about either anorexia nervosa or bulimia. There was little talk about people on the other end of the spectrum — the binge eaters or the compulsive overeaters — as having an eating disorder. Those people, who are usually noticeably overweight, were usually dismissed as simply lacking in willpower. Over the past ten years, the spectrum of eating disorders has evolved to include a number of new behaviors. Other eating disorders have been recognized and named.

People with eating disorders can engage in a full range of bizarre and destructive habits that can compromise their health and well being. A person with an eating disorder can take on a wide range of appearances, from pale and gaunt to obese and ruddy. A person with an eating disorder can even look completely normal. Nowadays, when health professionals speak about eating disorders, they include anorexics, bulimics, binge eaters, and compulsive overeaters, as well as people who engage in other types of eating disorders. It seems like every year, a new eating disorder is discovered and coined. Just recently, I learned about three new disordered eating and exercise behaviors that are becoming more trendy.

Yogarexia

When I think of yoga, I think of relaxation and calm. Peaceful music plays while a person, either alone or in a group, stretches and contorts as a means of reaching a new level of consciousness. Yoga is very popular among celebrities, so naturally, a lot of regular folks are doing it too. Most people enjoy yoga in moderation and get more positive benefits from it than consequences. Still, as with anything else, a person can get too much of a good thing when practicing yoga.

Yogarexia is defined as an obsession with practicing yoga as a means of getting and staying thin. Rachel Shabi, who in 2005 reported on yogarexia for the British online publication The Guardian, writes that “Madonna got her jaw-dropping muscles by [practicing ashtanga], a particularly physical and strenuous style of yoga…” From that point on, yoga became very popular among fitness enthusiasts.

According to Ashtanga.com, the ashtanga style of yoga “involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures– a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs. The result is improved circulation, a light and strong body, and a calm mind.” In her article for The Guardian, Rachel Shabi writes that ashtanga is particularly attractive to those who might be vulnerable to eating disorders, mainly because it offers an intense workout and a focus on maintaining control and perfection, some of the very same qualities often found in those who suffer from anorexia nervosa.

Ashtanga supposedly increases one's metabolism and offers a comforting ritual that may be very appealing to those who long for routine and control. Ashtanga also focuses on the idea of being light and empty. People who practice yoga are often encouraged to do so a couple of hours after they've eaten. If they have eaten a large or heavy meal, it's recommended that they wait even longer. So, a person who becomes very enthusiastic about yoga may soon start to plan meals according to their yoga schedule. If they have a busy lifestyle, that need to plan may make it easy for the yoga enthusiast to skip meals. Before long, he or she might start to lose a lot of weight, which makes yoga easier to do. After all, yoga poses often require participants to be able to move into complicated poses that are much easier to do with a thin body.

The ashtanga style is just one type of yoga that may appeal too much to those who have body issues. However, Shabi writes that while yoga may be harmful for some people with body issues, it's more often helpful. Some devotees find that practicing yoga encourages them to love and take care of their bodies more. Clearly, the key to success is moderation and maintaining a proper perspective, focusing on the health benefits of yoga rather than the potential to lose weight.

Orthorexia

Everybody knows that eating healthy foods is one of the keys to enjoying good health. People who suffer from orthorexia take that idea to the extreme. Orthorexia is defined as a healthy diet taken to unhealthy levels of obsession.

A 2008 article written by John Stossel and Miguel Sancho for ABC news explains that the term orthorexia was “coined by Dr. Steve Bratman, author of the book Health Food Junkies.” For someone with orthorexia, eating becomes a painstaking ritual, as the person works very hard to eat nothing but the very healthiest foods. That obsession can overtake a person's thinking to the point at which all they ever think about is food and what their next meal will be.

According to Bratman, orthorexia is different from anorexia nervosa in that the focus is different. Anorexics want to be thin and will resort to all sorts of extreme practices and bizarre eating rituals to become thin. Orthorexics know they are thin, but have the desire to be pure. Their obsession, which on the outside appears to be very virtuous and desirable, causes them to avoid foods that they deem impure and unhealthy.

You would never catch an orthorexic eating processed food from a box, filled with chemicals, additives, and preservatives and it seems natural and even healthy that a self-respecting person would feel that way. However, an orthorexic might also avoid something as innocuous as a piece of fruit bought at a mainstream grocery store, because they fear that it might have been treated with toxic chemicals. An orthorexic might even cut out certain foods that would otherwise be healthy because of their nutritional make up. Some types of fruit might be unacceptable because they have too much natural sugar. Certain types of vegetables might be off the diet because of their carbohydrate content. Next, the orthorexic might avoid cooked food, because they might think of the process of cooking as harmful to their bodies. Before too long, the orthorexic won't be able to dine in restaurants or eat at a friend's house because of their obsession with healthy food.

While most of us would do well to eat healthier and pay more attention to the foods we put in our bodies, people who suffer from orthorexia take that idea too far. Orthorexia takes over a person's life so that it constantly revolves around thoughts of food, preventing them from dealing with the other important aspects of their existence such as relationships with other people, working, and learning new things. It really can be a debilitating problem. Orthorexia is now recognized as a legitimate eating disorder, just as anorexia nervosa and bulimia are.

Stressorexia

Stress is an unavoidable fact of life. For some people, too much stress, coupled with the desire to look good and achieve, can be a one way ticket to an eating disorder called stressorexia. Stressorexia often affects women between their 20s and 40s who lead very busy and stressful lifestyles. The excessive activity of working and taking care of a family can leave some women too busy to eat properly, which can lead to weight loss. The weight loss leads to compliments, silent admiration, and approval from other people, which can cause the stressorexic to feel better about herself.

According to London's Daily Mail, stressorexia is different than anorexia nervosa in that it tends to affect older women who are high achievers. Anorexics are motivated by a desire to control their bodies by controlling what they eat, while women with stressorexia typically fall into the eating disorder as a result of living a hectic lifestyle. If it goes on for too long, the stressorexic may find herself becoming very anxious as she tries to maintain order in a chaotically busy life.

The Daily Mail consulted Dr. Adrian Lord, a psychiatrist who, at the time the article was written, worked with Cygnet Hospital, a private psychiatric clinic in Britain. Dr. Lord explained that today's women are affected by more complicated gender roles. Fifty years ago, women were expected to take care of the home and family. Today, many women also work full time as they raise their families. These blurred gender roles can lead to stress, confusion, uncertainty, and perfectionism, which can cause women to enter a different mind state. Biochemical changes within the body can actually lead to a loss of appetite.

Dr. Lord explained that stressorexia might not be an official term a doctor would use to diagnose someone, at least not at this point in time, but it is a problem that is on the rise.

Eating disorders…

The subject of eating disorders is not just about starving, bingeing, and purging anymore. Today, health care professionals are learning all about new ways people can harm themselves with unhealthy eating habits and exercise rituals. While some people might think that these new trends are more like fads than actual disorders, per se, enough people have dealt with them that they've merited attention from health care professionals worldwide.

Sources:

Bowman, Grace (2006). Thin London: Penguin Books

Lerche Davis, Jeanie. “Orthorexia: Good Diets Gone Bad” Web MD. November 17, 2000. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/anorexia-nervosa/news/20001117/orthorexia-good-diets-gone-bad

Rees, Gwyneth. “Too busy to eat: The working mothers with 'stressorexia'” Daily Mail Online. February 2, 2008 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-511848/Too-busy-eat-working-mothers-stressorexia.html

Shabi, Rachel. “Omming on empty” The Guardian. February 25, 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/feb/26/health.shopping

Stossel, John and Sancho, Miguel. “Orthorexia: Obsessing over health food.” ABC News. September 5, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Stossel/story?id=5735592&page=1

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Bipolar disorder is a mental or psychological-attributed disease that affects a person's ability to willingly control their emotions. People with Bipolar Disorder generally suffer from “mood swings”—rapid changes in emotion without the immediate consent or knowledge of the host—and can be classified in a number of different ways. The mood changes from Bipolar Disorder can range from “mania”— which is a rapid or drawn-out session from a heightened or grandiose sense, into a state of anger and irritability, shut off from the world—to depression, which is an extreme state of sadness and loneliness which often leads to self-mutilation, self-hate, and suicidal contemplation. There is no medical treatment for Bipolar Disorder, but there are a number of medications and psychological treatments that can lessen the effects, such as Ritalin, anti-depressants, and extended therapy. In this article I'm going to address and explain the different types of Bipolar Disorder and the characteristics of each.

Bipolar I is possibly the most severe case of Bipolar Disorder, as Bipolar I is defined as “having at least one manic episode in his or her life”. Often called 'Manic-Depressive', bipolar I is characterized by a rapid switch from a grandiose and overly heightened state of mind, into a mental state that is hostile, angry, and possibly dangerous to the host and the people surrounding them. Bipolar I can develop in anyone but normally begins before age 50 and can be diagnosed by symptoms such as: quick, shaky speech, extreme amounts of energy, insomnia, overly-grandiose self-image, and an extremely over-active sex life.

Bipolar II features relatively similar symptoms to Bipolar I but on a much milder scale, inhibited a lesser form of mania called “hyper-mania”, which is just as the title states, a milder form of mania. People with hypomania generally live normal lives, as their mood swings are typically less extreme then people who suffer Bipolar I.

Cyclothymia is an even more mild form of Bipolar I and II, but is experienced on a more frequent basis. Sufferers of cyclothymia often have shaky everyday lives because they rapidly cycle through a series of short, yet-mild mood changes.

Mixed Bipolar Disorder is the most dangerous form of Bipolar. People who suffer from Mixed Bipolar experienced a heightened state of mind and self-image in addition to depression and loneliness—this is a very dangerous combination. Many people with this disorder will be hyperactive, over-thinking, and fast-speaking; yet they're grumpy, agitated, and generally upset at the world.

“Rapid-Cycling” bipolar disorder is a classification of any of the above four types of bipolar and is defined as “four or more mood episodes that occur within a 12-month period,” as stated by WebMd. This trait marks the most severe cases of Bipolar Syndrome.

http://webmd.com

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In your body, there are things called endocrine glands which produce hormones. Hormones regulate functions such as growth and development, water balance, sexual reproduction and the rate of chemical reaction in cells.

The hormones in the body are as follows:

Hormones travel around the body (through blood and nerves) but only act on particular target cells. This means a hormone can't affect a different cell. Hormones are secreted in very small quantities, their concentration in blood is very low. They are excreted as urine when it passes the liver.

The nervous and endocrine systems work together and are both involved in response and control. Hormones have an advantage in which responses are long lasting and only small amounts are needed to carry out a response. Hormones can have long-term responses lasting up to weeks, months or years.

Adrenalin also known as the 'fight or flight' hormone is released from the adrenal glands and is triggered when you suddenly get scared. It causes our heart to beat faster, breathing rate increase, blood going to the muscles, making us more alert, dilating our pupils and making our skin stand on the end.

Controlling Growth

The pituitary gland can be considered the master gland as it itself releases hormones and also instruct other glands to do so, so like it's the boss or some shit. The pituitary gland gets messages from the hypothalamus (hippopotamus) in the brain and is the link between the nervous system and endocrine glands.

TSH

The hypothalamus, pituitary and thyroid glands work together to control growth. The hypothalamus sends a message to the pituitary, telling it to release thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). TSH causes the thyroid gland to release thyroxin. Thyroxin controls the speed of cell reactions and therefore influences growth. A deficiency of thyroxin causes cretinism (stunted physical and mental growth). This can be cured in its early stages by administering thyroxin.

HGH

Another hormone produced by the pituitary, human-growth hormone (HGH), influences total body growth. Lack of HGH in childhood can lead to dwarfism. If diagnosed early, injections of HGH can be given to children suffering from lack of HGH. Too much HGH in childhood leads to gigantism, producing an abnormally tall person.

Controlling glucose levels

- Many substances must be kept constant at the correct level within the body. For example, cells need a continuous supply of glucose to produce energy and will die if glucose levels fall.

- Your pancreas produces two hormones, insulin and glucagon, that maintain your blood glucose levels within a narrow, acceptable range.

- If you eat a piece of chocolate, the sugar it contains will quickly increase the glucose levels in your blood.

- Insulin is released to counteract this increase. It does this by getting the cells to use more glucose and by stimulating your liver to store any excess. Blood glucose levels then drop, inhibiting further release of insulin.

- Low glucose levels trigger the release of glucagon, which then directs the liver and cells to release glucose back into the blood.

Diabetes

- Approximately one million people in Australia suffer from diabetes mellitus.

- Diabetes mellitus is a disease in which blood glucose levels are not maintained within the required range. There are two basic types.

Type I Diabetes

- Around 15% of cases have Type I (insulin-dependent diabetes), which is caused by a defective pancreas.

- High blood glucose levels result because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin.

- This may result in glucose in the urine as the body tries to rid itself of its excess.

- Long term effects of excess glucose include damage to vital organs such as the kidneys. Treatment involves the use of daily insulin injections.

Type II Diabetes

- Type II, or non-insulin-dependent diabetics, do not produce enough insulin, or have cells that do not respond correctly to insulin. Treatment involves a special diet, an exercise program, use of drugs and possibly insulin injections.

Pheromones

- Hormones are not the only chemicals that influence the behaviour of animals. Other chemicals called pheromones can also dramatically affect behaviour, particularly sexual behaviour.

- Many insects use pheromones to attract mates, and the opposite sex can often detect a tiny whiff of pheromones in the air from several kilometres away. These sex-attractant pheromones act directly on the CNS, producing immediate behavioural changes.

- Other types of pheromones act more slowly, and affect growth and development. Termite queens use pheromones to stop larvae developing into new queens. Ants use pheromones to mark food trails.

- Larger animals also use the scent of pheromones to communicate. Dogs and possums, for example, mark out their territories by spraying urine. Their particular scent tells others to keep out.

Plant hormones

- Plants also produce hormones which regulate their growth, flowering, fruit production and ripening, and seed germination. A response where a plant grows towards or away from a stimulus is called tropism.

- Phototropism is when a plant grows towards light. It is a process controlled by a hormone belonging to a group called auxins. This particular hormone stimulates plant cells to elongate or grow longer. It is produced by the tips of growing shoots but is destroyed when exposed to light.

- This means that the hormone in a shoot will live and elongate cells if it is in the shade, but will be destroyed in sunlight. Cells on the shady side, but will be destroyed in sunlight. Cells on the shady side will elongate more rapidly than on the sunny side, causing the shoot to bend towards the light.

Plant growth hormones

A group of plant hormones called the gibberellins control plant growth and have a role in fruit development and seed germination.

Information from this article was sourced from:
“The Endocrine System”, The Endocrine System and types of Hormones

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Rarely if ever, do businesses sit down and plan a solid social media strategy for developing leads. Often it begins in one of two ways: 1) one person in the company who understands and enjoys new technology uses one or more platforms for the business. They get a Twitter account and just start tweeting without much thought for their target. Or, 2) someone specifically plans to gain business from a wide target but doesn't understand how, so they follow the lead of the countless Twits asking well connected strangers to retweet or simply send outrageous solicitations. Here are the foundational elements of an intelligent social media strategy.

B2B or B2C? The first thing to understand is whether your target is another business or a consumer? They use social media differently thus your approach must be focused on them. While big brands that target consumers are controlling the conversation with teams of staff, you can use similar strategies. E.g. If you only target a local geography you only need to be communicating during that time zone's waking hours. If you are targeting businesses, you should determine the time of day you receive the most communication engagement or retweets. It shows who is interested in your subjects and when you should concentrate your communications. I mentioned some great Twitter tools in last week's blog: Which Comes First: The Website or Social Media?

What Do They Do or Say Online? Are you paying attention to what your target does online? Are they playing Mafia Wars on Facebook or retweeting articles from the Wall Street Journal? Their behavior is key to what they are doing online and what you should consider as your vehicle to getting their attention. If they are clicking ads, figure out which ones, when and why. Maybe you need to reach them personally through conscious conversation.

PPC Advertising - PPC (pay per click) ads are still a great online strategy but they are no longer limited to just the search engines. Facebook has become a contender for your PPC advertising spend. You need to do both research and testing to determine the best solution for your targets. If you have never executed a PPC campaign either hire someone to help you do it right (we do this) or start slowly, be patient and monitor your conversions ruthlessly.

Don't let the social media world confuse you. You can reach your targets if you have a plan. Being patient and planning for measurement milestones will help you determine what is working and what is not. Too many companies either pull a campaign too soon or let a poorly converting campaign linger longer than it should. Give it time, options and live and die by your statistics. The numbers don't lie if you are watching the right ones.

Want to use this article on your website? That's great, but please include the next section beneath it.

Paula Pollock is Director of the Pollock Marketing Group, further assisting good companies in becoming great through outsourced marketing services with her team of professionals. PMG supports business marketing at all levels from DIY, short-term projects and campaign corrections. You can sign up to receive her Marketing Tips newsletter at www.paulapollock.com

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Writers who use an attention grabbing lead will earn a thousand dollars more a year. Okay, this statement is utterly false, but it did its job to grab your attention, right? While false or exaggerated leads may do the job of getting attention from your readers, they should never be used. One false statement will label the rest of your article or story as unreliable. (Of course fiction is a different story). Try these three other leads that can be effectively used to grab your reader's attention right off the bat.

A Quote: Starting your article or story with a quote can really add to it or sabotage it. Pick a quote that fits nicely in with your topic and article. It is better to start your article with a plain sentence then awkwardly try to make a quote fit. Also, when using a quote as a lead, make sure that it sets the tone for the rest of the article. A quote like, “Girl's just want to have fun” may work for an article on teenager activities. However, using that same quote in a teenager's magazine talking about the increase of substance abuse is not as effective because it comes across too cheerful and light for what should be a serious article. Of course, like with all things, there are exceptions.

Shocking Statement or Statistic: This trick has been taught probably since junior high English classes. Opening your article with a shocking statement or statistic just works time after time. If done correctly, it can provide facts and interest at the same time. Of course, like using a quote, do not force this type of lead in if it will not flow. Also, like my lead above, dishonesty or exaggeration are like a dagger to the rest of your article. Keep your credibility.

A Mighty Metaphor: Another good literary device to use as an effective lead is a metaphor or simile. I think that a metaphor lead can look very unprofessional if done incorrectly. However, if it is done correctly, it will add creativity to the work. An example of this could be, “Her hair sparkled like the moon reflecting the sea. Her skin was silky and her overall appearance doll-like. What kind of monster would murder the beauty of JonBenet Ramsey?” (I know, not a good example, but first one I could think of).

As you sit down to write today, why not try one of the above leads. You may just discover it is the extra pow that is needed to liven up your writing. Not sure if it grabs the reader's attention? All you have to do is read the first line to someone and ask, or read it yourself. If you would flip the page after reading the first line, then what would stop others from doing the same thing?

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So the choice is yours now! You're ready to start making money and have a sales force staring at a phone, waiting for it to ring. Then it starts. Ringing off the hook as customers respond to your first TV ad and you're off!

That's, obviously, a pretty idyllic viewpoint on advertising, but it would be nice. More reasonably, your sales force is out there, trying to reach new customers by calling people cold. You've trained a group of four people on your product and they know it inside and out. If they have the opportunity to speak to someone whose interested in your product, they'll close one in four and can handle four calls an hour since it takes them about 15 minutes per person to explain the benefits in detail. Since they're making outbound calls “cold”, however, they are only gaining minimal interest levels every fifteenth call and nailing a sale every one in sixty. Suddenly, instead of one sale an hour each, your trained sales team is only making one sale every three hours and becoming more and more frustrated. Your sale projections have plummeted from thirty two sales per day to around ten per day — 31.25% of your expected numbers.

How can you increase your level of success?

Well, there's a couple of ways. The one I'm going to focus on is outsourcing lead/referral generation. Many people call it lead generation, but I, personally, consider it to be referral generation. See my earlier posts for why I do so.

Outsourcing has a lot of advantages, not the least of which is the simple fact that your sales team doesn't need to be focused on spending time finding people that are interested.

Expense: The cost involved in outsourcing is, in the long run, usually a cheaper investment than having your in house sales team do the work.

Training: Training sales people to make cold calls and qualify people without going into their detailed pitches at the wrong times is difficult.

Training x2: Your sales team has expertise on a product that is not necessary for referral generation. Bringing you contacts for sales can be done by people who know the basics of your product — enough to generate an interest, but not necessarily to gain a new customer.

Time: You simply can't make as many sales if you use your in house sales people to make cold contact with prospects.

Better Prospects: As the numbers above showed, without the right prospects, your company will not be able to make as many sales as they have the potential to, even with a perfect sales team. With an outsourced company generating referrals for you, the sales team can complete the sale and help you gain customers with greater success.

Obviously, there are disadvantages as well, but I believe that for many businesses these disadvantages are far outweighed by the above mentioned benefits as well as others that companies find to be true. The primary disadvantage that seems to weigh on management's mind is the loss of control. Although this is a definite concern, this can be addressed by finding the right company to work with.

Outsourcing referral generation can have a very positive impact on your business and its long term success. By chosing the right company to work with, understanding how to best manage the organization, and negotiating an equitable payment structure, all parties can be improved and each person along the chain will feel the increased capabilities.

A good referral generation company does not see you as “just a customer” — but as a partner. I'll address this more in my next detailed tip on how to chose a company.

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The importance to business of having leads coming in can never be overstated. Every business, no mater how good it is will lose customers, this can happen because people have moved away, competitors offering an improved product, or customers buying trends shifting (Denny, 2006). Thus, all businesses need to create a constant stream of new leads to become new customers for your business.

For a new business the target audience can be gauged from market research and logic based on who would benefit most from your offering. For existing businesses, information about who the target market can come not only from looking at market research and who can benefit most from the product, but also from knowing where most of their current customers come from. By knowing your customers you can begin targeting more prospects like them, rather than wasting time and resources on lower profit segments of the market.

The most common sources of leads are from networking, public relations, or advertising. Networking is about meeting and getting to know new people, it is often considered the best way to generate leads because “all things being equal — people would rather do business with those they know, like and trust” (Goldhar, n.d.). Public relations can be valuable if done correctly, for instance by getting articles into newspapers and respected journals your business can be given an implied endorsement in your leads mind. For this to be effective the “content should have expert insight” and “avoid a hard sales pitch” (morebusiness, 2007), otherwise you risk not getting published, or possibly alienating your target audience. With advertising, although the payoff can be high when done correctly, as Henry Ford point out, '50 per cent of my advertising works; I only wish I knew which 50 per cent' (Denny, 2006, pg 58).

For a future business, the first place to being generating sales leads will be networking through family and friends, because they are most willing to help you succeed in the beginning. From there, sites such as YouTube.com can help begin an inexpensive public relations campaign. Depending on the offering this may take some creativity, but if done correctly it can keep leads coming in for years. “While big businesses are trying to jump on the bandwagon, small businesses have an undeniable advantage” on YouTube, because “consumers are much more likely to connect to a small business owner … than a CEO removed from the frontlines” (Berry, 2007). To find additional leads, attending the trade shows in the industries where most of your customers are coming from may prove profitable (Gitomer, 2007), because they should have the same need for your offering as existing customers. Finally, if these methods have not produced enough business, targeted, paid advertising would need to be looked at.

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business, without which no business can continue to exist for long. Generating leads can come from a referral or an advertising campaign, but all businesses must have a plan in place to help create them and not just expect them to come about on their own. This is especially true for new businesses, because there will be no existing leads for the business, thus lead generation must be expedited to bring in the most needed resource of any company, cash flow.

References

Barry, B. (2007). Using YouTube to market your business. Retrieved January 16, 2009 from http://www.mondonation.com/?a=news&nid=30

Denny, R. (2006). Selling to win (3rd ed.). Retrieved January 9, 2009 from http://site.ebrary.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/lib/grandcanyon/Doc?id=10120245

Gitomer, J. (2008). The 21.5 best places to network (and the secrets to being successful at it). Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3MCGbhr7b4jzA%3D%3D

Goldhar, E. (n.d.). JOB TALK - Perfect your personal brand. Retrieved January 16, 2009 from http://jobboomcc.canoe.ca/News/2002/04/24/1224909-sun.html

Morebusiness. (2007). Generating Sales Leads for Your Business. Retrieved January 13, 2009 from http://www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/marketing/new-sales-leads.brc

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The recent Medtronic defibrillator recall has not prevented the severe injuries, even deaths, of numerous patients. On October 15, 2007, the Medtronic defibrillator recall was issued due to malfunctioning Sprint Fidelis Leads, which can detach or fracture and cause the defibrillator to stop sending necessary shocks to the heart. In other cases, when the wires attached to the heart fracture, the patient experiences severe shocks. Either case can be deadly. There have already been five deaths linked to these defective defibrillators.

The defective leads have been implanted in defibrillator patients since 2004, and the recall won't necessarily protect these patients from injury or death. Because it is too risky to remove an implanted defibrillator in most cases, these patients simply wait in fear of the day when their defibrillator will stop working or shock them to death.

One man, Thomas Bergstrom, considers himself lucky to be alive after receiving 32 shocks in 40 minutes when his Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Lead fractured. He also considers himself fortunate to have had the defibrillator removed. This is the second defective Medtronic defibrillator he has been implanted with. The leads for both still remain in his body, because it's too risky to remove them. The risk of having a new defibrillator implanted is too high for him to chance, since a new defibrillator would need to be implanted in his right shoulder, making for complicated and potentially dangerous wiring issues. He reportedly prefers to await natural death than to die by electrocution from another potentially defective defibrillator.

The defective Medtronic defibrillators continue to endanger thousands of people, despite numerous warnings to the company and the FDA many months prior to the recall. The Minneapolis Heart Institute told Medtronic back in February of 2007 that the institute would no longer be using the Sprint Fidelis Leads due to their own safety concerns based on patient complaints and injuries. The company had received over 700 injury reports by January of 2007, over 1,000 by June. Yet the defibrillator recall didn't happen until October.

Medtronic is facing multiple lawsuits, and not just on behalf of injured patients. On November 16, 2007, the Brualdi Law Firm P.C. announced a Medtronic class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Medtronic, Inc. Per legal documents filed in the case, Medtronic and its senior management violated federal securities laws by issuing false and misleading statements to inflate the market price of the company's securities.

Looks like Medtronic is in for many more lawsuits. It's too bad that no amount of money will replace the lost lives of the five people who have already died, nor will any settlement or judgment amount pay for the pain, suffering and worry these patients and their families have experienced and will continue to endure.

Sources

Statement on Medtronic's Voluntary Market Suspension of Their Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Leads, FDA, October 15, 2007

Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead Patients Face Uncertainty, Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, Nov 16, 2007

The Brualdi Law Firm P.C. Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Medtronic, CNNMoney.com, November 16, 2007

Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Leads: Thirty-Two Shocks in Forty Minutes, lawyersandsettlements.com, November 19, 2007

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