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    <title>Tips</title>
    <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php</link>
    <description>Tips from RealLifeSurvivalGuide.com</description>
    <dc:language>en</dc:language>
    <dc:creator>bruce@barberproductions.com</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>Copyright 2008</dc:rights>
    <dc:date>2008-05-15T07:00:01-05:00</dc:date>
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    <item>
      <title>Visit summer camps a year before you plan to send your child</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/visit_summer_camps_a_year_before_you_plan_to_send_your_child/</link>
      <description>Visit summer camps a year before you plan to send your child</description>
      <dc:subject>Parenting</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Let&#8217;s say you have a child you&#8217;re thinking about sending to summer camp next summer; this summer is the perfect time to start looking because you can visit camps, you can see them in operation, talk to the director, and see for yourself what the place is like.

And that is a great way, if you think long enough in advance, to begin your camp search.

Most people, when you&#8217;re looking for a camp, you go online, you might get a camp DVD, you talk to people, etc., but there&#8217;s nothing like walking in and seeing for yourself. One, are the children busy? Do they look happy? Are they engaged?Are the staff busy? Are they engaged with the campers? You also get a feel for the camp; that&#8217;s something you can&#8217;t get from a DVD or a Website.
]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-15T07:00:01-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Keep emergency copies of important documents on a jump drive</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/keep_emergency_copies_of_important_documents_on_a_jump_drive/</link>
      <description>Keep emergency copies of important documents on a jump drive</description>
      <dc:subject>Home</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You want to ... develop a communications plan with your family ... . Designate an out of state contact person because ... it may be easier to make a long distance call than a local call if there&#8217;s a problem within this area.

You want to make a plan for copying important documents, whatever that means to you; it&#8217;s your will, it&#8217;s your passport, your homeowners insurance, your car title ... maybe you have some valuables that you want an appraisal kept ... and you want to keep them in a safe place ... .

You can scan in your documents and put them on your computer ... [and] you can e-mail them to yourself or ... you can copy them to your jump drive ... and that&#8217;s all you need to take with you.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-14T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>In meetings, save information dissemination for last</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/in_meetings_save_information_dissemination_for_last/</link>
      <description>In meetings, save information dissemination for last</description>
      <dc:subject>Working</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[One missed opportunity is the starting of the meeting. The typical process in this country is you begin the meeting with news and notes; information dissemination. Well, these are all things that don&#8217;t really have to be accomplished in the meeting. These can be done by e-mail transmissions, memos, what have you.

What a meeting should be about is discussing the most strategic, important issues that require interaction.

And so, therefore, when you&#8217;re structuring an agenda, put those issues that are most critical, that are most discussion bound, first. That way, if you don&#8217;t get to the information dissemination items, it&#8217;s perfectly okay.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-13T07:00:02-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>If you&#8217;re an allergy sufferer, wash that pollen out of your hair</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/if_youre_an_allergy_sufferer_wash_that_pollen_out_of_your_hair/</link>
      <description>If you&#8217;re an allergy sufferer, wash that pollen out of your hair</description>
      <dc:subject>Health</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Try to refrain from going outdoors between ten ... [and] two, when the pollen coun s are highest ... .

If you do have to go outdoors, when you come back inside your home, make sure you change your clothes and remove your shoes at the door so you don&#8217;t bring those pollen spores inside your home.

Wash your hair if possible. Your hair can act like a &#8216;mop&#8217; and just soak up those  pollen spores ... so you don&#8217;t want to go to sleep and your hair has trapped all of this pollen. Now it&#8217;s all on your pillow and sheets, so ... it&#8217;s like you&#8217;re rolling around in the main thing that&#8217;s causing your symptoms.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-12T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Communicate with your children after a cancer diagnosis</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/communicate_with_your_children_after_a_cancer_diagnosis/</link>
      <description>Communicate with your children after a cancer diagnosis</description>
      <dc:subject>Health</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Children have all kinds of thoughts; they&#8217;re very perceptive, they know something&#8217;s going on, and sometimes addressing them right up front is useful. For some people that means reading their child a book. For example, there&#8217;s a great book called &#8220;The Worry Cup&#8221;, and it&#8217;s about a mother sharing with her children that she has cancer ... .

Talk to other families. Talk to your doctors. Your oncology nurses who are just tremendous resources. And other people who&#8217;ve been through it and say &#8216;How did you tell your daughter? How did you tell your son?&#8217;.

Use school resources because these are professionals that want to help your children get through this ... .

Kids are resilient. People are resilient, and get through these experiences.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-10T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Hire a professional if you&#8217;re thinking about renovating your home</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/hire_a_professional_if_youre_thinking_about_renovating_your_home/</link>
      <description>Hire a professional if you&#8217;re thinking about renovating your home</description>
      <dc:subject>Home</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You can&#8217;t [renovate] ... with the same efficiency and value and thoughtfulness on your own as you would with &#8216;advice of counsel&#8217;; of somebody that&#8217;s done this job before many times either as a builder or as a designer ... .

And the way you want to get this job done effectively, on a budget, on a schedule, is to have an objective third party, not you, not the builder, to look over both your shoulders, and basically say to you &#8216;that&#8217;s a good idea&#8217; , &#8216;that&#8217;s a bad idea&#8217;, &#8216;have you thought about this?&#8217; ... .

It&#8217;ll cost you between five and fifteen percent of your budget, depending on which way you want to go ... [but] you&#8217;ll maximize the value of the money you have to spend.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-09T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Be skeptical of &#8220;expert advice&#8221; presented in the media</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/be_skeptical_of_expert_advice_presented_in_the_media/</link>
      <description>Be skeptical of &#8220;expert advice&#8221; presented in the media</description>
      <dc:subject>Suggestions</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Savvy news consumers, media consumers, should always ... ask, &#8220;Well, what&#8217;s the source of their expertise?&#8217; ... . You can have &#8216;pundits&#8217; who are being sponsored either by government agencies or by companies with an interest in issues. And they&#8217;re putting forward their thoughts on an issue often without disclosing where their paycheck comes from ... .

It&#8217;s much better to say, &#8216;I have received payment from these people, but I still feel like this is a good product. It&#8217;s really good all around to have that level of disclosure ... .

If an issue is important to you, don&#8217;t ever rely on one source to tell you about it ... . The more different sources of information you can find, the more likely it is that you&#8217;ll be able to &#8216;tease out&#8217; ... these kinds of problems with reporting.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-08T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Simple toys can be more interactive than high tech electronics</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/simple_toys_can_be_more_interactive_than_high_tech_electronics/</link>
      <description>Simple toys can be more interactive than high tech electronics</description>
      <dc:subject>Parenting</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[What your child doesn&#8217;t need is ... seventy new toys a year, which is, by the way, what the average American  child gets, but they need a few good, simple, open ended toys ... .

Toys don&#8217;t need to be interactive; a child need to interact with a toy. So a wooden block is fine because a child, when they pick it up and throw it, or when they pick it up and stack [them] ... or bang them together, they are interacting with it.

The best toys are ninety percent child, ten percent toy ... . They have actually done laboratory studies that show that toys with buttons, once the child figures out, &#8216;Okay, I press this button and then it bursts into Mozart&#8217;, they&#8217;re done with it... . This child is learning nothing more than how to press a button]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-07T07:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Do research, and don&#8217;t be fooled by the brightness of HDTV display models in stores</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/do_research_and_dont_be_fooled_by_the_brightness_of_hdtv_display_models/</link>
      <description>Do research, and don&#8217;t be fooled by the brightness of HDTV display models in stores</description>
      <dc:subject>Home</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Go to sites that sell HDTV&#8217;s. and read not only professional reviews but also reviews from consumers.

Sites like <a href="http://www.newegg.com"target="_blank">Newegg</a> have a lot of consumer reviews from knowledgeable consumers that have these models and will tell you their experiences.

Talk to your friends, go to stores and look at the quality of HDTV&#8217;s, but if you go to a store, take it with a grain of salt; they turn up the contrast and the brightness ridiculously high to make the picture look eye catching. ]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-06T07:00:01-05:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title>Don&#8217;t switch back and forth between generic and brand name prescription drugs</title>
      <link>http://www.thereallifesurvivalguide.com/index.php/site/ideas/dont_switch_back_and_forth_between_generic_and_brand_name_drugs/</link>
      <description>Don&#8217;t switch back and forth between generic and brand name prescription drugs</description>
      <dc:subject>Health</dc:subject>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Because everybody&#8217;s reaction is different, you really ... have to be your own regulator, and your own clinical trial when it comes to medications that you&#8217;re taking. Some people are very sensitive to the minor differences between generics and brand names, and you should monitor your symptoms ... .

If you&#8217;re stabilized on a drug, try to stay on that drug, whether it&#8217;s a generic or a brand name; don&#8217;t switch back and forth unless you absolutely can&#8217;t help it

 And if you&#8217;re stabilized on a generic, try to make sure that you&#8217;re getting the same generic each time. A lot of pharmacies will ... treat generic versions of medications as interchangeable, and they&#8217;re all trying to get the best deal they can from the cheapest manufacturer at the best time.

Try to find out exactly who the manufacturer is of the generic you&#8217;re taking and ask the pharmacist to give you that one each time.]]></content:encoded>
      <dc:date>2008-05-05T07:00:01-05:00</dc:date>
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