Posted on

Five Ways to Marinate Vegetables

Marinades are a great way to make vegetables last longer, and, during the Holiday season, while feasting on meat, we mustn’t forget our veggies!

We often try to find ways to extend the shelf life of the vegetables in the refrigerator by keeping them in marinade. Vinegar, an ingredient in many marinades, acts as a preservative, as does olive oil. Although these marinades aren’t as acidic as standard pickling solutions, and certainly not as salty, they’re a great way to keep your vegetables in good condition. Sometimes you can cook the vegetable in the marinade first, and sometimes you can steam it separately. Either way, the vegetables make terrific, healthy snacks; you can add them to salads or serve them as side dishes, too. They’re great as hors d’oeuvres or antipasto.

Here are five delicious marinades for vegetables.

Marinated Cauliflower With Fennel and Coriander Seeds: A great way to keep this highly nutritious vegetable on hand and ready to eat.

Italian Marinated Mushrooms: Serve these mushrooms as an appetizer or add them to a salad.

Quick Sweet and Sour Cucumbers: These cucumbers, marinated in seasoned rice vinegar, are great on sandwiches and go well with fish.

Marinated Carrots With Fresh Mint: Serve these carrots as hors d’oeuvres, or sneak them into your child’s lunchbox.

Italian Marinated Vegetables A nice change from the same old stuffing or potato salad.

Posted on

Black Women – We Want Curves….Part II

“Curves Not Cul-de-Sacs” was initially meant for another blog site.  As soon as I sent it, a woman told me “You know you’re going to catch hell for this, right?”  There were certain things I didn’t expect, but much of it I did.

When I read the post to a group of men and women, a few of them pointed out 2 parts of the post that I hadn’t thought about, that they felt were the reason many women felt the entire post was offensive:

“Looking like the Michelin Man is not sexy or cute.”

“It’s hard to hold on to you if your stomach is in the way.”

I understand why people would take offense to those parts.  I apologize for that.  I see how that was harsh.  I could go back and erase those lines, but I feel like I would be cheating and wouldn’t be owning up to it.

What surprised me were the levels to which women saw things I never said.  Women I personally know who thought I was speaking in a tone that I don’t speak in.

A woman told me when she was younger she was rail thin, but her brother called her fat to the point where she believed it.  This created a skewed vision in her mind of her body image.  In essence, she told me when I wrote that piece, it would’ve been safer to think that most women who read it have a body image issue.  That women, especially Black women, live with a cloud over their head everyday that tells them how they must be, and even the most beautiful of women may think I’m pointing at them.  I don’t think anyone has ever taught me how to address a woman with that level of psychological oppression in a concerned way.  If anything, I’ve been told how to exploit it.

When I said I’m talking about obesity, a lot of women included themselves, thinking that the pictures I posted were actually THEM.  I remember in college me and my friends made a point to tell Black women we knew that they were beautiful.  Nearly all of them said they knew we were sincere, but they didn’t believe it themselves when they looked in the mirror.  I don’t know if it’s healthy for me to assume that every woman I encounter has some kind of body image issue by default.  If this is so, then where do we go from here?

Posted on

Black Women- We Want Curves, Not Cul-de-Sacs

I write this out of concern. This is not a joke, nor a judgment on all of you. Not every black woman fits what I’m describing. If you take this personally I would implore you to ask if, just maybe, this is a reflection of something deeper going on within. Some of this may come off as superficial, but I figure you would rather me be honest. So let’s get to the point…

Black women: You need to workout more and lose weight.

Culturally speaking, yes, we like ‘em with a little more “meat on the bones”. But the meat should be tender, not fatty. If I can see the muscle striations on the meat, that means the fat is gone. For many of you, I do not see meat, I see fat. And we’re not talking “thick”, chubby, or “out of shape”. We’re talking OBESE.

Yesterday, I was talking with a Black female friend. She has a great shape, and you can tell that a lot of that has to do with her diet and exercise. I told her I was going to write this piece on women’s weight and asked for insight on how to speak on this without hurting feelings or being insensitive. She said I should just keep it real. In no way am I exaggerating when I say that in less than 30 seconds from getting out of her car, I saw 5 different Black women. 4 of them were obese. The kind of obese that forces them to lean back while walking to carry the weight of their stomach.

This. Must. Stop.

I’m not going to cite statistics because the more cynical among you will pick apart at it. I say, the next time you go out, try to keep count of how many Black women you see that are overweight. Think of how many Black women you know personally who are overweight. Compare those numbers you have with the stats online. Being overweight is not supposed to be a normal thing, or else they wouldn’t call it OVER-weight.

I go to a lot of different places and bounce between many different circles, but just about everywhere I go is with a particularly tight crew of Black male friends. For years now, no matter what club we’re at or neighborhood we’re in, we have remarked at how many of the Black women that are around are overweight. This past weekend it was as though everywhere we went Black women were obese. What’s going on?

I’m aware of the issues around having time to work out, the money it costs to eat healthily, and after having children sometimes there is weight that seems to never go away. But what I also notice is how many women use these as excuses to rationalize why they should not work out or even try to eat more healthily. 30 minutes a day is not much. Furthermore, working out but offsetting that by eating unhealthy food is never going to help. I also know a great deal of Black women who were able to lose weight after they had children. Some of them look even better than before.

At the least, try to have a healthier diet. I have seen so many Black mothers feeding their children McDonalds, KFC, Cheetos, and other junk. Please find a Subway, Quiznos, Trader Joes, or some kind of good quality grocery store in your area. If you don’t have one, organize a group and fight like hell to get one. This is your family and community we’re talking about.

Please stop with these “fasts”. After fasting, your body absorbs everything you eat even more because you’ve starved it of certain nutrients. Black women “fast” their way to losing weight, only to gain the weight back, and then have to fast again. It’s pretty much a fact of life that you must WORK to get the results you want. Whether it’s money or a healthy body, hardly ever does the “fast” way work. Fasting is also meant to be a spiritual exercise in many cases. What kind of spiritual growth do you get if you keep returning to bad habits?

Do men need to lose weight too? Yes. But at the end of the day, a man’s size and weight are hardly ever a major issue to his attractiveness. In fact, the larger he is the more manly he appears to be. But if you find that having a man who works-out to be an important quality to you, then by all means require that. If you have a boyfriend or husband, ask him to go running with you and workout together. Exercise and healthy habits also communicate how much you have self-discipline and self-worth. Who wouldn’t find those as attractive traits?

I have seen a lot of Black women complain about not finding a man. But when I look at some of them I say to myself, “You probably wouldn’t have that problem if you went to the gym.” Is that a superficial “man” statement? Maybe. But guess what? Men like women that look good.

Some guys do like big girls. More power to ‘em. But I am also willing to bet a lot of those men like to control the girl they’re with too.

I know a lot of women who gain weight and become depressed by it, and the unhappiness with their weight causes them to eat more. They reward the pleasure center of their brain to feel better by eating. Then they feel bad again. Then they give themselves pleasure again by eating more food and sugar. This cycle is no different than any other person with an addiction. They escape reality by feeling good for a moment, but the long term effect is not healthy. When you workout, the endorphins and oxygen circulating makes you feel good. Your skin glows. As you keep working-out and lose weight, you feel even better. You look in the mirror, smiling at the hard work you put in and how good you look. Those “video vixen” girls have had surgery, airbrushing, and make-up to look that way. You can look just like them, all naturally! Doesn’t that sound so much more appealing? That’s just the beginning!

Everywhere, from Mo’Nique and more, I see this embracing of Black women being “thick”, which really now means overweight. The Body Mass Index wasn’t really designed for all cultures who have different body types and eating habits, that’s for sure. Even still, there is something to be said for having a stomach that hangs out of your shirt. Too often I see people who try to turn unhealthy behavior into something to embrace as loving themselves. If you really love yourself, you will strive to be the healthiest you can be, inside and out.

I love the curves of Black women. The hips and backside that come from the African past. But the curves look best in certain places, not everywhere. Looking like the Michelin Man is not sexy or cute.

A lot of us men want something to hold on to.
But it’s hard to hold on to you if your stomach is in the way.

Posted on

The University of Power & Wealth

“Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves.” – Marcus Garvey

Many in the African American community believe that colleges and universities are simply there to educate a student so that they can go on to get a job. However, colleges and universities more than any part of our society are institutions of power and wealth creation more so than any other institution.  I’d touched on some of the economics of universities previously in the article “Can African American Muscle save African America?” This is mainly because they, more than any other institutions,  can touch all three parts of the SEP (social, economic, political) development model. Through their teaching they can influence the social aspects of a community by providing strong cultural identity. Through research they can create economic opportunities, and their research can also influence policy in local, state, and national governments.

The social development of students to serve their community can be seen in a university like Brandeis, a Jewish institution, which has a MBA program in Jewish studies. This program identifies potential Jewish leadership and hones their skills to run Jewish institutions in the community handling the social, economic, and political aspects of these institutions. Per their website it states “This innovative program prepares future Jewish community executives with the full complement of MBA/non-profit skills and specialized knowledge of Judaic studies and contemporary Jewish life.” They also offer a program called the MPP-MA in Jewish Professional Leadership which states “By preparing professional leaders with a full array of policy analysis and development skills, as well as specialized knowledge of Judaic studies and contemporary Jewish life, it trains students to design and implement innovative solutions to the Jewish community’s most critical problems, and to analyze and reform existing practices.” As you can see the university is catering to the core demographic that it was founded to serve. It is ensuring that their institutions that serve their community are well equipped with leadership that understand the historical & cultural (social), economic, and political aspects that the Jewish community face and will allow it to prosper and protect itself.

Next, let’s look at the economics that colleges and universities can produce for a community. What do Google, Time Warner, FedEx, Microsoft, Facebook, and Dell have in common? They were all founded on college campuses. Google founded at Stanford, Time Warner & FedEx at Yale, Microsoft and Facebook at Harvard, and Dell at the University of Texas. The six companies whose wealth value as measured by their market capitalization (except Facebook who has a private valuation are measured by a stock’s share price times number of company shares outstanding) is worth an estimated $530 billion. To put it in perspective these six companies wealth alone is 63% of African America’s buying power which is valued at an estimated at $850 billion.

Economically-speaking, colleges & universities primary driver of funding is research. Research in many instances is turned into businesses. These businesses tend to hire and have its initial investors come from the very university and nearby communities they are launched from. The wealth these businesses generate comes back to the university and community in the form of larger endowments, more research dollars, and more scholarships. These scholarships allow its students to graduate with less debt, which allows for early accumulations of wealth instead of paying down student loan debt. These businesses by hiring primarily from the institutions they sprung from help the employment of the demographic they serve. In the case of University of Michigan their research that will be transformed into business ventures will attempt to transform Michigan’s economy to one less dependent on the auto industry and its appears more into bio-tech businesses which should drastically improve Michigan’s unemployment rate (presently at 12.9% vs. National of 9.2%) in the years to come. The state of Utah’s UStar program (using taxpayer dollars) through its two state universities Utah and Utah State is focusing on the spillover industry from Silicon Valley. UStar’s mission stated on their website is stated as “UStar created a number of research teams at the University of Utah and Utah State University. Spearheading these teams are world-class innovators hungry to collaborate with industry to develop and commercialize new technologies.” BP in 2007 gave $500 million to the University of California-Berkeley to “develop new sources of energy and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.” This $500 million is more than ALL HBCUS research budgets combined ($440 million) according to the National Science Foundation tracking of college and university research budgets.

Individually speaking we can see how this wealth has culminated into the hands of people at the universities who were fortunate to be a part of these founding companies. Facebook’s 1st investor Eduardo Saverin was a fellow student of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. His $15,000 investment, had he actually held onto it, today would be worth $7 billion. Google’s initial investors were professors from Stanford where Page & Brin founded the search engine. Same goes for Microsoft where Bill Gates initial investor and partner was classmate Paul Allen whose current net worth is $13.5 billion primarily in part to his Microsoft holdings. Dell Computers founded by Michael Dell in his University of Texas dorm room also has his primary investors from UT.

We have also seen the philanthropic power of this wealth to impact communities at work as well. Mark Zuckerberg recently donated $100 million donation to Newark, NJ school system. T. Boone Pickens four years in 2006 ago set a record with a $165 million donation to Oklahoma State University which, as has been reported, “surpasses the $100 million Las Vegas casino owner Ralph Engelstad gave the University of North Dakota in 1998.” The two donations by Pickens and Engelstad together are equal to over 25% of all HBCU endowments combined and over 50% of HBCU research budgets. T. Boone Pickens donation alone could put 412 African American students a year through undergraduate DEBT FREE or 110 African American doctors through medical school DEBT FREE at HBCU medical schools Charles Drew Medical School in California or Meharry Medical School in Tennessee. Graduating debt free could allow these doctors to be more likely to choose working in hospitals in African American communities as opposed to chasing a high paying job they need to pay down the massive student loan debt they occur. How would that be for improved medical care to our community?

The power to influence political policy is evident at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Their current areas of focus are Arab media & politics, conflict resolution, drug policy, energy, health economics, homeland security, international economics, religion & culture, science & technology policy, space policy, tax & expenditure policy, the Americas Project (Latin America policy), the Transnational China Project (Chinese culture & policy), urban studies (African American policy), and the U.S.-Mexico Project (border policy). They have also recently sponsored an organization for the Iraq Study Group. Even our beloved Barack Obama’s cabinet is infected with Ivy Leaguers as noted in the article “Barack Obama taps into the Ivy League revolution with his cabinet” which notes that 22 of the 36 cabinet members are from Ivy League universities. Universities that still hold less than a 10% African American population. While Obama has a diverse cabinet the probability of this happening if he himself were not African American is highly unlikely (see previous 43 cabinets). It goes on to say “Even in Obama’s Washington, money and surnames matter.” The reality is people in power tap into those whom they know and who are qualified (or not) more than they tap those who they don’t know and are qualified. The old adage “Its who you know not what you know” speaks to a large part of the social networking importance of colleges and universities.

The question is then how do we improve our HBCUs to become the vehicles that can serve our SEP interest? First realize that these institutions are more than just a place to get a degree. As you can see their depth is possibly the greatest vehicle of development our community has at its disposal and that their existence is for the very thing we seek and that is to help uplift our community today and for generations. Secondly realize every mind and body has a value. This IS capitalism people. EVERYTHING has a value. For American college and universities each warm body generates an average of $33,000 in tuition revenue per year. HBCUs only get $6 billion of the $54 billion in African America’s annual tuition revenue pie meaning $48 billion is leaving our community to predominantly European American colleges & universities in tuition revenue alone. This forces our 95 HBCUs to operate on an average of $63 million per HBCU to have very little in the way of improving facilities, recruiting talented faculty, and expanding their research budgets, which could influence the SEP of our communities. To put that $63 million in perspective Ohio State University’s ATHLETIC department operates on $107 million per year (primarily funded by African American muscle). The fact that only a roughly 10-12% of African American students who can attend college choose to go to HBCUs limits these institutions from improving themselves as they are always strapped for operation revenue meanwhile being asked to compete from the perspective of: Howard v. Harvard, Charles Drew Medical v. UCLA Medical, or even Prairie View A&M vs. Texas A&M in the areas of SEP development and leaves us at the mercy of someone else’s institution solving our problems who has no real interest in doing so.

We must redirect our charity giving. A blog on African American giving I read recently said of our $11 billion we give annually to charities, $7 billion goes into churches. By making a concerted effort to redirect $2 billion of this would vastly improve the state of our HBCUs and should not dampen our religious institutions. Because while I’m all for saving our souls it is high time we invest in improving the fate of the bodies which house our souls and the institutions that were created to serve them and our communities. Too many of us faithfully pay our tithes and give little thought to our secular institutions like HBCUs. Their fate I dare say will be our own and without our own institutional power to combat institutional power of other communities we will be forever at the mercy of others awaiting them to bless us with their leftovers. It is time to once again do for self as all others do and as we use to do. Operate like a nation or become a destroyed people.

Mr. Foster is the Interim Executive Director of HBCU Endowment Foundation, sits on the board of directors at the Center for HBCU Media Advocacy, & CEO of Sechen Imara Solutions, LLC. A former banker & financial analyst who earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics & Finance from Virginia State University as well his master’s degree in Community Development & Urban Planning from Prairie View A&M University. Publishing research on the agriculture economics of food waste as well as writing articles for other African American media outlets.

Posted on

Recipes: Fall Soups

Even though LA is currently breaking records with our weather, we know it won’t last forever. With our version of winter around the corner, a good way to stay warm and save money is by making homemade soups. Even in this heat, folks are catching colds and the flu right and left, and there is nothing like a good soup to stave off those nasty germs.

I’ve been experimenting with different recipes, and have found these three to be both light and filling. Check them out when you’re in the mood to switch in the kitchen!

Recipes courtesy of Epicurous.com:

Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup

  • 3/4 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 2 jalapeño chiles, thinly sliced
  • 3/4 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into matchstick-size strips
  • 5 cups low-salt chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 large tomato, seeded, chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • Fresh cilantro sprigs

Cook orzo in pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain well.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and chiles. Sauté until onion begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Add chicken; sauté 1 minute. Add broth, lime juice, and tomato. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes. Mix in orzo, then chopped cilantro. Season soup with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into 4 bowls. Garnish with cilantro sprigs.

Pasta, Sausage and Bean Soup

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pound Italian sausages, castings removed
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
  • 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
  • 1 celery stalk with leaves, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
  • 5 cups canned chicken broth
  • 1 14 1/2-to 16-ounce can diced tomatoes
  • 1 15- to 16-ounce can kidney beans, drained
  • 1 cup elbow macaroni

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausages and sauté until beginning to brown, breaking up with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic, basil, rosemary, crushed red pepper and sage. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes with their juices and beans. Bring soup to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender and flavors blend, about 20 minutes.

Add macaroni to soup and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This last one is an acquired taste, but if you like spicy food, it’s a winner!

Thai-Spiced Watermelon Soup with Crabmeat

For soup

  • 5 cups coarsely chopped seeded watermelon (from a 4-lb piece, rind discarded)
  • 1 fresh lemongrass stalk*
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons mild olive oil
  • 1 small hot green chile such as Thai or serrano, finely chopped (including seeds), or to taste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

For crab

  • 10 oz jumbo lump crabmeat (2 cups), picked over
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons mild olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • Accompaniment: lime wedges

Make soup:
Purée watermelon in a blender until smooth and transfer to a bowl. (Don’t wash blender.)

Discard 1 or 2 outer leaves of lemongrass and trim root end. Thinly slice lower 5 to 6 inches of stalk and then mince, discarding remainder.

Cook lemongrass, shallot, ginger, and garlic in oil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, until aromatics are pale golden, about 5 minutes. Add about one third of watermelon purée and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, 5 minutes.

Remove watermelon mixture from heat, then transfer to blender along with chile, lime juice, and salt and blend until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids).

Add remaining watermelon purée and blend briefly. Season soup with more chile, lime juice, and salt if desired, blending if necessary. Pour soup through a sieve into a bowl, pressing on and then discarding any solids. Chill soup, uncovered, about 2 hours if serving cold, or reheat in cleaned saucepan.

Prepare crab:
Toss crabmeat with cilantro, oil, and salt.

Divide crab among 4 soup plates, mounding in center, and pour chilled or hot soup around it.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/

Posted on

LA EVENTS: Back 2 School Health Fair

TOMORROW, there will be FREE Health screenings in Leimert Park from 10:00 am to 5:00pm. This event is open to the public and offering health screenings for diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, vision, lung function, HIV and STD testing and more. The Health Fair will be located at the southeast corner of 43rd Street and Degnan Boulevard.

Parents, please take advantage of this opportunity to get your children screened before the first day of school! Let’s keep this community strong and take care of our health!

Posted on

A Man’s Guide to Pedicures

If your a guys guy like me, then this intro should sound familiar, but bear with me fellas, I attend to do good and keep things manly.

Just the word pedicure gets most us men thinking the wrong way as soon as we hear it. Many men believe that pedicures are strictly a female thing(or gay). Nothing could be further from the truth! A pedicure is simply the care of the feet to avoid complications and to make them look their best. Since we all have feet, pedicures are in no way restricted to only females. Getting a man’s pedicure or,  foot rehabilitation can be extremely beneficial.

This is most likely a major reason that a lot of us guys have problems with our feet, such as ingrown toenails and athletes foot. The majority of us don’t begin to start getting men pedicures until something goes wrong. This behavior is similar to our outlook on visiting the doctor – generally we don’t go until we have to be wheeled in there.

It is best though to prevent problems before they happen. Many problems with the feet reoccur once you get them the first time, which is why it’s so important to keep your feet problem free.

With a pedicure, there are certain things that most men will deem too feminine. All of the regular pedicure steps within the pedicure guide are, for the most part, neutral. The only real areas of concern with a pedicure for men will be the foot soak and polish application steps (please omit the polish steps). It will be necessary to add masculine aspects to these two areas. Refer to the pedicure guide paying attention to these two sections.

More Masculine Foot soak
If you are going to do an at home pedicure, to make foot soaks  more masculine, forego any kinds of petals and bubble bath.  You can add fragrances but make them more neutral or manly.

Some non-toxic aromas favored by males include:

Patchouli (great on athlete’s foot)
Vanilla (great for the skin and hair as well)
Cypress (great for sweaty, oily skin and feet)
Sandalwood (great for the skin and depression)
Ginger (great for aching muscles, poor circulation and arthritis)
Black pepper (great for aching muscles, poor circulation and arthritis)
Vetiver (great for aching muscles, arthritis and sores)

All of these can be purchased in the form of essential oils in flasks. Remember do not apply any oil directly to the skin unless sufficiently diluted. When used in your foot soaks you will only use a small portion so it will be sufficiently diluted. Unless of course you add like a gallon!

Make sure to use all the other ingredients like Epsom salt for that soothing effect. You can still add the milk for the extra exfoliation and deodorizing aspect.

There are so many benefits men can receive from getting regular pedicures. For instance, helping to stop foot odor by removing dead excess skin from the soles and the prevention of ingrown toenail, calluses and corns. Ladies, you can treat that special man in your life to a special men pedicure using these tips to help keep his feet happy, healthy and handsome.

LADIES, here are some steps for you to get your man into the foot salon:

–Book him a pedicure at a spa or a salon that encourages male customers to come in and enjoy the benefits of proper nail care. Some spas and salons feature a “men’s night,” where only men are allowed to receive pedicures and manicures for a certain time period. Snacks and beverages may be offered, and some shops may even put a ball game on the television in order to make the atmosphere seem more masculine.

–Choose a pedicure at a salon or spa that offers a bit of privacy during grooming procedures. You certainly don’t want to be stuck in a chair by the window by a pedicurist who wants to show the whole world that it’s okay for men to get manicures and pedicures, too.

–Visit a pedicurist who may offer other services that promote good foot health care, such as massages, callus removal and treatment for ingrown toenails. Many salons also offer a soothing foot bath or soak before your nails are cut. An experienced manicurist or pedicurist may even offer you helpful advice on how to choose the proper footwear for your feet, or how to regularly exercise your ankles, toes and the arches of your feet.

–Purchase a gift certificate from a spa or salon before you book a pedicure. Not only is this an excellent way of exposing the benefits of spa treatments to your male friends and relatives, but it may also alleviate some of the embarrassment for first-time clients who can merely say, “It was a gift.”

–Tip accordingly when you book pedicures for men. Your salon or spa technician is spending quite a bit of time with your man’s potentially stinky feet in their face, and a gratuity of a few dollars will certainly be appreciated as well as remembered, especially if and when we come back for another visit.

Take it from me, a pedicure or “foot rehabilitation” is awesome!

-Mr.CEO

Posted on

LA EVENTS: Dance Free Day at Debbie Allen Dance Academy

This Saturday, August 28th, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy is offering all of its dance classes for free for their annual Dance Free Day event! Classes offered include modern, jazz, tap, African, salsa, hip-hop, krumping, and silk dance styles. Classes are offered for all ages and registration is at 9 am. See you there!

Posted on

Job Search 101: A Game Plan for Workplace Success

When my mom first taught me the game I was still in high school. I got a C in Biology and she wasn’t having it. “You just gotta kiss his butt,” she said, as we left my first parent conference ever. I didn’t like the teacher and didn’t like the class, and mom was telling me I had to kiss his ass. Wtf?

As an adult, I get it. Mom was teaching my to play the game. In life you have to do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do. If I wanted an A in that class, in addition to developing my talents and abilities, I had to make the teacher believe I was passionate about the course and wanted to do better. True or not.

I’ve carried this lesson with me and the rules apply to many aspects of life other than school. They also translate to workplace success. Consider these tips for playing the game to win in the workplace:

1. Learn the Game

In order to market yourself, you have to learn your natural talents and abilities and how they will translate to the workplace. There are career, interest, personality and learning surveys online free of cost. The qualifications listed for a position usually exceed the actual skills or training you need to do the job, but keep in mind the job market is competitive. You can take a refresher course in reading, writing or math at an adult school or a community college to refine your basic skills. You also need critical thinking skills to find and keep a job. An employer will expect you to generate new ideas, set and achieve goals, and organize and process information. At the foundation of workplace skills lie your personal qualities. Employers seek responsible, confident and sociable self-starters with integrity and honesty. Your job is to create a game plan that will showcase how your talents and abilities translate to workplace success.

2. Make a Game Plan

How we spend our time is largely a matter of habit. During childhood, we develop patterns of dealing with time that are likely to carry over into adulthood. The kid who never arrived to school on time becomes the adult who is late for appointments. The good news is that with time, we set new priorities in our lives. If you want a new job, don’t wait for it to happen, make it happen. Set a goal and manage time spent achieving it. If you spend months online looking for job and you haven’t gotten any interviews, you may consider networking strategies instead.

3. Get in the Game

Searching for a job can be frustrating, especially in today’s economy. You are not alone. Even the most well-educated and experienced applicants feel despair when they don’t get any leads. Rather than letting the work search control you, control your work search. Plan it out. Networking is rated the #1 strategy for seeking employment. Employers may be experts at whatever they do for a living, but that doesn’t mean they are experts in hiring. Employers like to hire people they know, so seek creative ways to meet people who are in the position to hire. You have to market yourself and convince an employer you are the right person for the job.

4. Step Your Game Up

Whether you desire better relationships, more money, improved health or a deeper understanding of your own natural talent, you can have it by changing the way you think. Saying statements about what you want as if you already have it increases the likelihood you will actually get it. Think about the lifestyle you want and affirm what your future will become. If you are truly honest with yourself, you will find that your behavior and attitude make a big difference as to whether or not you get what you want. How you respond to an event or situation is what determines the outcome.

5. Play By the Rules

Far too many workplace errors are cause by ineffective listening and speaking. Good communication comes from paying attention to actual words, how the words are spoken (tone, rate and volume) and non-verbal gestures (facial and body movement). Keep this in mind when you interact with a potential employer. Don’t talk too much, or interrupt the talker. Show you were listening by asking questions to make sure you understand what was said. Be sure to use forms of English that are appropriate in the given situation. Using slang or jargon may not be a good idea. Keep in mind your body language also communicates how attentively you listen. Poor posture or fidgeting may make the employer feel as if you are easily distracted or disinterested.

6. Cover All Bases

Finding a company who is looking for someone with your talents and abilities can be hard work. You have to be as organized and proceed as though you are selling a product – and the product is you. Gather as much information as you can about the companies you want to work for through networking, online publications, magazines and newspapers. Investigate to see if you know anyone who works there. Call the company to find out about their current openings, hiring procedures and contact information of the person who does the hiring. Once you make contact with a potential employer, be considerate of their time. Listen attentively, speak precisely and question for clarity. Focus on selling YOU!

Good luck!

Posted on

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Social Security

The Social Security program turns 75 this week. Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, few workers have not been impacted by the social program. Almost all Americans pay into the system, and Social Security is the largest source of income for citizens age 65 and older. Yet this huge entitlement has many facets, some of which are not widely known. Here are 10 things you may not know about Social Security:

The system is bigger than the economy of most countries. For the past 20 years, the Social Security program has been the largest single item in the federal government’s budget. “The amount of money flowing through the Social Security system each year is larger than the total economies of all but the 16 richest nations in the world,” says Larry DeWitt, the U.S. Social Security Administration historian. The Social Security program has collected $13 trillion in income and expended $10.6 trillion in payments since the first tax collections began in 1937 through 2007. That’s an amount of money that Social Security’s first beneficiary, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vt.–who collected initial payments of $22.54 a month for 35 years–probably never dreamed of.

[See 10 Places to Reinvent Your Life in Retirement.]

It’s not just a retirement program. The original Social Security program paid benefits only to retired workers. Later, disability benefits and payments for a beneficiary’s spouse and children and were added to the program. “If you graduated from college four years ago, you are already protected against disability,” says Edward Berkowitz, professor of history and public policy and public administration at George Washington University. “If you are married and have children, your dependents are protected.” Annual Social Security Administration mailings to all workers age 25 and older include an estimated amount that you would be paid if you become disabled and how much your spouse and children would receive if you should pass away.

You pay 6.2 percent of your income into the system. Almost all American workers (94 percent) pay 6.2 percent of their taxable income, up to $106,800 annually, into the Social Security trust fund. Employers pay a matching 6.2 percent for each worker. Self-employed workers must contribute 12.4 percent of their income annually.

There haven’t always been cost-of-living increases. Annual cost-of-living adjustments didn’t become a part of Social Security until 1975 (as a result of a 1972 law). Prior to 1975, an act of Congress was required to increase benefits to keep up with consumer prices. “Before then, benefits were protected from inflation only when Congress chose to notice it,” says Berkowitz. Now increases in payments are tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Annual increases have ranged from 1.3 percent in 1996 and 1998 to 14.3 percent in 1980. For the first time in 2010, there was no cost of living boost because the index did not increase between the third quarter of 2008 and 2009.

Retirees can increase annual payments by waiting to claim. Workers can begin receiving Social Security benefits at age 62. But payouts increase by 7 to 8 percent for each year you delay your start date, up until age 70. Workers who sign up early receive smaller monthly checks over a great number of years, while those who delay claiming receive bigger payouts for the rest of their life. “If you know you are going to live past the age of 80, you are better off delaying Social Security,” says Lita Epstein, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social Security and Medicare. “Baby boomers who know they are going to have a long life are much better off waiting.” Epstein, who is spending down her Roth IRA assets in order to delay claiming Social Security, says her benefits will increase by about $500 each month by waiting until age 70 to sign up.

Couples have extra options. Spouses are entitled to Social Security benefits of up to 50 percent of the higher earner’s check if that amount is higher than the payments based on his or her own working record. Widows and widowers are entitled to the higher earner’s full retirement payout. Duel-earner couples who have reached their full retirement age can even claim twice by first signing up for a spousal payment, then claiming again later based on their own work record (which will then be higher due to delayed claiming). Ex-spouses are also eligible for benefits if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.

[See 6 Ways Couples Can Maximize Social Security Payouts.]

Existing beneficiaries can get a do-over. If you’ve already signed up for Social Security and received a reduced payout, it’s not too late to boost your check. If you pay back the entire amount you have already received from Social Security without interest, you can then qualify for higher payments for the rest of your life.

Social Security numbers have significance. The first three digits of your Social Security number are assigned based on geographical region, with the lowest numbers being assigned in the Northeast and increasingly higher numbers assigned to residents in the West. The middle two digits, called the group number, are allocated in a precise but nonconsecutive order between 01 and 99. The last four digits are issued in a sequential order. Over 420 million unique numbers have been issued and they are not reused after a person’s death. Social Security numbers have been assigned shortly after birth since 1989, which makes younger American’s Social Security numbers somewhat predictable if you know a person’s date of birth and home town, which is common information that young people list on social networking websites, according to research by Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “Do not offer personal information such as date of birth and hometown publicly,” he advises.

Paper Social Security checks will soon be retired. Social Security recipients will be required to collect payments by direct deposit into a bank account or a government Direct Express Debit MasterCard beginning on March 1, 2011. Existing beneficiaries must switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013. Paperless payments are expected to save $300 million over five years, according to Treasury Department estimates.

[See 12 Ways to Fix Social Security.]

The trust fund has a projected deficit. The Social Security trust fund is currently projected to be sufficient to provide payments until the end of 2037. Then, unless changes are made to the program, there will only be sufficient resources to pay about 78 percent of scheduled benefits. Congress is currently considering a variety of potential fixes, including tax increases, benefit cuts, and pushing back the retirement age. A U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging report released in May found that relatively minor tweaks could put the trust fund back on sound financial ground for at least 75 more years. “It’s a shame that the tone of the 75th celebration is sort of nostalgic,” says Berkowitz. “I would hope that the 75th anniversary is not only about how good things used to be, but also about how good things could still be in the future.”